Before solving any problem, ask: do we need an expert with a ready answer (technical), or do the people themselves need to change (adaptive)?

Real change needs some tension, not zero — your role isn't removing all discomfort, but keeping it within a range that produces learning, not collapse.

Deliver effective feedback in 3 parts (Situation—Behavior—Impact) so the other person hears you without defensiveness.

Classify decision: reversible (2-way door) or not (1-way)? Required speed differs.

If you disagree and weren't convinced, state disagreement, then commit to execution as if it were yours.

Open any writing with Who-What-Where-When-Why-How in one paragraph.

Accept your friend's change instead of trying to restore their old version.

Open the meeting with five minutes of silent reading of a written memo instead of slides.

Delegate each task at one of five explicit levels instead of just "do it" or "don't".

Explicitly write a list of 3-5 tasks you never delegate, and delegate everything else without hesitation.

Every successful change passes 8 steps in order — skipping any = likely failure.

Each affected employee: score 5 dimensions — awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement.

Three core phases of any change: unfreeze status quo, move it, refreeze the new state.

Don't ask "do we need another hire?" — ask "if we started today with nobody, who'd we hire first?".

Before committing to a big decision, imagine it failed a year from now and list three primary causes.

Compress the organization's aspiration into one sentence under 25 words that any employee can recite.

Choose a 10-25 year goal with a 50% probability that inspires both excitement and fear.

Find the intersection of what your team loves, what it can be best-in-world at, and what drives the highest return.

Identify what to eliminate, reduce, raise, and create relative to your industry to build a competition-free market.

Analyze five competitive forces to understand why your industry is profitable (or not) and who captures the value.

Allocate investment and leadership time across running today's business, scaling emerging ventures, and seeding tomorrow's.

Map your business model in 9 boxes (customer, value, channels, relationships, revenue, resources, activities, partners, costs) on one page.

Draw a logical chain: inputs → activities → outputs → outcomes → long-term impact.

Instead of "How to improve 10%?", ask "How to achieve 10x?" to force the team to think from first principles.

Craft three plausible futures (optimistic, base, hard) and test your decisions against each.

Don't wait for 90% information; major decisions are made at 70% — beyond that is costly delay.

Designate one person — or take the role yourself — as official critic before approving any major decision.

Task a separate team with attacking your plan as if they were a smart adversary — before reality discovers it.

Define one 10-25 year goal so audacious it scares you, uniting leadership around a single ambition.

Pick two words that summarize the year's priority, replacing many goals with one shared focus.

Pick one metric that measures the value delivered to your customer, anchoring every decision to its success.

Summarize company strategy in 5 boxes on a single A4, capturing everything that matters.

Pick 1-3 goals max that create real difference, ignore the rest for 6 months.

Instead of a "start-doing" list, build a "stop-doing" list: what activities to cease to free energy for the most important?

A 30-min conversation with a report: Goal, Reality, Options, Will — to grow their thinking instead of giving answers.

Memorize 10 coaching questions that open any conversation, replacing answers 80% of the time.

Instead of "will you be my mentor?", request a specific 30-min meeting around one question.

Instead of feedback on the past, ask reports for future suggestions — less defensiveness, higher application.

Determine if you multiply your team's intelligence or drain it via 5 specific leader behaviors.

30 weekly minutes with each direct report, following 3 questions only: what, how, where stuck.

Frame feedback in 3 sentences: Situation, Behavior, Impact — strips bias, refocuses on behavior.

A 2×2: "Care Personally × Challenge Directly". Know which quadrant you're in with each report.

30 min with a top performer, 5 questions on "why you stay and why you might leave" before they actually consider leaving.

Ask 8 people around you 3 questions: what do I do well? what should I stop? what would you stop me from doing if you saw?

3 triggers reject valid feedback: Truth, Relationship, Identity. Know which fires in you.

Trust = (Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy) ÷ Self-Orientation. Rate each component with 5 people.

3 virtues (Humble, Hungry, Smart) for ideal team player. Diagnose your team against them.

Simple recurring rituals build culture more than statements. Design 3: daily, weekly, monthly.

6 criteria: small number, complementary skills, common purpose, performance goals, work approach, mutual accountability.

8 cultural scales (communicating, evaluating, persuading, leading, deciding, trusting, disagreeing, scheduling) to understand why your global team clashes.

45 min per quarter: what to stop, start, continue. Simplest team evolution tool.

Instead of "delegate or not", define precise level: 1 (Tell) to 7 (Delegate fully).

Each time a report brings a problem, the monkey jumps on your back. Your job: keep it on theirs.

Instead of directing reports, give them full context to decide confidently themselves. You do this as leader.

Instead of delegating "a task", delegate "an outcome". Report decides the how themselves.

5 questions every Friday: did reports decide without me? If not, why?

Per decision: is it a two-way door (reversible) or one-way door?

After debate, if team decides what you disagree with, commit 100% to executing without silent sabotage.

15 min before a big decision: imagine it failed a year later, list 5 likely causes with mitigations.

For decisions with 3+ options: 5 criteria, weights, 1-5 ratings, mathematical winner.