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Stuck in Meetings That Suck? Here’s How to Fix Them

August 5, 2025• People

Meetings suck. At least, that’s the reputation they’ve earned in most organizations. And if you’ve spent any time drowning in unproductive, soul-sucking meetings that waste your time instead of driving results, you know exactly why Cameron Herold wrote the book Meetings Suck.

But as Cameron writes, here’s the real problem: Meetings don’t suck—bad meetings suck. And unfortunately, most meetings are bad.

You don’t have to accept that. If you’re serious about getting your team aligned, solving real issues, and making sure priorities stay on track, you need a Weekly Tactical Meeting that actually works. Done right, it will keep your team connected, drive accountability, and eliminate the endless cycle of wasted time.

Over time, we have found that when people run meetings called things like “L-10” meetings, they tend to feel locked into a rigid agenda, and an overly prescriptive framework doesn’t work for every organization and every team. We use the term “Weekly Tactical” because we believe that teams should come together each week to focus on tactical execution, no matter what agenda they adopt or create.

Here’s a best-practice overview of how to run a Weekly Tactical Meeting that gets results instead of resentment. If this agenda doesn’t work for you, take the intent of the meeting and customize it as much as you need to so that it works well for you and your unique circumstances.

Note:  If you want to interact and ideate on ways to make your meetings better, visit AskMichaelErath.com and interact with my AI Clone for expert insights and guidance.

The Weekly Tactical Meeting Blueprint

A great Weekly Tactical Meeting follows a structured agenda designed to keep the team aligned, address real issues, and drive execution. No fluff. No wasted time. Here’s what that looks like:

1. Start with a Check-In That Matters

Forget the pointless small talk. Start with one question that exposes real frustrations from the past week. Consider questions like…

  • What’s the biggest challenge you faced last week that we should discuss?
  • What’s one thing slowing you down?
  • What’s one roadblock you see that we need to clear?

This does two things: It creates awareness of hidden issues and prevents problems from festering and growing bigger. Put anything needing to be addressed on your issues list for later in the meeting.

Then, make sure people are delivering and celebrating wins, but also being very specific, by asking something like, “What was the most impactful, positive thing you or your team accomplished since our last meeting?” This gets people thinking about and celebrating wins…and if somebody cannot answer the question, then the fact that they are not producing wins likely needs to go on your issues list.

2. Review Action Items—And Hold People Accountable

Every commitment made in previous meetings gets reviewed.

  • Did you do what you said you’d do?
  • If not, why? What’s the holdup?

No dodging. No hiding. If your team knows they’ll be held accountable, execution skyrockets.

3. Scorecard Review—Are We Winning or Losing?

Your team needs to know if they’re on track—fast. Key drivers of each team member’s MCOs (Most Critical Outcomes®) should be reviewed within minutes, not dragged into a discussion.

  • Are we hitting our targets?
  • What’s off track?

If something is off, don’t get sucked into problem-solving now—put it on the issues list for later.

Not sure about MCOs? Follow the link to read my post of the importance of a clear Most Critical Outcome for every position in your Next Level Accountability Chart™.

4. Rock Review—Are Big Priorities Moving Forward?

If you’re running a business without quarterly priorities (Rocks), you’re just reacting. This part of the meeting ensures your biggest projects don’t stall. Each team member gives a quick update:

✅ Is your Rock on track or off track?
🔹 What did you do last week?
🔹 What will you do this week?

If someone repeatedly has “no update,” that’s an issue to address.

5. Headlines & Updates—What’s Important to Share, but Isn’t an Issue?

  • Customer feedback
  • Market changes
  • Key company updates

This keeps everyone in the loop without hijacking the meeting with side discussions.

6. Solve Real Issues—The Main Event

Most meetings fail here. They talk about issues instead of solving them. Not in this meeting.

Follow this process:

  1. Prioritize ruthlessly – If we could only solve ONE issue today, what would make the biggest impact? Start there.
  2. Define the issue clearly – What’s the real problem? Who owns the decision? What’s the ideal outcome we need to get to if we’re going to give this time today?
  3. Solve it and assign action items – If an issue is discussed but no action is taken, the meeting failed.

Pro Tip: Set a timer for each issue. Ask the person setting up the issue for the team how much time they want to give the issue to resolve it and set the timer accordingly. If you can’t solve it in that time, it’s either poorly defined or needs offline work.

7. Cascading Messages—Who Else Needs to Know?

Most decision impacts people beyond the room. Assign responsibility to cascade key decisions to the right people. Do this before moving to the next issue so no cascading message is forgotten.

8. Rate the Meeting—Because Mediocrity Isn’t Welcome

Before you wrap up, have the team rate the meeting from 1-5. If it’s not a 5, they must say why so you can adjust and make the next meeting better. Consider creating a short statement that defines each number from 1 to 5 to add clarity.

Example:

5  This was an extremely valuable meeting. We stayed focused on important things that were worthy of our time & we were decisive.
4  This was a good and valuable meeting, but there are some things that can be improved, such as…
3  I know the meeting was necessary, but I did not get much out of it. I would have preferred…
2  This was not a good meeting. We were not focused on important things, got off on tangents, were not disciplined, etc. (fill in the details and be specific in terms of what would have made it better).
1  This was a total waste of my time because…

This feedback forces continuous improvement so your meetings don’t drift into mediocrity.

Your Meetings Shouldn’t Suck—The Effort is YOUR Responsibility

The problem isn’t meetings. It’s bad meetings. And bad meetings are a choice.

If your team dreads meetings, it’s time to fix the structure, demand accountability, and start solving real problems instead of just talking about them.

Want to take your meetings to the next level? At Next Level Growth, we help leadership teams implement customized execution systems that eliminate wasted time, drive real results, and scale their businesses faster, with less stress and more control.

If you’re tired of meetings that suck and want a system that works, start the conversation.

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Delegation help

No One Told You This About Delegation—And It’s Killing Your Growth

July 15, 2025• People, Process

You’re overwhelmed.
Your team keeps coming to you for answers.
And despite working harder than ever, you’re still the bottleneck in your own business.

Why?

Because you haven’t mastered the four levels of delegation.

Most entrepreneurs struggle with delegation—not because they don’t want to delegate, but because they:

🚨 Don’t trust their team to execute at the same level they would.
🚨 Handoff tasks without clear expectations, leading to frustration and rework.
🚨 Get stuck in daily operations instead of focusing on strategic growth.

If you don’t fix this, you’ll stay trapped in the weeds, drowning in decisions that your team should be handling.

But when you delegate the right way?

🔥 You’ll regain your time.
🔥 Your team will take ownership.
🔥 And your business will scale without you having to carry all the weight.

 

The Four Levels of Delegation: What You’re Doing Wrong (And How to Fix It)

Not all tasks should be delegated the same way. The key is to structure delegation based on how much autonomy the employee has and how much involvement you need.

1. Full Ownership (Where You Want to Be)

For tasks where the employee has the skills and trust to execute independently.

✅ Clearly define what they own.
✅ Trust them to execute without your input.
✅ No micromanaging—just get out of their way.

🔹 Example: “Joe, you own all client invoicing. I trust you to handle it 100%.”

2. Ownership with Post-Action Reporting (For Tasks That Need Visibility)

For tasks where you want updates but don’t need to approve every decision upfront.

✅ Employee owns the task.
✅ They complete it first, then update you.
✅ You review results and coach as needed.

🔹 Example: “Joe, you own vendor negotiations. After finalizing agreements, send me a summary.”

3. Ownership with Pre-Approval Required (When You Need a Final Say)

For tasks where the employee can handle the work but still needs your approval before taking action.

✅ Employee does the research.
✅ They bring you a recommended decision.
✅ You approve before they move forward.

🔹 Example: “Joe, research new vendors and recommend your top choice. Bring it to me for approval before signing.”

4. Collaborative Problem-Solving (For Big-Picture Decisions)

For major strategic moves that require leadership alignment before execution.

✅ Employee identifies the challenge.
✅ You tackle it together in a structured setting (not random interruptions).
✅ Adds to an Issues List for team discussion.

🔹 Example: “Joe, we need to evaluate expanding our services. Let’s discuss it in next week’s leadership meeting.”

How to Implement This So It Actually Works

Most entrepreneurs try delegation once, get burned, and go right back to doing everything themselves.

If you want this to work long-term, you need a system.

✔ Quarterly Calibration Meetings: Reassess what’s delegated and adjust as employees grow.
✔ Intentional Skill Development: Push tasks up the delegation scale over time.
✔ Clear Accountability: If an employee isn’t progressing, is it a training issue or a role misalignment? Fix it before it kills momentum.

The Payoff: What Happens When You Get Delegation Right

When you use this structured approach, your entire business transforms:

✅ Leadership Clarity: You’ll know exactly what to delegate and where you still need to be involved.
✅ Employee Accountability: Your team will take full ownership instead of running to you for every decision.
✅ Faster Problem-Solving: Employees will bring you solutions, not just problems.
✅ Scalability: You’ll finally be able to step back from daily operations and focus on long-term strategy.

Ready to Get Out of the Weeds and Scale?

If you’re serious about building a scalable, self-sufficient business, you need more than just theory—you need a proven framework.

That’s exactly what we install at Next Level Growth.

We work hands-on with leadership teams to eliminate bottlenecks, create accountability, and build a delegation framework that actually works.

🔹 Want to free yourself from the daily grind?
🔹 Ready to implement a system that scales?

 

Let’s talk.

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A-player recruitment program

From Rockstar to Recruiter: How Elite Companies Multiply Their A-Players

June 17, 2025• People, Team Health

What if your best employees could become your best recruiters?

Let that sink in.

We’re in a business environment where the real battle isn’t just for talent—it’s for the right talent. CEOs and business leaders everywhere are saying the same thing: “We can’t find good people.” Even worse, when a high performer leaves, the scramble to fill the role is chaotic, standards slip, and the power dynamic tilts unfavorably toward mediocre candidates.

The harsh truth? Most organizations are recruiting from a place of desperation, not strategy.

That ends today.

Introducing the A-Player Recruiting Ambassador Program: A Game-Changer in Talent Strategy

Imagine this: your top-performing employees actively seeking out and attracting other top performers—people they trust, respect, and would stake their reputation on. And they do it not only because they want to work with other top performers, but because it pays off. Big time.

This isn’t some outdated “refer-a-friend” gimmick. It’s a strategic initiative designed to multiply excellence by creating a flywheel of elite talent.

How It Works: A Quick Breakdown

Only verified A-Players—identified through your organization’s A-Player Talent Assessment—are invited to participate. That’s the first lever of quality control.

Why is that important? Because average performers refer average performers. But top performers? They know other top performers. And they don’t risk their credibility on weak hires.

The Incentive Structure: Skin in the Game

The payout for a successful referral is $5,000, but it’s distributed in tiers:

  • $1,000 after 90 days
  • $1,500 after 6 months
  • $2,500 after 12 months

But there’s a twist: both the referring employee and the new hire must still be employed and still be considered A-Players at each milestone.

Now you’re not just recruiting talent, you’re retaining it and elevating performance across the board.

Who Qualifies to Refer?

Not everyone. If recruiting is already part of someone’s job description (like a Sales Manager hiring for their own team), this program doesn’t apply. But if your star developer brings in a killer salesperson? That’s a win.

The Psychology Behind the Program

Let’s be real. Most employee referral programs fail because they don’t inspire action. A $500 thank-you check feels like an afterthought. But a $5,000 payday? That gets attention.

And it gets results.

Here’s why it works:

1. The Stakes Are Real

There’s enough money on the line to motivate serious action, not just casual referrals.

2. A-Players Attract A-Players

Elite performers tend to know and trust other elite performers. They’re not on job boards. They’re in the networks of your best people.

3. Accountability Is Baked In

This is performance-based recruiting. If either party stops performing, the payout ends. Everyone stays invested.

4. It Multiplies Culture

The referring A-Player has skin in the game. They mentor their recruit. They help them succeed. It’s culture built on trust and results.

Make It Personal. Make It Powerful.

Want to make this program stick? Don’t let HR send out a mass email. Have the CEO personally invite each A-Player to participate. That personal recognition is a win in itself. And it sends a powerful signal to the leadership team about the priority of talent.

Even better, make the bonus payment public. Present it in front of the leadership team. Add a human moment of appreciation. This isn’t just about money, it’s about meaning.

Customize It For Your Culture

This framework is meant to be adapted. Adjust the dollar amounts. Broaden the eligibility.

The core principle is simple: stop fishing in shallow waters. Let your A-Players help you cast a deeper, wider net.

Because when your best people bring in more of the best, you build a culture of unstoppable momentum.

Final Thought: Recruit Smarter, Not Harder

The war for talent isn’t won with job ads or recruiters alone. It’s won when your team takes ownership of who joins their ranks.

So ask yourself:

  • Would it be a ridiculous idea to reward our best employees for finding our next great hire?
  • Is it out of the question to build a bench so strong we never scramble again?
  • Would it be crazy to create a culture where excellence attracts excellence?

If your answer is “no,” then it’s time to act.

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right people before process

Most Entrepreneurs Have This Backwards: The Key to Scaling Without Chaos

May 20, 2025• Issues, People, Process

Too many entrepreneurs get this backwards.

They dive headfirst into fixing processes, thinking a few more SOPs will solve their headaches. And sure, processes matter—but only if you have the right people first.

Because here’s the real problem: Most entrepreneurs try to solve people problems with process.

I made this mistake myself. I built an insanely detailed, 1,000-page SOP manual—covering every possible scenario—only to realize no one used it. It was obsolete before the ink dried.

Why? Because process never fixes the wrong people.

Right People, Right Seats—Then Process

Jim Collins got it right in Good to Great: Get the right people in the right seats first.

  • Right person? Aligned with your core values and mission.
  • Right seat? Competent, skilled, and capable of executing.

When you have a team that’s aligned with your values and purpose, they instinctively fill process gaps the way you would as a founder. They don’t need a 1,000-page manual because they already understand where you’re going.

Process should serve your vision—not the other way around.

People First, Process Second

Here’s how it works:

    1. Your vision defines your company’s direction and long-term goals.
    2. Your missions (defined on your Next Level Accountability Chart®) clarify what each seat is responsible for.
    3. Your core values ensure the right people are in those seats.
    4. Only then do you refine process to support it all.

This allows you to build simpler, much more effective processes. When you’ve got a team full of Right People that are values and mission aligned, you don’t have to document every possible scenario—this is impossible anyway. You simply document the high-level processes that must be followed, and your Right People will have the latitude to personalize the inevitable in-between situations that they encounter. This leads to not only more effective processes, but more ownership of results and a higher level of employee engagement and retention.

Get this right, and process documentation stops feeling like a chore. Instead, it becomes an energizing tool that enhances performance and accelerates results.

At Next Level Growth, we help entrepreneurs stop the madness of over-processing their way out of people problems. Because when you start with who first, your business runs smoother, scales faster, and gives you back control.

Ready to get the right people in the right seats and finally scale without chaos?

Schedule a discovery call and start building your elite team today.

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No One Told You This About Productivity—And It’s Costing You Big Time

April 8, 2025• Issues, People, Process

You’re drowning in distractions.
Your team is constantly firefighting.
And no matter how hard you work, it feels like you’re stuck in place.

Sound familiar?

Here’s why: You’re not compartmentalizing your work effectively. And if you don’t fix this, your business will stay chaotic, your stress will keep rising, and your biggest goals will never get the attention they deserve.

But once you learn to compartmentalize like elite organizations do…

🔥 You’ll regain control of your time.
🔥 Your team will execute with ruthless focus.
🔥 And your business will finally scale—without you having to carry all the weight.

The Four Types of Work: What’s Stealing Your Focus?

Every single thing you do in your business falls into one of these four categories. Most entrepreneurs spend their time in the wrong ones.

🚨 Fire Drills: Urgent, non-value-adding crises that must be handled immediately—but don’t grow the business.
🎯 Strategic Priorities (90-Day Rocks): The mission-critical work that actually moves you forward. These should command 80% of your time.
💡 Bright, Shiny Objects: The tempting distractions that seem exciting but don’t align with your strategy. Capture them for later—don’t chase them now.
⏳ Wasted Time: The meetings, emails, and nonsense that eat your day and kill your momentum. Cut this out ruthlessly.

Most business owners spend too much time on fire drills and distractions—and not nearly enough on strategic execution. Here’s how to fix that.

The 90-Day Execution System: How Elite Teams Stay Focused

If you’re serious about compartmentalizing your work and executing at a high level, you need a 90-day execution system. This is what separates the top-performing businesses from the ones that constantly spin their wheels.

Here’s how it works:

✅ Set 90-Day Rocks: Identify the 3-5 most critical priorities for the quarter. These aren’t “nice-to-haves.” They are non-negotiable, must-win initiatives.
✅ Hold Weekly Tactical Meetings: Every week, check progress on each Rock. Are you on track? If not, fix it now—don’t wait until it’s too late.
✅ Use Milestones to Prevent Last-Minute Chaos: Break your Rocks into smaller milestones. No more procrastination. No more last-minute scrambling.

Eliminate Distractions, Protect Your Focus

Even the best-laid plans will fail if you don’t ruthlessly eliminate distractions.

❌ Defer Non-Priority Tasks: Capture bright, shiny objects for later—but don’t chase them now.

❌ Reduce Fire Drills: If the same emergencies keep happening, fix the root cause so they stop.

❌ Cut Wasted Time: Kill useless meetings. Streamline communication. Automate or delegate low-value tasks.

Accountability: The Secret Weapon That Drives Execution

Plans don’t fail because they’re bad. They fail because no one follows through.

💥 Weekly Check-Ins: Every leader must report on their Rocks every single week. No exceptions.
💥 Track Progress Publicly: Use a simple on-track/off-track system to flag issues early—before they derail your quarter.
💥 Prevent the Procrastination Curve: Most people push work until the last minute. Weekly milestones stop this from happening.

Your Business Will Stay Stuck Until You Fix This

You can keep grinding day after day, constantly fighting fires, chasing distractions, and feeling overwhelmed.

Or you can compartmentalize your work, install a 90-day execution system, and start scaling with clarity, control, and confidence.

At Next Level Growth, we help entrepreneurial leadership teams install the same execution systems used by elite organizations to achieve consistent growth with less stress.

📩 If you’re ready to stop the chaos and build a business that runs with precision, let’s talk.

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Accountability with a team when climbing

Your Organization’s Accountability Is Broken—Here’s How to Fix It

March 18, 2025• Issues, People, Process

Brace yourself. This might sting.

  • You rate your leadership team as A-players… but at the same time you wouldn’t enthusiastically rehire most of your employees.
  • You think you’re holding people accountable… but deep down, you know expectations are vague and accountability is weak.
  • You’re frustrated with your team’s performance… but you haven’t clearly defined success for each role.

Sound familiar? You’re not alone.

The Leadership Accountability Gap

A new client of ours rated their leadership team as A-players—scoring them a 4.8 out of 5.

But when asked, “Would you enthusiastically rehire everyone on your team?”

They gave it a 1.2.

Let that sink in.

If leadership is so great, why would they rebuild their team from scratch if given the chance?

The answer? Accountability is broken.

The First Obsession of Elite Leaders

At Next Level Growth, we teach that every leader must own their first obsession:

➡ Lead. Manage. Retain. Hold people accountable.

Most leadership teams fail at this because they assume their team knows what success looks like. They don’t.

Here’s how you fix it:

    1. Clearly communicate what the mission for each seat is. You can do this in one sentence, identifying where the goal line for each seat.
    2. Define success in one measurable outcome per role. If they don’t know their #1 result, they’re guessing—and so are you.  We call this the Most Critical Outcome® or MCO™.
    3. Clarify the obsessions that drive that outcome. What specifically should they focus on daily? Without clarity, execution crumbles.
    4. Communicate expectations relentlessly. If you haven’t repeated it ten times, they probably haven’t heard it once.
    5. Generate agreement.  You can’t hold someone accountable for an expectation.  You can only hold them accountable if they agree to the expectation.

When you nail this, something powerful happens: Your team starts delivering. And suddenly, that second question—“Would you enthusiastically rehire them?”—gets a different answer.

As Dr. Jordan Peterson says, “Enabling failure is not a noble cause.”

Let’s Fix Your Accountability Problem

Your business will never scale if accountability is soft. At Next Level Growth, we help leadership teams install the systems and clarity they need to finally get results—without the frustration.

If you’re ready to build a high-performance, accountable team, let’s talk.

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90-90-1 Rule - 90 days to the summit

The 90-90-1 Rule: Why Most Entrepreneurs Stay Stuck (And How to Break Free)

March 12, 2025• Entrepreneurial Freedom, Issues, People, Process, Traction

There’s a reason most entrepreneurs never reach their full potential.

It’s not because they lack ideas. It’s not because they don’t work hard.

It’s because they refuse to install the one habit that actually moves the needle.

The 90-90-1 Rule.

  • 90 minutes
  • Focused on ONE high-impact goal
  • Every day
  • For 90 days straight

It’s simple. But let me be brutally honest – most people will never do it.

The Brutal Truth: Most Entrepreneurs Waste Their Best Hours

You know the type.

They’re grinding. They’re hustling. They’re running from one fire to the next.

But what are they actually accomplishing?

  • Checking email 27 times before lunch
  • Jumping into meetings they shouldn’t even be in
  • Playing whack-a-mole with problems that wouldn’t exist if they just had the right process playbooks in place

Meanwhile, the entrepreneurs who actually scale their businesses?

They protect their time like their vision depends on it.

Because it does.

If You Can’t Commit 90 Minutes, You Don’t Actually Want It

Let’s be real – if you can’t dedicate 90 minutes a day to driving your company forward, you don’t actually want to grow.

You just like playing office.

The elite entrepreneurs? They don’t waste time. They don’t wait for the right moment. They execute.

They block distractions. They focus. They build momentum.

And after 90 days?

Their business is on another level – while the excuse-makers are still drowning in email and wondering why they feel stuck.

The Challenge: 90 Minutes a Day, 90 Days Straight

Starting tomorrow, set aside 90 minutes for the ONE thing that will drive the biggest impact in your business.

  • No email.
  • No Slack.
  • No distractions.

Just pure execution.

Do it for 90 days. Watch what happens.

Because elite organizations don’t run on wishful thinking. They run on obsession, focus, discipline, and execution.

And the ones that do it best?

They don’t just grow. They dominate.

Want to build an elite organization? Stop making excuses and start installing better habits.

At Next Level Growth, we help leadership teams do exactly that. If you’re ready to break out of the chaos and build a business that actually scales, let’s talk.

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Your Employees Are Clueless About Money—And It’s Costing You a Fortune

February 25, 2025• Entrepreneurial Freedom, People

Most employees think revenue equals profit. That’s why they do things like:

→ Waste company resources like there’s an endless supply

→ Demand raises without understanding the financial reality

→ Get frustrated when budgets are tight and think leadership is “greedy”

The truth? They’ve never been shown how money actually moves through a business, and how little is often left over in the end.

Fixing this isn’t optional. It’s critical. And it starts with a $100 bill.

The $100 Lesson That Changes Everything

Here’s how to permanently rewire how your employees think about money—and why it disappears faster than they realize.

Step 1: Set the Context

Walk into the room. Hold up a photocopy of a $100 bill. Ask a simple question:

“How much of this do you think ends up as profit?”

They’ll guess—wildly wrong. Some might say 50%. Others, 30%. Most have no idea.

That’s when you pull out the scissors.

Step 2: Slice It Up—And Watch Their Faces Change

Grab a ruler, mark the back of the bill into sections based on the percentage of revenue each of the sections of your profit and loss statement costs the business – COGS, OPEX, G&A (the example below is from doing this exercise in my former hardwood manufacturing business) – and start cutting as you explain:

1. Materials – 25% Gone

  • “First, $25 of every $100 we sell goes straight to raw materials to buy the logs we need.”
  • Snip. First chunk gone.


2. Direct Labor – Another 25% Gone

    • “Next, payroll for the employees who actually produce the finished product (or deliver the service).”
    • Snip. Another quarter gone.

→ Half the money is already gone. But we’re just getting started.


3. Operating Expenses – 20% Gone

    • “Rent, utilities, software, office staff. Just to keep the lights on.”
    • Snip. Down to $30 left.


4. Sales & Admin Costs – 20% Gone

    • “Marketing, sales, and administrative overhead.”
    • Snip. Now we’re down to just $10 left.


5. Taxes – 40% of Profit

    • “The government wants its cut. Let’s take $4. We can debate about ‘fair share’ another time.”
    • Snip. Now we’re at $6.


6. Reinvestment – 50% of What’s Left

    • “To grow, we need new equipment, technology, and training. Half of what’s left has to go back into the business.”
    • Snip. Down to $3.

Step 3: The Moment It Clicks

Hold up that tiny sliver of what’s left.

“This is what’s left after everything. This is the real profit. And that’s only if everything goes perfectly along the way.”

Now, shake things up.

  • If labor inefficiency raises payroll costs by just 5%, the profit shrinks from $10 to $5.
  • If a mistake forces rework that costs $30? The company is now losing money.
  • If customers delay payments? Cash flow collapses, and payroll is at risk.

Watch your employees finally get it.

Step 4: Why This Exercise Should Be Non-Negotiable

After doing this, your employees will stop assuming money grows on trees.

They will begin to:

✅ Understand that big invoices don’t mean big profits
✅ See how waste and inefficiency kills profitability
✅ Realize that their daily actions directly impact the company’s financial health
✅ Stop complaining about budgets because they finally get why they exist

This Changes Everything—If You Make It a Habit

This isn’t a one-time gimmick. It’s how you build a team that thinks like owners.

Watch Next Level Growth Founder and author of Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations, Michael Erath, demonstrate how he teaches this concept.

At Next Level Growth, we help business leaders fix execution, create financial transparency, and build a culture where employees stop acting like clueless spenders and start thinking like business owners. And it is all in an effort to help you achieve your “Dream Come True” vision for your business.

You want that?

🌎 Go here. Let’s talk.

Not ready to start a conversation? Take these baby steps first…

🌎 Buy the Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations book (available March 4 – follow the link to sign up for a reminder and take advantage of launch day discounts)

🌎 Interact with my AI Clone for deeper and personalized insights and guidance

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SCARF Model I don't give tens

I Don’t Give 10s

May 3, 2024• People

I cannot tell you how many times in the nine years I’ve spent as a Business Guide since exiting my manufacturing business I’ve heard leaders, when asked to rate someone or something on a one to ten scale say, “I don’t give tens.”

Whenever I hear that, I follow the statement with a question that always has the same answer, “Why don’t you give tens?” So far, 100% of the time, the answer is either, “People can always do better,” or, “If I rate their performance a ten of ten, they’ll stop pushing themselves.”

While that answer may be understandable, it is also highly debatable. If a basketball player goes eight for eight from the free-throw line, could they have done better? Of course not. On a scale of one to ten, that’s a ten. But I get it. The premise behind the philosophy is based on the fear that if a leader gives a team member a ten out of ten when they deserve it, that team member will slack off and stop trying to improve.

Sadly, that mindset assumes the worst of people, and it also shows a lack of understanding of how the limbic system works in the human brain.

The Unintended Consequence of a “They Can Always Do Better” Mindset

I follow this by asking the leader if they think that over time, always telling people they could do better, even when those people exceeded expectations, will inspire those people to continue to go to battle for them and try harder and harder. Then I ask if there is a chance that they will eventually give up and stop trying so hard because they start to feel like their best is never going to be good enough. The leader almost always admits that the latter is much more likely to be the result.

Every once in a while, I will encounter a harsh leader who refuses to consider an alternative approach and insists on just being overly tough on everyone. In every single case I have observed, and I never know if it will happen in weeks or if will take as much as a year or more, that leader eventually leaves the organization. They either leave on their own because it becomes increasingly evident over time, as other leaders grow to embrace a more positive way to build a Culture of Performance, that they are just not a good fit, or they’re asked to leave because the owner sees the collateral damage being done by their leadership style and finally takes action.

The Science Behind Appreciation and the Limbic System

When people are constantly being ground on by their bosses to do better, their amygdala starts to send signals to the brain that trigger a fight or flight response, and as a result, neurochemicals like adrenaline and cortisol are released into the bloodstream. Depending on the extremity of the situation, this can actually cause the pre-frontal cortex (the part of the brain that controls our cognitive abilities) to begin to shut down. When that happens, it becomes harder on those affected to think clearly and make good decisions, which is the exact opposite of what the leader usually intends.

Conversely, when team members feel appreciated and have a healthy relationship with the leaders to whom they report, the opposite happens. Different neurochemicals, like oxytocin, serotonin and dopamine are released. This will often cause the team members to feel a sense of belonging and engagement, which enhances their commitment to the team and leader, and often their performance as well.

The SCARF Model

Dr. David Rock has done extensive work on this subject and has created what he calls the SCARF Model. This Model shows how as leaders, our behaviors and the way we interact with our teams, can cause our team members’ brains to respond in ways that they normally cannot control. It explains how the results of our interactions and leadership style often have a significant impact on our team members’ engagement and performance.

In a nutshell, SCARF is an acronym representing five areas that a leader can affect others in ways that cause nearly uncontrollable chemical reactions in the brain and ultimately impact the effectiveness of the people around them. At a very high level, you just need to understand that when people are in an environment where they experience a threat response, chemicals are released which affect their brain in ways that make it harder to think clearly. Our brains work in this way to protect us…to make us want to move away from the threat. Conversely, when they are in an environment where they feel rewarded, or appreciated, they experience a reward response. The reward response activates different chemicals in the brain and creates a desire to move toward, or engage more closely, with whatever caused them to experience the reward response.

SCARF Explained

The following is a brief summary of each component of the SCARF Model.

They key thing to remember as a leader, is that if your leadership style and disposition are consistently creating threat responses in your team members, you are likely undermining their ability to perform at a high level without even realizing it, actually working against your objectives as a leader. On the other hand, if you are intentional about affirming and appreciating all of the positive things your team members are doing, you will get all of the benefits resulting from the reward response. Of course, there are times where you have to be firm and direct, but it is important to always do so within the context of the SCARF Model. The more you focus on balancing correction and coaching with appreciation, the more trust you will build with others, which makes difficult conversations easier and more effective when they do have to happen.

  • Status:  If a leader berates an employee, especially in public, that action diminishes the team member’s status and can make them think less of themselves, which causes a threat response. It actually makes it more difficult to think clearly, which has a negative impact on performance. When a leader shows appreciation for positive performance or behaviors, team members will experience a reward response. As humans, we want more of that, and more often than not, people will adjust behaviors and actions to do more of the things that led to the appreciation and created the reward response.

  • Certainty: If a leader creates an environment of uncertainty, like constantly making people feel that their job is on the line and they could be terminated at any time, it creates a threat response. The fear team members are constantly facing negatively impacts their performance because the constant fight or flight mode reduces the functionality of their prefrontal cortex. If, on the other hand, leaders establish clear expectations, coach team members where they need it, and help those team members feel that the leader has their backs and is supportive, they will have a sense of certainty, of security, and experience a reward response.

  • Autonomy: When a leader is constantly micro-managing a team member, that team member will often lose any sense of autonomy in their role, and the result is a threat response. Nobody likes to be micromanaged, and it often is something we perceive as a threat. But when a leader, again with clearly communicated expectations, allows team members the freedom to make decisions on their own and have a reasonable degree of autonomy in their roles, that sense of autonomy causes them to experience a reward response.

  • Relatedness: Human beings are “small group” animals. Most people do not like being in large crowds for extended periods of time, and also don’t like extended periods of isolation. When the environment at work pits people against one another in other to drive performance, they often feel isolated and alone at work. That results in a threat response. When people work in an environment with others who share common values and work together as a healthy team, even though most of us have some level of a competitive spirit, the clear common goals, under the guidance of healthy leadership, allow people to experience a reward response.

  • Fairness: Lastly, when team members experience a lack of fairness, whether they are the target or they observe someone else being treated unfairly, they will almost always experience a threat response. Conversely, when people feel that they work in an environment where they know that people are treated fairly, they experience a reward response, especially in challenging situations where fairness is put to the test.

You can download a one-page overview of the SCARF Model using the link below.

A Personal Story of an Organization That Gets It Right

At Next Level Growth, we work with our clients to build elite organizations…organizations on a path to being a “category of one” in their market. We do this by teaching them a principled approach known as the Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations®. The fourth of the Five Obsessions is a Culture of Performance.

Oftentimes, when I bring up the necessity of a Culture of Performance in order to truly build something elite, people initially think about a hard-driving culture that grinds on team members, much like the Jack Welch style at GE during his tenure as CEO, where he famously fired the bottom 10% of the workforce every year. In my belief, that kind of a fear-based performance culture not only isn’t necessary, but it also rarely works in the long run.

My youngest son, Zachary, started working at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort as a temporary employee during their Christmas at the Princess event. When the event concluded, Zachary was brought over as a full-time employee and began working as an Experience Concierge in their exclusive Privado Villas division.

If you’ve experienced the Fairmont brand, and if you’ve been fortunate to have experienced the Scottsdale Princess, you will know that the brand has a very high standard for guest experience, and in order to protect and consistently provide that, they have a very high bar when it comes to the behaviors and performance of their team members. What has been so refreshing to see is the way they build a high-performing culture through intentional signs of appreciation and personal connection with their team members.

If you are a parent of adult children, you will understand me when I say that when your adult children work for a bad boss, you get to hear all of the complaints and horror stories. My wife and I have heard plenty of those over the years that we’ve had adult children. On the other hand, when you hear your adult children consistently talking about how wonderful their managers and bosses are, and how appreciated they feel not only by those they directly report to, but also by the organization as a whole, you feel a peace knowing that they are in a good place to grow and develop.

David Miller is the Hotel Manager at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, and Jack Miller (no relation to David) is the Regional Vice President. While Zachary is far removed from them in the organizational structure, every time Zachary sees either of them on property, they go out of their way to say hello and be friendly to him. Not just him, but everyone. At a recent training meeting in advance of opening their new Privado Welcome Center, David Miller noticed that he and Zachary were weary nearly identical sportscoats, so he grabbed Zachary and had one of their colleagues take a photo, which Zachary’s General Manager later posted on Linked In.

Zachary Erath

For a young team member who is just getting started on a career path in hospitality, small but intentional gestures to connect on a human level like this are incredibly powerful in drawing them closer to the organization, which creates significantly better engagement, and ultimately, performance.

Over dinner a few weeks ago, Zachary was talking with his mother and me about work, and shared with us that he has never worked in an organization where the team of leaders he reports to are as helpful and supportive as at the Fairmont. Throughout his onboarding and training, while he was being corrected when he would make a mistake, or not remember a step, it was always balanced with recognition and appreciation when he did things well. The team he reports to works with him and coaches him where he needs to learn and grow, and at the same time, they make sure he is very clear on what is expected of him, and that he is appreciated when he does things well. This leads to a more trusting relationship. One where it feels safe to receive critical feedback, where he has certainty in where he stands with his managers and where he knows that they support him and want to see him grow in his career.

As a result, an emotional connection has been built with his coworkers, his management team, and the brand as a whole. That emotional connection causes him to feel like he never wants to let down, or disappoint, the people he works with and works for. They helped get him to that place in his first ninety days not by browbeating him and grinding on him, but by coaching and mentoring him…by connecting with him. By taking time to understand how he learns best and guiding him accordingly. He has expressed to us that as his career advances over time, it is his hope that it will always be as part of the Fairmont family.

To create what they have at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess takes intentionality. It takes a team of leaders who are values aligned and focused, and who have the emotional intelligence to create a genuine culture where people care about each other. When the team members feel this connected and supported, the guests will be very well cared for.

A Culture of Performance is critical in building an elite organization, and it does not have to be a punitive culture of fear…in fact…at Next Level Growth, we believe a high-performing culture built on a team of people who trust each other, who support each other, and who appreciate each other, in the long run, will always outperform a team whose performance is the result of heavy-handedness and fear.

Download an Overview of the SCARF Model by David Rock

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Culture of Performance

A Culture of Performance – The fourth of the Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations®

November 14, 2023• Entrepreneurial Freedom, People

Legendary college basketball coach, John Wooden, famously said we should, “Never mistake activity for achievement.” While it takes the right activities, done the right way, and the right number of times to achieve success, in my years as an entrepreneur and now Business Guide, I have seen firsthand that far too many organizations give teams and leaders a pass for too long because they are doing the activities, even when they are not achieving the desired results.

Building a high-performing culture into an organization is hard work and takes time. It requires a special discipline, focus, and drive to do things at a high level, and to a high standard, all of the time. It is also highly dependent on getting the first three of the Five Obsessions right. You must have Great People, united around and driven by an Inspiring Purpose, well trained on, and consistently executing, Optimized Playbooks, to even have a chance at building a successful Culture of Performance, the fourth of the Five Obsessions of Elite Organizations®.

Culture of Performance

Keys to a Culture of Performance

There are six key components to building a Culture of Performance. The first is to define what we call The Summit. What is at the top of the mountain you are climbing? In Good to Great, Jim Collins calls this the BHAG – the Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal. Once you know the long-term goal, the objective, then you can begin to focus on the remaining keys of building a Culture of Performance: The right strategy to become a dominant force in your strategic niche; an A-Player Recruiting and Onboarding System; Clear Expectations; Scorecards and Scoreboards; and a Coaching System to either coach people up or coach them out.

In my earlier post on an Inspiring Purpose, I discussed the importance of defining and driving the right strategy to differentiate yourself and provide consistent value in the marketplace. With the addition of a Just Cause and Daily Purpose, people can get clear on why you are in the game that you are in, and they can decide if they want to be a part of it. Adding in a clearly defined Summit helps them understand where this journey will take the organization, and then they can decide if successfully reaching that Summit will be worth the effort it will take. Some will be up for the challenge and others will not. You want to build on the former, and let the latter go on to other organizations. They will not help you drive your organization to its Summit because they don’t have the emotional connection, the passion and drive, to remain disciplined and focused on the journey.

An A-Player Recruiting and Onboarding System

The best organizations, whether in business or in sports, have a well-designed and executed system to attract and filter talent. It starts with having a very clear understanding of who your avatar employees are for each role in the organization, and the Next Level Accountability Chart™ is a great place to start. Once you understand the avatar, it is easier to figure out where they are and how to go find and attract them.

Many organizations offer referral bonus programs to compensate existing employees to recommend people they know. The problem is that few of the systems we have seen are really well designed to get ideal outcomes. As Brad Smart wrote about in Topgrading, A-Players will hire A-Players, but B-Players will only hire other B-Players and C-Players. They will not hire A-Players. So why do we incentivize our underachievers to recommend their peers? There is a high likelihood that their peers are also underachievers…so we end up paying our underachievers a bonus for helping us find other underachievers, and the cycle repeats.

At Next Level Growth, we regularly recommend designing a program that offers more lucrative bonuses for existing employees to recommend and recruit from their networks, but we always suggest that any such program should be tied to performance in a way that existing employees must be verified A-Players (both in terms of culture and performance) to even participate, and their bonus compensation on recruited employees should both be paid out over time, and only be paid if they maintain their A-Player status AND the new employee also remains a consistently verified A-Player (both culturally and in terms of performance). This way, you get two A-Players for the bonus you pay. As I wrote about in the article on Optimized Playbooks, every system is perfectly designed to get what it gets. If you want a better outcome, you need a better system.

Clear Expectations

As I wrote in my earlier post on Great People, I believe that most of our frustrations with people are rooted in uncommunicated expectations. The Next Level Accountability Chart™, with MMOs™ is a great tool to help clarify performance expectations of people in their roles. Once those expectations are clear, and you use them in the recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and continuous development phases of your employee journey, you will have the foundation of a system that is designed to help you drive performance from a team of great people.

As Nick Saban states in the video below, mediocre people don’t like high achievers, and high achievers don’t like mediocre people. If you don’t have a Culture of Performance, you cannot have any team chemistry within the organization, and you must have clear expectations if you are going to have a culture of performance.

Scorecards and Scoreboards

Imagine watching two teams playing basketball, but nobody is keeping score, there is no clock measuring the time remaining, and there are no other data points or statistics. It would be like watching practice, and probably would not be very interesting. I would also expect that the level of effort being put forth by the players would be less than their absolute best.

Compare that, however, to the way teams perform when there is a scoreboard, we know the score, the time remaining, what the team foul situation is, and how many time-outs are left. Suddenly, when we’re keeping score, the effort and focus improves.

Scoreboards and Performance: A Personal Example

It is a psychological fact that people perform differently when they know how they’re performing against certain goals, or against other individuals or teams. A few months ago, I took up cycling as a form of exercise. Since I’m purely doing this for the exercise, I passed on getting an expensive road bike and settled for a hybrid city bike. I’ve got a 10-mile route I ride several days per week and there’s about 500 feet of elevation change, so for a novice looking for exercise, it’s a good route. When I started riding, it was taking me about 45 minutes to complete the circuit.

I use an app to track my time, distance, average speed, and a few other points of data. One particular day, as I was climbing a 1.5-mile hill on the route, another cyclist passed me. Granted, he had a nice road bike and all the fancy gear and cycling clothes, while I was in gym shorts, a t-shirt, and sneakers…but I got frustrated at the thought of being passed. So in response, I put forth more effort, changed gears to pick up a little more speed, and was actually able to stay on pace with him for the rest of the climb.

What I realized was no different than what I observe with the teams I coach. When challenged, the competitive spirit that lives within most of us, will drive us to level up our performance. I also realized that when I was only competing against myself and my own stats, I was allowing myself to settle into something less than my best effort. Being passed woke me up. Now I know that I can push harder and go faster. Now I ride against the last version of me. When I finish a ride, I put the stats on a whiteboard in my office and I track them week by week. Every time I ride, I try to beat the guy I was the last time I rode. As a result, just last weekend I broke the 40-minute mark, twice. The prior version of me, the one that took 45 minutes to complete the circuit, would have been 1.1 miles behind me when I finished. That’s an 11% improvement in my performance, and I’m just a hack cyclist doing this for exercise.

Scoreboards and Performance: An Example From the Field

When I was President and CEO of Erath Veneer, we had four production lines, each running on two shifts, slicing hardwood veneer for the furniture, door, and panel industries. So in all, we had eight different production teams.

As we gained clarity around our Profit per X, which in our case was Dollars of Gross Profit per Board Foot Produced, we realized that of the many areas we could make adjustments and implement strategies to improve the ratio that drove our economic engine, focusing on and consistently improving our throughput in terms of board feet would be one area of focus that would make us more efficient and more profitable.

Note: This story, and many like it, are detailed in my second book, The Path to the Pinnacle.

We started by analyzing historical data on throughput, and supplemented that by running tests and time studies. This analysis allowed us to determine, by specie produced (think, “product line”), how much throughput per hour each production team should average for an eight-hour shift depending on the mix of species they were producing during a particular shift.

To make sure we didn’t sacrifice quality for the sake of efficiency, we added limit switches to each veneer slicer that would turn on a light at the same part of every log being sliced, and that would cue the team to pull a sample, which they would then label with the machine number, shift, time, and log number. The following morning, our production manager and sales manager (requiring the two positions to collaborate in the review prevented just operations from policing itself) would review the samples together and reject anything that did not meet our standards. For any mis-manufactured samples, the team that produced the damaged log would have the board footage of that log deducted from their prior day’s totals. So there was no incentive to sacrifice quality for volume.

After the samples were reviewed, our office staff would tally each of the eight production teams results from the prior day, and we would print a color bar graph that showed a thick black line where each team’s goal was for the prior day, along with a vertical bar indicating their actual results. If they fell short of their goal, the bar was red. If they met or exceeded their goal, the bar was green. We kept a rolling week of graphs up on the wall by the door to the break room, so every employee in the company saw the results. Nobody wanted to be on the teams that were consistently in the red.

Without any financial incentives, and just by displaying the data and letting everyone see how their team was doing relative to the other teams, we saw an 8% increase in average throughput per shift. That improvement in productivity, with a balanced focus on quality, lowered our unit cost, which increase our Profit per X – our Dollars of Gross Profit per Board Foot Produced.

Once we had consistent data to prove that we were doing the right things on our production lines and tracking the data properly, we reinvested some of the financial gains into a bonus program for the production teams that created a true meritocracy on the plant floor, increasing total compensating for the best performing teams. As a result of the clarity, visibility, and focus on results, team members would go out of their way to help each other as needed to keep their productivity up, and team leads would be quick to communicate with their supervisors when an underperformer was holding them back and needed to be exited from the team.

As an organization, it is critical to make sure that you are tracking, and providing sufficient visibility to, the right data to drive the performance you want, and using that data to create a healthy spirit of competition…something for which A-Players hunger.

A Coaching System

Every great performer has a coach. Many of them have multiple coaches. In his prime, Tiger Woods had four coaches – one for his long game, one for his short game, a strength coach, and a sports psychologist “performance” coach. What is your organization doing to develop your leaders into great coaches?

At Next Level Growth, we recommend that everyone who has direct reports be developed by the organization to coach their teams. As part of that coaching system, we recommend Quarterly Coaching, or what some of our clients call, Quarterly Calibrations. These are one-to-one meetings, once per quarter, between a leader and each direct report, where they discuss core values one at a time, and then performance relative to the defined Mission, Most Critical Outcome®, and Obsessions™ from the Next Level Accountability Chart™, again, each one at a time.

We encourage our clients to clarify and utilize a numeric rating system, with definitions for each of the numbers relative to expectations for both behavior in alignment with each core value, and then performance relative to each part of the MMOs. Is the team member exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, or not meeting expectations. We have some clients who choose to use a one to three scoring system, some that use a one to five system, and others that use a one to ten system. All that really matters is that the system is clear, it is consistently deployed throughout the organization, and the meaning of the numbers is defined.

When this is consistently done every quarter throughout the organization, you are validating with your high achievers how well they are doing, and you are identifying your under-performers so that you can work with them to understand their needs and help develop and coach them up. If, however, over time, you find that somebody is not responding to, or accepting, the coaching, then you can either coach them into another seat, or coach them out of the organization. This makes room for a new recruit to come through your onboarding processes and refill the seat with an expectation that the new, well onboarded recruit, will be able to perform at a higher level.

Never Settle

In the end, a Culture of Performance is a commitment across the organization, starting with leadership, to the same high standards and to the same high level of achieving results. You must commit to providing your team with the right strategy to become a dominant force in your space, an A-Player Recruiting and Onboarding System, Clear Expectations, Scorecards and Scoreboards, and a Coaching System to either coach people up or coach them out.

You cannot be great if you’re content with good.

Click to reac the next article in this series, Growing Profits & Cash Flow.

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