Blog Why Re-Read Your Favorite Book

Why Re-Read Your Favorite Book?

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Why re-read Tolkien? The books are the same, but you are different.

Last week’s article discussed self-imposed limits on our growth, what I called AGL: Artificial Growth Limitations.

Did you know that breaking these self-imposed limits can include repeating important experiences, such as rereading great books or revisiting powerful historical sites?

I periodically reread my favorite books, like Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Plato’s Republic, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, and Homer’s The Iliad and the Odyssey, because I always derive new insights to apply.

Rereading The Lord of the Rings recently showed me a new way to appreciate Gandalf, the wizard who served as a guide and mentor to Frodo and Aragorn.

Gandalf rarely imposed his answers, because he knew that his protégés would be more likely to follow through on challenging decisions if the solutions were theirs. He would let them wrestle with the matters for a while, working through the situations and options, while providing nudges and wisdom along the way.

This insight struck me professionally and improved how I support you. I used to rapid-fire solutions, thinking that providing immediate answers was the best way to serve. I realized that doing so denied you the opportunity to wrestle with the matter.

Gandalf showed me that it’s more important for you to have a good solution you own than for someone to provide you with a better one you don’t.

I’ve read The Lord of the Rings well over a dozen times, and new insights emerge each time. To paraphrase Heraclitus, you never step into the same river twice, because it’s no longer the same river and you are no longer the same person.

Here’s the twist: The Lord of the Rings is the same, but you are different, so you experience the work differently, as if it were a different book.

I’ll call it the Heraclitus Principle of Growth: you never have the same experience twice if you derive new insights and apply them.

Heraclitus Principle of Growth graph - blog on Why Re-Read Your Favorite Book?

Six points are essential as you move along the infinity loop of growth.

  1. Observation: What are you actually experiencing?
  2. Interpretation: What meaning(s) do you derive from it?
  3. Discernment: What meaning matters most?
  4. Experimentation: What will you try?
  5. Execution: What did you implement?
  6. Reflection: What did you learn?

What great book, adventure, historical site, or awe continues paying new dividends for you?

Blog on AGL

Are You Limiting Your Own Growth?

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The most troublesome limits are the ones we impose on ourselves.

What Is Your AGL?

I did a lot of work with aircraft in the military, and setting the above-ground levels (AGL) was vital for deconflicting airspace shared by drones, helicopters, jets providing close-air support, and artillery. We would often provide lower and upper limits so each aircraft could operate with confidence knowing that everything else was operating safely above or below them.

There’s another AGL that affects you directly. It’s the Artificial Growth Limitation you impose on yourself that creates a comfort zone. Your AGL is based on common, often interrelated, fears, such as:

  • Fear of Failing. You fear that going beyond your AGL is where people watch you fall on your face, and you’ll feel foolish for trying.
  • Fear of Social Judgment. You fear that people will judge you for trying new things or growing outside of the box they have created for you.
  • Fear of Being Wrong. You overthink your personal and professional growth, fearing that you will try something new that won’t work perfectly.
  • Fear of Old Narratives. You fear that breaking through your AGL creates imposter syndrome. “You’re not cut out for this.”

When you feel these fears, it’s natural to retreat into your comfort zone. When you do so, your AGL thickens, like a protective shell, and actually shrinks your comfort zone. You’ve seen this with people who are “set in their ways,” unwilling to try new things or experiences, who procrastinate, and who become increasingly risk-averse.

Transformation zone graph - blog on Are You Limiting Your Own Growth?

Busting Your Self-Imposed AGL

But there’s another option when you feel these fears. You can recognize them as signals that you are bumping up against a self-imposed AGL. The fears are a signal that you need different kinds of support and capacity to punch through successfully.

Unlike military AGLs, where breaking them heightens the risk of mid-air collisions, busting your self-imposed AGL magnifies your growth and impact.

Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s the willingness to move forward while feeling it. Busting your AGL requires the courage to try new things and to ask for the support you need to navigate discomfort successfully and reach new transformations.

What AGLs are you ready to bust?

Seeing What You Can’t See: The Hidden Value of a 360 Assessment

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How well can you see yourself through your employees’ eyes? Your peers’? Your leaders’?

Even the best leaders have blind spots. The difference between those who stagnate and those who grow is simple: great leaders want to see what they can’t see.

That’s where a 360 assessment comes in. It’s not an evaluation. A good 360 reveals how your intentions and your impact align (or don’t). It gives you the gift of perspective before the market, your board, or your team gives it to you the hard way.

But information alone doesn’t create growth. What you do with it determines whether your leadership becomes sharper, more trusted, and more effective. That’s where the 3-Discipline Leadership System™ makes all the difference in putting 360 insights into action.

Strategic Foresight: Seeing What’s Coming

The best leaders use 360 insights not just to fix problems but to shape the future. Strategic Foresight helps you look upstream to anticipate how your leadership patterns affect tomorrow’s outcomes.

Ask yourself: What’s the next-level version of me that my team needs?

When you use feedback to clarify the few things that matter most and simplify your improvement plan, you transform complexity into action. Instead of chasing every comment, you focus on what drives results and culture in the long term.

Empowering Oversight: Lifting People and Performance

A 360 isn’t just about you, it’s about how effectively you help others thrive. Leaders with Empowering Oversight don’t weaponize feedback; they use it to build stronger relationships and a more unstoppable workforce.

When your people see you respond to feedback with humility and intention, they mirror that behavior. They feel safe speaking up, challenging assumptions, and bringing forward their best ideas. You move from compliance to commitment, the hallmark of a high-trust culture.

Empowering Oversight turns the 360 from a report into a ripple effect: your growth empowers theirs.

Courageous Insight: Acting Boldly on Truth

The hardest part of a 360 isn’t reading the feedback, it’s acting on it. Courageous Insight helps you turn reflection into resolve. It takes Keen Judgment to decide what to change and what to hold firm. It takes Purposeful Presence to stay grounded when the ego wants to react.

And it takes Bold Execution to make those small but significant behavioral shifts that everyone can feel. 

When you identify the most vital behaviors you will start, stop, continue, and change, and show your follow-through, you gain trust and credibility.

The Bottom Line

A 360 assessment is a mirror and a map. It shows you where you are, where you want to be, and what it will take to get there. 

The 3-Discipline Leadership System(™) gives you clear, actionable, repeatable ways you can implement, teach, and evaluate to improve yourself and your team continuously. 

  • With Strategic Foresight, you see the future you’re creating.
  • With Empowering Oversight, you lift your people higher.
  • With Courageous Insight, you act with conviction and humility.

When leaders embrace all three, they build what every organization needs most: sustainable business growth.

Leading Through the Fog: Kent Cheeseman’s 4R Framework for Anticipating Market Shifts

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In fast-moving markets, the leaders who thrive aren’t the ones with the loudest voices or flashiest strategies. They’re the ones who see subtle signals before others do, anticipate shifts, and adjust course before being blindsided.

Few people know this better than Kent Cheeseman, a 1987 West Point graduate, Gulf War veteran, and seasoned business leader who helped steer High West Distillery and later served as CEO of Whiskey del Bac. 

Kent now works with leaders who want to scale sustainably and achieve lasting impact.

From the battlefield to the boardroom, Kent has built his leadership philosophy around spotting signals, adapting quickly, and building resilient teams.

In our conversation, Kent shared his 4R Framework: a practical system leaders can use to ‘lead through the fog.’

1. Radar: Seeing Beyond the Noise

The first step, Kent argues, is tuning your radar to detect meaningful signals amid the flood of information leaders face.

“What are you seeing? Because there are so many things blocking our view,” he explained. “Radar is the first thing—what’s coming at you? If you don’t have it tuned properly, you miss critical shifts, like the Pearl Harbor radar operators who saw the incoming planes but didn’t know how to interpret the signals.”

For leaders today, tuning the radar means gathering diverse perspectives from customers, employees, suppliers, trusted advisors, and even competitors. Leaders who only listen to internal financial analysts and dashboards may miss ground-truth signals from customers or suppliers. Kent warned, it is like staring at a single blip while an entire army approaches from your flank.  

2. Reflect: Making Sense of Signals

Once you’ve tuned your radar, the next step is reflection.

“You can’t just inhale your own fumes,” Kent cautioned. “If you’re not getting a broad set of views, you will eventually get blindsided.”

Kent illustrated this with a hard-earned lesson from his time leading a confectionery company. A single account, Starbucks, accounted for 25% of revenues—and 100% of profits. When a new buyer changed strategy, the company lost the account overnight.

“We were literally in shock,” he recalled. “We realized we had been drinking our own Kool-Aid, thinking we were better than we were. The fog lifted, and we had to confront hard truths: most of our 1,600 SKUs weren’t profitable, and our cost-accounting systems were outdated.”

By reflecting honestly—and engaging employees in the process—the company made painful but necessary changes, which ultimately stabilized and saved the business.  

The most effective CEOs use the 80/20 rule, where 80% of their time is spent reflecting and strategizing on the business and 20% in the trenches.  This requires a strong and empowered second-in-command and team.

3. Response: Acting with Purpose, Not Habit

The third ‘R’ is response. Here, Kent draws a critical distinction: reacting is repeating old behaviors, while responding is adapting with purpose.

“Sears, Kodak, Blockbuster—they kept reacting by doing the same things over and over again,” he noted. “Response means you act on the signals, adapt systems, and empower your people to execute.”  Who are this generation’s companies that will fall to the same reactionary fate—Intel, Ford, perhaps even the likes of say Apple? 

For Kent, effective response depends on mission clarity and decentralized execution, a lesson rooted in the Army.

“In the military, even the lowest-ranking soldier knows the mission,” he explained. “That way, if they’re the last person left, they can still respond to complete the mission. In business, you’ve got to give people the tools and authority to act, even if they make ‘mistakes of commission’ (‘mistakes of neglect’ is another matter that must be dealt with swiftly), it is much better than inaction while waiting for the ‘perfect’ time to act.”

4. Resilience: Building Systems and Cultures That Endure

The final ‘R’ is resilience—ensuring the organization can absorb shocks and emerge stronger.

Resilience, Kent emphasized, comes from continuous improvement—constantly cycling through radar, reflection, and response. It also comes from surrounding yourself with strong second-in-command leaders and trusted partners. “If you’re not actively looking for your replacement, you’re doing something wrong,” he added.

“None of this happens unless you have a strong foundation rooted in the character and culture of your people and core values,” Kent said. “If you shoot the messenger once, you’ll never hear the truth again. Strong leaders hire strong people, demand high standards, and create an environment where employees feel trusted and valued.”

For Kent, resilience is about building legacies: “I want people to grab a bottle of High West or Whiskey del Bac whiskey two or three hundred years from now and say, ‘How did this brand survive so long?’ That’s the kind of culture and legacy leaders should strive to create.”

Leading Through Today’s Fog

Kent’s 4R Framework—Radar, Reflect, Response, Resilience—offers leaders a practical way to navigate uncertainty. It challenges us to broaden our vision, confront reality with humility, empower our people to act, and build systems that endure.

“Today’s environment is every bit as chaotic as the one our grandparents faced from the Greatest Generation,” Kent reflected. “Between AI, geopolitics, and shifting supply chains, the fog isn’t going away. Leaders who build adaptive, resilient teams will not only survive but thrive.”

That’s the kind of leadership that creates unshakeable endurance—not just for the next quarter, but for generations. 

Connect with Kent at kent@kentcheeseman.com.

Building Unshakeable Business Endurance — Lessons From Bill Berrien

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What do you get when you combine the discipline of a Navy SEAL, the systems rigor of GE, and the agility of an entrepreneurial CEO? You get Bill Berrien, CEO of Pindel Global Precision. 

In our recent conversation, Bill offered a masterclass in leadership, people development, and decision-making. His insights are especially timely for growth-minded leaders navigating the demanding landscapes of today’s volatile marketplace.

From the SEAL Teams to the Shop Floor

Bill’s transition from Navy SEAL to manufacturing CEO might sound like a hard pivot, but as he explained, the environments share a core DNA. Both demand “highly cohesive, highly trained teams enabled by advanced technology, trying to punch above their weight.” His company, Pindel Global Precision, now in its 78th year, thrives on that ethos.

“When I acquired Pindel in 2012,” Bill said, “we had lower-level technology and a lower-skill workforce. My vision was to invest in tech and train the team to master it. That way, they create more value and capture more value. We’ve had machinists whose wages have doubled or tripled as a result.”

That mindset of linking technology investment to workforce upskilling created a virtuous cycle. The company wins, the customers win, and the employees win.

Professionalizing the Workforce

Manufacturing has long battled a challenge: promoting your best machinist into management often ruins two roles. Bill tackled that head-on by creating three distinct career tracks: engineering, leadership, and high-value production. “Each path is valued, and we train people specifically for the one they choose,” he said. “You’ve got to train them in all paths—not just throw them in and hope they swim.”

For leadership development, Pindel uses a robust yearlong training program that includes monthly instruction, mentoring, and personality profiling. 

“Our professional development program takes pages out of the military’s playbook for NCO and officer development. We use multiple, sequential levels for machinists, quality technicians, and industrial maintenance technicians that put a premium on career-long learning.”

What struck me most is Bill’s critique of a pervasive mindset: the idea that the first 25 years of education should last us for the next 50. “We need to think differently about continuous upskilling,” he said. “Otherwise, we’re letting people fall out of the fight. My motto is: never out of the fight.” You shouldn’t be reduced to trial-and-error for the rest of your professional life.

That’s the heart of Unshakeable Business Endurance: constantly evolving, relentlessly improving, never coasting. Bill’s professional development program is an excellent example of a company’s commitment to lifelong learning.

Boldness in Decision-Making

In uncertain environments, Bill uses optionality to make bold decisions. “We’ve made investments on the knife’s edge,” Bill told me, “and to hedge that, we design optionality into our decisions. The machines can be reconfigured for other parts or customers. We don’t commit 100% upfront, we commit enough to learn and adapt.”

He echoes Jeff Bezos’ concept of Type 1 vs. Type 2 decisions. Type 1s are irreversible; Type 2s offer a way to test, learn, and pivot. “You need to structure decisions to keep some powder dry,” Bill said, “so you’re not boxed in if things shift.”

His advice for other manufacturing leaders? Understand the opportunity’s sensitivities. Build optionality. And, most importantly, build a team with the capacity to pivot with you.

Final Thoughts

Bill Berrien’s leadership journey offers a practical playbook for any CEO or senior leader who wants to build unshakeable business endurance:

  • Invest in technology AND people
  • Build optionality into your decisions
  • Hire and train for the future you want, not just the present you have
  • Stay in the fight, with character and courage

Addressing Toxic Echo Chambers

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Social media has become the ultra-processed foods of the internet. It recycles rage and field animosity.  

Americans report a poor ability to have challenging conversations. According to Harris, 69% of leaders report being uncomfortable communicating with employees, while roughly seventy percent of employees report avoiding difficult conversations (Inc.). 

Social media creates a venue for expressing rage in the comfort of one’s own echo chamber, never having to actually converse with someone of different views. The habit has eroded civility and standards.

Last week’s newsletter on my conversation with former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh C. Johnson provides an excellent process for leaders to strengthen their ability to address challenging issues, so you promote goodwill and buy-in instead of animosity and win-lose frustration.

  1. Surround yourself with people who hold different points of view, so you avoid getting high on your own supply.
  2. Look for the best in people instead of assuming the worst.
  3. Listen to understand so people know you’ve heard them.
  4. Create an atmosphere in which it’s us against the problem, not me versus you.
  5. Find a synthesis so you gain greater buy-in.

Jeh’s conversation, plus the recent spate of political violence, inspired me to look to another mentor for wisdom on how leaders boost civility while maintaining high standards.

Top 10 Rules of Civility for Today’s Leaders

Inspired by George Washington’s 110 Rules of Civility (ca. 1744)

1. Show Respect in All Situations

  • Washington’s Maxim: Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect to those that are present.
  • Translation: Treat every person with respect and look for the best in them. Respect builds trust, influence, and high standards.

2. Avoid Gossip and Slander

  • Washington’s Maxim: Speak not evil of the absent for it is unjust.
  • Modern Translation: Before posting or saying something, make sure it meets three tests: it is true, necessary, and kind.

The heart collects what the mind projects.

3. Control Your Actions

  • Washington’s Maxim: Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another though he were your enemy.
  • Modern Translation: Don’t celebrate someone’s failure or explode in anger when something goes wrong. Leaders demonstrate strength by handling setbacks and victories with poise and grace.

Feel the emotions that you feel and cultivate the feelings you want. Emotions are subconscious signals designed to protect you. Actions are choices.

4. Speak with Clarity and Brevity

  • Washington’s Maxim: Let your discourse with men of business be short and comprehensive.
  • Modern Translation: Be concise and purposeful. Long-windedness and complexifying waste time; clarity honors it.

5. Exemplify Your Standards

  • Washington’s Maxim: Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire called conscience.
  • Modern Translation: Be the exemplar of your standards. Uphold your values even under pressure. Civility and standards endure when leaders align words and actions.

6. Be Present and Attentive

  • Washington’s Maxim: Turn not your back to others especially in speaking; jog not the table or desk on which another reads or writes; lean not upon anyone.
  • Modern Translation: Listen to understand. Give people your full attention. In modern terms: no phones in meetings, no multitasking in conversations. Presence signals respect and focus.

Maintain awareness of your surroundings and make others feel comfortable around you. Don’t stop at the bottom of the escalator.

7. Use Supportive Accountability

  • Washington’s Maxim: Use no reproachful language against anyone; neither curse nor revile.
  • Modern Translation: Correct mistakes firmly but respectfully. Civility is reinforced when leaders disagree without belittling and hold people accountable without contempt. 

Accountability is not you against your employee. It’s us against the problem.

8. Practice Patience and Restraint

  • Washington’s Maxim: When your superiors talk to anybody, hear them; neither speak nor laugh.
  • Modern Translation: Listen with an open heart and mind. Ask clarifying questions. Don’t interrupt or try to dominate conversations. Leaders demonstrate discipline by allowing others to finish and weighing in with thoughtful timing.

9. Be Appropriately Authoritative

  • Washington’s Maxim: Let your countenance be pleasant but in serious matters somewhat grave.
  • Modern Translation: Strike a balance between warmth and seriousness. Civility grows when leaders bring both approachability and gravitas, making people feel valued and fostering focus.

10. Create an Uplifting Support Network

  • Washington’s Maxim: Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.
  • Modern Translation: Surround yourself with people of integrity and competence: Zappers. High standards begin with your choices of partners, mentors, and teams. The 5 people you allow to influence you the most are an accurate reflection of you.

Building Trust, Making Smart Decisions, and Avoiding Burnout: Leadership Lessons From Secretary Jeh Johnson

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In a world where high-stakes leadership decisions can echo across nations, few have walked that tightrope with more composure and clarity than Jeh Johnson. In my recent interview with my friend, the former Secretary of Homeland Security and General Counsel of the Department of Defense, we explored the essential qualities that allow leaders to thrive amidst complexity and pressure. Here are some of the most resonant insights, direct from Jeh himself, that can help any CEO or senior leader create unshakeable business endurance.

1. Be the Best Version of Yourself

Leadership isn’t about mimicry; it’s about authenticity. When President Obama tapped Secretary Johnson to lead the Department of Homeland Security, his first reaction was doubt. “Am I equipped for this job?” he asked himself. “Because lawyers… we think of ourselves as really skilled people. But leadership is not necessarily one of them.”

Rather than trying to emulate Secretary Gates or Panetta, Johnson concluded that “maybe in the words of Chris Kolenda, you just be the best version of yourself.” That decision embodies his leadership approach. Authenticity over imitation. Substance over show.

2. Make Decisions with a 360-Degree Lens

High-stakes leadership isn’t about compromise for its own sake; it’s about smart synthesis.

When making decisions on contentious issues like immigration policy, Jeh Johnson didn’t rely on echo chambers. Instead, he deliberately convened a diverse group of voices: “I had two progressives, two pro-enforcement.” He emphasized that this wasn’t about simply “splitting the difference,” but about crafting policies that “embrace the most paramount concerns and priorities” of all involved.

This approach, he noted, creates stronger policies and deeper buy-in. “If people feel like they’ve been heard,” he said, “they’re more likely to support your conclusion, even if it’s not exactly what they wanted.”

That’s decision-making as both an art and a team sport.

3. Build Trust Across Differences

Johnson knows firsthand the friction that can exist in large, diverse organizations. Whether across agencies like ICE, CBP, and FEMA, or even political divides, his mantra was simple but powerful: “Look for the best in every person you meet.”

Before diving into hard issues, he built rapport. “Where are you from? What are your hobbies?” he’d ask. “If you ask enough questions like that, you’re going to find you have something in common. And once you’ve found that, it’s less difficult to have the hard discussion.”

Trust wasn’t a box to check; it’s his foundation for progress.

4. Avoid Burnout Through Boundaries and Perspective

Leadership roles today can feel insatiable. Johnson faced this head-on.

While Secretary, he kept a countdown clock on his phone, January 20, 2017, his official last day. “It was like running a marathon… I could see the finish line. That kept me going.”

For those without a countdown, his advice is clear: structure your schedule. “The great leaders are not necessarily the ones who work 18 hours a day… Have a managed schedule with a limited number of hours, and your level of strength and energy can adjust accordingly.”

In short: pace yourself, or the pace will punish you.

5. Empower the Unsung Heroes

One of the most morale-boosting things Johnson did as Secretary was to insist that decision memos include the author’s name and phone number, no matter their rank. “Sometimes a GS-13 (mid-level civil servant)  in Texas would get a call from me,” he said. “It’s terrific for morale… that GS-13 is going to tell everybody he runs into, ‘I got a call from the Secretary.’”

It also got him better information, faster.

This lesson holds for business leaders, too: honor contributions at every level. It builds pride, loyalty, and performance.

6. Don’t Climb the Ladder, Run the Race

When I asked about advice for young leaders, Johnson cautioned against ladder-climbing for its own sake. “Do the absolute best you can in the job you occupy now,” he said. “Don’t be thinking about or dreaming about the next level up. Everyone can tell when someone’s more focused on the next rung.”

The wisdom? Play the long game. Be excellent today, and tomorrow takes care of itself.

Final Thought: There’s No One Right Way to Lead

As Johnson reflected on the contrasting styles of Robert Gates and Leon Panetta, he summed up leadership beautifully: “There’s no one right way to hit a baseball. There’s no one right way to lead.”

Whether you’re navigating a multi-agency cabinet position or a $200M manufacturing firm, the principles hold: listen deeply, lead authentically, empower diverse perspectives, and steward your energy for the long run.

That’s how you build unshakeable business endurance, from the Pentagon to the boardroom.

Breaking the Infinite Workday: 5 Critical Shifts Every Leader Must Make

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Let’s face it: when your team ends each day looking like they’ve been through battle: email scars, ping wounds, and meeting fatigue, you’re not running a business, you’re running a crisis center.

Microsoft’s recent study on the “infinite workday” lays it bare:

  • 40% of employees are online by 6 a.m., triaging emails before they’ve had coffee.
  • Nearly a third log back in around 10 p.m. for “catch-up” work.
  • Workers face an average of 275 notifications a day across email, chat, and meetings.
  • Over 50% of meetings are ad hoc, many landing right in prime productivity windows.
  • And 20% of employees regularly work weekends.

That’s not sustainable, and it’s not leading to unshakeable business endurance. It’s like running your engines at max throttle without ever checking the fuel gauge.

As the leader, you set the tone. Your people are looking to you for clarity, boundaries, and direction. When you give them those things, they can focus on what truly matters: creating value, serving customers, and driving growth.

Here are five critical actions you can take to end the infinite workday and heighten productivity on what really matters.

1. Set Clear Priorities

If everything is a priority, nothing is. Your people should know their top three priorities at all times: no guessing, no hoping they’ve chosen the right hill to climb. Reinforce these in your weekly 1:1 meetings. Ask:

  • “What are your top three this week?”
  • “How are you progressing on them?”
  • “What obstacles are in your way?”

This simple practice prevents hair-on-fire activity and keeps your team aligned on what truly drives results.

2. Redefine Meetings

Meetings should be for two things: decisions and coordination. Full stop.

  • Information sharing? Move it to a shared document that people can read on their own time.
  • Ad-hoc meetings? They’re usually a sign of poor time or priority management.
  • Every meeting should have a specific agenda, read-aheads, and clear outcomes.

When you tighten the rules of engagement, meetings stop being productivity killers and start becoming accelerators.

3. Establish Communication Protocols

Not every ping deserves your immediate attention. Clarity is oxygen for productivity. Create rules of the road for each system:

  • Client Interactions: Email or client portals (documented, professional, trackable).
  • Project Management: Dedicated tools (Asana, Trello, Monday.com, etc.), the single source of truth for deadlines and deliverables.
  • Internal Coordination: Slack, Teams, or IM for quick, low-friction communication.
  • Synchronous Project Collaboration: Video platforms (Zoom, Teams, Meet) reserved for brainstorming and real-time problem solving.
  • Emergencies: Phone call: set parameters for what constitutes an emergency.

Set expectations for response times: e.g., 24 hours for email, same day for project tools, 1–2 hours for IM if you are actively coordinating on a project.

And enforce the “two-message rule”: if an issue takes more than two back-and-forth emails or IMs, pick up the phone or talk face-to-face. Otherwise, you’re just fueling endless interruptions.

And for the love of sanity, cut back on “reply-to-all.” Every unnecessary ping is a tax on focus.

4. Create a Predictable Rhythm and Protect Quiet Hours

Deep work builds your competitive edge. Constant interruptions kill it. Create a predictable organizational rhythm for when meetings take place and set no-meeting windows when people can rely on uninterrupted time. 

Establish quiet hours when your team can focus without fear of disruption. Be crystal clear about what constitutes a genuine emergency.

And please stop praising the after-hours email hero. That’s not commitment; it’s a symptom of poor leadership hygiene. If you reward firefighting, you’ll get more fires.

5. Use the 4 Ws to Direct Work

When assigning tasks, ambiguity is your enemy. Use the 4 Ws to set your people up for success:

  • Who: Who has the lead?
  • What: What do you want accomplished?
  • Why: Why does it matter? What’s the desired outcome?
  • When: What’s the deadline?

Clear direction prevents wheel-spinning and empowers your people to act with confidence.

Closing Thought

The infinite workday isn’t inevitable; it’s a leadership choice. When you set priorities, run purposeful meetings, standardize communications, protect focus, and give crystal-clear direction, you free your team from constant firefighting.

Your reward? A workforce that spends less time reacting and more time delivering on what really matters. That’s how you build unshakeable business endurance.

Leader’s Checklist: Breaking the Infinite Workday

Here’s a short list you can post by your desk:

  • Everyone knows their Top 3 priorities each week, reviewed in 1:1s.
  • Meetings = decisions and coordination only; everything else goes to shared docs.
  • Communication protocols by channel: Client → Email/Portal | Projects → PM Tool | Internal, In-the-moment → IM | Collaboration → Video | Emergencies → Phone.
  • Apply the two-message rule: beyond 2 back-and-forths, call or meet.
  • Protect quiet hours; praise focus, not after-hours email heroics.

Direct work with the 4 Ws: Who, What, Why, When.

The Character Strike Zone: Leadership Lessons from General Stan McChrystal

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“The only thing that really mattered is my character, and how does it interact with other people.” — Stan McChrystal

General Stan McChrystal has led elite forces in combat, commanded coalition efforts in Afghanistan, and now advises Fortune 100 companies. [I served as his senior adviser in Afghanistan in 2009-10.] But when he sat down with me to talk about his new book, what he wanted to talk about wasn’t strategy, operations, or metrics.

It was character. That’s the subject of his latest book, On Character.

Conviction × Discipline = Character

Stan offers a simple but powerful equation:

Character = Conviction × Discipline

Conviction, he explains, means deeply held beliefs that have been pressure-tested and chosen, not inherited uncritically. Discipline is the self-mastery of acting consistently in alignment with one’s convictions.

This model led to a matrix that any CEO should reflect on:

  • High conviction, low discipline = ineffectual idealism.

    “They believe in the right things, but don’t have the courage or discipline to act,” Stan says. Think of the hand-wringing bystanders Dr. King called out from a Birmingham jail.
  • Low conviction, high discipline = dangerous ambition.

    These are the sharks, disciplined, relentless, and empty of values. “It’s almost amoral. Not immoral, but amoral,” Stan cautions. Too many political and business leaders fall into this quadrant, driven by efficiency and optics rather than principles.
  • Low conviction, low discipline = rudderless drift.

    “Unguided missiles,” as Stan put it. They’re not actively harmful; just not helpful. As he noted with a chuckle, “Even dead fish go with the flow.”
  • High conviction, high discipline = the ideal… with a caveat.

    “You don’t want to be the Taliban,” he warns. Even Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, and others had high discipline and conviction, just toward evil ends. Our challenge, then, is to pursue good values with rigor, while remaining open-hearted and open-minded.
Character graph - General Stan McChrystal

Why This Matters for CEOs Today

You’re not just leading a company. You’re shaping culture, inside and outside your organization.

Stan pulls no punches here: “We’re in an era where we are celebrating a lack of character… We know they’re lying. They know we know. But we accept it because we think that’s just how the game is played.”

That’s not leadership. That’s surrender.

The antidote is character-based leadership, not as performance, but as culture. Your hiring, development, strategy, and customer relationships should reflect your north star. “Business leaders have a vital role in society,” Stan told me. “They are not external to it.”

If you don’t define your strike zone, your core virtues, your standards, or your boundaries, someone else will. Or worse, no one will, and entropy will take over.

Striking the Balance: Beyond Performative or Passive

We discussed the business implications of the strike zone. You can identify examples of acceptable conduct that belong in the strike zone and behaviors that fall outside of it.

Having clear balls and strikes builds character into your company’s DNA. Define your core convictions. Hire and promote people who live them. Design systems and rhythms to reinforce the habits that reflect who you want to be.

Character, after all, isn’t what you say in your values statement. It’s the default behavior when no one’s watching.

Bouncing Forward

Toward the end of our conversation, Stan reflected on the aftermath of his resignation in 2010. 

“I was prepared for the moment,” he said. “What I wasn’t prepared for was what came after. History didn’t end.”

He rebuilt, starting a business, teaching at Yale, and writing books. But he didn’t do it alone.

“I had so many people pulling for me,” he told me. “More than I ever imagined. At first, I felt disgraced. Alone. But that wasn’t true.”

It reminded me of one of the most underappreciated dimensions of character: trusting relationships. The goodwill we build over time by showing up with integrity pays dividends when things go sideways.

Stan’s wife Annie played a vital role. So did old friends and teammates. And he kept moving forward, looking at life through the windshield instead of the rearview mirror – trying new things, and showing resilience through massive life transitions.

If you’re leading a company, you’re going to have tough quarters, maybe even years. But when you’ve led with character, you won’t have to face them alone.

Final Word: Leadership Starts with You

Aristotle said character is habit. Stan says it’s discipline. They are both right; habit is the expression of discipline. You forge your character daily in how you lead meetings, give feedback, handle crises, and treat people.

How you handle adversity reveals your character.

Towards the end of the book, Stan discusses heroes. To him, a hero is not defined by a solitary act, but by how you show up over the long haul through adversity in service to others.

He’s been a hero to me and many others, and I’m proud to call him a friend and mentor.

Check out his new book, On Character, a must-read for anyone serious about leading well.

Why Comfort Zone Habits Don’t Achieve Transformational Goals

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I learned a hard truth while attempting to self-train for a 1,696-mile bicycle ride: you cannot achieve Transformation Zone goals with Comfort Zone habits.

I wanted to pedal a bicycle to visit the graves of our unit’s six paratroopers who were killed in Afghanistan in 2007, beginning at Chris Pfeifer’s final resting place in Spalding, Nebraska, fifteen years to the day since he died of wounds received in direct combat.

The ride would proceed east through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and end at Tom Bostick’s grave in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

I was totally naive about the requirements to be successful and the risks along the way. When I announced the goal to the world, I’d never done a multi-day endurance event. Heck, I didn’t even own a bike and hadn’t ridden a bicycle in over twenty years. 

I had eighteen months to train and figure it all out.

Comfort Zone

After two months of self-inflicted training, I collapsed on my living room floor, in pain and completely “bonking” on my first 25-mile ride. 

“You need professional help,” I told myself, “Or you are going to fall flat on your face.”

I was trying to achieve a Transformation Zone goal using Comfort Zone habits. It was never going to work.

Visual on comfort zone habits and transformational goals.

Discomfort Zone

The Discomfort Zone lies between the Comfort and Transformation Zones. It’s full of obstacles and risks that you have no idea how to overcome. It’s where people watch you fall flat on your face. 

The fear of this zone prevents you from acting on transformative goals, unless you are naive like I was.

What if you had a process to get you safely and successfully through the Discomfort Zone?

I discovered that the activation agent you need consists of three elements:

  1. Capability: Building new capacity to face unprecedented challenges requires the curiosity and willingness to build new skills and the accountability to turn those new skills into durable habits. 
  2. Community: True breakout into transformation is never a solo ride. You need the right people around you who have your back and support your growth, while pruning away influences that drain or discourage you. 
  3. Commitment: Success is never a straight line. It’s filled with faceplants and setbacks. How you handle these determines whether you bounce forward or just bounce around. The courage to transform setbacks into stepping stones for success requires you to feel, think, and act in new ways, or your future will be just like your past.

When you get all three working together, you gain the Conviction to turn the Discomfort Zone into the Growth Zone.

Visual on comfort zone habits and transformational goals.

Transformation Zone

The beauty of reaching the Transformation Zone is that you begin to recognize even greater possibilities beyond.

The Fallen Hero Honor Ride raised enough money for us to start the Saber Six Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works with veterans who want to turn post-combat stress into growth. We’re already impacting the lives of hundreds of veterans.

Steering with Conviction: How 1,700 Miles on a Bike Revealed the Blueprint for Enduring Success is my most popular program for leaders who want to break out of comfort zones and achieve transformational goals.

If this program sounds interesting to you, let’s schedule a call to see if it’s a good fit.