How to Keep Your Leadership Team Aligned

 

Your leadership team is only as aligned as the two people leading it.

And they always know when you're not.

In EOS, those two people are a Visionary and Integrator.

Your Visionary sees the future of the business and keeps coming up with new ideas.

Your Integrator makes those ideas happen and holds everything together day to day.

These two people are typically wired completely differently, so some friction between them is normal. Healthy, even.

The trouble starts when that friction never gets dealt with and leaks out into the business instead:

→ Weekly meetings slow down.
→ Quarterly and annual planning drag on.
→ Your leadership team ends up stuck in the middle, picking up on tension nobody has named.

There's a line I use a lot when describing that relationship between Visionaries and Integrators: don't fight in front of the kids.

Your team always knows.

The answer is one meeting a month.

In EOS, we call it the Same Page Meeting™, and this is how you run it:

1. Book the meeting every month
↳ Two to four hours, outside the office, no interruptions. If you're done early, great. Most months you won't be.

2. Get the right two people in the room
↳ The Visionary and Integrator, even if your Integrator was hired and isn't a partner.
↳ If there are owners above that relationship, they need their own. Start monthly and move to quarterly once you find your rhythm.

3. Start with a genuine check-in
↳ Spend 5 to 10 minutes on how you're both actually doing, at home and at work. This goes deeper than your Level 10 Meeting® check-in.

4. Put everything on the Issues List
↳ Bring whatever's built up since last month and get all of it down before you solve anything.

5. IDS® one issue at a time
↳ Identify, Discuss, Solve, starting with the most important. If it needs action, give the To-Do one owner.

6. Don't leave until the list is clear
↳ The check-in and the list take about 15 minutes. Everything after that is solving, which is why some months run the full four hours.

(See the graphic below for the full breakdown)

A month is a long time to carry something you haven't said out loud.

Four hours is a small price for walking out on the same page.

Visionaries and Integrators, how often do the two of you sit down just to talk about the two of you?

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How to Assess Your Team

 

Assessing your team shouldn't come down to a gut feeling.

These 2 objective tests take the guesswork out:

Perhaps you've been in this situation before...

You've been avoiding one conversation for months.
You know the person isn't quite working out.

But every time you go to raise it, it feels too personal, so you let it slide another week.

Then another...

The reason why this feels hard is that you're treating it as a verdict on them as a human being.

But the job was never to decide whether someone is good or bad.
It's to measure one thing: fit.

Once you make it about the seat, the charge drains right out of it.

Two questions do the measuring for you (which founders often wrongly blur into one):

1. Right person: do they live your Core Values?
2. Right seat: do they GWC it?

Here's how each one works...

Right person is about values fit.
Your Core Values aren't something you invent.
They're beliefs and practices that already exist.

Look at your best people and name the traits they share.
Then rate each person against it: plus, plus/minus, or minus on whether they consistently live it.

Right seat is about GWC.

Your Accountability Chart defines what the seat actually needs.

GWC tests whether the person fits it:

- Get it: do they truly grasp what the seat demands?
- Want it: do they want the seat itself, not just the title or the paycheck?
- Capacity: do they have the time, skill, and bandwidth to do it well?

One important thing: GWC isn't a score for how good someone is.
It's a yes/no filter for the seat. A single no means they don't GWC it.

Now the part that makes this stop being personal.

Put the two tests together and you get 4 outcomes, and the outcome tells you what to do:

🟢 Right person, right seat: keep them, back them, let them run.

🟡 Right person, wrong seat: shared values, wrong fit. Find a seat they GWC before you give up on them.

⚠️ Wrong person, right seat: great at the work, off on values. The hardest call, but still a no.

🔴 Wrong person, wrong seat: it's time to make the call.

And when it's time to talk, you coach, you don't ambush:

- Name it plainly and kindly, with real examples so they can see the gap.
- Give time to change. Raise it, allow around 30 days, extend once if there's honest effort.
- If nothing shifts, make the call.

Short-term discomfort beats long-term drag every time.
And the person in the wrong fit almost always ends up better off once it's resolved.

Credits to Mark O'Donnell, make sure to follow

Strategic Thinking

 

Team Stagnation & Progression Cheat Sheet

 

Ever feel like you’re doing all the heavy lifting, but your team still feels stuck?

It usually comes down to subtle red flags:
• Decisions waiting on "group consensus" instead of a single clear owner.
• Mistakes met with "whose fault is this?" instead of "what process did we miss?"
• Endless busywork without momentum on strategic goals.

Progressive teams don't happen by accident they are built through clear decision rights, psychological safety, and predictable execution rhythms.

Save this cheat sheet for your next weekly check-in.
Choose one checkpoint to install with your team this week and watch the dynamic shift.

https://lnkd.in/p/dSTnwpz9

The 8 Positioning Assets Every Business Should Have

 

Could you identify all eight of these positioning assets for your business?

Most businesses would struggle to.

The positioning work has usually been done at some point,
Maybe an odd workshop, a strategy deck, and a few good conversations with the leadership team.

But whenever a situation happens where someone needs to know what your positioning is,
The words get rebuilt from scratch.

And your business being described in 10+ different ways happens when positioning stays as a strategy and never a set of assets.

It’s why every positioning project we run at V2RSION includes the assets that put the strategy to work. These are the eight I’d expect every scale-up to have ↴

Problem Statement
Category Definition
GTM Pitch
Value Statements
Vision
Mission
About Us
Nominator

Each one answers a different question that a buyer, a new hire or an investor will ask,
And they make sure the answer is the same, whoever is giving it.
They ultimately act as the positioning DNA for your business.

I’ve set out what each asset is and the question it answers below.

Save it, and see how many your business could find today.

Which one is missing from yours?

Follow Paul Evans for actionable business and positioning advice.

Bill Smith's 5 Rules for Staying Ahead of the Competitors

 

Most founders obsess over their competition.

That's why they'll always be 6 months behind.

Bill Smith built 4 companies without ever looking sideways.

He's a four-time serial entrepreneur who started his first business at 16. He built Shipt and sold it to Target and now he's the CEO of Landing. He sat down on How To Build a Tech Startup and I thought he made some interesting points.

Here are 5 points that stood out:

𝟏. 𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.
Most founders track their competitors’ every move and try to beat them.

"If you pay attention to the competition, you will become... a six-month behind version of whoever that person is."

You'll always be a step behind by design.
Build your own thing so well that your competition starts chasing you.

𝟐. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦’𝐬 𝐜𝐞𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠.
"Your energy level at work is the absolute ceiling of your team's energy level. Like they're not going to exceed your energy level."

If you want your team to show up like it matters - you have to show up like it matters.

𝟑. 𝐇𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐦𝐞𝐬.
Most companies try to build a team of solid, mid-level professionals.
Bill Smith disagrees.

"Either people I've already worked with and I know they're awesome or abject beginners... kind of nothing in between."

A nucleus of trusted veterans plus hungry beginners who "don't know any better than to listen to you."
That's the formula.

𝟒. 𝐁𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐠𝐮𝐲.
When something isn't working, most founders try to fix it.
Bill Smith just throws it away.

"I'm focusing all of my energy on the one thing that is working."

Problems will always exist.
But your scarcest resource is attention.

Point it at what's growing.

𝟓. 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬.
No dashboard, no funnel, no roadmap can replace what you learn face-to-face.

"I get the most energy, period, from being in front of customers. My best days are the days that I'm with a customer."

If the software's not in their hands and you're not talking to them, the rest doesn't matter.

Full conversation: Bill Smith on How To Build a Tech Startup.

So, there you have it:
- Don't follow your competition, build your own thing
- Your energy is the absolute ceiling of your team
- Hire trusted veterans and hungry beginners
- Throw away what's broken, double down on what's working
- Get in front of your customers

Do you agree or do you have some different opinions?

https://lnkd.in/p/dpHJk7bJ

How to Build a Personal Brand

 

People buy from people they know, like, and trust.

Your personal founder brand isn't optional anymore.

This is your roadmap to building a personal brand in 2026.

Your competition isn't just other companies anymore.
It's other founders.

The ones with personal brands are closing deals faster.
Landing better talent.
Raising at higher valuations.

Every post you share builds authority.
Every connection expands your opportunities.
Every story you tell differentiates your business.

Here are the 11 steps that separate founder brands from founder noise:

1/ Find a Rising Tide to Build In
→ Pick a fast-growing industry before competition heats up

2/ Market Research
→ Follow 10+ successful people and spot the content gaps they're not covering

3/ Find Your Unique Angle
→ Mix your expertise with your personal story to create frameworks nobody else has

4/ Pick Your Platform
→ Master one platform before adding another

5/ Pick Your Content Style
→ Stick to 3 core topics you'll always talk about

6/ Create Your Visual Brand
→ Pick 2-3 colors and use them everywhere for instant recognition

7/ Post Consistent Content
→ Batch create 4-6 pieces at once instead of scrambling daily

8/ Use Data to Drive Decisions
→ Double down on content that works, scrap what doesn't

9/ Collaborate with Other Creators
→ Find 5 people at your level to cross-promote with

10/ Build an Email List
→ Turn social followers into subscribers you actually own

11/ Monetize with Digital Products or Services
→ Start with 1-on-1 services, then scale to digital products

Here's the reality:
→ Faceless companies blend into the background
→ Personal brands create emotional connections
→ Trust built with you transfers to your company

Have you started building your personal brand in 2026?

Follow Ashley Couto for daily content on becoming an industry leader