Leadership Thoughts

05/22/2026

New conversation just dropped on Leadership Unlocked, and it's one I think every business owner needs to hear.

I sat down with Alex Goldfayn, who has spent years helping companies grow revenue 15 to 30 percent without selling harder. His whole approach comes down to one habit most leaders skip: proactive outreach.

One more call. One more “how can I help you.” One more “what else do you need from us.”

That's it. Simple actions, done consistently, that compound into real growth.

We talked about why the first call is always the hardest, why three calls a day beats any marketing campaign, and how the best companies make this stick when most others fail.

If you lead a team, give this one a listen.

🎙️ Link in comments.

05/19/2026

She runs a strong company. Smart team. Profitable. She wanted to know where to go with AI.

She said: "Every time I think about AI, I keep going back to what I already know how to automate. I struggle to get my brain to the next level."

I hear this constantly from senior leaders right now.

Here’s the thing: she doesn’t have an AI problem. She has a framing problem.

Most people are using AI like a search engine. Type in a question, get an answer, move on. That’s using a calculator to do arithmetic. You can do that. The tool is capable of so much more.

The shift that changed everything for me: stop telling AI what to do. Start asking what it proposes.

Ask it: “Here’s the problem. How would you solve it?” Then watch what happens.

It comes back with options you hadn’t thought of. It asks you clarifying questions. It surfaces the gaps in your own thinking.

That’s not a new skill. That’s the same skill you’ve used to lead people for 20 years. You just haven’t applied it to the tool yet.

MIT says 95% of companies have seen zero ROI on AI. The leaders who are different aren’t more technical. They’re just better at leading.

Full piece is in this week’s newsletter. Link in comments.

What’s working for you with AI right now? I’m genuinely curious.

05/14/2026

I was running a division of several hundred people. Growing business. Good team. And I was completely, quietly falling apart.

Not in a dramatic way. In that way that high-achievers fall apart. I just kept carrying more. Every decision came to me. Every fire was mine to put out. I told myself it was because I cared.
It wasn't. It was three stories I'd been telling myself for years.

1) The Hero Myth: If I step in, it gets fixed. Reality: every time you swoop in, you teach your team they can't handle it.

2) Imposter Syndrome: One day they'll figure out I don't belong here. Reality: 71% of US CEOs report this. It doesn't disappear when you earn the title. It intensifies. And research from MIT Sloan shows the leaders who experience it most actually outperform their peers under pressure by 13%.

3) The Help-Asking Taboo: Asking for help is weakness. Reality: Harvard Business School research shows that people who ask for advice are perceived as more competent, not less. Especially on high-stakes decisions.

A mentor finally put it plainly. "Why are you stealing opportunities from your team?"

Episode 60 of Leadership Unlocked is about these three stories, the research behind them, and a 20-minute audit that helps you start putting them down.

Listen here:
https://arcq.us/4flSqNr
https://arcq.us/3PBlNRv
https://arcq.us/42yefC4

Honest question for the leaders here: which of these three shows up most for you at work right now? The comments are open👇

05/07/2026

The best business advice Mike Milan ever got came from
watching a TV show about hoarding.

During COVID, his wife convinced him to sit down and watch Hoarders.
He ended up watching 15 seasons.

Not because he enjoyed the disorder - but because he couldn't
stop watching how the doctor started every conversation.

The doctor never walked up to the house and said,
"I can see exactly what the problem is."
Even though everyone could see it.
Even though it was pouring out the front door.

Instead, the first thing out of the doctor's mouth was:
"Tell me what I'm looking at."

That one sentence kept the conversation alive.
It gave the person dignity.
It let them name the problem in their own words.
And it surfaced the real issue - the one they were living with -
not the one the doctor assumed from the yard.

Mike calls this the Elevation Sequence.
Find the burning issue. Clear it first.
Because until you address the problem a person feels,
nothing else you say will land.

He unpacks the whole framework in Episode 59 of Leadership Unlocked.
Missouri state trooper to financial jedi to advisor of 25,000+ leaders.
One of the most practical conversations we've had on this show.

Listen link in the comments.

05/01/2026

I used to feel guilty about investing in my own development.

You've got people counting on you. Fires to put out. Taking a morning to think or scheduling a coaching session or reading a book about your own growth - somehow that starts to feel indulgent.

That impulse comes from a good place. It comes from a genuine desire to serve.

But here's what I missed for years: when you stop leading yourself, the quality of your leadership declines. At first it's slow. Invisible. But it's absolutely diminishing.

Your clarity gets fuzzy. Your patience thins. Your decision-making gets reactive instead of intentional.

And the people you're trying to serve? They feel it. They may not be able to name it, but they feel it.

I was facilitating a quarterly strategy session recently with a high-performing leadership team. We ran three diagnostic questions that were designed to be about the organization. But the leaders who were being truly honest? They started hearing them as personal questions.

What must change for ME to be the leader I aspire to be?
What pattern keeps repeating IN MY LEADERSHIP?
Where am I saying yes when I should be saying no?

That's the insight I share in Episode 58 of Leadership Unlocked.

Leading yourself first is not a contradiction of servant leadership. It's the prerequisite.

Listen to Episode 58 here:
https://arcq.us/42KmFWI
https://arcq.us/4cYMirS
https://arcq.us/4eUh2wz

The Most Selfish Thing Great Leaders Never Do (But Should)

04/28/2026

I asked a CEO to do one thing. He didn't expect what came next.

Last month I was sitting with a CEO who's feeling frustrated. His organization isn't where he wants it to be, and he can't figure out why. He sees the problem clearly. His team doesn't. And he's been waiting for them to close a gap he's never actually described out loud.

I didn't give him a strategy. I gave him an audit.

Pull up your calendar from the last 30 days, I told him. Then answer three questions honestly.

He went quiet.

I've come to believe there are exactly three things only the CEO can own. Culture. Vision. Resource allocation. Everything else can be delegated. These three cannot.

The problem isn't that CEOs don't know this. The problem is the tactical is always loud, the urgent always wins, and most leaders slip into their comfort zone because it feels productive.

But those three pillars don't make noise when they're neglected. They just quietly erode.

Go ahead and check out this week's newsletter https://arcq.us/4mSU22Y

Then block 30 minutes this week. Run the audit yourself. Be honest about what you find.

What does your calendar say you actually believe matters? Comment with the one pillar your calendar says you're most underinvesting in right now. I'll help you stay accountable.

I asked a CEO to pull up his calendar from the last 30 days. Why? He's frustrated. His organization isn't where he wants it to be. The gap between where he is and where he's trying to go keeps widening. He sees the problem clearly. His team doesn't. And he's been waiting for them to close a gap he's...

04/23/2026

Every person on your team will leave at some point. Here's why that's not a reason to hold back.

Most CEOs I work with carry a version of the same quiet belief: "I'm not going to invest in them because they might leave."

It's understandable. You've watched people take the training, the coaching, the mentorship — and walk out the door to a competitor. Or start their own thing. Or disappear into a Fortune 500 role that could never have happened without what you gave them.

So you pull back. You stop mentoring. You stop sharing. You hold the good stuff closer.

I had Jacob Karnes on Leadership Unlocked this week, and he told a story that reframed the whole thing for me.

Jacob told his boss Evan, on day one, that he'd be leaving within three years. Evan hired him anyway. Invested anyway. Then when Jacob's dad died unexpectedly, Evan handed him a personal check for 80 hours of pay — not from the business. From his own pocket.

Jacob's reaction? He worked ten times as hard for Evan for the time he was there. And when he eventually left, he started sending his best people back to Evan's restaurant.

What if you train them and they leave? What if you don't, and they stay? — Richard Branson

Your best people are rented, not owned. Invest anyway.

The ROI doesn't show up five years from now. It shows up inside the lease — in the discretionary effort they give you while they're yours, and in the people they send your way after they leave.

Full conversation with Jacob below. Worth 40 minutes of your day.
🎧

04/16/2026

A leader inside our program asked me something a few weeks ago that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about.

His name is Michael. He’s inside our Vision to Victory program. And he asked me a question that I suspect a lot of us have asked ourselves at 11:00 PM when you can’t sleep: “How do you stay fully present at work when life is overwhelming at home - and fully present at home when work refuses to slow down?”

I didn’t have a slick answer. Because there isn’t one.

What I told him - and what I unpacked in Episode 56 of Leadership Unlocked - is that the whole framework we’ve been given is broken. Work-life balance isn’t a system. It’s a story we tell ourselves to avoid the harder question: What actually matters right now?

Here’s what the research says: 56% of senior leaders are burning out. DDI surveyed nearly 11,000 executives and found that delegation has five times the burnout prevention impact of any other strategy - yet 76% of leaders rarely ask for help.

That’s not a discipline gap. That’s a mental model gap and it’s absolutely fixable.
In Episode 56, I walk through the three questions I now ask myself when everything feels urgent - and the two permissions that took me years to actually give myself.

Go give it a listen and let me know what you think -
YouTube Link: https://arcq.us/484DdMv
Apple: https://arcq.us/3QIVZ5X
Spotify: https://arcq.us/3QIW0a1

I’d love to know: where in your leadership right now are you carrying something you were never meant to carry alone?

1 like. "Work-Life Balance Is a Myth—Ask Yourself These 3 Questions Instead"

04/14/2026

A CEO told me something last week that I can't stop thinking about.

"I feel like I'm sprinting as fast as I can and falling further behind every day."
Sound familiar?

This is my topic for this week's newsletter: the doom loop. It's one of the most common traps I see with senior leaders, and almost nobody talks about it.

When you fall behind, you stay behind. Not because you lack discipline. Because reactivity breeds more reactivity. You spend Monday putting out fires. Tuesday starts behind because Monday's strategic work never happened. By Friday, you've been busy all week and your most important work is still untouched.

Harvard researchers tracked 27 CEOs in 15-minute increments over 12 years. They spent 36% of their time in reactive mode. In a separate study, 97% of 10,000 senior leaders said strategic thinking was most critical, while 96% said they had no time for it.

That's not a character flaw. That's a structural problem.

You don't need a 3-day retreat to break the cycle. You need the right rhythms and systems. I've seen leaders go from 70% reactive weeks to 80% planned weeks in 60 days. Same workload. Completely different experience of leading.

Read all about it in this weeks newsletter: https://arcq.us/4c9xEid

We're launching Cohort 4 of Vision to Victory next week. 12 weeks. Small group. We build the systems that keep your best work protected from your best ideas. If you want to know whether it's a fit, book a call with me. Link in the comments.

I've spent entire weeks being productive and moving nothing forward. I wasn't lazy. I wasn't undisciplined. I was stuck in what I now call the Urgency Trap. Monday: fighting fires. Tuesday: starting behind because Monday's strategy work never happened. Friday: busy all week, most important work unto...

04/09/2026

I just learned something that terrified me about my brain.

80% of Alzheimer’s patients have insulin resistance.

Let that sink in for a second.

That afternoon energy crash you’re experiencing? The name you forgot mid-sentence yesterday? The feeling that your brain isn’t as sharp as it was five years ago?

That’s not age. That’s your hardware sending you signals.

I recently sat down with Eric Collett, CEO of A Mind for All Seasons and one of the nation’s leading brain health experts, for Leadership Unlocked. What he shared changed how I think about leadership entirely.

Here’s the hard truth: You can have all the productivity systems, time management frameworks, and leadership training in the world. But if your brain’s hardware is failing, none of it matters.

Eric introduced me to the BEDDSS framework - a system that addresses brain training, exercise, diet, dental health, sleep, and stress management as an integrated approach to cognitive optimization.

The results? An Atlanta executive improved his processing speed 30% in three months. A dementia patient went from a cognitive score of 15/30 to a perfect 30/30 in six months.

This isn’t about becoming a biohacker. It’s about being able to lead at the level your organization needs for the next 20-30 years.

The most heartbreaking thing I see in leadership? Brilliant people who built something incredible but can’t enjoy it because they didn’t take care of the tool they used to build it.

Your brain.

Listen to the full conversation. I promise it’s worth your time.

Apple Podcasts: https://arcq.us/4tDvIEC

What’s one thing you’re doing (or not doing) for your brain health that you know you need to change?

Podcast Episode · Leadership Unlocked: Delegate Better, Build Accountability, Lead Your Team · April 8 · 1h 10m