ReportWire

Tag: Leadership

  • How to Break the Self-Improvement Loop That’s Burning You Out

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    Self-improvement is a popular topic for entrepreneurs, especially at the start of a new year. Fresh ideas, exciting plans, and meaningful actions abound. Instead of trying to use every productivity tool available, what if the solution were to actually do less? 

    As a productivity coach, I’m well aware of what people face when they’re trying to improve their productivity levels. People tend to search for what I like to call productivity “silver bullets.” They’re a perceived tool or technique that will permanently solve all your productivity challenges. Find that silver bullet and you’re set for life. However, reality isn’t that quite cut and dry. 

    Your productivity levels are the summation of how well you manage your mindset, time, energy, tools, and resources. So how can you use what’s already available to your advantage and not jump on the latest productivity fad? The key lies in working smarter, and not harder. Follow these practical tips to break free from the dreaded cycle of self-improvement and productivity. 

    Stop being productive for productivity’s sake 

    You’re not completing tasks in your business just so you can cross them off your to-do list. The question is whether or not those tasks are moving you closer to your goals. What is your reason for doing the work you’re doing? Is there a vision, purpose, product, service, or group of people that drives you to do your work? Use this as your guiding light. 

    Each of your tasks should be tied towards your business’ goals, whether that’s sales, human resources, clients, customers, or marketing. Double check your current task list and see if the items are in line with your goals. If you find yourself working on non-essential tasks, then you’re missing out on what could actually be helping both yourself and your business move forward. 

    Pause purchasing new things

    Productivity tools can be quite helpful in your daily work. However, purchasing productivity tools without consideration of your true needs may do more harm. It’s akin to going to the store to buy a pair of shoes. If you purchase a pair that’s too small, you won’t have what you desire: a fitted pair of shoes.  

    Your self-improvement process starts with where you are right now. Take a quick survey of the tools available to you in your business. Apps, software, programs, notebooks, calendars, and planners all count. Which do you prefer and why? How can you better utilize items?  

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Rashelle Isip

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  • Get Rid of the ‘Kiddie Table’ At Work and Treat Employees Like Engaged Partners

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    This holiday season, it’s likely that you gathered with a group of family or friends. As the table filled and conversation deepened, the youngest members were likely ushered away. “You’ll have more fun over there,” an adult said, pointing toward a smaller table with paper plates, juice boxes, and a vague promise of fun. The kids comply, not because they agree, but because they’re told this is where they belong. 

    Most companies treat employees like children at the kiddie table: present, necessary, but excluded from the real happenings. Leadership gathers at the “adult table,” where strategy is debated, risks are weighed, and decisions are made. Employees are invited to execute, not to contribute. They’re informed after the fact, not engaged beforehand. At the kiddie table, children are given tasks: eat your food, stay in your seat, don’t make a mess. At work, employees are given job descriptions, KPIs, and tightly scoped responsibilities. “That’s above your pay grade,” is the corporate equivalent of “You wouldn’t understand.” What’s lost in both scenarios is potential. 

    Why the kiddie table kills performance 

    Research from the Journal of Business and Management shows people’s professional behavior tends to follow the expectations given them. In the Golem effect, leaders expect low performance from a subordinate, causing the very behavior they predict. If the Golem effect lowers employee performance, the Pygmalion effect does the opposite—here, a leader anticipates high performance, which improves performance outcomes. 

    Children at the kiddie table are far more perceptive than adults give them credit for. They hear snippets of conversation, notice tension, excitement, and contradiction, and ask inconvenient questions. Sometimes, they say things that cut through the noise with surprising clarity. However, because they are young, their insights are dismissed. 

    Employees are no different. The people closest to the work—customers, systems, and friction points—often see problems and opportunities long before leadership does. Yet many organizations treat that proximity as a liability rather than an asset. Input is filtered, sanitized, or ignored entirely. Control feels safer than trust. 

    Nurturing responsible contributors 

    On the flip side, when you treat people like partners, they act like partners—empowered, decisive, resilient, and capable of carrying real weight when things get tough. This isn’t just a pep talk. It’s how psychological ownership works. The Journal of Consumer Research found that when people feel a sense of ownership over a task or organization, they go above and beyond to protect and improve it. In other words, if I feel like I’m at the grownups’ table, I’ll act like a grownup. 

    Like overprotective parents, leaders often believe they’re sheltering their teams by keeping finances, potential layoffs, and client risk private. But insulation breeds infantilization. If employees don’t see the true economics, they can’t connect their work to outcomes. 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Bill Fotsch

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  • End the Work Year with Gratitude and Apologies

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    There once was an employee who realized how hard it is to apologize after he offended a colleague recently by dashing off an email and hurling it across the internet without carefully reviewing the tone.  

    “I reread the email and saw that it seemed hostile,” he said. “I told him what he was doing wrong without praising him for what he did right.” After the exchange, the employee noticed that his colleague avoided him and did not respond promptly to his requests. He realized that he had damaged an important business relationship and needed to make amends.  

    He regretted his haste in sending the email. “For a while, I let it go,” he explained. “I just a slight inner discomfort and the thought of having done someone wrong.”

    In the end, however, he decided to end the year with a clean slate and called the colleague to apologize. As he prepared to make the phone call, he realized how hard it is to admit wrongdoing, Nevertheless, he found the experience worthwhile.  

    “We had a fruitful discussion about the issue I’d mentioned in the email and parted as friends,” he recalled. The employee saved his relationship with a vital team member. 

    Gratitude isn’t the only way to close out the year 

    When considering the end of one calendar year and the beginning of another, writers often extol the virtues of showing appreciation to those who’ve helped them. Of course, gratitude is an essential part of all relationships. Indeed, gratitude has been proven to be a key element in developing and maintaining happiness. I fully support making the effort to thank those who have contributed to your life in any way during the year. 

    However, apologies matter, too. Miscommunications, resentments, and hurt feelings worsen when left to fester; this can cause serious morale and productivity issues. As hard as it is to apologize, it is better to do so than to leave issues unsettled. Failure to apologize in a public setting can also lead to social media condemnation and damaged branding. 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Elizabeth Danziger

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  • I Once Landed for a Business Meeting Already Exhausted and Knew I’d Made a Mistake

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    The flight was good—on time and uneventful. I landed stiff, dehydrated, mentally fried, and annoyed at myself for packing last minute in too much of a hurry, eating airport food, and waiting in a security line that crawled at the pace of a snail. 

    The meeting itself was fine—not great—and that was the problem. Because when you travel for work, the trip isn’t the job. How you show up after it is. Seasoned business travelers figure this out eventually: travel is a cost not only of time but of mental clarity, patience, and the ability to make good decisions. Let it, and you’re going to pay. 

    The good news is that most travel stress is optional. 

    Once you streamline the process, travel isn’t so bad. Sometimes, it’s smooth. Here are seven travel habits smart business travelers use to arrive energized (and not wiped out). 

    1. When possible, fly the same airline every time. 
      Loyalty isn’t about loving a brand. It’s about upgrades, priority boarding, and less hassle in the long run. 
    2. Stop price-checking flights the wrong way.
      If you’re toggling back and forth while checking prices for flights, use an incognito window or clear your cookies. Dynamic pricing is real and not your friend. 
    3. Keep a toiletries kit always ready to go.
      Decision fatigue starts at home. One less thing to think about is much more valuable than it seems. 
    4. Pick a carry-on that can bend the rules—literally. 
      Soft, malleable bags fit into full overhead bins much better than hardshell rollers. 
    5. Pair travel with the right credit card.
      Lounge access, upgrades, and travel insurance add up quickly when you actually use them.  
    6. Eat like you have a job to do.
      Heavy meals and airport junk food seem convenient. They cost you hours later. 
    7. Buy your way out of security lines. 
      TSA PreCheck® or Global Entry isn’t a luxury. It’s time, energy, and sanity. I personally depend on it, especially going through Customs! 

    The best travel hack isn’t a hack at all—it’s understanding your own limits. 

    Business travel will never be stress-free. It’s not supposed to be. The goal is to arrive clearheaded enough to think, listen, and make good decisions. That starts long before you sit down in the meeting room.  

    Seasoned travelers don’t just pack better. They preserve their energy, reduce friction, and stop mistaking stress for just “part of the job.” You don’t have to reinvent your process. You just need to stop making travel harder than it needs to be. 

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    Peter Economy

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  • Why Reliability Is the Real Growth Strategy

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    Every founder feels pressure to reinvent, to launch something new, move faster, or chase the next big idea. But in my experience building Piece of Cake Moving, the most reliable path to growth isn’t constant reinvention; it’s consistent execution. When products and pricing look similar, execution becomes the defining differentiator. Small operational details compound into a noticeably better customer experience. 

    Obsessing over every touchpoint 

    The difference between a forgettable experience and a remarkable one often comes down to the smallest moments. Reliability isn’t a brand attribute you declare. It’s a strategy you practice daily. When customers know exactly what to expect and you deliver on that promise every time, trust compounds. Trust, more than novelty, is what turns businesses into brands that last and grow over time. 

    From the very first greeting, whether by phone, email, or in person, to the follow‑up after the service is completed, treat every interaction as an opportunity to reinforce reliability. Because moving is inherently stressful, we emphasize cheerfulness, seamlessness and a “no problem” attitude across all communications. 

    For example, after the crew has completed each move right before they leave, they ask the customer, “Is there anything else we can do?” It sounds simple, but it leaves the lasting impression that we’re always ready to help, even after the job has been completed. Our back office then follows up with the customer by phone the day of, and these touchpoints consistently generate valuable feedback and deepen customer relationships. This kind of service matters: 80% of consumers consider their experience with a company to be as important as its products or services. 

    Training teams to see details 

    Great execution starts with a team that understands what matters. It’s critical to invest in training that emphasizes noticing and perfecting operational details. Don’t just talk to employees about customer service – model it too. The way we communicate with our team mirrors how we expect them to interact with customers. When our team reaches out for help, we react right away. We want to deliver the Piece of Cake experience for our employees, then it’s passed on to how they interact with customers. 

    Consistency comes from clear expectations and repetition. Whether answering a phone call, replying to an email, or while the service is being performed, empower the team to deliver experiences that align with your brand promise. It’s not about following a checklist. Instead, it’s about embodying a mindset that the small things are the big things. In a service landscape where 78% of consumers will abandon a business relationship due to poor service, being reliable at every stage matters deeply. 

    Reliability before reinvention 

    Customers form opinions long before they ever interact with your team. When people encounter a new brand, they rely on visual cues to decide whether it feels credible, professional, and trustworthy, with 94% of first impressions related to design. In a split second, your brand is already communicating, through color, consistency, and attention to detail, without a single word exchanged. 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Voyo Popovic

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  • Leaders, Here’s How to Identify the Habits That Are Creating a Bottleneck in Your Business

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    Let’s be honest, most entrepreneurs say they want freedom, but their business still depends on them for every key decision. If you’re the one everyone calls when things break, you don’t own a business, you own a job. 

    That’s not a failure. It’s simply the natural result of doing what worked in the early days—taking charge, fixing problems, and keeping quality high. The trouble is that those same habits that made your business successful in the beginning can quietly become the things holding it back. The good news is that it’s fixable. The bad news is that it starts with you. 

    1. Spot the bottleneck. 

    Ask yourself, “What projects grind to a halt when I’m out of town?” Those areas are your control zones—the parts of your business where you have trained your team to depend on you. Maybe it’s client proposals, payroll approvals, or final product signoffs. 

    Write them down. Then ask, “If I disappeared for 30 days, which of these would keep running and which would stall?” That is where your true bottlenecks live. It can feel uncomfortable to face but identifying them is the first step toward reclaiming your time. 

    2. Systemize the process, not the person. 

    Most owners try to delegate by telling someone what to do. True delegation means teaching them how to decide. Don’t just hand off a checklist. Document your thinking. 

    Ask yourself:  

    • What factors do you weigh before saying yes?  
    • What red flags would stop you? What is an acceptable risk?  
    • When should something be escalated? 

    If you can turn your judgment into a repeatable process, your team can replicate success without relying on you. This not only frees up your time, but it improves consistency across the board. 

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    David Finkel

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  • The Question Leaders Should Be Asking Their Teams After Taking a Risk

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    Leaders are usually clear about what they want. Take risks, speak up, and challenge the plan. If you’re feeling especially bold, then you might encourage the big, scary thing that might change the entire game. It sounds exciting. It sounds like innovation or growth. 

    When I’m in the room—in the actual post-meeting hallway, the quiet corner of the virtual office—I see something else entirely. I see smart, capable adults with impressive titles acting cautiously. I genuinely don’t believe you’re afraid of failing. You’re afraid of the aftertaste of failure. 

    The clues are subtle, but they’re there.  The faint eye roll from the SVP. A subtle distancing from the rest of the team. The quiet, insidious story their nervous system writes immediately after the bomb drops, which says, “Well, not doing that again.” That social tax is what really kills courage. 

    The rise of psychological safety 2.0 

    Psychological safety is the idea that a person can take interpersonal risks without fear of embarrassment, rejection, or punishment. The past decade focused on psychological safety 1.0—removing fear and blame. That was necessary. However, leaders must acknowledge the new frontier—actively neutralizing shame. In my experience, shame has excellent timing and terrible intentions. 

    What used to be foundational now needs to sit in the front row. When safety drops, shame rushes in to fill the gap. Shame is a wildly efficient survival mechanism. It’s designed to keep you tucked away and protected. It convinces capable, brilliant people to prioritize their self-protection over organizational contribution. Innovation doesn’t usually crash and burn with a loud explosion. It just thins out and shrinks when people opt for silence over candor. 

    Psychological safety is the hidden engine that lets people take interpersonal risks—like speaking up, challenging a plan, or admitting mistakes—without fear of embarrassment or retribution. This is why psychological safety 2.0 matters now. The focus shifts from avoiding punishment to activating learning. Leaders today must turn mistakes into information, not identity. This version—like its predecessor—is less about being “soft” and more about being smart. 

    Leaders don’t create safety through intention alone, but through consistent, audible signals—what I once described as “birdsong leadership,” the everyday language and behaviors that tell people it’s safe to speak up. Those signals matter more than ever before, because the workforce has changed its fundamental demands. Employees who report the highest levels of psychological safety are 72% more motivated than those who feel the least safe. People aren’t asking for coddling, but they are absolutely demanding conditions where courage doesn’t come with a crippling social cost. When the stakes feel socially high, the body remembers. 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Henna Pryor

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  • How to Get Product Leadership Right

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    Businesses are quickly embracing product operating models in the hopes that a new way of thinking will afford them an edge in an increasingly uncertain and fast-changing market. This approach encourages organizations to think holistically about their goals, framing every decision within the context of the end-user experience.  

    By freeing teams from the traditional corporate framework that prioritizes success based on progress on discrete projects, product-centered strategies direct efforts toward projects that genuinely impact overall organizational health.  

    In fact, a recent Planview survey found that “leaders” in this transition are more likely to feel prepared to pivot, have confidence in their change management plans, and outperform the market than their peers. However, achieving these outcomes hinges on getting the right people for the job. 

    The product hiring paradox 

    This part of the equation—building the team—can be challenging for both established and start-up organizations. Openings in the field outpace active workers by nearly 3:1. Demand for executive, mid-, and entry-level talent is growing fast.    

    Of course, this isn’t unique to product management. Similar trends are playing out across the tech industry, with 87% of tech leaders struggling to find skilled workers. However, those hiring product professionals face a somewhat steeper climb as familiarity with the field’s core tenets and tactics remains low, both in theory and in practice.  

    Yes, product management has been a staple of corporate structure since the 1930s, with the field considered a spiritual successor to Procter & Gamble’s “brand man.” However, the role today is relatively new. It’s a product of the “as-a-service,” subscription-based, and technology-first business models that have overtaken one-time sales in the connected age. 

    The nuances of the field are still widely misunderstood, and the path to a successful career in product management remains unclear to the public. That creates problems on both sides, as hiring managers are unsure what to look for when candidates lack direct experience. Also, job seekers are uncertain about what makes them desirable in the field.  

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Louise K. Allen

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  • A CEO Once Told Me His Company Was Stable. Turns Out, He Was Wrong

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    He wasn’t arrogant. He was calm. Confident, even. The numbers were solid. The products were respected. Customers seemed loyal. From the inside, everything felt fine, and that was the problem. Stability is not the same thing as longevity anymore—not even close. 

    According to global consultancy EY, the average lifespan of a U.S. S&P 500 company has dropped from about 67 years to roughly 15. That’s not a blip. That’s a warning. Markets move faster, customers change their minds quicker, and yesterday’s advantage becomes today’s assumption. Companies don’t fail because leaders aren’t smart. They fail because leaders wait too long to matter again. 

    Why great products aren’t enough anymore 

    You can build something excellent and still fade. In today’s high-velocity marketplace, success doesn’t come from protecting what works. It comes from anticipating disruption and acting before you’re forced to. The companies that last don’t just sell products—they solve urgent problems in ways that make them the obvious choice. 

    In my experience, whether leaders were building something new or pulling an organization back from the edge, the ones who succeeded shared a handful of traits—not flashy ones, but practical and human ones. They showed up long before a crisis made them necessary.  

    How to build a sustainable company

    Here are seven leadership moves that help companies last when everything else changes: 

    1. Choose optimism on purpose. Belief in the future isn’t naïve. It’s fuel. People work harder when they believe the effort leads somewhere. 
    2. Disrupt yourself—out loud. Challenge your own assumptions in front of others. It gives them permission to do the same. 
    3. Ask better questions, not faster ones. Data is everywhere. Perspective is not. Focus on what should change, not just what can. 
    4. Invite options instead of defenses. Stop asking people to justify the current plan. Ask what else might work. 
    5. Live where the truth is uncomfortable. Know your supply chain. Know your customers. Know where things break. Then deal with it directly. 
    6. Respond like a human, not a brand. Transparency beats spin—every time. 
    7. Amplify progress instead of protecting control. Share value. Build ecosystems. Abundance compounds faster than scarcity ever did. 

    Longevity belongs to leaders who make their companies matter 

    You can’t slow progress. You can only decide whether it runs you over or carries you forward. The leaders who build companies that last don’t cling to business as usual. They challenge it, speed up change when others hesitate, and create relevance, not just results. 

    The best part? This isn’t reserved for unicorn founders or massive enterprises. Any leader, right where you are, can develop these traits. The question isn’t whether disruption is coming. It’s whether you’ll lead it. 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Peter Economy

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  • The Hidden Costs of an “Always On” Workplace Culture

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    Be honest. Are you someone who can’t slow down? Perhaps you are non-stop busy because you “just care,” you’re responsible, or there’s so much to do. Slowing down feels irresponsible, indulgent, or risky. 

    So, you do what most good leaders do: You push yourself. It’s the incessant work, the answering one more email, or the jumping on one more call. You tell yourself you’ll pause later—ideally when things calm down. For a while, it works. Decisions are made quickly because the pattern works…until it doesn’t. 

    Eventually, burnout shows up and the costs begin to add up in health, culture, judgment, retention, or all four at once. By the time it’s visible, it’s usually systemic—not personal. Your pace has quietly become your company’s pace. Not because you announced it, but because everyone is watching you. 

    What no one says about burnout

    Your actions are more believable than your values statement. What you do matters more than what you say. When you’re “always on,” people learn that being “on” is what gets rewarded. When you respond instantly, any delay is perceived as disengagement. When you never stop, they don’t either—even when stopping would be smarter. 

    Reduce burnout 

    Social psychologist Christina Maslach’s research is clear. Burnout is not an individual failure—it’s a workplace design problem. You can’t put “well-being” in a values statement and model urgency all day long. People believe behavior, not posters. Deloitte’s research on burnout reinforces this, proving that leader behavior is a stronger predictor of team burnout than workload alone. 

    Reflection questions 

    • When was the last time you stopped during the workday without calling it “catching up”?
    • What does your behavior teach people about what really matters here?
    • What are you protecting by moving so fast all the time? 

    Slowing down is a strategic advantage 

    You’ve been trained to believe speed equals competence. The evidence is less flattering. 

    Stanford research shows productivity drops sharply once people surpass 55 hours of work a week. After that, mistakes multiply, judgment narrows, and everyone gets busy fixing problems that didn’t need to exist. 

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    Moshe Engelberg

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  • A Self-Sufficient Business Starts With Systems Before Scale

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    Here is a truth I have seen repeatedly: Scaling without systems is chaos with a marketing budget. Every business owner wants to grow. It feels exciting to add more customers, expand product lines, or hire new staff. However, without solid systems in place, growth only amplifies your problems. Twice as many customers can quickly turn into twice as many headaches. 

    Before you hire, advertise, or add a product line, stop and ask yourself, “Can my business handle double the customers tomorrow without breaking?” If the answer is no, your next step is not marketing or sales. It is system-building. 

    1. Document everything once. 

    Whether it is onboarding, quoting, or following up with customers, write down the steps. It does not need to be perfect or complicated. A simple checklist often works better than a 30-page operations manual that no one ever reads. When you document a process once, you give your team a reference point that creates consistency. If someone leaves or takes a vacation, these documentation systems mean your work does not stall. New hires ramp up faster, and quality remains steady even when you are not involved. 

    Start small. Pick one recurring process and write it down. Then, review it with the person who actually does the work. Their insights will make it stronger and more realistic. 

    2. Automate what is repeatable. 

    Emails, billing, scheduling, follow-up reminders—these tasks do not need to live inside your head. Automation is not just for big companies. Small business owners benefit even more, because every hour saved goes straight back to your bottom line. 

    Look at where your team spends time on repetitive actions and ask, “Can software do this for us?” You do not have to overhaul everything at once. Start with one automation that removes a low-value task from your day. Over time, those small wins compound into serious freedom of time. 

    3. Create feedback loops. 

    Systems are never a one-time project. A system is a living process that requires regular maintenance. What worked when you had five employees may fail when you have 15 employees. 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    David Finkel

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  • 3 Ways Founders Can Choose the Right Sales Channel, According to a CEO

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    Choosing the right first sales channel can shape everything that follows for a small business. Many founders get stuck debating whether to start online, in retail, or selling wholesale. According to recent data, e-commerce now represents about 16.3% of all U.S. retail sales as of Q2 2025. Meanwhile, among small businesses, 44% now sell online only, 16% sell in-person only, and 41% combine online and in-person sales—showing a clear shift toward hybrid or fully digital sales models. 

    Founders often rush into online, wholesale, or retail without understanding where their customers are looking for them. Yet, success happens only when you stay focused on what you uniquely contribute. Business leaders must match their sales channel to real demand and take action when momentum hits. 

    On a recent episode of The Big Idea from Yahoo Finance, I sat down with Baked by Melissa founder and CEO Melissa Ben-Ishay to explore how early sales channel decisions shape a company’s ability to grow. Ben-Ishay built a nationwide brand from her New York City apartment after getting fired from her job, eventually becoming CEO of a company that sells through events, retail, e-commerce, and a thriving social media engine. Her perspective is grounded in lived experience, from getting fired to going viral, and her three lessons for choosing the right sales channel are practical for any industry.  

    1. Focus on what you uniquely bring, and delegate everything else. 

    Ben-Ishay’s first tip for small business owners is simple: Stop trying to do every job yourself. “Get people to do everything that you don’t need to do,” she advised. “Those areas where I can uniquely add value, that’s the only place I should focus my time.” 

    For founders choosing their first sales channel, this means being realistic about capacity. If your strength is product quality, not logistics, you need the right support before scaling e-commerce. If your strength is brand, not operations, make sure someone else owns fulfillment and accounting. Channel strategy only works when the founder is not spread so thin that nothing gets done well. 

    2. Let customer demand determine where you sell. 

    The clearest theme in Ben-Ishay’s story is that the customers always point to the next channel. Her early growth was not planned. It was reactive to demand. Her friend brought cupcakes to a PR agency and that relationship produced her first revenue channel.  

    From there, tastings led to retail. Then, customers began asking for delivery. Event sales were driven by demand. Retail came from a retailer who approached her. E-commerce began because customers asked for it. Her channels expanded naturally because she listened. 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Elizabeth Gore

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  • Why Mastering Alignment in Marketing Is The Key to Scaling Smarter

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    This article was written by Jim Mitte, an Entrepreneurs’ Organization member in Detroit. Mitte is also the founder and CEO of Turtlehut, which provides internet marketing solutions that focus on empowering multiple location services businesses and franchise groups with growth, scalability, and consistency. Mitte shared why marketing infrastructure is the key to alignment and optimizing performance.

    Every private equity (PE) investment is made on the premise of future returns. In many cases, those investments pay off in spades. However, what if weaknesses in your marketing structures are quietly cutting into your future gains? Even when returns are good, could they be better?  

    Whether you’re a founder seeking investment before exiting or a PE firm looking to maximize profit, assessing the efficiency of your systems or those of your acquisition targets is critical to optimizing performance.  

    When done well, PE-funded service brand portfolios supercharge gains by injecting capital for expansion, while combining it with increased operational efficiencies that yield outsized growth. The model works well when organization-wide systems are in place to bring expertise and scale to enterprises that don’t have the means to achieve those gains on their own. With sellers looking to maximize their valuations and PE groups amping up for major returns, there is a lot at stake in those systems.  

    When not everything goes as planned: The breakdown in leads and scalability  

    One of the greatest challenges in scaling any multi-brand enterprise is dealing with the inefficiencies and disorder that creep in as staff and operations grow. A major culprit is the patchwork of marketing systems inherited from independent brands. Disparate tech stacks, disconnected data, and inconsistent brand execution make it nearly impossible to measure performance or replicate success.  

    The result? Lost gains, opaque data, slower scaling, and a decline in brand momentum once local owners step away. The good news is that these issues aren’t inevitable. They’re structural and fixable.  

    Here’s how private equity leaders can create a marketing infrastructure that scales as intelligently as their capital.  

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Entrepreneurs’ Organization

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  • The Communication Rule Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos Always Followed—and Most People Ignore

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    Steve Jobs and Jeff Bezos talked, so people listened. 

    Customers don’t care about “speeds and feeds,” Jobs would remind his teams at Apple. “People don’t just want to buy computers. They want to know what they can do with them.” 

    Jobs instinctively understood the key to effective presentations: Put the audience at the center of the story. Your listener will care about your ideas if you talk about what they care about. 

    In my communication classes at Harvard Executive Education, I introduce “audience-centric” communication as a system where the speaker puts the listener first. If you’re watching a boring PowerPoint, there’s a good chance the speaker is too focused on the information they want to get across rather than the content you’re most interested in. 

    Don’t be the boring speaker. Follow these four principles of audience-centric communication. 

    1. Start with the audience and work backward. 

    “Our fundamental approach is to start with customers and work backwards,” Jeff Bezos wrote in his 2009 Amazon shareholder letter. The principle of working backwards has stuck at Amazon ever since. 

    When I was researching my book, The Bezos Blueprint, I learned that nearly every major product or feature Amazon released—from Kindle to Prime—started life as a press release. The press release exercise will change the flow and the content of your presentations. When most people prepare presentations, they create slides, add data, and decide what they want to say. Does this sound familiar? 

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    Carmine Gallo

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  • Kim Jong Un calls for increasing missile production, building more arms plants | NK News

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    North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited two major missile factories in the east coast city of Hamhung in recent days where he called for increasing missile production and building more arms plants, according to state media on Friday.

    The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported that Kim was satisfied with short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) and artillery rocket production in 2025, and that he “ratified” draft documents for modernizing weapons factories to be reviewed at the Ninth Party Congress scheduled for sometime in the coming months.

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  • Finding Calm in Chaos: How Leaders Can Thrive Amid Industry Uncertainty

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    We are living through one of the most volatile periods in modern business. Global uncertainty has nearly doubled since the mid-1990s, and the tech sector feels this turbulence more acutely, with top tech companies having experienced 40% higher churn from 2000–2023 than other industries.

    Executives today face disruption from every angle: generative AI reshaping business models overnight, shifting regulations, geopolitical tensions fragmenting markets, and intense competition for talent. Anxiety is widespread—but uncertainty reveals more about leadership than stability ever could.

    The companies thriving through uncertainty aren’t those with perfect foresight. They’re the ones that practiced navigating volatility before the storm hits—building organizational muscle memory that transforms disruption into competitive advantage.

    Map talent to value creation

    In volatile times, the difference between thriving and surviving comes down to whether your best people are positioned to drive the most value.

    Most executives focus on C-suite talent allocation, but true competitive advantage lives in the team leads, product managers, and engineers doing the hands-on work. These are the roles where decisions get made hundreds of times per day—where product features get prioritized, customer problems get solved, and code gets deployed.

    When the landscape shifts, you need your strongest players closest to the action. I’ve watched companies lose ground not because their strategy was wrong, but because their best execution talent was trapped in legacy projects while competitors moved faster.

    The companies getting this right are ruthless about talent reallocation. When market conditions shift, they move their strongest teams to the opportunities that matter most, rather than waiting for annual planning cycles.

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    Tony Jamous

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  • From Fear to Curiosity: How Great Leaders Reframe Innovation

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    My “aha” moment with AI didn’t start in the boardroom. It started in my music room.

    While I’ve been experimenting with generative AI tools for a few years, when I started exploring how they could help my musical progress, it all clicked for me. Project one was creating visuals to go with music for my brother. I don’t have a coding background, but with AI and a friend’s help, we created a program that could visualize sound for his performance. Next, I created a virtual tutor that helped me accelerate my music production and mastering skills, which I had only recently started exploring.

    These personal experiments really changed how I thought about creativity. AI didn’t make me less creative; if anything, it made me a better creator. It didn’t replace my ideas; it amplified them. The speed of learning had me wanting more, rather than getting stuck in place. And that realization sparked something bigger: If AI could unlock that kind of curiosity in me personally, what could it do for my team professionally?

    Curiosity starts at home
    When I got back to work, I began encouraging everyone at Agiloft to explore AI in their own lives. Not as a corporate initiative, but as an invitation: Try it out, play with it, see what it can do for you.

    I am a firm believer that transformation doesn’t start with technology. It starts with curiosity. You can’t force people to innovate, and you certainly can’t easily train away their fear of new tools. But if they see firsthand how technology can make them more creative—whether that’s in music, writing, or problem solving—they start to approach it with excitement instead of anxiety.

    That shift, from fear to curiosity, is what drives real change. AI is ultimately a human story. It doesn’t replace people; it expands what people are capable of. But in order to get there, leaders have to create a culture where experimentation feels safe and curiosity is rewarded.

    Building a culture of experimentation
    When we started operationalizing AI at Agiloft, we didn’t launch a massive top-down program. We began with what we called an AI Council—a handful of naturally curious employees from across the company who were already tinkering with AI tools. Their goal wasn’t to set policy; it was to learn, share, and inspire.

    As interest grew, that council evolved into an AI Opsteam—a dedicated group that helps scale the best ideas across departments. But even as the structure matured, the spirit always stayed the same: Start small, learn fast, and keep the human at the center.

    That’s something every leader can take to heart. People don’t usually fear technology itself; they fear being left behind by it. Our job as leaders isn’t just to provide new tools, it’s to help our teams reimagine their work and their potential in an AI-powered world.

    To take advantage of that, employees have to start thinking less about their title and more about their rolein the workflow.

    Here’s an example straight from a customer. In their contracting process, multiple teams review every contract, including security. Traditionally, that security step slowed things down by a week (at least) or the contract requestor avoided it. So, they used Agiloft’s prompt lab to build an AI agent that reviews contracts to determine if they even need full security review. And if they do, it pre-redlines them automatically.

    The result? Faster turnaround, 100 percent compliance, and happier humans on both sides of the process. When we focus on goals and outcomes versus rigid ownership, AI becomes an ally that helps everyone do their best work.

    The human transformation behind the tech
    Every CEO today is under pressure to “become AI native.” But the real and persistent challenge isn’t technological—it’s human.

    We’re asking people to reimagine how they work, learn new skills, and see their roles differently. That’s much more than a software rollout; it’s a mindset shift. Leaders have to make space for learning, mistakes, and discovery. Because the companies that thrive won’t just be AI-powered—they’ll be human-powered, first and foremost.

    In my experience as a leader, I’ve learned that curiosity scales best when it’s supported. Phase one is experimentation; phase two is building systems to make those experiments repeatable. Along the way, we invest in necessary upskilling so that no one feels like AI is happening to them—it’s happening with them.

    That’s the balance every leader needs to strike. You can’t lose your humans. The best agents, the smartest models, the fastest tools—they all rely on people who are curious enough to ask the right questions and bold enough to explore the answers.

    The same curiosity that helped me become a better musician has made me a better leader. When people are free to explore—whether that’s through sound, code, or business strategy—they uncover possibilities they never knew existed.

    That’s how fear turns into curiosity. And that’s how curiosity becomes innovation.

     

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Eric Laughlin

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  • Best Books on Leadership of 2025

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    Inbox pinging. Deadlines stacking. Morale slipping. One choice could change everything. These 11 books unpack the decisions—and strategies—that distinguish great leaders.

    Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others

    By Adam Galinsky

    Every leader leaves their mark on the hearts and minds of a workforce. This can go one of two ways: leaders can leave behind a legacy of inspiration, or infuriation. Based on thousands of perspectives collected from around the globe, Adam created a systemic formula for choosing and earning the lasting impact you want to have on others. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Adam Galinsky, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.

    Why Are We Here?: Creating a Work Culture Everyone Wants

    By Jennifer Moss

    Leaders don’t need to take a ton of time overhauling company culture to create workplaces where employees want to spend their time. Simple shifts and incremental changes can foster community, fuel purpose, boost productivity, and deliver meaning to every team member. Jobs that employees actually like are the ultimate capitalist business strategy. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Jennifer Moss, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.

    Lead Well: 5 Mindsets to Engage, Retain, and Inspire Your Team

    By Paula Davis

    To increase well-being, motivation, engagement, resilience, or the many words that describe thriving teams, we must understand that leadership behaviors drive employee experience. We need to advance the conversation beyond individual remedies for burnout and address root causes of stress and disengagement. Listen to our Book Bite summary, read by author Paula Davis, in the Next Big Idea app or view on Amazon.

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    Fast Company

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  • New Study Highlights 3 Things Leaders Must Do Differently in 2026 to Reduce Burnout and Boost Well-Being

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    HR firm isolved’s second-annual Business Owners Report, based on responses from 2,032 owners, founders, and CEOs in the U.S., finds that 76 percent say running a business has become more complicated in the past year, a steep climb from just 52 percent the year prior. While it’s easy to blame pressure from profit measures, the real challenge is far more human and requires a human approach.

    Eighty-two percent of business owners report that their concerns about employee wellness have increased in the past year. They’re right to worry: 79 percent of employees report experiencing burnout, and burned-out employees are 35 percent more likely to job hunt. Supporting employees isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s essential to building a resilient, committed workforce.

    Luckily, many business owners are already leading with empathy. For those looking to follow their lead, isolved’s study makes a strong case for three ways to start: treating workers as people, not positions; pairing purpose with practical tools; and embracing humane leadership.

    Treating employees as people, not positions

    Business owners feel confident they’re taking the right steps to support employee well-being, with 99 percent planning new investments, most often in financial wellness. This is a vital area to focus on, as 42 percent of employees say salary is a top motivator for job hunting.

    But compensation alone reflects only one part of the employee experience. Viewing work strictly as an exchange of labor for pay is outdated. Employees want to feel valued for who they are as whole people, not just the positions they fill. When employers don’t do that, employees will jump ship for companies that do.

    So, if business owners are pouring money into wellness, they need finance perks that will drive impact, and that means going beyond financial wellness. Another critical area to prioritize is flexibility. Forty-six percent of workers say the promise of flexible work arrangements (such as hybrid or remote options) would entice them to job hunt, outranking salary. Also, more than a quarter (26 percent) say flexible benefits also serve as a compelling factor for taking a new job.

    “By mastering benefits and flexibility, employers tell their workers just how much they care,” said Amy Mosher, Chief People Officer at isolved. “Yet many employees say their employers miss the mark on both. Thirty-nine percent (39 percent) are still waiting for their employers to embrace flexible work and scheduling options, and 72 percent say their benefits experience is stressful. Until business leaders close these gaps, top talent will keep walking out the door.” 

    Go inside one interesting founder-led company each day to find out how its strategy works, and what risk factors it faces. Sign up for 1 Smart Business Story from Inc. on Beehiiv.

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    Marcel Schwantes

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  • Kim Jong Un advertises new luxury hotels near China for North Korean elites | NK News

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    North Korea has officially opened five luxury hotels in Samjiyon near Mount Paektu and the Chinese border, according to state media on Tuesday, up to seven years after construction on the facilities began.

    Leader Kim Jong Un visited the 300-room Ikal Hotel in the city center and Milyong Hotel and spa resort in the remote mountains with his wife and young daughter on Saturday.

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