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It's not the numbers - it's what's in your head. Most SMBs Don't Need a Dashboard - but they are cool. Here's how to use one if you need to. Dashboards Track Output. When you realize your company is an…

If I told you, I'd be lying but it makes great click-bait! I'd be lying because you don't need systems. You need outputs. Systems are just the means to the end. We've talked before about the four parts of a…

Separate Before You Delegate. I'd be fine earning half as much money if I could get my time back. That's a common theme I hear from business owners. And the solution is NOT time management. A public 24 hour clock…

There's actually a way to tell. I’ve gotten a lot of subscribers since October 2022 so I’m reposting this because I think it’s important. Something I didn’t mention when I posted it first is that thinking in systems is a…

It Involves Elves! If the reason we hire people is to have them produce outputs, it makes sense that we understand what an output is. That's where the elves come in. Seriously. There's a child's fairy tale about a shoemaker…

There are only 4 outputs every company needs. Budgets are a tool to help you spend money better. But they are often short sighted because they focus on inputs not outputs. Picture from. What is a budget? Let's start there.…

Do You Have to go Through Them? No. At first all the activity in a company is outward focused - finding and serving customers. If this works you get a lot of business. Some recurring, some re-occurring depending on the…

There are two ways to grow your company's systems. You systemize your company so you can produce some sort of output in a repeatable, scalable way. Without a system the output is produced like a chef who makes great food…

It's the Mother of all Systems! And like any system planning has an output. The output is THE PLAN. Why Do a Plan at all? If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you will keep getting what you’ve always…

Just answer three questions. Strategy answers "Where are we going?" A Plan answers "How are we going to get there?" As the saying goes - if you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there. But the…

Management is a system - with 3 levels. Management is getting work done through other people. We'll discuss the people part in another article - it's just as important. This one’s about the work. If you think about that definition,…

There's actually a maturity scale. In the 1980's Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute along with the US Department of Defense, developed a way to rank the maturity of software systems. They called it the Capability Maturity Model. I have…

YES. At different times for different reasons. Let's unpack. GREAT BOOK. Bill Campbell was an amazing guy. Therapist. A therapist helps you deal with emotions. This is important because emotions run our lives. Don't believe me? Here's an example, you…

A simple tool for making communication easier. Trust is a very important part of any company's culture. It comes from knowing what to expect and "where someone comes from" in other words, their motivation. But motivation is often hidden behind…

It's not as easy as you think. When you hire people, you expect them to produce some output. The output is the most important part of any function you have people perform. So it makes sense you'd want to measure…

It's the Reason You Hire People. I went over the 4 parts of a function or system in the Twitter thread that may have led you here. [Follow me there @BetterCEO]. Here I want to take a step back to…

Two Types - Internal & External. My client rescheduled our time twice in a row due to emergencies. It got me thinking that there are two types of emergencies. To over simplify (a little) one type is internal. A machine…

One of the biggest frustrations for any business owner is when an employee doesn't perform to your expectations. The higher level the employee, the worse it gets. The root cause it often a mismatch between our expectations and their performance.…

In a previous post I discussed the 4 Parts of a Function and why it's useful to see your company as a compilation of functions rather than jobs. If you haven't read that one, it will make more sense to…

Your Organization is Made of Functions Not Jobs. When you think of your company structure, you probably think of people with jobs and job titles. Thinking of people performing functions is a better model. That's because in most companies, many…

The above tweet brought several questions to my mind. . If a remote employee hired someone else to do their job, would you even know? . How would you know? Why would you care? Let's deal with the last one…