The Leading Blog






08.03.26

The Hidden Leadership Trap: When Your Definition of Success Isn’t Really Yours

Definition of Success

AS an executive coach, I’ve noticed something interesting. People almost never hire me because they’re questioning their definition of success.

Business owners call because they want to grow their business or prepare for an exit. Executives call because they want to become a better leader, figure out why their team isn’t performing, or be more influential.

But coaching never stays in one place, and business is always personal. A good coach will never help anyone build a strategy without digging into the reason for the intended growth.

I’ve had leaders sit across from me with thriving companies, respected reputations, and everything they once thought would make them happy, only to finally find the courage to ask me, “Why doesn’t this feel like success?” And admit “I’m not sure I even want this.”

It’s rarely because something has gone terribly wrong. In fact, it’s usually the opposite. Their business is growing. Their career is thriving. People admire them. They’re well compensated for their efforts. They’ve achieved goals they once only dreamed about.

The problem isn’t that they aren’t successful. The problem is they never stopped to ask whether they were chasing their definition of success—or someone else’s.

From an early age, many of us absorb a remarkably consistent message about what success should look like: a bigger title, more responsibility, a larger paycheck, constant growth, a reputation for always being available, and always achieving.

What many people don’t realize is that the way leaders define success shapes every decision they make, the culture they create, and the lives of everyone around them. So, when we work together, we get very clear on whether or not your definition of success still fits.

Here are five signs it may be time to redefine what success means for you.

1. Your decisions are driven more by expectations than by values.

Many leaders don’t realize how often they measure themselves against invisible standards. We, as humans, love to compare ourselves to others.

You compare yourself to competitors, to colleagues, to neighbors, or even to previous versions of yourself without even realizing it.

And because of that comparison game, you find yourself feeling like you need a bigger company, more revenue, a bigger team, or more recognition. Then somewhere along the way, you lost sight of why you wanted to lead this team to begin with, and you’re not sure you even recognize yourself.

Try this: Before making your next major decision, ask yourself, “If nobody else ever knew about this choice, would I still make it?” Your answer may reveal whose expectations you’re actually serving.

2. Achievement no longer creates energy—it only creates the next expectation.

Many high achievers discover that reaching the next milestone doesn’t bring the satisfaction they expected. You got the promotion. You have the title. You have the car. Your company is respected. You have everything you thought you wanted, and maybe you could rest.

Instead, every accomplishment immediately gives way to the next goal. This promotion leads to wondering how and when you’ll get the next promotion. This revenue target leads to a larger revenue target. The business doubles, and suddenly the expectation is to double it again. It’s a never-ending cycle.

Try this: Instead of immediately asking, “What’s next?” spend time celebrating the work you’ve done, then reflecting on where the energy was highest. Decide

3. Your identity has become fused with your title.

I have found that many leaders struggle to separate who they are from what they do. Whether it’s CEO, Partner, Founder, Business Owner, CFO, COO, etc. – the role slowly becomes their identity.

When that happens, every company decision, every piece of feedback, every promotion (or missed promotion) feels personal – when really, it’s business. Healthy leadership requires enough distance to recognize that your title describes your work—not your worth.

Try this: Complete this sentence without mentioning your profession: “I am someone who...” If that’s difficult, it may be time to reconnect with who you are outside your role.

4. You “should” yourself out of wanting something different.

This is one of the most common internal conflicts I hear: “I’m not sure I’m happy, but I shouldn’t complain. I have so much. Others would love to be in my position.”

Gratitude is important. But gratitude doesn’t require you to ignore the voice telling you something no longer fits. Too many leaders convince themselves they must continue living a life that no longer aligns simply because they’ve worked hard to build it. Being grateful for your opportunities and wanting something different are not mutually exclusive.

Try this: Swap “What will they think if I /change?” for “What will I think of myself if I don’t change?”

5. You tell yourself, “I’ll be happy when___.”

Many leaders unknowingly postpone living until some future version of success finally arrives. The problem is that every milestone simply creates another one, and “when” never comes.

If fulfillment always lives on the other side of the next achievement, you’ll spend your entire career chasing a horizon that keeps moving. The goal is to find happiness now. Why wait?

Try this: If you find yourself saying, “I’ll be happy when ____” ask yourself, “What’s keeping me from being happy now?” Your answer may reveal that many of the things you value most are available long before your next accomplishment.

Your Team Is Watching

The definition of success you choose shapes your leadership. Leaders who constantly pursue “more” often create organizations where everyone feels pressure to do the same. Teams begin believing that achievement is valued more than purpose, output more than sustainability, and growth more than meaning.

Whether you intend it or not, people learn what success looks like by watching you. If you define success only by external accomplishment, your culture will eventually reflect that definition. But when leaders model thoughtful boundaries, purposeful ambition, healthy relationships, and values-driven decisions, they give others permission to do the same.

Now What?

The first thing you can do for yourself is define your own definition of success. The company will certainly have goals, and part of your success may be defined by those goals. But those aren’t your only measures.

Take some dedicated time to write down what you think success looks like for you, and to deep-dive into how these align with your core values. Your definition may include going to soccer games or taking time off to be with your family. That’s okay! That’s the point of the exercise! Find what matters to you so you can design the life you want – not the one handed to you by others.

You are not alone if you’re wondering if the definition you’ve been living by still fits -- if the ambition inadvertently altered the trajectory of the business and your future. The goal is to ensure that the ambition that drives you is aimed at somewhere you actually want to go.

* * *

Leading Forum
Becca Pearce is an executive coach, speaker, Certified Exit Planning Advisor, and author of You Don’t Have to Achieve to Be Loved. She helps high-achieving leaders redefine success, navigate major life and career transitions, and build businesses—and lives—that align with what matters most.

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Explore More

You According to Them Contagious You

Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:34 PM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Personal Development

08.01.26

First Look: Leadership Books for August 2026

First Look Books

HERE'S A LOOK at some of the best leadership books to be released in August 2026 curated just for you. Be sure to check out the other great titles being offered this month.

9781966280200Practice Makes Culture: How Welcoming Elephants, Creating Ownership, and Facilitating Daily Practice Transform Organizations by Christine Hudson and Ronica Roth

After decades of organizational transformation efforts, the failure rate remains stubbornly high: over 70%. What’s missing? The human element. In Practice Makes Culture, you'll discover why most transformations still fail and how to ensure yours succeeds by addressing what other approaches miss: the emotional dynamics, hidden narratives, and everyday behaviors that truly shape your organization. This practical guide introduces a powerful framework centered on three critical focus areas: Elephants: Address the emotional aspects of change, recognize diverse perspectives, and tackle difficult conversations that most leaders avoid. Ownership: Create transformation that people actually want by ensuring those affected by change are the ones steering it. Practice: Transform meetings into powerful practice fields for cultural change through consistent, daily reinforcement of desired behaviors.

9781964421186Inviting Genius: How Good Leaders Use Conflict to Become Great by Matthew Abrams

Most teams don't fail because of conflict. They fail because they avoid it. In Inviting Genius: How Good Leaders Use Conflict to Become Great, Matthew Abrams offers a roadmap for leaders who want to build high-performing teams without sacrificing humanity. After 15 years working with visionary leaders, Abrams shows that tension isn't the problem. It's the path. As you apply the concepts within Inviting Genius, you will Stop avoiding the conversations that matter most — Build a healthy leadership team that decides faster and executes better. — Unlock the full intelligence, innovation, and passion that already lives within your team. — Build a culture where people stay, grow, and do their best work. This isn't a book about managing conflict. It's about using it.

9781646872442Inner Propaganda: Leading Hearts and Minds Through Turbulent Times by Owen Fitzpatrick

Right now, your brain is selling you a story about who you are, what's true, and what you should believe. And you're buying it, even when it sabotages your success. In Inner Propaganda, psychologist Owen Fitzpatrick reveals the internal persuasion system shaping your thoughts, your decisions, and your reality. After decades studying external propaganda, from witnessing first-hand modern influence operations in North Korea, Afghanistan, and Washington D.C., to analyzing the incredible double agent who helped change the outcome of World War II, Fitzpatrick reached a startling conclusion: The same tactics that sway nations also operate inside each of us. But understanding your own propaganda is the key to understanding everyone else's. Once you see how your brain manipulates you, you finally understand why others believe what they believe. As the current media landscape fragments our relationships, this can help you bridge divides rather than deepen them. To do this, he offers a deceptively simple framework: Feels Right, Fits In, Makes Sense—three forces that explain why ideas take hold, why we cling to them even when they harm us, and how to reshape beliefs that actually support better mental health, clearer decision-making, and stronger leadership.

9780674300248Disposable Workers: The Transformation of Employment by Paul Osterman

A revealing look at the decline in formal employment in favor of hiring contractors, freelancers, temps, and marginal workers, who are excluded from traditional benefits and career ladders. Companies cannot exist without workers, but they are increasingly reluctant to have employees. Instead of providing the benefits and protections that have traditionally come with employee status, businesses are turning to tactics that let them treat people as interchangeable parts, to be used and discarded as needed. Drawing on an original survey of over 6,000 workers, Disposable Workers reveals the striking extent of this transformation across the occupational hierarchy, affecting everyone from janitors to nurses. Paul Osterman identifies three distinct categories of disposable workers: contractors, freelancers, and marginal employees. The marginal category, unique to Osterman’s analysis, describes workers who are employees from a narrow legal standpoint but are held at arm’s length by their firm―left without job security, skill training, or opportunities for promotion.

9781394426966The Radical Promise: Mastering The Art of Doing What You Say You Will Do by James M. Kouzes, Barry Z. Posner and Steve Farber

The Radical Promise delivers a story-driven framework for leaders to increase their trust and credibility or rebuild it when their actions don’t match their words. The storyline and concepts are equally applicable to every person, regardless of title or position, who is challenged to keep promises and commitments to make sure that what they "say" (promise) is what they do. The Radical Promise is an entertaining and thought-provoking book for today's leaders, as well as those aspiring to be or become even better leaders, seeking key lessons they can apply to their own organizations and professional lives.

More Titles

9781668049488 9781394435418 9798895151020 9781637749265

For bulk orders call 1-626-441-2024

* * *

“Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.”
— Charles W. Eliot

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Explore More

Best Books of 2025 You Can Just Do Things

Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:42 AM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Books

07.31.26

LeadershipNow 140: July 2026 Compilation

LeadershipNow Twitter

twitter Here is a selection of Posts from July 2026 that you will want to check out:

See more on twitter Twitter.

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Explore More

Same as Ever The Way of Excellence

Posted by Michael McKinney at 08:07 AM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in LeadershipNow 140

07.30.26

Leading Thoughts for July 30, 2026

Leading Thoughts

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

I.

Chris Hodges on growth:

“Growth is rarely impressive in the moment. Most days it looks ordinary. Quiet. Unnoticed. It’s choosing to learn when it would be easier to coast. Choosing to reflect when reacting feels faster. Choosing to stretch when settling feels comfortable. I’ve had to make those choices more times than I can count. Start where you are. Use what you have. You don’t need to see the whole path or have everything figured out. You just need the humility to stay teachable and the courage to take the next step.”

Source: Legacy Letters: Timeless Principles I Learned, Lived, and Leave Behind

II.

Ron Friedman on feedback:

“When feedback is tied to a formal review, the conversation shifts from growth to judgment. That shift triggers anxiety and defensiveness, two emotions that make it almost impossible to learn. Busy managers often assume that no feedback communicates that everything is fine. But employees tend to interpret silence differently. A lack of feedback makes them feel invisible. Feedback is therefore About more than just guidance. It’s a signal that we’re valued, respected, and seen.”

Source: Superteams: The Science and Secrets of High-Performing Teams

* * *

Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Explore More

Leading Thoughts Whats New in Leadership Books

Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:07 AM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Leading Thoughts

07.27.26

You Can Just Do Things

You Can Just Do Things

PERSONAL agency is the ability to see choices and the belief in your ability to act on them. Agentic people take ownership of their own lives.

You Can Just Do Things author Cate Hall believes that personal agency is learnable. And while agency may not matter on an average day, “agency really matters when you’re faced with an opportunity that could change your life completely. A little moment when choosing to deviate from your routine could have outrageous results.” You Can Just Do Things provides valuable insights into growing our agency and living an intentional life.

Hall says that most people are selectively agentic. That is, they don’t apply the same can-do approach and resourcefulness equally in all areas of their life. If you divide life into three areas: work, relations of all types, and self-relationship, which includes health, mindset, and spirituality, then you might be high-agency in one but not the others. “The exertion of willpower makes you feel like you’re trying. But the feeling of effort doesn’t mean that you’re Actually Trying.”

You may think that you’re really struggling to deal with problems in the other areas of your life. “But struggling is not evidence that you’ve tried everything. To the contrary, the continuous need for willpower may be the sign of a badly engineered life.”

I’ve talked with people who don’t think they have a choice. They just take has been handed to them. “The human default is to voluntarily accept constraints, convincing ourselves that they are mandatory. We choose to accept a set of expectations placed on us by others—or that we imagine others are placing on us. Then, we act as if we’re stuck indefinitely.” We must habitually question our thinking and challenge the path we are on. Is this what we really want? In this way, we can in real-time decide if a change needs to be made and of what variety.

One of our most valuable tools is feedback. “You cannot expect to reliably progress in areas where you’re not getting reliable feedback.” Avoid binary responses to feedback. “Instead, embrace mental fluidity, examining all of the possibilities between ‘they’re completely wrong’ and ‘the worst-case scenario is true, and now I must die of shame.’”

Failure is just part of growth. Iras Glass once said, “‘If you’re not failing all the time, you’re not creating a situation where you can get super lucky.” Hall adds that most people “take failure extremely personally, rather than as a prompt to consider radical re-invention.”

“‘This is the way I am’ is an all-purpose excuse. It’s easy, credible, and hugely limiting. Instead, I find that adopting the belief that traits are changeable, working at them as though they are, and seeing what happens is a much more useful way to approach life, one that will over the long term reliably yield more freedom than adopting the opposite belief.” If you think you are unreliable, observe someone who has a reputation for reliability and ask “‘What kinds of things do reliable people do that I could adopt?’ Reliability is made of micro-actions. For some people, these micro-actions do seem to come more naturally than for others. But they are clearly learnable behaviors.”

As we go through life, we might learn the wrong lesson from our limited experiences. Hall advises us to “Be skeptical of what you’re ‘learning’ when the personal stakes are high. Once you’ve really invested in the wrong lesson, it can take years—or a lifetime—to unlearn, unless you make a point of becoming aware of your conditioning.”

When it comes to the emotions we try to avoid at all costs—what she calls the Cringe Minefields—they are where our biggest self-improvement gains are likely to come from. “You simply cannot see the landscape of options in your life objectively-the possibilities on the other side-if the cringe is controlling you.”

You can increase your chances for luck. “The more times you interact with the outside world, the more chances you have to get lucky-to find the collaborators, friends, and projects that, together, provide the right soil for you to bloom.”

We humans are unfortunately hardwired to readily reject options that will require effort when we think the chances are good that we won’t succeed. Flipping the script from ‘That won’t work’ to ‘How do I make this work?’ can help you discover degrees of agency you didn’t realize you had.

Even the most successful-looking people are winging it to some degree just like us. “They all feel self-doubt and confusion at times. They’ve all wasted a ton of time and made bad decisions.” And that’s inspiring. “Because if the world is being shaped by scared, insecure, confused, irresponsible people like us, then we too can shape the world.”

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Explore More

Sanborn Intention Imperative Our Stewardship Responsibility

Posted by Michael McKinney at 05:43 PM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Personal Development

07.24.26

Your Business Has a Pest Problem

Whitt Pest

I’VE SPENT 45 years in the pest control industry: 30 in corporate leadership and 15 building my own company, Pied Piper Pest & Lawn, from the ground up. In that time, I’ve seen just about every kind of infestation imaginable. But some of the worst ones never required a spray wand.

Early in my management career, I started noticing something strange: the same thought processes I used to assess and control pest infestations worked just as well for diagnosing problems with employees, clients, and suppliers. The behaviors were almost identical. The strategies for dealing with them? Surprisingly similar.

Whether you’re managing a cockroach or a coworker who helps themselves to whatever they want, understanding their behavior is the key. Once you know what motivates them, what they’re scared of, and what their kryptonite is, you can manage your environment and make your business a place where good people actually want to stay.

Here are four field-tested principles I use to keep both kinds of pests from taking over.

1. Know your pest before you decide how to control it.

In pest control, the biggest mistake an amateur makes is the shotgun approach: buy whatever’s on the shelf, apply it everywhere, and hope for the best. It rarely works. That’s because different pests require completely different treatment methods. What eliminates a flea infestation will do nothing for termites.

The same logic applies to managing difficult people. In my book Infested, I break workplace pests into four categories: Bloodsuckers (those who drain the energy and resources of everyone around them), Raiders (those who take without giving), Saboteurs (those who quietly undermine systems and morale), and Assailants (those who actively attack the organization or the people in it).

Misidentifying the type of pest is where most managers go wrong. A passive-aggressive underperformer who does the bare minimum to avoid being fired is a Saboteur, not a Bloodsucker. Treating them the same way will get you nowhere. Take the time to honestly assess the behavior pattern before you act. Observe, gather data, and resist the urge to react emotionally.

2. Look in the mirror: Sometimes the infestation starts at the top.

Here’s an uncomfortable truth I learned early: some pests, like roaches and rats, thrive specifically in dirty, poorly maintained environments. If your building is clean and well-managed, they have nowhere to hide. If it isn’t, you’re practically rolling out the welcome mat.

The same dynamic plays out in business. Toxic employees tend to flourish in organizations with weak management, unclear expectations, and inconsistent accountability. Difficult clients and suppliers take advantage of vague contracts and disorganized processes. Before you zero in on a problem person, ask yourself: What conditions in my business are allowing this behavior to continue?

One thing pest control and management have in common is the need for honest assessment. You have to judge situations on what is actually there—not what you hope might be there or what you think should be there. Base your decisions on real, verified data. And always be willing to consider that the problem might partly be you.

3. Build systems, not just solutions.

In pest control, a one-time treatment rarely solves the problem permanently. The real goal is to create conditions that prevent reinfestation. That means sealing entry points, eliminating food sources, and implementing a regular monitoring protocol. You don’t wait until you have a rat problem to start thinking about rats.

Healthy businesses work the same way. Once you’ve addressed a problem—whether it’s a toxic employee, a predatory client, or a supplier who’s been quietly taking advantage of you—your job isn’t done. You need to put checks and balances in place so the problem can’t recur unchecked.

At Pied Piper, I put simple systems in place like color-coded tool tracking to tighten up our inventory and stop equipment theft, post-service client calls within 48 hours to catch service failures early, and clear written expectations for every role so that underperformers couldn’t hide behind ambiguity.

These aren’t complicated or expensive. They just need to exist, be consistently followed, and updated as the business evolves. A system that nobody enforces is just a document.

4. Fix before you fire—but know when it’s time to relocate the raccoon.

In pest control, the goal isn’t total elimination. It’s control and balance. Most of the animals we call pests aren’t evil; they’re just in the wrong environment. A raccoon in the wild is doing exactly what raccoons do. A raccoon in your attic is a different matter entirely.

I apply the same philosophy to managing people. My first instinct is never to fire—it’s to fix. Firing someone has consequences that ripple through the rest of your team. It creates anxiety, disrupts operations, and signals that the organization is unstable. Whenever possible, I try to get to the root of the behavior and address it head-on. Sometimes a conversation, a role change, or clearer expectations is all it takes.

But sometimes the raccoon just has to go. If someone is actively harmful to your team, your clients, or your culture, and genuine attempts to correct the situation haven’t worked, the most humane thing—for everyone, including them—is to part ways. Just do it ethically, with documentation, and without drama. In pest control, we’re careful with how we handle animals even when we’re removing them. The same standard applies here.

A healthy ecosystem is built, not found.

A thriving business, like a healthy natural ecosystem, doesn’t happen by accident. It requires the right balance of people, clear systems, consistent accountability, and a leader willing to take an honest look at what’s working and what isn’t. The best businesses—and the most pest-free homes—aren’t the ones that react fastest when things go wrong. They’re the ones that make it hardest for things to go wrong in the first place.

* * *

Leading Forum
Tim Whitt is an entrepreneur with 45 years in pest control: 30 in corporate leadership and 15 building Pied Piper Pest & Lawn from the ground up. A speaker, coach, and author, he offers field-tested wisdom and practical tools that help both new and established businesses. His newly released book is Infested: End Workplace Drama, Stop Toxic Employees, Build a Thriving Small Business. Learn more at TimWhitt.com.

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Explore More

You According to Them Contagious You

Posted by Michael McKinney at 06:44 AM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in General Business

07.23.26

Leading Thoughts for July 23, 2026

Leading Thoughts

IDEAS shared have the power to expand perspectives, change thinking, and move lives. Here are two ideas for the curious mind to engage with:

I.

Edward Hess and Katherine Ludwig on managing emotions:

“Stress, anger, and anxiety can cause narrow-mindedness and the fight-flee-or-freeze syndrome. It’s not at all helpful when you need to engage in critical thinkIng, problem solving, innovative thinking outside the box, or designing experiments to learn. Positive emotions, on the other hand, have been scientifically linked not just to higher health and well-being but also to broader attention, open-mindedness, deeper focus, and more flexible thinking, all of which underlie creativity and innovative thinking.”

Source: Humility Is the New Smart: Rethinking Human Excellence in the Smart Machine Age

II.

Walter Lippmann on getting the questions right:

“The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully. Here lay the political genius of Franklin Roosevelt: that in his own time he knew what were the questions that had to be answered, even though he himself did not always find the full answer. It was to this that our people and the world responded, preferring him instinctively to those who did not know what the real questions were.”

Source: Roosevelt Is Gone, Today and Tomorrow, April 14, 1945

* * *

Look for these ideas every Thursday on the Leading Blog. Find more ideas on the LeadingThoughts index.

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

 

Explore More

Leading Thoughts Whats New in Leadership Books

Posted by Michael McKinney at 03:27 AM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Leading Thoughts

07.20.26

Apply Lessons from “Moneyball” to Business Recruiting and Find Your Next Tom Brady

Recruiting

ORGANIZATIONS often believe they’re selecting the best candidate when in reality they’re selecting the person who best matches familiar credentials, patterns, or assumptions. That distinction matters.

As the 2011 movie Moneyball demonstrated through baseball recruiting how success improves dramatically when talent is evaluated against the factors that actually predict performance — not the ones people traditionally favor.

The same lesson applies in hiring. If companies want to identify exceptional talent before competitors do, they need a clearer, more disciplined way to define what success in a role truly requires.

What Baseball Got Right About Talent

Billy Beane of “Moneyball” fame inherited one of the smallest budgets for any MLB team player salaries in 2002. Frustrated with his inability to outbid other teams for talented players, he took a different approach. He called Paul DePodesta, a Harvard alum and professional sports executive interested in data analysis.

They combed through decades of data on hundreds of individual players to devise a better strategy for recruiting players. They discovered scouts were overlooking statistics that could better predict a player’s performance versus relying on subjective things like attitude or whom they’d played for in the past. In short, scouts were asking the wrong questions to assess talent.

The scouting process failed to include individual components that made up a player’s performance and match that to what the baseball team needed — much like hiring managers looking at academic qualifications or years of experience as a proxy for the responsibilities the individual needs to take on in a new role.

In the end, Beane’s big bet on analytics paid off. Despite their smaller budget, the Oakland A’s won against bigger teams and made history by winning 20 consecutive games in American League baseball. Recruitment in sports was transformed as Beane’s method made player assessment a quantifiable process rather than a subjective one.

A Better Way to Define Success

The Moneyball lesson teaches us that, to win, we must know what we’re looking for and ignore our biases. There needs to be a mechanism that enables a clear choice, linked to the specifics of what we want to achieve. That’s where a Cipher comes in.

A Cipher is a structured and prioritized method of zeroing in on what matters most for a specific role. It explicitly lays out, in a prioritized fashion, how success will need to be achieved in the role you’re looking to fill. It creates a clear understanding of what the person will need to do to be successful in the role, how “integration into the existing culture” is defined within the organization, and what’s required to manage their team. Ultimately, this framework establishes uniform comparison across multiple candidates for any role, enabling better decision-making based on data rather than a gut feeling.

You can create your Cipher by simply using the acronym CODE to help you define a role:

Charge: the one-sentence impact this person must have on the company. What will be different because they were hired?
Outcome: the tangible result that will prove the hire worked. What will the organization be able to point to as evidence of success?
Deliverables: the five to seven accountabilities most critical to achieving that Outcome.
Efforts: the specific actions, decisions, and behaviors required to complete those Deliverables.

Here’s an example of what this looks like in practice:

Most everyone in the US has probably heard of New England Patriots QB Tom Brady. Not everyone knows that he was passed over in his draft — 198 times. Why? Brady didn’t look especially athletic, he wasn’t particularly fast, and he didn’t match the physical profile many scouts expected from an elite quarterback. Furthermore, no one else seemed to be interested in him, so why should “we” be?

But Bill Belichick and newly hired QB/Assistant Coach Dick Rehbein were willing to look past biases to find the talent they needed. Even with his extensive overall experience, Rehbein was new to coaching the QB position and brought no biases to the draft, which allowed him to pick up the game’s greatest player of all time.

While the Cipher didn’t exist back then, the evidence suggests that they employed a deeper analysis to arrive at the conclusion that Brady was the QB to bet on. It’s easy to envision them using something like the following:

Charge: An adept and charismatic QB to lead the Patriots franchise back from mediocre results to the glory days.

Outcome: Perform individually as an athlete while leading the team to deliver AFC (American Football Conference) championships in two out of three years. Deliver at least one Super Bowl championship within the same three-year window.

Deliverable 1: Leverage superior athletic ability for success on the field.
Efforts:

  • Pass on time with superior arm strength and pinpoint accuracy.
  • Move quickly to escape defenders and extend plays.
  • Be tough enough to carry the ball in short-yardage situations.

Deliverable 2: Incorporate intelligence and experience into making the right calls during the heat of battle.
Efforts:

  • Learn and drive the offense with audibles as needed.
  • Read the opponent’s defensive schemes and anticipate likely moves.
  • Possess a “sixth sense” connection with receivers.

Deliverable 3: Develop a humble continuous improvement system, leading peers as a role model.
Efforts:

  • Identify areas for improvement whether the game was won or lost.
  • Be completely dedicated and give 100-percent effort consistently.
  • Stay positive in the face of impossible challenges.

If you’re a fan elsewhere, imagine how much better your favorite team would’ve been had they looked past their biases and scooped up Brady before the Patriots did.

The lesson from sports isn’t simply that data beats intuition. It’s that better outcomes come from asking better questions. Organizations miss strong candidates every day when they rely on reputation, polish, pedigree, or familiar proxies instead of clearly defining what the role demands. A structured framework like the Cipher helps leaders evaluate talent against the realities of the job rather than against bias or convention. In a competitive market, that shift can mean the difference between hiring the obvious candidate and identifying the right one.

Before asking who looks like the best candidate, ask what success in the role actually requires.

* * *

Leading Forum
Craig della Penna is the creator of the HireBest® system and founder of Aesop Partners, LLC. For more than 25 years, he has advised leaders at Fortune 100 companies, private equity-backed firms, and privately held businesses on talent strategy and executive assessment. His HireBest system has generated a 90-percent success rate in identifying top talent for clients. He shares his method for success in his new book, Cipher: A Proven Framework to Hire the Best People (Third Act Publishers, April 28, 2026). Learn more at aesoppartners.com.

* * *

Follow us on Instagram and X for additional leadership and personal development ideas.

* * *

 

Explore More

Hiring Teams Talent Magnet

Posted by Michael McKinney at 07:45 AM
| Comments (0) | Find more on this topic in Human Resources



BUILD YOUR KNOWLEDGE


ADVERTISE WITH US



Books to Read

Best Books of 2024

Summer Reading 2025

Entrepreneurs

Leadership Books
How to Do Your Start-Up Right
STRAIGHT TALK FOR START-UPS



Explore More

Leadership Books
Grow Your Leadership Skills
NEW AND UPCOMING LEADERSHIP BOOKS

Leadership Minute
Leadership Minute
BITE-SIZE CONCEPTS YOU CAN CHEW ON

Leadership Classics
Classic Leadership Books
BOOKS TO READ BEFORE YOU LEAD


Email
Get the LEAD:OLOGY Newsletter delivered to your inbox.    
Follow us on: Twitter Facebook LinkedIn Instagram

© 2025 LeadershipNow™

All materials contained in https://www.LeadershipNow.com are protected by copyright and trademark laws and may not be used for any purpose whatsoever other than private, non-commercial viewing purposes. Derivative works and other unauthorized copying or use of stills, video footage, text, or graphics is expressly prohibited. The Amazon links on this page are affiliate links. If you click through and purchase, we will receive a small commission on the sale. This link is provided for your convenience and, importantly, help to support our work here. We appreciate your use of these links.