Beyond the PSU Mandate
Executive compensation in the U.S. has been dominated by three‑year Performance Share Units (PSUs), driven by proxy‑advisor pressure for at least 50 % PSU allocations. In 2026, major advisors ISS and Glass Lewis are easing that rule, allowing lower PSU percentages if time‑based equity meets longer‑vesting thresholds. The article outlines a three‑phase 2026 roadmap for Compensation Committees to diagnose current LTI effectiveness, explore hybrid structures, and engage investors before any redesign. It emphasizes moving from compliance‑driven to strategy‑driven incentive plans.
10 Workplace Pet Peeves That Undermine Productivity — And How To Deal With Them
The article outlines ten common workplace pet peeves that erode productivity, from unnecessary meetings and poor communication to office noise and resistance to new tools. It pairs each irritant with practical counter‑measures, such as agenda‑only meetings, explicit communication norms, protected...
Leading Through Complexity: Building Resilient Operations in High-Pressure Environments
Senior operations executive Nanda Kishore outlines how resilient, technology‑driven supply chains thrive in high‑pressure, volatile markets. Drawing on experience across aerospace, marine and clean‑tech, he emphasizes stabilizing delivery, building adaptable supplier ecosystems, and bridging strategy with execution. The pandemic accelerated...
The Unstoppable Business Formula
The McKinsey 7S model provides a structured framework for diagnosing and improving organizational performance by examining seven interdependent elements—Strategy, Structure, Systems, Shared Values, Style, Staff, and Skills. When these elements are aligned, companies achieve clarity, speed, and competitive advantage; misalignment...
Dear Emeka,
The author recounts hiring Emeka as head of marketing, initially expecting a stereotypical extroverted marketer but discovering an introverted thinker with a sharp sense of humor. This misalignment revealed that the true value Emeka brought—critical questioning, cultural fit, and adaptability—couldn’t...
How to Use Claude Cowork as a CHRO
Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) are overwhelmed by operational chaos, juggling scattered files, overdue reports, and urgent CEO requests. In a recent experiment, a CHRO used Claude Cowork, an Anthropic AI assistant, to organize 20 disordered HR documents, generate a...
Warren Buffett’s Best Advice on How To Read People Like A Book
Warren Buffett emphasizes that reading people hinges on character, not just competence. He starts with integrity, then examines incentives, actions, and long‑term habits to predict behavior. Buffett’s framework treats reputation as a durable data point, insisting that consistent honesty and...
This 1 Leadership Communication Skill Helps You Get Results Without Burning Out Your Team—Or Yourself
Episode 347 of Let’s Grow Leaders introduces a single communication habit—"schedule the finish"—that transforms vague requests into concrete, time‑bound commitments. By replacing terms like “ASAP” with explicit finish dates, leaders can align priorities, reduce miscommunication, and ensure work is completed...
What May (or May Not) Get University Employees Fired
A recent column outlines how university employee terminations are inconsistently applied, noting that only 10 of 28 extreme misconduct scenarios actually led to firing. It attributes this variability to leadership avoidance, tribal dynamics, vague policies, lack of documentation, and bias...
Two Sigma’s “AI-First” Internal Mandate — The Race for “Operational Alpha” In the Age of Frontier Models:
Two Sigma has issued an internal "AI‑first" mandate, requiring every employee to embed frontier AI models—especially large language models—into daily workflows. The firm calls the resulting efficiency boost "operational alpha," a systematic edge that compounds across research, engineering, compliance and...
How One Wealth Firm Cut Document Processing Time by 80 Percent
Shade Tree Advisors, a $794 million multi‑family office in New York, implemented EtonAI across three back‑office document workflows. The AI reduced custodian statement processing time by roughly 80%, dropping from over eight minutes per document to about two minutes, while maintaining...
As a Manager, when Should I Delegate Work versus Doing It Myself?
A new university communications manager is unsure whether to delegate tasks or handle them personally, especially when requests from her own manager are phrased as “can you…?”. The team’s uneven capacity—one member on sick leave, a part‑timer, a junior, and...
Best Solutions for Managing Construction Schedules Effectively in 2026
Construction projects frequently run over budget, with 70% missing targets due to poor scheduling. The construction software market, valued at $6.8 billion in 2025, is expected to reach $14.35 billion by 2033, reflecting rapid digital adoption. Modern cloud‑based platforms such as Planera,...
Four Demand Intake Criteria That Improve Portfolio Prioritization
Planview’s latest blog post outlines four demand‑intake criteria—problem and outcome clarity, strategic context, investment value definition, and delivery readiness—that sharpen portfolio prioritization. The piece argues that the quality of an initiative’s entry data determines how quickly and objectively leaders can...
The Workday, Reworked
Traditional desk‑centric productivity models are outdated as work now flows across devices, locations, and time zones. The article argues that effective days are intentional, featuring protected focus time, limited priorities, and flexible environments rather than constant busyness. It offers practical...
Trouble in Nonprofit Paradise: Low Pay, AI Worries and a Restive Union Lead to Turmoil at VTDigger
VTDigger, Vermont’s leading nonprofit news outlet, logged about 800,000 visits in January, ranking it the 17th‑most‑trafficked nonprofit site in the U.S. The organization announced a new union contract that grants a 33% wage increase to its lowest‑paid employees and sets...
The Sacred Cow Awards
Tim Martinez’s latest post warns that every organization harbors "sacred cows"—processes or assumptions that go unchallenged. He proposes a three‑step team exercise to pinpoint what will change, quantify the cost of inaction, and assign ownership for concrete upgrades. The piece...
Leaders Who Empower a Surrogate to Speak for Them
The article argues that while delegation is essential for senior leaders to focus on strategy, it must be executed without turning lieutenants into mere mouthpieces. Empowered team members who own projects develop talent and drive results, whereas using a senior’s...
Builder Profit Margin Strategies — What a Healthy Margin Looks Like in 2026
UK construction firms face tightening margins as material prices, labour shortages and regulatory changes intensify. In 2026, medium‑sized builders typically earn between 5% and 15% profit, with residential projects in London at the lower end and commercial work elsewhere at...
Software Engineering Leaders Need a Shopkeeper Mentality
Software engineering leaders often spend their days in meetings and reactive problem‑solving, leaving little room for strategic oversight. The article proposes a "shopkeeper mentality"—a deliberate practice of scanning the whole organization, similar to management‑by‑walking‑around, to spot friction and opportunities before...
We’re Moving to a 2-Hour Workday
Kilo announced that all human engineers will work only a two‑hour window each day, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., after which its AI agent KiloClaw takes over. The company says this schedule captures the essential human input of direction, taste, and...
Crisis Engineering: Time-Tested Tools for Turning Chaos Into Clarity
Crisis Engineering, authored by Marina Nitze, Matthew Weaver, and Mikey Dickerson, offers a hands‑on playbook for leading through system‑wide meltdowns. Drawing on the authors’ experience at Layer Aleph, the book outlines a framework that turns chaotic events into opportunities for lasting...
Your Discovery Script Is Hurting Your Deals. Here’s Why.
The article warns that rigid discovery scripts cause sales reps to miss critical buyer signals, turning discovery into a checklist rather than a conversation. It advocates a shift to responsive discovery, where reps pause to explore emotions, contrasts, and consequences...
Teaching Case: How to Grow the Salesforce Platform Business?
In 2025 Salesforce retained the largest global CRM market share while its Salesforce Platform, launched in 2008, evolved into a major revenue engine. The platform lets customers tailor CRM workflows and enables third‑party developers to sell cloud apps through the...
Portland Cut School Days. The Cost Didn’t Disappear.
Portland Public Schools eliminated four instructional days to narrow a $50 million budget shortfall, joining a wave of districts that favor calendar cuts over layoffs. Research shows such reductions typically yield only 0.4%–2.5% total cost savings because most expenses are fixed....
5 Habits High-Performing Engineering Teams Use With AI
Engineering teams that embed AI into their workflows often see divergent outcomes despite using the same models and tools. The article outlines five practical habits—planning AI‑driven changes, explicitly defining the technology stack, building verification loops, keeping model versions current, and...
The Gold Standard of Care: Why Comprehensive Insurance Is Vital for Modern Boarding Businesses
The pet boarding sector has shifted from basic kennels to upscale hospitality, raising client expectations and operational complexity. As services expand to grooming, medical care, and digital bookings, the range of potential liabilities widens dramatically. Comprehensive insurance—including liability, Care Custody...
Why Defining Responsibilities Matters In Family Businesses
Family businesses blend personal relationships with commercial ambition, making clear role definition essential. Undefined responsibilities lead to duplicated effort, delayed decisions, and resentment that can jeopardise performance and family harmony. Formal governance tools—boards, family councils, shareholder agreements—provide the framework to...
The Real Playbook for Inevitable Growth
The article argues that founders’ growth stalls because decisions are fragmented across offers, marketing channels, hires, and systems. Rather than adding more tactics, they need a unified structure that drives consistent progress. Scattered inputs create controlled drift, making growth appear...
Run Your Construction Business Like a Contractor — Not Just a Tradesman
Construction SMEs often deliver quality builds, but their commercial operations lag behind. Informal quoting, ad‑hoc payment terms, and undocumented variations create cash‑flow friction and margin erosion. Larger contractors avoid these pitfalls by using standardized pricing breakdowns, milestone‑linked payment schedules, and...
Giving One Last Chance to People Who Aren’t Making the Grade
The article argues that repeatedly extending a "last chance" to chronically underperforming employees rarely yields improvement. Effective leaders should frame any final opportunity as a single, time‑bound test with clearly defined milestones rather than a vague, all‑or‑nothing gamble. Involving the...
From Fiction to Navigation: Using Cynefin to Choose the Right Improvement Method
The article argues that future‑state thinking can become fiction when applied to complex adaptive systems and proposes the Cynefin framework as a sense‑making tool to match improvement methods to system dynamics. It outlines how the five Cynefin domains—Clear, Complicated, Complex,...
Lean Tips Edition #323 (#3976- #3990)
The Lean Tips Edition #323 compiles tips #3976‑3990, emphasizing reflection, process‑focused goal setting, small experiments, and clear ownership as drivers of continuous improvement. It highlights how structured reflection turns activity into insight, how goals should challenge processes rather than people,...
Tech Leads Are Overwhelmed. Here’s How to Take Back Control
Tech leads often feel swamped by competing priorities, from feature estimates to bug triage and cross‑functional requests. The article outlines a practical framework: log every request, triage daily by importance, delegability, and alignment with six‑month goals, and protect dedicated coding...
How to Grow Your Software Factory
In "How to Grow your Software Factory," Luca Rossi expands on his earlier "Era of the Software Factory" piece, arguing that modern engineering teams must adopt factory‑like practices to scale. He highlights three pillars—formal rules, modular architecture, and AI‑driven assistance—as...
Every Layer of Review Makes You 10x Slower
Avery Pennarun’s latest column reiterates that each additional review layer can slow work by roughly tenfold, emphasizing that technology—including AI—cannot compensate for fundamentally broken processes. The piece warns that AI evangelists often ignore this reality, promoting tools without addressing the...
Price Should Almost Never Decide Which Supplier You Choose: The Real Process That Creates Value
The piece argues that price should rarely be the decisive factor in supplier selection, emphasizing the need for early procurement involvement. It highlights a "late engagement problem" where stakeholders bring procurement in after the need is defined, creating biased shortlists...
Oversight of BoDs
Corporate boards are increasingly tasked with overseeing brand reputation and aligning enterprise strategy with global growth, capital allocation, and long‑term value creation. They must embed digital literacy to navigate regulatory, environmental and social risks across regions, while leveraging external expertise...
Do We Even Need A Sales Process?
The piece challenges traditional sales processes, noting that CRM stages often don’t match a buyer’s real progress. It cites stark metrics—over 60 % of buying initiatives end without a decision, only 35 % of reps hit quota, and win rates sit at...
Unilever Implements Global Hiring Freeze as Iran War Drives Energy and Supply Challenges
Unilever announced a global hiring freeze at all levels, effective immediately and lasting at least three months, citing the escalating Iran war’s impact on energy costs and supply chains. The pause adds to a broader cost‑cutting initiative launched in 2024...
How Do I Train My Team to Do My Job without Making It Obvious I’m Planning to Leave?
An employee at a fast‑growing, under‑staffed firm is overwhelmed doing the work of three roles and is actively job‑searching. The employee worries that coworkers lack the skills to cover their duties and wonders how to train them without revealing the...
From Role-Based to Skills-Based: How to Future-Proof Your Workforce
Companies are shifting from role‑based structures to skills‑based workforce models to stay agile amid rapid AI‑driven change. A skills‑based approach provides real‑time visibility into capabilities, enabling smarter talent redeployment and internal mobility without constant reorganizations. The article argues that technology...
Banijay Group Unveils Strategic Roadmap to 2029
Banijay Group released its medium‑term strategic roadmap extending to 2029, outlining aggressive growth after the October 2025 acquisition of the Tipico Group and the newly completed merger with All3Media. The plan targets a 15% annual increase in global content output,...
Government Streamlines Major Projects Portfolio
The UK Government will cut its Major Projects Portfolio from 200 to 80 projects on 1 April, aiming to simplify governance and boost accountability. The move is presented as a way to deliver better value for taxpayers by concentrating specialist support...
How Would Elon Musk Run an Insurance Company?
The article explores how Elon Musk’s five‑step “algorithm,” detailed in Jon McNeill’s book, could reshape insurance operations. The steps—question every requirement, delete every possible step, simplify and optimize, accelerate cycle time, and automate—originated from Tesla’s hypergrowth era. The author argues insurers...
The Ways Pharma Leaders Are Rewiring Their Organizations for Launch Success
Pharma executives face accelerating market pressure, prompting a shift from static launch plans to agile, data‑driven execution. Remco op den Kelder of Inizio Ignite argues that real‑time insights, AI integration, and cross‑functional collaboration are essential for successful product launches over...
The Ways Pharma Leaders Are Rewiring Their Organizations for Launch Success
Pharma executives face mounting pressure to deliver faster, more successful product launches amid volatile markets and tighter timelines. Inizio Ignite’s Global President Remco op den Kelder argues that traditional static launch plans must give way to agile, data‑driven execution models....
The Revenue Impact Hiding in Your Venue Enquiry Response Time
Venue operators often overlook how response latency erodes revenue. With an average event contract of $18,901.62, three bookings a month translate to roughly $680,000 in annual income, yet planners award 35‑50% of events to the first venue that replies. Faster...
My Leader Only Gets Soundbites About My Performance
Team members often discover that senior leaders judge their performance based on fragmented, second‑hand soundbites rather than direct evidence. These simplified narratives can shape performance reviews, compensation decisions, and career trajectories. The article advises professionals to upgrade the signal by...
ITSM Benchmarking – Your Chance to Get Involved
The 2022 Axelos ITSM Benchmarking Report offered a snapshot of ITIL practice adoption but relied on subjective self‑ratings, making cross‑organization comparisons difficult. PeopleCert has introduced an ITIL Performance Benchmarking Model that shifts focus from internal process checklists to outcome‑based metrics...