Insights
Your business is making money, but is it actually building value?
Your business may be profitable, growing and successful. But is it actually becoming more valuable? A look at the hidden dependencies, risks and strengths that determine whether a business is truly built for what’s next.
The Problem With Hitting Your Numbers
Several years ago I was told, mid-year, not to worry too much about a target we were clearly going to miss.
Then the performance reviews came in. Just the number, and the gap.
That experience reinforces something called Goodhart's Law: when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. And the more I've thought about it, the more I've seen it play out everywhere: from nail factories to Pfizer boardrooms to quarterly earnings calls where executives admit they'd kill a profitable project rather than miss a number.
Hitting your targets feels like winning. But sometimes it's the most expensive thing you can do.
This week I'm writing about the hidden cost of how we measure success — and what to do about it.
Nobody Wants to Say It. That's Exactly Why You Have To.
Something feels off.
Nothing obvious. No clear issue anyone can point to.
Just, tension.
That’s usually the elephant.
And the moment it gets named? Everything shifts.
Change isn’t the hard part
Change doesn’t fail because people resist it.
It fails because leaders underestimate how heavy it feels.
Looking back on a change initiative that didn’t go the way I hoped forced me to ask a harder question:
What could I have done differently?
This piece is about the awkwardness, fatigue, and pressure of change — and what leaders can do to make it more human, more achievable, and more likely to stick.
Comfort Is Rarely Neutral. It Charges Interest.
Comfort isn’t neutral.
It just feels that way, until it starts charging interest.
This week’s Leadership In Focus newsletter looks at a pattern we see constantly with founders and leaders of growing businesses:
Getting used to doing things a certain way.
Carrying the heaviest load yourself.
Assuming your people “know what to do.”
Trusting that momentum will simply continue.
Comfort can feel like stability; but left unchecked, it quietly becomes risk.
In this issue, we explore:
Why comfort stalls growth before it breaks things
How overconfidence and habit creep into leadership
What it really takes to equip your team to carry the future with you
If you’re feeling the weight of “I should be further by now,” this one’s for you.