A CEO once shared something during his executive meeting that surprised me and shocked his team.
“My most productive leadership team meetings,” he said, “happen when there is almost nothing on the agenda.”
The room went quiet.
When leaders stop reacting to updates, reports, and operational noise, something else appears, the real questions.
The ones that actually determine the future of the business.
Effective leaders and their teams are often separated by the topics they are willing to address, and those they will not address.
Enjoy your March news2use,
Dan
“Relevant & pragmatic ideas, tools and insights to play at your best.”
For You
Things not going so well right now?
Feeling buried, like the people around you dug a hole and tossed you into it?
Wondering how you’ll survive the coming weeks or months?
That’s exactly how Steve Young once felt.
Young had just become the starting quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, stepping in for the injured Joe Montana. The pressure was enormous. The comparisons and criticism relentless.
Then came a chance encounter with leadership thinker Stephen Covey.
Young later described it as a kind of “Yoda moment.”
Instead of discussing pressure or criticism, Covey asked him a single question:
“How good could you get?”
It was a very different question from the ones spinning in Young’s head, “How will I survive?” or “How do I protect myself?”
That question triggered what I would call an ownershift, a change in mindset that transformed Young’s preparation, performance, and ultimately his career.
The seven-minute clip, from Tim Ferris, is well worth watching. It leaves us with a question worth sitting with:
How good could you get if you were truly all in?
For You & Your Team
“Do you want me to run my function or be a member of the executive team?” a leader recently asked.
The answer is simple. Yes.
The real dilemma of leadership is not one or the other, it’s both.
Yet many executives default to defending their function. When that happens, leadership meetings turn into turf battles for resources, talent, and influence. Progress slows. Trust erodes.
High-performing teams operate differently. Their default setting is company first, function second. Leaders still champion their areas, but they never forget the team they serve.
Bill Russell once said winning required subordinating individual goals to the team.
Executive leadership works the same way. During the next challenging debate in your leadership team, ask yourself:
When a tough decision stands in front of me, do I speak for my function, or for the entire enterprise?
For You, Your Team & Your Business
Are you and your leadership team doing the right work?
This is not about how busy you are, how many crises you jump between, or how many flights you’ve taken in the past 90 days.
The real risk for executive teams is becoming consumed by the wrong work.
Avoiding this requires a framework; a few first principles that define what the leadership team must engage in and what it should deliberately leave to others.
Very few executive teams are explicit about these boundaries.
Here are four questions to help your team do the right work:
- If our executive team focused only on the work that truly required us, what would disappear from our agenda?
- What is the work our leadership team must do that no one else in our organization can do?
- Where can our leadership team create value together that no other group in the company can?
- If our executive team disappeared for 90 days, what critical work would actually not happen? (If the answer isn’t obvious, you may not be doing the work that only you can do.)
Executive teams have unusual freedom to choose where they focus. Without clarity and accountability, that freedom quietly destroys value.
Leadership teams don’t create value by doing more work; they create value by doing the right work.
People, Places & Technology
What if business development isn’t really about selling at all?
In The Business Development Shift, Doug Ott reframes the entire conversation. Instead of pushing harder on tactics, he focuses on curiosity, generosity, and building authentic relationships over time. I’ve known Doug for more than thirty years, and he is the real deal; someone who lives the principles he teaches.
While Doug’s recently released book speaks directly to consultants, advisors, and sales professionals, its lessons reach much further. In every human exchange someone is buying, and someone is selling, ideas, services, or trust. Ott’s message is simple and refreshing; sustainable growth starts with genuine connection. This is a resource I can highly recommend.
Thought for the Day
“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody that will listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work.”