Nobody owned Sales. Three people on the same leadership team. Same answer, one after another. “…and I do some sales.” Nervous laughter. Then silence. They already knew. Here’s what that moment taught me: vague accountability isn’t an accountability problem. It’s a clarity problem. And it shows up in three ways every time. Shared ownership is no ownership. When three people are responsible, the result belongs to no one. Accountability requires a name. Not a department. Not a team. One person who answers for the number. Clarity unlocks performance. The moment that team put one name next to Sales — nobody new, no restructuring — everything shifted. You don’t need more people. You need clearer ownership. Put a name next to every major function. Then get out of the way. #EOS #Traction #Leadership #L10Meeting #Accountability #IDS #TeamHealth #EntrepreneurialOperatingSystem

I keep a Hoberman sphere on my desk. You’ve probably seen one — that geometric toy that collapses into a compact ball and expands into an intricate lattice of interconnected joints and struts. It’s become my favorite way to describe what happens inside a growing organization. When the sphere is small, you can hold the whole thing in one hand. Every connection point is visible. Simple. But expand it and something fascinating happens — the number of connection points multiplies fast. What was once easy to grasp becomes a web of relationships, each one adding a layer of complexity to the whole. This is exactly what happens to your team as your business grows. The Hidden Cost of Growth When your company had five people, communication was easy. Everyone knew what everyone else was doing. Decisions happened quickly. But add five more people and the math changes dramatically. Five people

Business Banter with Tom and Kerry     Kerry: Last month, Tom and I talked about why investing in your community matters so deeply, even when the return is not always immediate or obvious. This month, we are shifting gears slightly and tackling a topic that affects every business owner, every organization, and honestly every community I have ever been part of. Issues.   Not the dramatic kind. Not the headline kind. The everyday, nagging, sometimes uncomfortable kind that show up whether we want them to or not. Tom had a lot to say about this and about how we deal with our issues often determines whether a business grows, stalls, or quietly struggles behind the scenes.   Tom: Issues. We have all got them. I have been running businesses for more than twenty years in a lot of different industries, and I can tell you the only businesses that

Last week I was more honest in a talk at The Residence Coworking Bishops Stortford than I had ever been before. Not because the story isn’t worth telling – but because the bit that matters most wasn’t the headline. The bit that matters is what happened after. The headline is easy: NorthPoint Communications, NASDAQ, May 1999, $2.3 billion float. KFC and Veuve Clicquot to celebrate (it works, don’t knock it). What nobody talks about is the emotional rollercoaster of entrepreneurial journeys and lifestyles. I used this diagram in the talk. Most people recognise it immediately – the euphoric start, the grinding middle, the dark swamp of despair. What the diagram doesn’t show is that you go round it again. And again. The IPO wasn’t the end of the journey. It was the beginning of a very different and far harder one. Three things worth sharing: 1. Challenges are just opportunities