Default to believing in people’s potential and possibilities, as the upside of being proven right in their potential far outweighs the low frequency of being let down.
Always prioritize doing the right thing for the right reasons, even if you are legally or technically ‘right,’ especially when trust and relationships are at stake, as preserving them is paramount for long-term success.
Be aware of the ‘dark side of gratitude,’ ensuring that being grateful for what you have doesn’t prevent you from recognizing your right and responsibility to work toward something better.
As a leader, cultivate the courage to ask probing questions, even if you feel humble or respect those who came before you, because your role demands it to uncover truth and prevent problems.
Implement monthly relationship check-ins with your partner, using specific questions (e.g., best/worst part of last 30 days, what can I do differently) to foster intentionality and deep understanding, aiming to be as good at home as in business.
To identify critical business improvements, ask employees: ‘What do we throw away?’, ‘When do we say no?’, and ‘If you were me, what’s one thing you would do differently to make the business better?’, then immediately act on patterns found across these answers.
Approach new challenges with ‘humble confidence,’ believing you can figure things out rather than needing to know everything upfront, which balances humility and curiosity with courage and confidence.
Prioritize self-care, mental health, and physical wellness as the essential foundation for effective leadership, especially during exceptional times of change and difficulty, to ensure you are strong and present when needed.
Become comfortable being incredibly open and vulnerable with your team, as this fosters reciprocation, creating opportunities for mutual support and permission to prioritize well-being when needed.
To roll out unpopular changes, confront reality by presenting both positive and negative trends, find and empower a ‘coalition of the willing’ to architect and champion the change, then shine a light on their success to inspire broader adoption.
When dealing with difficult customers, use ‘customer service judo’ by using their energy in a giving way (e.g., proactively offering a small concession) rather than fighting them, which can disarm them and change their behavior.
When addressing performance issues like lateness, clearly state the impact of the behavior on others and the business, and ask the person to commit or adjust their priorities, treating them like an adult and clarifying dependencies.
When promoted to lead former peers, acknowledge your past imperfections and commit to doing things the right way going forward, expecting the same from your team, which earns respect and levels up performance faster.
Anytime you are criticized, first assume the criticism is correct and allow yourself to digest it before responding, which helps you either reaffirm its inaccuracy or find a grain of truth to address intensely.
During personal difficulties, strategically decide whether to ‘put yourself in the game’ or ’take yourself out’ for a moment, based on physical and emotional well-being and whether it will be a positive experience, communicating this to your team for support.
Build the leadership muscle of balancing leading, directing, and collaborating, making clear decisions based on input (or despite it) and communicating the ‘why’ to shape the future working culture.
When addressing upset stakeholders, first allow them to express their anger, then clearly state what went wrong, explain the corrective action, and set clear expectations for future similar initiatives, emphasizing learning to repair trust.
When managing tensions between different business channels, honor the emotional concerns, provide data evidencing incrementality, and most importantly, ensure the new channels genuinely build the core brand and business to mitigate complaints.
Make a fundamental choice about your brand’s pricing strategy: either compete on value (a race to the bottom) or position as aspirational/luxury, competing on quality, as this dictates brand positioning and subsequent pricing psychology.
Identify the ‘sweet spot’ pricing range that optimizes trial and repeat purchases for your product or service, avoiding prices so high they relegate it to gifting or so low they devalue the brand.
When the market for your core, expensive product is shrinking, introduce smaller, less expensive alternatives to capture a growing segment of customers, thereby ‘going to where the puck is going’ and expanding your market.
When sophisticated A/B testing isn’t possible, focus on managing pricing extremes to prevent sales drops from being too high or leaving money on the table from being too low, ensuring basic pricing health.
Explore pricing strategies beyond individual item pricing, such as bundles or subscriptions, to create additional value for customers and enhance engagement with your product or service.
Reinvest revenue generated from new innovation channels back into the core brick-and-mortar business to accelerate recovery and growth for existing stakeholders, creating a virtuous cycle that strengthens the foundation.
Frame your brand not just as a core business, but as a ‘branded ecosystem’ where the franchise business is the heart, surrounded by complementary retail channels offering variations of the product to diverse customer occasions.