I have some lofty business goals for 2026. I want to continue pivoting from salesperson to CEO, hone our operational continuity and team growth, chase efficiency over headcount, and make decisions for the long-term.
While 2025 was about simplicity and challenging my faulty beliefs around ‘productivity’, this year is all about leaning more into being better before bigger. I run every decision through this filter. And with AI, bigger is no longer better anyway.
What’s better? A lean, efficient, highly connected company that’s tech forward but human first.
Q1 was a quarter of deeper clarity and stress-testing our systems during uncertainty.
Here’s six leadership lessons from Q1.
- Right people, right seats
It pays to do the vision, values and vibe work up front. It’ll help you protect your company culture (and revenue) as you grow.
We use the EOS system of ‘right people, right seats.’ First, we ask if they’re the right person (culture/personality fit), and second, if they’re in the right seat.
Seats = roles/responsibilities in the team. Every person gets a seat. Then we ask, do they get it? Do they want the role? Do they have the capacity to do the role well?
You might find an employee is in a specific seat and they get it, but they don’t want it. Maybe they’ve outgrown the seat or aren’t passionate about it.
In Q1, we had several team configuration changes. We identified some people who were better suited to different roles – some stepped up, while others exited the business. Our org chart isn’t fixed.
The big lesson was that it can sometimes be a wrong seat, not a wrong person.
- Standards you walk by are the standards you accept
This was a big realisation, which I wrote all about here. There were moments where I’d catch issues early and address them immediately, but I also saw what builds up when concerns go unaddressed for too long.
Your team watches what you walk past, not what you say in a meeting. Walk the talk because a lot of this is unspoken.
- BHAG might be holding you back
A trusted advisor asked me if our big business target will actually get me closer to the life I want. It was a powerful reflection.
Some goals are created to prove something in a specific moment. But what happens once that’s achieved? I’d seen my dad lose balance of his life because it was all business. I don’t want that.
I just want to lead a good balanced life. Business, family, friends, health, travel, and personal growth.
Always challenge growth for growth’s sake.
- The messy middle is most interesting
Q1 meant leading through a lot of restructuring, running more sales, planning my biggest paid speaking gig, and building my brand.
My instinct is to wait until all the internal stuff was sorted to get out on stage. But I learned audiences connect with leaders who are still in it, who are a few steps ahead.
The lesson? Don’t wait until everything is ‘figured out.’ That’s a fallacy.
- Recovery is performance
I had multiple moments of deliberately pulling back. This meant protecting my energy before a big day out and getting better at recognising when I’m in the red.
Rest isn’t what you do when you can’t perform. It needs to be built into your schedule first.
- Selling for the love of it
This is a big one, especially as I balance my sales vs. CEO duties. I want to sell because I love it, not because I have to. This isn’t always easy to follow in practice, especially when I need to plug revenue holes.
Instead of either-or thinking, I’m slowly resolving the tension by building my personal sales as a profit layer. Slowing down to help others speed up but not stopping altogether.
How did your Q1 line up with your 2026 goals? If things were off, book a free 15-minute strategy call with me to get you on track.