The BusinessFitness Blog
Thoughts on topics to help you make more of your business…
The Team Is Not the Problem: Patterns Behind Team Underperformance
"The real problem is not what people do, but what they feel they must do." — Václav Havel, Letters to Olga (1988) The Year-End Review Most leaders have sat in some version of this meeting. The quarter has...
When the Business Outgrows the Founder: A Leadership Transition
"A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways." – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, 1513 Spend any time inside a...
When Execution Slows, Leadership Patterns Come Into View
"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him." – Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (written 1513, published posthumously 1532) The Brief Hesitation After a...
Accountability Without Bureaucracy
"A good deal of the corporate planning I have observed is like a ritual rain dance; it has no effect on the weather that follows, but those who engage in it think it does." – Russell Ackoff, A Concept of Corporate...
Operating Rhythm: The Discipline That Isn’t About Effort
“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.” – William James, letter to Carl Stumpf, 1 January 1886. After the meeting, the week takes over The meeting ends well. The discussion...
Decision Ownership: Why Good Decisions Lose Momentum
"We can confer authority; but power or capacity, no man can give or take." – Mary Parker Follett, Dynamic Administration (1942) The Meeting That Went Well The leadership meeting ends on a positive note. The...
The Execution Gap in Growing SMEs: When Agreement Doesn’t Become Action
“Between the idea and the reality… Between the motion and the act, falls the Shadow.” – T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men, 1925 The Strange Familiarity of Stalled Execution Most experienced SME leaders know the feeling. A...
Founder Dependency: The Structural Limits of Leadership Attention
“The greatest part of prudence is the ability to govern one’s self.” – Michel de Montaigne, Essays, c. 1580 Endurance as a Leadership Norm In established SMEs, endurance is rarely questioned, even when it...
The Hidden Cost of Being the Final Decision Point
“We are shaped by our past, but not bound by it.” – Hannah Arendt, lecture notes and essays (1950s) The Habit No One Questions In most established SMEs, the leader does not cling to decisions out of ego or control....
When Priority Lists Become a Comfort Blanket
“Every organisation is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” – W. Edwards Deming, lecture and writings, 1980s The Ritual of Rewriting There is a moment, often at the start of a week or month, when the “to...
The Accumulation Problem: Leadership Pressure in Growing SMEs
“The great difficulty in life is to know when to persist and when to let go.” – Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness, 1930 When everything still passes through you – even when it no longer needs to There...
When Everything Matters, Nothing Leads: A Reflection on Leadership Attention
“The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook.” — William James, lecture on philosophy and psychology, c. 1890s When leadership attention becomes thin The start of a year often brings renewed...