Mark MacLeod

I help startup CEOs go from $5M in revenue to a massive exit

Since 1999, I have sat at the right-hand side of the leaders of high growth technology companies as either a CFO, VC or deal maker. I served as CFO for software companies including Shopify (NYSE: SHOP) and Freshbooks. 

I was a General Partner in Real Ventures, one of Canada's largest and most active seed stage funds. My investments there include the fund's largest cash on cash and highest IRR returns to date. 

Most recently, I founded SurePath Capital Partners the leading investment bank for SMB SaaS companies where we did hundreds of millions in financing and exit transactions.

The thing I loved most about these roles was the one on one coaching and advisory conversations I had with CEOs. 

Since 2020 I have been coaching, investing in and advising CEOs + helping them execute game-changing deals.

I am a semi-active angel investor with a portfolio of 22 investments, 2 highly positive exits and counting.

In my spare time, I am a passionate CrossFit athlete and electronic music producer/ DJ. I also run Deep Down Music, a record label.

Founder

I coach, advise and invest in the CEOs of high growth technology companies & help them execute game-changing deals.

Just posted my interview with Vitaly Pecherskiy , CEO of StackAdapt.

The company went from 170 to 1,600 employees in 5 years. Crossed $500M in revenue. Bootstrapped early, then raised from tier-one growth investors.

Three takeaways:

✅ Own your destiny: When VCs passed early on, they built product and got it in customers' hands fast. That forced self-reliance became their operating DNA.

✅ Don't raise too early: Many founders overestimate TAM, raise too much capital, then can't grow into the valuation. By the time they exit, their shares are worthless. Vitaly delayed raising until traction proved the market was real.

✅ Product > Marketing: When asked about the state of advertising, Vitaly flipped it: "Great marketing is easier when you have a great product." Marketing teams should sit closer to product and influence its direction.

The full conversation covers scaling culture across 20 countries, transitioning to CEO after 9 years as co-founder, and building a $500M+ business without the typical VC playbook.

Link in comments and you can find it where ever you catch your podcasts.

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Certified Personal & Business Performance Coach

Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA)

An exclusive community of VC and PE-backed CEOs who want
to scale themselves and their companies without limits.

Limitless is an exclusive community of VC and PE-backed CEOs who want
to scale themselves and their companies without limits.

I coach startup CEOs to grow themselves and their business all the way to a massive exit

SurePath Capital Partners is the premier strategic financial advisor to the global SMB Software market. With offices in Toronto and San Francisco, we aim to be the #1 advisor in this space globally and the one call CEOs and board make when they need to make a deal happen.

I led finance and corporate development at FreshBooks - the #1 cloud accounting specialist for small business owners. Since 2004, over 5 million people have used FreshBooks to track time, organize expenses and invoice clients online and in the cloud.

Accomplishments:
- Closed $30M institutional funding round + other unpublished transactions
- Led the process to find a partner to backstop a new product line
- Sourced and closed other key revenue-generating partnerships

CFO + Chief Corporate Development Officer

Venture Partner

Parter at Real Ventures where I focus on SaaS, freemium, e-commerce and digital media seed investments

Director, Fabric Technologies
Director, Context.io (sold to Return Path)
Director, Frank and Oak
Observer, Rewardli Inc.
Investor, Thinknear.com (sold to Telenav)
Investor, Localmind.com (sold to Airbnb)
Investor, Massive Damage Inc.
Director, Sweet IQ (sold to Reachlocal)
Observer, Unbounce.com
Investor, Engagio (sold to Influitive)
Investor, Origin.al Internet Company General Partner

General Partner

CFO for Tungle - a great solution for meeting coordination.

Raised a $5M "A" round. Served as CFO through the successful sale of the company to RIM.

Interim CFO, Shopify
Advisor, Well.ca
Advisor, Cakemail 
Advisor, Dok Dok Inc 
Advisor, Raymark
Advisor, Sitezoogle 
Interim CFO, Status.net Inc.

Advisor & CFO

Led finance, operations, legal, HR, strategic planning functions for this mobile communications startup. Raised an $10M B round led by Flybridge. Raised an additional $1M in China. Made major improvements to execution, ops, key metrics, etc.

Led finance, operations, customer support, IT and manufacturing for this venture-backed networked storage vendor. Negotiated the sale of Terrascale to Rackable Systems (NASDAQ: RACK) in a deal returning 10x on invested capital.

VP, Finance

Prepared this 15 person IP networking startup for commercialization & ‘B’ round funding. Responsibilities included financing, all back office operations, investor + board relations and negotiation of all  agreements. Towards the end of my term, I was given increasing responsibility for OEM sales and strategic relationships.

Strategic consulting assignments: 
•	Advised on the sale of two software companies and the purchase of an education services company
•	Led the successful restructuring of an insolvent retailer. The company is now thriving and expanding
•	Enabled the restructuring & strategic refocus of a new media company that resulted in a 3x growth in revenues and 5x growth in profit & cash flow

President

Was responsible for Finance, Alliances and Corporate Development functions. Raised $19M in equity over 2 rounds + oversaw growth to over 100 people. Established many key partner relationships

Director, Finance + Corporate Development

Helping VC-backed CEOs scale themselves and their companies without limits. 
| Host of The Startup CEO Show podcast

CEO and Co-founder at StackAdapt

Helping VC-backed CEOs scale themselves and their companies without limits. | Host of The Startup CEO Show podcast

I'm giving up the one thing that's been holding me back.

For years, I've had a love/hate relationship with alcohol.

I LOVE champagne. I love the ritual. I love wine. I have studied it. 

But I know it's bad for me.

For years in my journal, I've noted how alcohol lowers my vibration. It holds me back.

I've decided to take a pause. One year. Nothing.

I'm sharing this for accountability. This will be hard.

I'm making a public promise to myself. I know it's the right thing.

As I help CEOs become limitless, I need to remove the thing that creates limits for me.

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If you think HR is just about hiring and firing, you haven't met Christine Song 

I just published my conversation with Christine, a multi-time Chief People Officer who's built strategic HR functions across corporate and startup worlds.

She breaks down what most founders get wrong about people:

→ Why HR needs to earn its seat at the table (not demand it)
→ How to speak truth to power, even if it costs you your job
→ Why investing in high performers beats fixing underperformers
→ The trap of hubristic hiring ("fat and happy" vs. high-performance)
→ How to build systems that scale people, not just product

Christine doesn't sugarcoat it. She's the leader who tells the CEO what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.

She recently launched 5 to 9 Society, an invite-only network for elite operators. The kind of confidential, backdoor conversations that actually move business forward.

Everything in your business comes down to people.

If you're not treating people strategy as seriously as product or revenue, you're limiting your ceiling. See comments for the interview link.

Most CEOs make a fatal mistake when fundraising: They don't go for the NO. 

When I was a VC, I invested in 4% of the deals I saw. Imagine the deal flow of a partner in a top tier fund. You have to assume they are going to pass. Not because your company is bad. Just basic probability.

Too many CEOs waste so much time. They think a first pitch means interest. It doesn't! Even a 2nd meeting doesn't necessarily mean they are interested.

Andrew D'Souza, founder and CEO of Boardy (the company that I assume every single founder in N. America now knows...) recently shared his series A deck. It's not going to win any design awards, but it has a slide that I love:

Reasons NOT to invest.

Andrew calls it out. In fact, he begins the deck by stating what you need to believe in order to have conviction. Then later on he shares all the reasons not to invest.

I LOVE this. At FreshBooks, when we raised a growth round we had an entire presentation on the reasons not to invest. Of course, it was a bit of propaganda. We highlighted the reasons and then offered mitigating diligence. 
Still, we put the issues out there.

You need to do this when you raise. Don't hide them hoping they won't be found. You're just wasting time.

Go for the NO. Filter down rapidly to the investors who LOVE what you are doing.

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Founder of Boardy • Founder of Clearco (Clearbanc)

❌ "I'm a technical founder."

❌  "I'm not a sales guy."

❌  "I'm an introvert."

The moment you say these things, you've just built your own ceiling.

Every label is a limitation.

Your company needs you to evolve. Fast.

The role you played at $1M ARR won't work at $10M.

The leader you were with 10 people won't cut it with 100.

Stop defining yourself by what you were.

Start asking: Who do I need to become?

You have no limits except the ones you impose on yourself.

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Most CEOs set annual goals for their "Sunday self." The one who's rested, worked out, meditated, and firing on all cylinders.

But here's the truth: That's not the person running your business 90% of the time.

Real life is full of random Tuesdays. You wake up tired. An employee quits. Your kid is home sick. The deal you were counting on falls through.

This is your real baseline.

If you design your targets around your absolute best days, you're making it impossible to win. Because peak performance is rare. Consistency is what actually moves the needle.

Set goals for the version of you that shows up on a regular Tuesday in March, not the unicorn version that appears once in a while.

That's the person who gets you to December.

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The secret of my success has been following the same practice as Steve Jobs.

At his funeral, every guest received this book: Autobiography of a yogi. This is the story of Yogananda, the yogi who bought kriya yoga to the west.

The word “kriya” means “complete action”. Kriyas are yoga movements combined with breath work and breath locks. They are designed to create, move and stabilize energy. 

I discovered kundalini yoga, a form of kriya yoga, in 2012. I got serious about it in 2019. I now teach it. Kundalini yoga is the foundation of my life. Every day begins with practice. I see yoga not as the time on the yoga mat, but how I live my life. 

Kundalini is an energy practice. We all have dormant energy at the base of our spine. Through these kriyas we access this energy.

Studies have shown that this practice can turn on dormant parts of our brain. 

Why do I share this?

Despite being 2% of our body’s weight, our brain uses 20% of our energy. That’s for the average person. Imagine how much harder a founder’s brain works?

Energy is the key to your life. Energy is key to all of your dreams for your company.

It takes energy to create something from nothing. It takes to energy to create then keep up with massive growth.

If you want to turn your vision into reality, design your role, company and life around energy maximization. Kundalini yoga is how I did this. It has changed my life. 

Find the path that works for you. Make energy your top priority.

You wouldn't lead your company drunk.

So why are you leading it sleep-deprived?

After 17 hours awake, your brain performs like you're at 0.05% BAC.

That's legally impaired in most places.

Yet many CEOs run on six hours of sleep or less.

Sleep impairment is costly:

- 3x more likely to get sick
- 50% slower reaction times
- Triple the risk of diabetes
- 3.5x higher risk of hypertension

And these are the visible costs. The invisible cost is something you deal with non-stop. Chronic stress. Inability to think clearly. Lack of energy. Complete absence of joy.

Sleep deprivation doesn't just hurt you. It hurts your company. It hurts your family.

Worse decisions. More conflict. Weaker creativity. Higher burnout on your team.

You're not being hardcore. You're being inefficient.

What's the solution?

Treat sleep like your most important meeting. Non-negotiable. Seven hours minimum. Track it and improve it like any key metric in your company. This metric is the one that moves your company metrics.

Your brain compounds decisions daily. Sleep is how you clear the cache.

Limitless CEO knows: recovery isn't weakness. It's strategy.

Protect your sleep. Scale your capacity.

P.S.
Here's a random photo of my dog. If you need sleep lessons, she is the one to speak with...

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The best B2B brands are stealing from B2C playbooks.

My latest podcast guest proves it.

Reza Khadjavi (CEO of Motion) helps advertisers cut through the noise by combining science with creative that actually stops the scroll.

His journey includes:
✅  Disrupting his own agency to build Motion
✅  Navigating multiple AI waves and disrupting himself  again in the process
✅  Cracking the code on what makes creative work in today's noisy ad market

His biggest insight? B2B companies need way more consumer DNA in their marketing.

Most B2B brands are still playing it safe. Meanwhile, the ones winning attention are treating their audience like... humans.

See comments for episode link.

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CEO at Motion

You're not just a leader. You're a mental athlete, whether you realize it or not. 

Let's look at real athletes for a second.

They train obsessively. They perfect every move. They review their game tape. They have coaches, routines, and recovery days.

Their goal? Show up on game day at their absolute best.

But CEOs? You're expected to compete all day, every day. You never get "practice." You rarely hit pause.

That's a problem.

Here's where athletes have it right:

✅They don't just compete. They rest and review. 

✅ They don't go all out, all the time. They peak, then recover.

✅ they get real coaching and invest in support systems.

Want to level up in 2026?

Start treating yourself like a true mental athlete.

1. Prioritize physical fitness. Sleep, exercise and nutrition aren't "nice to haves" , they're high-performance tools.

2. Make rest strategic. You're paid to make decisions. Your mind needs clarity, not constant grind.

3. Review your performance. End each day with three questions: What went well? What didn't? What did I learn? Simple, powerful.

4. Get support. Every top athlete has coaches. CEOs need them too. Don't do it alone.

Personally, I use what I call my BOS (Business Operating System). It's a running chat, where I do my daily review, track patterns, and adjust my game.

If you've raised venture capital, the pressure to perform is real. Expectations are sky high.

So manage yourself like an elite athlete. Practice. Rest. Get support.

You'll be shocked at the difference this will make next year.

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The founder burnout myth nobody wants to admit:

If you're grinding 80-hour weeks, burnout isn't a risk. It's a certainty.

We love stories of founders at Meta, Stripe, Airbnb. We hear about their non-stop hustle, so we copy them. But there's a catch most people miss.

Those teams didn't just work hard, they started winning. And once you're winning, everything shifts.

Momentum changes how you feel. When your company becomes the market leader, the market pulls you forward. You wake up energized. You see results. The work fuels you. Your company has escaped gravity. Everything gets easier. 

But until then? You're just burning fuel to escape gravity. That's where most startups get stuck. The grind is unavoidable at first, but endless grind with no lift-off drains you, fast.

If you're still working endless hours and nothing feels lighter, you're not lazy. You're running out of energy because you haven't "escaped gravity" yet. And you can't brute-force your way through forever.

Here's the real dirty secret: The difference between burnout and breakthrough is simple. Progress.

Naval Ravikant said it best: "Startups die when founders run out of energy."

If you're not feeling the pull, stop pretending hustle is enough. Diagnose and work the problem. Be brutally honest. 

Ask yourself: "knowing everything I know about this company would I start it today"?

This question ignores sunk costs. It doesn't matter how long you have been at it. If the answer to this question is no, it's time for change.

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Most founders I meet are obsessed with the gaps.

What's broken. What's missing. What needs to be fixed.

They've trained themselves to scan for problems. It's how they got here.

But it's also stealing their joy.

You can't appreciate what's working when you're in constant high alert.

You miss the privilege of building something from nothing.
You miss the team that showed up and crushed it this quarter.
You miss the customer who just renewed because your product changed their business.

You're cutting yourself off from energy that actually fuels performance.

The irony? The CEOs who pause to appreciate what's working solve problems faster.

They're not stuck in anxiety. They're thinking clearly. Making better calls.

Gratitude isn't soft. It's strategic. It is an endless source of energy.

When you're grateful for the privilege of solving hard problems, you show up differently.

You stop chasing perfection and start creating momentum.

The gap will always be there. That's the nature of growth.

But so is everything you've already built.

Both are true. You get to choose which one you focus on.

The founders who last don't just optimize for performance.

They optimize for what makes the journey worth it.

Joy and gratitude are strategic.

Joy and gratitude will make your life better.

Joy and gratitude are self-fulfilling. The more you focus on them, the more you get of them.

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Last week I asked a CEO to declare schedule bankruptcy.

Blow up your calendar. Start from zero.

His days were back to back. No time to think. No time to execute. Just reacting.

"But these are all important meetings." Sure. But what are you optimizing for?

Your calendar should solve for two things:
1. Energy
2. Impact

Not accessibility. Not being helpful. Not keeping everyone happy.

Energy and impact.

So he is rebuilding from scratch.

What stays:
- Activities that leverage his unique superpowers
- Activities that give him energy
- Deep work blocks for his top strategic priorities

What goes:
- Status update meetings (send a doc)
- "Quick syncs" (usually not quick)
- FYI meetings (you don't need to be there)
- Networking coffees with no clear outcome

What gets blocked:
- Deep work blocks (energy)
- Exercise (energy)
- White space (both)

I can't wait to see the impact this has on his energy and the momentum of his business.

Most CEOs are calendar broke and don't know it.

You're spending time you don't have on things that don't matter.

Schedule bankruptcy isn't radical. It's necessary.

Your calendar is your strategy. Make it solve for what actually moves the business forward.

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Nobody on their deathbed wishes they worked more.

Yet here we all are, looking for ways to squeeze more hours into our weeks. 

There's a disconnect here. Something that we will likely regret in the end. 

The fix isn't working more. It's wasting less. So much of our time is wasted. Fix that and we don't need to search for more hours.

Stop tolerating:
- Chronic stress, fatigue and brain fog. You are not meant to live this way
- Meetings with no agenda
- Toxic team members
- Leaders who can't keep up with the company
- Projects that don't move the needle
- Interruptions disguised as "collaboration"

Start protecting:
- Your morning for deep work
- Your energy for what matters
- Your boundaries from urgency addiction

The limitless CEO doesn't outwork everyone. They outthink them. 

Limitless CEOs focus on physical, mental and spiritual health first. This gives them more energy, focus and inspiration. They direct that at unlocking the growth in their companies (and themselves). Creating a virtuous cycle.

Your company needs your creativity and energy, not your exhaustion.

Build the habits that expand what's possible without burning out.

That's the unlock. This is what we are doing Limitless.ceo

Limitless.ceo

Founders: stop pricing your deals for perfection.

Jason M. Lemkin just broke down the Brex acquisition: a $5.15B exit that's being called a "failure" because it's below their $12.3B peak valuation.

Think about that. A $5B exit. In 8 years. Called a failure.

This is what happens when you raise at valuations that require top 0.1% outcomes. You lose optionality. Jason calls these deals "hubristic". That nails it.

The problem isn't the capital. It's the expectations.

When you raise at $12B, a $5B exit isn't a win; it's a disappointment. The mercenaries who joined for paper gains leave. The narrative becomes "what went wrong" instead of "look what we built."

And it's happening again. Worse this time.

AI startups raising $2B seeds at $12B valuations. Before shipping products. Multiple funding rounds in one year. 3-4x markups in months.

Each round narrows your definition of success.

You're not just raising capital. You're setting the bar for what "winning" means to your team, your investors, and your ego.

A $3B exit sounds amazing—until you raised at $10B.

The founders who maintain optionality:
- Keep expectations grounded in reality
- Attract missionaries, not mercenaries 
- Preserve multiple paths to success
- Don't need perfection to win

I have raised over $1B in venture capital over the years. I never once went for the highest valuation. I always solved for the most aligned investor and the deal that would enable me to sleep at night.

Price for success, not perfection. Keep your options open.

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Here's how to get ahead of 99% of other founders:

Build a daily learning loop.

End each day with 4 questions:

1. What did I do well today?
2. What could I have done better?
3. What did I learn?
4. What adjustments do I need to make tomorrow?

Five minutes. That's it.

Most founders never do this. They just keep going. Same patterns. Same blind spots. Same results. 

The ones who scale themselves faster than their companies? They extract the lesson before moving on.

They notice when a decision worked, and why.
They catch patterns in what's not working before it becomes a crisis.
They adjust in real time rather than when something breaks (most often it is the founder that breaks).

The best founders go through compound learning.

Each day builds on the last. You get sharper. Faster. More deliberate.

Start tonight. Four questions. Five minutes.

That's the difference between grinding and growing.

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We read a lot about the big outliers. The multi-billion $ market leaders. That's interesting but not relevant. That's not your world. And it's not my world. 

It's far more relevant to hear stories from founders who are closer to our reality.

Blair Livingston founder of Street Context is a story teller like no other. I was enthralled listening to his journey. I wanted to be sitting by a campfire.

There is so much actionable and inspirational goodness in the episode. 

Check out "The Startup CEO Show" where ever you catch your podcasts.

Episode link in the comments.

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Tinkering at Contextual Markets

Darrell Heaps took Q4 public. Then took it private with PE. 

18 years leading one company through every stage of growth.

Most founders don't make it past Series B. Darrell stayed in the CEO seat through IPO, private equity, and exit.

He was on the podcast last year. If you missed it, here's what he learned:

✅ Going public isn't the finish line. It's a new set of constraints. Quarterly pressure. Public scrutiny. Different growth expectations.

✅ PE brings capital and operational rigor. But you trade some control for expertise and resources.

✅ Leadership evolves. What got you to $10M won't get you to $100M. You have to grow faster than the business or you become the ceiling.

Darrell stayed focused on customer value through every transition. Product-market fit at scale. Revenue growth is the unlock.

Not chasing trends. Not optimizing for the fundraise. Building something durable.

If you're a B2B SaaS founder thinking about what comes after Series B, this interview is worth your time.

Link in comments.

The real reason you can't sleep? You're trying to finish the workday in your head after hours.

Most CEOs lie in bed replaying conversations, solving problems, planning tomorrow. That's not insomnia. That's unfinished business.

When I was at FreshBooks, this happened to me all the time. I called them "freshmares" (FreshBooks nightmares).

Your brain doesn't care that it's 11pm. If you didn't close the loops, it will close them for you.

Spend 10 minutes at the end of your work day:
- Do a quick review: what went well today? What did not? What did I learn?
- Write down what's unresolved
- Capture tomorrow's priorities
- Acknowledge what you completed

Ideally this work day should end hours before you want to sleep.

You need a simple closing ritual to signal to your body that you are done. 

Even though I work from home, I change my clothes when my work day is done. I get outside if it's nice out. I change my context completely.

Your brain needs permission to stop working.

Give it that before you ask it to sleep.

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Most CEOs are running on fumes by 2 pm.

Burnt out. Scattered. Making decisions that matter with zero energy left.

I used to be the same. Until I rebuilt my day around energy, not efficiency.

Here's what changed:

No meetings before noon:

Mornings are for deep work. Writing. Podcast recording. Program design. This is when my brain works best. I protect it ruthlessly.

I work out before lunch:

This resets me. I'm not grinding through the afternoon. I'm starting fresh with full energy for my clients.

I batch my coaching calls:

All client work happens in the afternoon. I'm in flow state. Full focus. No context switching between a coaching call and a budget review.

I stop when the work is done:

Not when I'm exhausted. When my priorities are complete. Then I actually rest.

Sleep is non-negotiable:

Same bedtime every night. Wind-down ritual. Today's performance started with last night's sleep.

This isn't about discipline. It's about design.

Your calendar either protects your energy or destroys it.

Most CEOs let their calendar happen to them. Then wonder why they're making million-dollar decisions at 6 pm when they're mentally done.

You can't scale a company faster than you can scale yourself.

Start with energy. Everything else follows.

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Cofounder of Lead In 30 • Upgrade your leaders • Human resources and leadership development

It was one of the most memorable moments of my career. I was standing in the front of the room finishing a meeting with the top 200 leaders of a large hospital system in the DC area. I handed the microphone to the CEO to close us out. What he said shocked me and has stuck with me for years. After hours of discussion about the culture of his organization of 18,000 people that day he ended the meeting looking into the eyes of his top 200 and saying into the microphone, "I have come to an inconvenient and disgusting conclusion that I am the problem."

That's a direct quote.

He was gone less than two months later. 

He left.

For almost a decade I've traveled the world meeting with leaders of some of the world's biggest companies. Amazon, Walmart, Lockheed Martin, General Motors, Johnson & Johnson, Cigna, Hormel, BD, Darden Restaurants, Fox, and HCA to name a few. I've averaged 165 flights a year. New York, London, Singapore, Sydney, New Zealand, and a lot of less notable locales have been stops along the way.

Here's what I've learned...

Leaders make or break an organization.

They are the competitive advantage.

Or the anchor sinking the ship.

One leader can change everything. Positively or negatively.

After years of consulting senior executives on their company-wide culture transformation projects I'm now spending all of my time with a smaller group of leaders. Call them executive coaching clients or whatever you want. They are leaders of teams, divisions, business areas, or enterprises that aren't yet who they want to become.

We help successful executives grow their careers through strengthening their leadership effectiveness.

That's the phrase we wrote as we founded our firm.

Perhaps you're that leader who could benefit from our questions, perspective, and proprietary models. Or maybe you know that leader.  

DM me. 

I'd love to chat. 🎯

Russ Hill

Rick Rubin has produced more iconic albums than almost anyone in music history. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Johnny Cash. Kanye West. Jay-Z. But here's what's weird: he barely touches the equipment:

While other producers obsess over mixing boards and effects, Rubin does something completely different. He removes what doesn't matter.

Most producers add layers - more effects, more instruments, more complexity. Rubin does the opposite. He sits in the studio and asks one question on repeat: "What's essential?"

When Johnny Cash wanted to record again late in his career, Rubin didn't pile on production. He stripped everything down to Cash's voice and a guitar. The result? Some of the most powerful recordings of Cash's entire career.

Leaders face the same trap.

When performance lags, the instinct is to add more, more meetings to align the team, more initiatives to drive results, more priorities to cover all bases.

But watch what happens: your directors spend 30 hours a week in meetings. Your team has 12 "top priorities." Nobody can tell you what actually matters most.

The real work gets squeezed into the margins.

Your people don't need another strategy deck. They need you to stop piling on and start cutting away.

Before your next team meeting, try Rubin's question: What's essential? Then remove everything else from the agenda.

If everything feels urgent, nothing is. Russ explores these ideas weekly in his newsletter, offering practical leadership insights that cut through the noise. https://lnkd.in/en9vxeNk

Cofounder of Lone Rock Leadership • Upgrade your managers • Human resources and leadership development

Satya Tripathi works on climate transformation with governments worldwide. His teams face goals 26 years away. Here's how he keeps them engaged: 

Make invisible progress visible every single day.
Your team isn't disengaged because they're lazy.
You've tried new tools. Better processes. More frequent check-ins. Nothing moves the needle.

Here's what you're missing: They're disengaged because they can't see progress.

Tripathi discovered that teams working on transformation don't fail because the work is hard. They fail because they can't tell whether they're making progress or just spinning their wheels.

Think about his challenge: How do you keep teams motivated on net-zero emissions by 2050? That's decades away.

His solution? Break that massive goal into quarterly milestones that teams can actually celebrate. Instead of "carbon neutrality by 2050," it becomes "renewable energy at 15% by Q3, 18% by Q4."

Progress becomes visible every 90 days, not every decade.

When teams can see movement, they start believing movement is possible. And belief creates momentum.

This applies to every transformation project. Your culture change initiative feels stuck, not because people don't care, but because they can't see that last month's leadership training actually shifted any behaviors. Your digital transformation drags not because the technology is hard, but because nobody can point to what's actually different today versus 90 days ago.

Most leaders lose people on transformation initiatives, not because the vision is wrong, but because progress feels invisible.

Here's how to fix it:

Instead of "Improve customer satisfaction," track "Response time under 2 hours" and display it daily. Instead of "Build a learning culture," count "Cross-team knowledge shares per week" and celebrate the number going up. Instead of quarterly progress reviews, create weekly wins that everyone can see.

The goal isn't just measurement. It's making progress so obvious that belief becomes automatic.

If people can't see movement, they stop believing it's happening.

This invisibility problem shows up everywhere in leadership. We explore it every week on Lead In 30's podcast with leaders who've cracked the code on creating clarity and momentum. Get access here: https://lnkd.in/d_-Knwhy

Most leaders think confidence comes from being the loudest voice in the room. Admiral Michelle Howard proved them wrong for 36 years. Here's what she understood about leadership:

When Howard took command of Combined Task Force 151 in 2009, she faced one of the highest-pressure situations in modern naval history.

Somali pirates had captured Captain Richard Phillips. The world was watching. Every decision mattered.

Howard didn't dominate the room. She didn't over-explain her choices to prove she belonged. She gathered input quickly, decided clearly, and moved on.

The rescue succeeded. Phillips came home.

This wasn't luck. It was a pattern Howard had perfected throughout her career, from commanding USS Rushmore to becoming the first female four-star admiral in U.S. Navy history.

She understood something most leaders get backwards.

Teams don't need perfect decisions. They need clear ones.

Indecision drains energy faster than a wrong call ever will. When you hesitate, your team hesitates. When you second-guess yourself publicly, they second-guess everything.

The pressure to appear confident makes managers over-explain. They think more words equal more authority. They dominate conversations to prove they know what they're doing.

Howard did the opposite. She listened intently, processed quickly, then committed fully.

No hedging. No endless justification. No need to be the smartest person speaking.

Just clarity followed by action.

This creates something more valuable than being right. It creates momentum. Teams that move forward together, even when the path isn't perfect, outperform teams paralyzed by indecision every single time.

The real confidence play isn't about volume. It's about velocity.

Know when to listen. Know when to decide. Know when to move.

Leadership confidence doesn't come from volume. It comes from clarity.

If you want to strengthen your decision-making discipline, check out the Lead In 30 Podcast. Real conversations about the leadership competencies that actually move teams forward.

Sara Blakely's father asked her one question at dinner every night: "What did you fail at today?" If she had nothing, he was disappointed...

That question reframed failure entirely. Not as shame, but as proof she was learning and pushing boundaries.

This wasn't just dinner table philosophy.

When Sara started Spanx, she built this into her company culture. Early employees remember her asking in team meetings: "What experiment failed this week?"

When a product prototype flopped, she'd gather the team to dissect the learning, not assign blame. One failed adhesive test led to their breakthrough backless body shaper design.

The failure itself became the innovation catalyst.

Most leaders do the opposite. They punish mistakes, avoid risk, and wonder why their teams play it safe.

I've watched talented managers freeze when asked to pitch new ideas in companies where one mistake meant being sidelined. They had brilliant solutions but wouldn't risk proposing them.

The company lost innovations that could have doubled revenue simply because fear was more powerful than ambition.

Here's the truth: if people are afraid to fail, they'll never fully commit.

They'll hedge, they'll wait for perfect conditions, they'll do just enough to avoid criticism. Innovation doesn't come from people trying not to mess up.

It comes from people willing to experiment, learn fast, and adjust.

Leaders who normalize failure unlock that. But most don't know where to start.

Try these 3 shifts:

First, in 1-on-1s, ask "What did you try this week that didn't work?" and genuinely celebrate the attempt.

Second, in team meetings, share a failure of your own from that week and what you learned. Your vulnerability gives others permission.

Third, create a "failure board" where people post experiments that flopped but taught something valuable. Make it visible. Make it normal.

When failure becomes safe, commitment becomes possible.
When commitment becomes possible, real growth happens.

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Lead with impact.

In the early 2000s, Ralph Hauenstein watched competitor after competitor abandon American manufacturing for cheaper overseas production.

As CEO of Red Wing Shoes, he faced mounting pressure from the board: offshore production, cut costs by 40%, and finally compete on price with imported brands.

The spreadsheets made the case undeniable.
He refused anyway.

Hauenstein understood what the spreadsheets couldn't capture: Red Wing's bootmakers had decades of institutional knowledge.

They knew how different leathers behaved, how stitching patterns affected durability, how to spot quality issues before they became customer problems.

Moving production overseas meant losing craftspeople who'd spent 20-30 years mastering their trade. That expertise couldn't be replicated in a factory optimizing for cost per unit.

The payoff took years to materialize, but it was definitive.

While competitors who offshored saw their brand value erode and struggled with quality control issues from distant factories, Red Wing maintained premium pricing power and cultivated customers who'd buy nothing else.

Employee turnover at their Minnesota plant remained below 5% annually - unheard of in manufacturing - because workers took genuine pride in their craft.

The brand survived multiple recessions while offshored competitors folded or were acquired at fire-sale prices.

Every leader faces this same calculation in different forms.

Most leaders think in quarters. Leaders who actually deliver think in decades.

My latest book, Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results And Most Don't breaks down how to make decisions that compound over time instead of cannibalizing your future. If you're tired of short-term thinking sabotaging long-term results, this is your playbook. Get it here: https://lnkd.in/eaiPFZhw

Niki Lauda pulled into the pit during the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix. The world championship was on the line. He stepped out and walked away. Here's why his greatest leadership moment was choosing to lose:

Weeks earlier, Lauda survived a crash at the German Grand Prix that left him with severe burns and lung damage, making his return to racing genuinely heroic.

But his greatest leadership moment wasn't the comeback - it was this withdrawal, the moment he refused to race when everyone expected him to push through.

The conditions were brutal with near-zero visibility. While competitors risked their lives in the dangerous rain, Lauda made a different call.

Not because he was afraid. Because the risk didn't justify the reward.

He lost the championship by a single point. And kept something more valuable: his judgment.

Real leadership courage isn't always about pushing through - sometimes it's about stopping when everyone expects you to continue.

We glorify the grind, the relentless push, the leader who never quits. But this narrative pressures leaders to launch products in wrong market conditions, push teams past their breaking point, or continue strategies that no longer make sense simply because stopping feels like failure.

Disciplined judgment requires a different kind of courage - the courage to say "not under these conditions" when the pressure to proceed is overwhelming.

Most leaders fail here not because they lack determination, but because they confuse reckless persistence with strength. They push through product launches when customer feedback screams "not ready," continue with hiring when culture fit is clearly wrong, or double down on strategies when market conditions have fundamentally changed.

Think about the CEO who launches despite clear signals because "we've already invested too much." Or the manager who pushes a burned-out team through another sprint because "we can't miss the deadline."

The pressure to proceed often overwhelms the judgment to stop.

Lauda's decision reveals what separates disciplined judgment from reckless persistence: knowing when the risk is no longer proportional to the reward, when you don't have the critical information you need, and when pushing through will compromise something more valuable than winning.

This kind of judgment doesn't develop by accident. It requires a framework for making decisions under pressure, for distinguishing between momentary discomfort and genuine danger signals, for having the courage to protect what matters most.

If you're ready to build the judgment and clarity that transforms your leadership in 30 days, check out Lead In 30. 

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People don't follow vision statements. They follow what leaders reinforce through action. Here's why some leaders get results while others struggle:

You can launch a new culture initiative every quarter. Hold town halls about your values. Put inspirational posters in every conference room.

But if you excuse the leader who yells, protect the top performer who refuses to collaborate, or ignore the executive who talks strategy but micromanages execution, your team knows what you actually value.

And it's not what's on the poster.

I watched this play out at a tech company last year. The CEO launched a "radical transparency" initiative with company-wide emails, new Slack channels, and monthly AMAs. Everyone nodded along.

Then an executive made a major product decision behind closed doors. No input, no discussion, just an announcement.

When teams pushed back, the CEO defended it as "moving fast."
Within 3 months, the transparency initiative was dead. Not because the CEO killed it officially, but because everyone saw what actually mattered when stakes were high.

The gap between the announcement and the reinforcement told them everything.

Dara Treseder built her leadership reputation at companies like Peloton and Autodesk by understanding one truth most executives miss: credibility isn't built in town halls or strategy decks.

When she talked about customer obsession, she sat in on customer service calls. When she championed diversity, she changed her own hiring process first. When she pushed for bold creative work, she publicly backed ideas that made stakeholders uncomfortable.

Her teams watched what she reinforced, not just what she announced. That's why they trusted her when transformation got hard.

Here's what some miss: their teams aren't watching the all-hands deck. They're watching what gets rewarded, what gets ignored, and what gets excused.

The manager who preaches accountability in team meetings but quietly protects the underperformer because "they've been here a long time." Their team learns that tenure matters more than results.

The executive who champions transparency but makes strategic decisions in closed-door sessions with favorites. Their organization learns that access matters more than merit.

The leader who demands urgency but tolerates the same deadlines sliding month after month. Their team learns that timelines are suggestions, not commitments.

In every case, the behavior speaks louder than the words.

And teams always believe the behavior.

Next time you're in a leadership meeting, watch what gets excused versus what gets addressed. Watch which behaviors get rewarded and which get consequences.

The patterns you reinforce when nobody's watching tell your team everything they need to know about what actually matters.

Check out my new book: Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results and Most Don't, which breaks down the complete execution system: https://lnkd.in/eaiPFZhw

José Mourinho was fired by Chelsea. Twice. Then they won the league using the exact system he built. Here's why the best leaders build systems that outlive them:

Mourinho has coached elite football clubs across Europe. Players respect him, but warmth? Not his thing.

Yet his teams consistently perform at the highest levels.
The reason isn't charisma or inspiration. It's something most leaders completely miss.

When Mourinho joined Inter Milan in 2008, the first thing he did was assign every player a specific "battle role." Not positions. Roles.

Defenders knew their exact coverage zones. Midfielders had defined pressing triggers. Even the striker knew his defensive responsibilities.

Players hated the rigidity at first.
But within 6 months, Inter won their first Champions League in 45 years.

Here's what actually happened: ambiguity was eliminated.

Most leaders say "We need better communication." Mourinho defines exactly what communication looks like. When X happens, you do Y. No interpretation needed.

Most leaders say "Give 110%." Mourinho sets the standard differently. You complete these 3 drills at this speed. Anything less, you're benched.

The difference? His team knows the exact gap between current and expected.

This isn't about being difficult. It's about creating conditions where performance becomes unavoidable.

Most leaders get this backwards. They work on motivation when the real problem is confusion.

If your team doesn't know what success looks like, inspiration won't save you. If expectations shift daily, effort gets wasted on the wrong things.

Clarity eliminates guesswork. It lets people focus energy on execution instead of interpretation.

This clarity-first approach is the foundation of my Lead In 30 leadership training, which has helped managers at Amazon, Walmart, and Lockheed Martin transform how their teams deliver results.

Want to build systems that make performance unavoidable? Let's talk about bringing this framework to your team.

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Everyone celebrates James Dyson's 5,000 prototypes as a story about grit. They're missing what actually happened. And it's costing their team's progress every single day.

Most people hear the number 5,000 and think it proves the power of perseverance in the face of adversity. But that completely misses the point of what happened in Dyson's workshop.

Dyson didn't succeed because he refused to give up. He succeeded because he built a system where failure was expected, documented, and converted into forward motion.

Here's what that actually looked like: 
Each prototype got numbered, photographed, and analyzed. What worked? What didn't? Why? Every morning, those insights informed the next build. Prototype 1,247 wasn't a setback. It was the data that made 1,248 possible.

This is strategic persistence. Everything else is just stubbornness with better PR.

The difference matters more than most leaders realize.

Stubborn persistence keeps doing the same thing, hoping for different results. Strategic persistence builds a process that makes progress inevitable.

Your team doesn't need another speech about grit. They need you to build what Dyson built, a system where failure moves them forward instead of sideways.

That means creating environments where failure produces insights instead of fear. Where mistakes get reviewed in Monday morning standups instead of being hidden in desk drawers. Where progress compounds through documented learning instead of evaporating when someone quits.

Most leaders accidentally design the opposite. They punish failure, reward risk aversion, and wonder why innovation dies.

Dyson created conditions where 5,000 failures led somewhere. Your job is doing the same for your team.

The problem isn't your team's commitment. It's whether you've designed a system that turns their effort into actual outcomes.

If you're ready to stop relying on grit and start designing environments where your team's progress is inevitable, let's talk.

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Franz Humer built a $50B pharma empire by doing the opposite of every competitor. While they rushed drugs to market, he slowed down. Here's why his "overcautious" approach destroyed the competition:

As Roche CEO from 1998-2008, Humer made a move that shocked Wall Street.

When competitors like Pfizer accelerated cardiovascular drugs to market after minimal trials, Humer insisted on 3 additional years of safety validation for Roche's competing drug.

Analysts called him overcautious. Short-term, Roche lost market share.

But 18 months after competitor launches, safety issues emerged. Two rival drugs were pulled from market. Roche's delayed entry became the category leader, capturing 40% market share that held for a decade.

The extra validation protected 50,000+ patients from adverse events. More importantly, it built physician trust that no marketing budget could buy.

Humer used 3 criteria to decide when slowing down was strategic:
1. High irreversibility - decisions that couldn't be easily undone (drug safety, M&A)
2. Trust stakes - situations where credibility was the real asset at risk  
3. Information asymmetry - when competitors knew less than they thought they did

When all 3 aligned, he'd invest months or years others wouldn't. When they didn't, he moved fast.

This wasn't about being slow. It was about being deliberate where it mattered most.

Most leaders get this backwards. They rush decisions that should be slowed and overthink choices that need speed.

On the Lead In 30 Podcast, I explore how leaders develop judgment about decision velocity. If you're ready to build frameworks that actually work, explore Lead In 30 at https://lnkd.in/d_-Knwhy

Most leaders push harder when results lag. They add meetings and tighten deadlines. Matthew Walker's research at UC Berkeley shows this approach systematically destroys the capabilities you need to execute. 

Walker founded UC Berkeley's Center for Human Sleep Science, where his team uses brain imaging and cognitive testing to document what happens when exhausted teams try to perform. The findings expose why "just push harder" backfires at a biological level.

Sleep deprivation doesn't just make people tired. It dismantles the three core capacities leaders depend on for execution.

Decision quality collapses first.

Walker's 2002 Harvard experiment had participants learn complex keyboard sequences. Those who slept between training and re-testing improved their performance significantly. Those who stayed awake plateaued or declined.

Now map that to your Monday morning strategy session after everyone worked through the weekend. You're deciding whether to pivot your product roadmap, restructure your team, or double down on your current approach. 

Walker's research suggests these decisions are biologically compromised before the meeting starts. The strategic clarity you think you're getting might just be exhausted brains defaulting to familiar patterns instead of evaluating new information objectively.

Emotional regulation fails next.

When your people are running on empty, psychological safety evaporates. Small frustrations become conflicts. 

Constructive feedback feels like personal attacks. The trust required for real alignment breaks down in ways that look like engagement problems but are actually energy problems.

Walker's research shows sleep deprivation impairs memory consolidation and cognitive function. Your team can't adapt to market feedback, can't internalize lessons from failed experiments, can't integrate new processes or skills. The very learning required to improve execution becomes impossible when people are too drained to form new neural pathways.

So what does sustainable execution actually look like?

Start by treating energy as a strategic resource, not a personal responsibility. If your project timeline assumes 60-hour weeks, you're planning for degraded decision-making and compromised learning. Build recovery time into execution plans the same way you build in budget buffers.

Second, watch for the exhaustion signals Walker's research identified. Increased irritability in meetings that used to be productive. Slower adoption of new processes. More rework on decisions made late in the day or week.  

Third, stop treating sustained exhaustion as a sign of commitment. When your team is running on fumes, you're not getting discretionary effort. You're getting degraded execution disguised as hustle.

I explore these overlooked execution realities every week in my newsletter. Subscribe at https://lnkd.in/gsb3qeCF for weekly insights on the human factors that quietly sabotage your team's execution.

Lorne Michaels has run SNL for decades with one non-negotiable rule. "The show doesn't go on because it's ready. It goes on because it's 11:30." Here's why standards beat motivation every single time:

Most leaders exhaust themselves trying to inspire their teams.
They craft motivational emails, deliver pep talks before big launches, and scramble to boost morale when energy dips.

But here's what they miss: motivation is an emotion, and emotions fade. Standards are systems, and systems sustain performance even when inspiration runs dry.

Michaels doesn't waste energy motivating writers to be funny every Saturday. Instead, he holds one unwavering standard: the show airs at 11:30, ready or not.

When you know the curtain rises regardless of how prepared you feel, everything changes. Writers can't hide behind perfectionism. Producers can't delay tough calls. The entire team operates with clarity about what matters, shipping the show beats perfecting the show.

That's how you sustain excellence for 48 seasons.

The same principle applies in every organization, even if you're not producing live television. The question isn't whether you have standards, it's whether you're actually enforcing them.

Your standards aren't what you say in meetings. They're what you tolerate when nobody's watching.

When you accept work that misses the mark without feedback, your team learns that quality is negotiable. When deadlines slip without consequence, they learn that urgency doesn't matter. When you ignore behavior that undermines the team, you're teaching everyone that culture is just a poster on the wall.

Your people aren't confused; they're watching what you actually enforce versus what you claim to value.

Setting clear standards isn't tyrannical. It's generous.

When your team knows exactly what success looks like and what won't be tolerated, they can focus their energy on execution instead of guessing what you want.

So identify your 11:30 moments. What are the non-negotiables that everything else revolves around? Make them simple enough that a new hire could recite them. Then hold them consistently, especially when it's uncomfortable, because that's when your real standards reveal themselves.

The quality of your standards determines the quality of your results.

I explore leadership principles like this every week in my newsletter. If you want practical insights that challenge conventional wisdom and give you real tools for leading better, join the 11,000+ leaders who get our weekly email newsletter: https://lnkd.in/en9vxeNk

Lead with impact.

Edwin Land invented instant photography and built Polaroid into a $3 billion icon. At their peak, they owned instant photography. Then they filed for bankruptcy while everyone still loved the brand. Here's why:

Land dismissed digital photography as inferior technology. Technically true, but strategically fatal.

While he obsessed over perfecting instant film chemistry, the market shifted beneath him. His brilliance blinded him to market reality.

The vision was extraordinary, but execution lagged. Competitors overtook them. This reveals something most leaders miss.

Results don't fail because you lack vision. They fail because you don't build execution discipline around that vision.

The problem is vision work feels important. Strategy sessions, big ideas, inspiring the team. It's exciting. It gets buy-in.

Execution is different.

It's weekly pipeline reviews where you ask why the numbers missed. It's the uncomfortable conversation about accountability. It's killing a pet project that looked great in the strategy deck but isn't delivering results.

It's unglamorous. It requires sustained discipline, not one-time inspiration.
And it's where most leaders fall short.

Here's the diagnostic: Track your calendar for one week.

How many hours on strategy and vision? How many on execution review and accountability?

Most leaders discover a 10:1 ratio. The best reverse it.

If you're spending more time wordsmithing the strategy deck than reviewing weekly execution metrics, you've already fallen into Land's trap.

Vision meetings feel productive. Execution meetings feel tedious. That's exactly why execution is where most leaders fail.

Because every leader has vision. Few master execution.

Execution discipline has three non-negotiables: Clear metrics everyone understands. Weekly accountability rhythms that surface problems early. The courage to kill good ideas that aren't delivering results.

My new book: Deliver: Why Some Leaders Get Results, And Most Don't, gives you the frameworks to build execution discipline around your vision. Get it here: https://lnkd.in/eaiPFZhw

Most leaders think strength means making the call. The strongest ones know when they're not the one who should.

University of Chicago philosopher Agnes Callard writes about "transformative decisions", choices where you can't fully grasp the outcome until after you've committed. 

Her insight cuts straight to a leadership blind spot: sometimes you lack the perspective to make the call, and recognizing that takes more maturity than pushing through anyway.

I watched this play out with a VP I coached last year.

Her CEO asked her to decide whether to shut down an underperforming product line, one she'd never worked on directly. She had the authority. She had the data. The spreadsheets screamed "kill it."

But she recognized something crucial.

The team closest to that product understood customer relationships she couldn't see in the numbers. They knew which accounts were about to convert, which features were breaking through. She had analytical distance. They had lived experience.

She didn't lack confidence. She lacked the transformative knowledge you only gain by living inside the problem.

So she didn't decide. She asked the product team to present their recommendation with full context, then backed their call.

Three months later, two of those "about to convert" accounts closed deals worth more than the entire product line's previous year revenue.

Decision discipline means asking three questions before you decide:

1. Do I have current, lived experience with this problem?
2. Is someone closer to it better positioned to see what I can't?
3. Will my decision override knowledge I don't possess?

If the answer to all three is yes, your job isn't to decide. It's to empower the person who should.

That's not weakness. That's leadership maturity.

This is the kind of decision discipline we explore on Lead In 30, not just when to decide, but when to let others lead the call. Listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://lnkd.in/d_-Knwhy

Most execution problems aren't skill gaps. They're awareness gaps. Here's what decades of research reveal about why capable teams underperform:

Your team just missed another deadline.
Again.

You've invested in training. Upgraded your project management tools. Held more accountability meetings. 

Nothing changed.

Psychologist Ellen Langer spent decades studying why capable people underperform. What she discovered wasn't about skill or effort at all.

It was about awareness.

Langer ran experiments where people performed identical tasks. The only variable: whether they were consciously aware of what they were doing or operating on habit.

The awareness group outperformed the autopilot group consistently. Same skills. Same training. Different mental state.

Think about your last team meeting. How much of it ran on autopilot? Same agenda structure, same discussion patterns, same outcomes you've had for months.

When leaders run meetings on habit rather than intention, their teams disengage. Not because the meeting structure is wrong, but because the leader isn't actually present.

That's what kills execution.

Breaking autopilot requires one simple practice: Before your next team interaction, pause for 30 seconds.

Ask yourself what outcome you actually want from this specific conversation. Not what you usually want. What matters right now.

That 30-second reset separates leaders who get results from those who wonder why execution keeps failing despite their best efforts.

Want weekly insights on leading with intention instead of habit? Subscribe to my newsletter where I break down what actually drives execution and results: https://lnkd.in/gsb3qeCF

When Frances Hesselbein was asked about her legacy leading Girl Scouts from 250,000 to 2.3 million members, she never mentioned the growth numbers.

Never talked about the 300+ programs she launched.
Never cited the diversity initiatives that transformed the organization.
She talked about the leaders who emerged under her watch.

One of those leaders was Frances Hesselbein herself before becoming CEO. Another went on to lead major nonprofits. Others became executives at Fortune 500 companies.
 
Hesselbein didn't just run an organization. She built a leadership factory.

Here's what she did differently.
Every week, she asked herself three questions: Who did I develop today? Who is ready for more responsibility? Who needs coaching to step up?

She tracked people development as rigorously as others tracked revenue.

Most leaders track deliverables. Hesselbein tracked something else: how many of her team members went on to lead other organizations.

She measured leadership by multiplication, not addition.

When one of your team members gets promoted to lead elsewhere, that's proof your leadership is working. When they credit you for their success, that's your real ROI.

Ask yourself: How many of your direct reports could step into your role tomorrow? How many have been promoted since working for you? How many leaders have they developed?

Those numbers matter more than your quarterly targets.

Because your true results aren't in a spreadsheet. They're walking around, leading others, multiplying your impact long after you've moved on.

Most leaders know this matters but don't have a system for it.

Lead In 30 gives you the frameworks to become the leader people grow under. Not in years.  

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If you're tired of repeating yourself, you're probably doing your job right. Most leaders think constant repetition means they're failing to communicate. But here's what Vince Lombardi knew that changed everything:

He won 5 NFL championships by drilling the same fundamentals, blocking, tackling, discipline, in every single practice. Before the 1961 season, his veteran players complained they'd heard the blocking lecture 100 times.

Lombardi's response? "Then you'll hear it 100 more until it's instinct, not thought."

That season, the Packers went 11-3 and won the championship. Their offensive line allowed fewer sacks than any team in the league, not because they learned new techniques, but because the basics became muscle memory.

Here's what Lombardi understood that most leaders miss: your team hasn't heard it enough if you're tired of saying it.

Research shows people need to hear a message 7 times before it influences behavior. Leaders typically say it twice and move on.

The disconnect? You've internalized the vision, priorities, and standards. Your team is hearing them for the first time, processing while multitasking, or filtering through their own priorities.

What actually deserves repetition:

• The 2-3 outcomes that define success this quarter
• The non-negotiable standards that separate good from great
• The decision-making principles when choices aren't obvious

The difference between productive repetition and nagging? Productive repetition reinforces what matters until it becomes reflex. Nagging focuses on trivial details that don't move the needle.

Great leaders don't apologize for reinforcing what matters. They lean into it.

On the Lead In 30 podcast, I break down how the best leaders master this skill, knowing what to repeat, when to repeat it, and how to make it stick. If you're ready to stop second-guessing your leadership and start reinforcing what matters, listen wherever you get your podcasts: https://lnkd.in/d_-Knwhy

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