By: Robert Imbrie Employee retention has never been more critical than it is in 2026. Organizations that successfully retain their top talent enjoy significantly lower training and recruitment costs, foster stronger company cultures, and maintain higher productivity levels across their teams. When employees stay longer, they develop deeper institutional knowledge, build stronger relationships with colleagues and clients, and contribute more meaningfully to long-term strategic goals. However, even the most well-intentioned companies struggle with turnover when good employees decide to leave for reasons ranging from limited career development opportunities to misalignment with company culture or inadequate compensation. Understanding these underlying factors is essential for any organization serious about building a stable, engaged workforce. The challenges of high turnover rates extend far beyond the obvious financial costs. Companies face disrupted team dynamics, loss of valuable knowledge and relationships, decreased morale among remaining employees, and the constant pressure of recruiting and training new hires. In today’s competitive job market, these disruptions can significantly impact an organization’s ability to innovate, serve customers effectively, and maintain competitive advantages. What employees expect from their employer in 2026 Remote work options During the pandemic, many workers got a taste of remote work options—and liked it. Many workers who prefer the office like the flexibility of a remote work option, even if it’s just a day or two a week. Spending time with family or on hobbies instead of commuting leads to greater life satisfaction, which in turn leads to higher job satisfaction. Not every company can or should go fully remote. However, to remain competitive in today’s job market, having remote options is beneficial. Flexible work schedules A recent report confirmed that 83% of surveyed employees value flexibility in their current or future jobs . Workers want to be judged on the quality of their work—not what hours they choose to work. Flexible schedules are especially attractive to employees with families. When you don’t have to make the tough choice between work or taking care of a sick child, the result is higher employee satisfaction. Better work-life balance In the past, employers have often expected employees to work long hours to advance their careers, even though this is usually counterproductive. These policies have never been particularly effective in promoting employee engagement. But increasingly, employees want to unwind after they’ve put in hard work. To reduce the risk of employees leaving, you must establish and enforce clear boundaries between work and personal life. A job that matters According to a recent study by Deloitte , 89% of Gen Z and 92% of millennials consider a sense of purpose to be necessary for their job satisfaction and wellbeing. Put another way, providing people with meaningful work can help with retention just as much as increasing their salaries. That doesn’t mean that every job needs to save the world. However, if you want to retain your current employees, it helps if they feel that their jobs contribute to a larger goal or mission. Before we start: assess your retention issues It’s essential to understand the scope of your retention problem before attempting to address it. For example, if your retention rate is above average for your industry, change may not be a high priority. On the other hand, if your retention rate is significantly below average, you may want to take action more aggressively. Likewise, it’s crucial to understand the source of your retention issues: Do you have retention issues everywhere, or only in certain places? What is employee retention? Employee retention is a measurement of your ability to keep employees from leaving. Mathematically, it’s represented by your employee retention rate. Employee retention changes based on location, industry, and the economic environment. While you never have complete control over your employee retention rate, you can often improve it with a strong retention strategy, which is a plan to keep employees from leaving your organization. How to calculate your employee retention rate? To find out your employee retention rate for a given period of time: 1. Find out how many employees you had at the beginning of a given period. These are your starting employees. 2. Find out how many of those employees still worked at the end of the period. These are your ending employees. 3. Divide your ending employees by your starting employees. 4. Multiply by 100. 5. This is your employee retention rate. 17 employee retention strategies to keep your best employees Once you know the scope of your retention problem, you can start taking action. We’ve included some of the most common and impactful retention strategies below. 1. Hire for culture fit Employee retention starts with the right hires. When employees are a strong cultural fit for your company, they tend to stay longer, work more productively, and report higher job satisfaction. To find a great cultural fit, it helps to start with cultural interviews . Consider using hiring software , which can help quantify your culture and assist in selecting candidates who match your values and business needs. 2. Pay attention to your onboarding process An effective onboarding process helps new employees ramp up faster and stay longer. If you don’t currently have a system for onboarding—or if it’s not getting the results you need—you’ll want to consider building or revamping your onboarding process . 3. Compete with compensation. Poor compensation is one of the most common ways companies lose great employees. Ensure that you’re paying high performers the money they deserve. Otherwise, you may lose more money than you save in retraining and onboarding costs. 4. Consider ESOPs and profit-sharing programs. Profit-sharing programs incentivize employees to have a long-term perspective. Often, these programs require employees to wait several years to receive the full benefits, which encourages them to stay longer. 5. Acknowledge and reward engagement and efforts. Results are essential, but so is attitude. When engaged employees actively participate in and improve the organization, ensure that you support and reward them—even if it’s not one of their official deliverables. The more employees feel they have a voice in the organization, the longer they’re likely to stay. 6. Watch employee well-being carefully. Stressed, distressed, and low-energy employees are often a precursor to resignations. When morale issues arise, address them as soon as possible. 7. Encourage open communication and feedback. Nothing saps motivation like a problem you can’t fix. If you want your employees to have a long, happy tenure, they need to know they have a voice in your organization. When an employee can fix a problem, they will. When they can’t, they’ll leave. 8. Provide training and development options. When employees can’t grow in your organization, they might be happy for a little while—but eventually, they’ll leave. Training and development help employees advance their careers within your organization, leading to motivated, knowledgeable employees with longer tenures. 9. Be transparent and honest in top-down communication. Dishonesty is one of the fastest ways to alienate your employees. When significant changes are happening, strive to maintain transparency and forthrightness with your employees through clear and open top-down communication . They’ll be more likely to face the new challenges with you—instead of running for the door. 10. Encourage teamwork and team synergies. Different teams within your organization typically have distinct cultures. One might be more rowdy and risk-taking, while another might be careful and deliberate. The best thing you can do as an organization is to guide these microcultures so that they match your business goals. Consider using talent strategy software to analyze and manage team dynamics. 11. Introduce meaningful perks and rewards. Sometimes a small reward goes a long way. If your employees have to put in extra work to get a project out the door, consider using gift cards or other perks to make them feel recognized. These rewards don’t cost much, but they make a huge difference the next time your team needs to go above and beyond. 12. Embrace remote work and build a hybrid workplace. In the past, companies could get away with forcing everyone to work in person. Now that remote and hybrid options are more common, that strategy has become a retention liability. By building a hybrid workplace —in other words, a workplace with both in-person and remote options—you can meet everyone’s needs. Employees who prefer remote work can work remotely. Employees who prefer in-person work can continue to do so. And employees who simply want the flexibility to work from home a couple of days a week can also do that. 13. Make work-life balance matter. Often, companies will claim to support work-life balance, yet they reward employees who stay nights and weekends. A poor work-life balance can eventually drain morale, productivity, and employee retention. To keep your employees happy and functional, you need to enforce boundaries and reward people who can say ‘no.’ 14. Allow reduced workdays and workweeks. An occasional half-day can be as refreshing as a vacation—and it can be great motivation for a job well done. If your employees are consistently hitting their metrics, consider allowing them to take off early. This rewards productivity over time spent at the desk—with the added bonus of keeping employees refreshed, happy, and loyal. 15. Let employees blow off some steam with company and team events. When people have friends at work, they tend to be happier, more motivated, and more likely to stay at their job. Team retreats and events help your employees bond, which sets them up for retention and success. 16. Identify lack of engagement early (and fix it). None of these strategies is effective if you’re not sure what’s wrong. That’s why recognizing when and where there’s a problem is so important. Engagement software and engagement surveys can help you identify issues as they arise and act quickly to address them. 17. Learn from employees leaving. When employees leave, it’s usually for a reason. The best way to understand why? Ask them. Use exit interviews to understand what’s causing your employees to leave. Then create targeted strategies to address those issues. Utilize PI to support your retention goals The Predictive Index offers powerful behavioral and cognitive assessments that provide deep insights into what drives your employees and how well they fit within your organization. The PI Behavioral Assessment™ measures natural behavioral drives and motivating needs, revealing how individuals prefer to work and what energizes them in the workplace. Meanwhile, the PI Cognitive Assessment™ evaluates learning agility and problem-solving capacity, helping you understand how employees process information and adapt to new challenges. These tools are invaluable for identifying employee motivators and ensuring proper fit between individuals and their roles. By understanding whether an employee is energized by collaboration or independent work, thrives in structured environments or prefers flexibility, and is motivated by recognition or autonomy, you can tailor retention strategies that speak directly to their core needs. For instance, a Collaborator profile benefits from supportive and creative environments, as well as opportunities for teamwork, while an Individualist needs independence and the freedom to develop new ideas without micromanagement. PI’s talent optimization software goes beyond individual assessments to analyze team dynamics and organizational culture, helping you create work environments where different behavioral profiles can thrive. The platform’s engagement software can identify disengagement early, allowing you to address retention risks before they lead to turnover. Additionally, PI’s hiring tools help you select candidates who are not only qualified but also behaviorally aligned with your team and company culture, setting the foundation for long-term retention from day one. To explore how these tools can transform your retention strategy, review PI’s talent strategy , review case studies of companies that have successfully reduced turnover using behavioral insights, and consider PI’s comprehensive guide to building effective onboarding processes that leverage behavioral understanding for better employee integration and satisfaction. 

By: Joe Galvin ChatGPT made its public debut in November 2022. Before then, Artificial Intelligence was largely a corporate buzzword or big tech slang. Just over three years later, AI is no longer jargon — it’s ubiquitous. Everyone uses it everywhere, for everything . Looking down the road at 2030, AI is on track to dominate every aspect of business , from internal operations to external execution. Its potential to holistically transform how work gets done is endless. While there is no question that AI will have a significant impact on the future of work, precisely what it will look like in 4 years remains to be determined. Many futurists opine on what’s to come, ranging from grim visions of robots replacing humans to more optimistic images of AI improving the employee experience and providing greater work/life balance. As always, the reality probably lies somewhere between the two, in a world where jobs look different, but people are still the linchpin to organizational success . Either way, AI will impact every line on the P&L— revenues, costs, operations, people, and investments. It will affect every business leader’s ability to provide their product and/or service competitively; it will also impact their customers and competitors. According to Vistage research , nearly 3 in 4 (72%) CEOs running small and midsize businesses develop a strategic plan internally. But these legacy frameworks often fail to accommodate new and emerging technologies. And leaders who don’t have a deliberate approach to integrating AI risk will be left behind and unprepared for the market and economic realities of an AI-powered 2030. Adding AI to a strategic plan can be daunting. Its uncharted and quickly evolving nature means there is no playbook or clearly defined destination. Add the dynamics of an AI-anxious workforce tasked with leveraging tools they fear will eventually put them out of a job — in effect, making people feel as though they are digging their own graves — and it’s no surprise that many business leaders are wary about adding AI to their tried-and-true planning processes. However, AI is happening now. CEOs must begin embracing AI rapidly and intentionally to remain competitive – both today and down the road. Business leaders can begin embedding AI into their strategic plan by focusing on the following key areas: 1. Market Analysis How is AI reshaping the marketplace, including competitors, pricing and capabilities? 2. Competitive Advantage How does it change your unique value proposition that customers will recognize and reward in an environment where customer requirements will change rapidly? 3. Financial Planning How does it impact your ROI and investment models? 4. Operational Execution How does it impact your productivity as an organization? How can you leverage employees’ individual productivity gains, and how can you automate existing workflows to capitalize on the power of AI? 5. Skills and Tools What are the skills that your workforce will need to develop, and what are the tools they’ll need to thrive in the future? 6. Governance How can you ensure you have the right security protocols, data protection and ethical considerations in place? By diving deep into these six areas, CEOs can begin honing their long-term vision and tactical approach to integrating AI into their business. By developing a strong point of view and a blueprint for implementing AI, CEOs can position themselves for long-term gains. Overcoming the hesitation to integrate AI is challenging, and taking AI from experimentation to mastery is no small — nor speedy — task. But make no mistake: AI is here, and it is already actively transforming business. Those who take a proactive approach to weaving AI into their strategic plan will be primed for success, whether it’s in 2026, 2030 or beyond. This story first appeared in Inc. 

By Trent Lee — The CEO’s Sage December isn’t just about closing the books. It’s about how you close. No one’s going to remember your Q2 earnings call or the clever slide deck from the July offsite. Your team won’t recall the mid-year OKR reshuffle. And your customers won’t think back on your second-quarter roadmap. But they will remember how you ended the year. And so will you. Why the Finish Line Matters  Here’s what I tell my clients: Strategy gets all the attention—but it’s execution that gets remembered. And December? That’s the proving ground. It’s where your culture, your leadership, and your strategy show up—or they don’t. Let’s break it down: For Teams: A strong finish builds momentum. A sloppy one? It lingers into Q1 like a bad hangover. For Customers: Your final impression becomes the first opportunity of the new year. For Leaders: December reveals whether your team is truly aligned—or just tired. Finishing strong isn’t about working longer hours. It’s about being clear, focused, and disciplined —when it matters most. The Mistakes I See Every Year Too many CEOs treat December like a coast-in month. Here’s what that usually looks like: Winding down too early Dumping last-minute projects that scatter the team’s focus Confusing year-end reporting with meaningful execution And then January arrives... and it feels like you’re already behind. The Fix: A Finish Line Review I guide my clients through a simple year-end tool I call the Finish Line Review —a short but powerful checkpoint built around three questions: 1. What customer outcomes must we deliver before year-end? 2. What bottlenecks can we eliminate right now to clear the runway for Q1? 3. What lessons from this year’s execution should reshape how we lead next year? This isn’t about cramming more work into December. It’s about sharpening the lens so the work that is happening drives real traction. A Few Questions for You Before you wrap up the year, ask yourself: Are we executing with clarity—or just checking boxes? What will my team say about the way we finished? Are we teaching execution, or still hoping it just “happens”? Final Thought “70% of CEO failures aren’t about bad strategy. They’re about weak execution.” — Fortune Magazine Strategy may set the direction. But execution writes the ending. And December is where that story either fizzles out—or finishes strong. Let’s not carry the same execution gaps into 2026. Let’s close this year with clarity and conviction. — Trent Lee helps CEOs align their strategy and structure so execution becomes inevitable—not exhausting. Want help turning your year-end into a springboard for next year? Let’s talk: www.compassleadershipadvisors.com | LinkedIn

By Trent Lee — The CEO’s Sage™ Most business owners don’t lack an exit plan because they’re disinterested in the future. They lack an exit plan because they’re busy. They’re solving today’s problems, leading people, fighting fires, and chasing opportunity. In the whirlwind, “exit planning” feels like a distant, optional exercise—something to be handled later, when life somehow becomes less complicated. But every owner eventually discovers the same truth: later is never later. Later is always now. And the absence of an exit plan creates two universal, immediate, and unavoidable problems —problems that quietly shape every decision an owner makes. Problem #1: You Can’t Know if Today’s Decisions Are Helping or Hurting Tomorrow’s Exit Every day, an owner makes decisions that influence the eventual outcome of their business transition. The challenge is simple: If you don’t know your destination, you can’t know whether today’s choices are moving you toward it. Questions like these aren’t tactical—they’re directional: Should you focus on top-line revenue or profitability? What should your leadership team look like two years from now? How scalable do your systems need to be? How much customer concentration is too much? What incentives will keep key employees loyal and invested? Without an exit plan, these decisions are disconnected dots. With a plan, they align into a strategy. Value Builder’s research on the Endgame Conversation® emphasizes how few owners have ever articulated their long-term intent, timeline, or target number—and therefore cannot make informed decisions that support their endgame. To paraphrase: If you don’t know where you want to go, you can’t know if you’re headed the right way. Problem #2: The Tools That Create Exit Success Require Time Most of the value-building levers owners depend on—delegation, leadership development, incentive design, tax optimization, brand building, financial reporting, systematization—require years to mature. NAVIX’s 7 End Zone Questions™ show how many dimensions of a successful exit (Exit Magic Number, risks, succession path, tax strategy, wealth conversion) require long-term preparation. The earlier owners begin, the more optionality they create. The later they begin, the more constrained they become. In value-building, time is jet fuel . Without time, even the best strategies deliver diminished returns. Or as I often tell CEOs: Less time to prepare produces fewer results. The Strategic Imperative Once an owner sees these two problems clearly, exit planning stops being a “someday project” and becomes a strategic necessity. The goal isn’t to decide the exact date or strategy today—it’s to create clarity, alignment, and direction. Because businesses built with the end in mind make better decisions in the present. Exit planning isn’t about selling your business. It’s about steering it with intention. ------------ Trent Lee helps CEOs lead with intention—aligning people, strategy, and value so their companies grow stronger today and become transferable tomorrow. Ready to assess your exit readiness and value drivers? Start the conversation at www.compassleadershipadvisors.com or connect on LinkedIn.

By: Steve Messina AI can feel like the ghost in the machine, everywhere, unpredictable, and impossible to ignore. In the workplace, it’s equal parts fascination and fear. But let’s be honest: every major leap in innovation, from the internet to automation, started with a healthy dose of panic. Good news: HR doesn’t need to exorcise these fears; it needs to lead through them . You’re the guide through the fog, the steady hand on the flashlight. So, let’s step into the dark corners of AI anxiety, and uncover how HR can turn each one into a moment of courage, clarity, and strategy. The Ghost: Hidden legal hurdles Few things send chills down an HR leader’s spine like potential compliance issues that haunt you. The legal maze around AI, bias, privacy, transparency, is vast and shifting. With every new regulation or class-action headline, that maze grows a little darker. How to face your fear: Don’t get lost in the fog. Build a cross-functional task force with your legal and IT partners to craft evolving, airtight AI policies and ethical standards. Keep them alive, review and refresh them regularly as laws evolve. Most importantly, be transparent . When candidates and employees understand how AI supports fairness rather than replaces it, trust takes root and fear fades. The Vampire: Cold, hard algorithms This creature thrives on data alone, no heart, no intuition, no nuance. The fear? That AI will drain the “human” out of human resources. Algorithms can crunch performance metrics, but they can’t detect an employee’s unspoken burnout or sense of belonging. How to face your fear: Don’t hand over the keys to the castle. Train managers to use AI as an assistant, not an oracle. Encourage them to pair insights with empathy, metrics with meaning. When HR champions ethical, emotionally intelligent use of AI, the vampire loses its bite, and humanity wins. The Divisive Devil: Uneven AI expectations AI can be the ultimate workplace Rorschach test: one person sees opportunity; another sees apocalypse. Some employees dive in headfirst, while others hesitate, worrying about job loss, bias, or even the carbon footprint of the tech itself. Left unchecked, this divide can fracture your culture faster than any software bug. How to face your fear: Shine a light on the unknown. Host open Q&A sessions or “AI town halls” where people can voice their concerns and learn together; and host it with the CEO . Position HR as the bridge between executive push for AI and actual human readiness. Offer upskilling paths and small wins to build confidence . The more people feel included in the journey, the less room there is for fear to fester. The Data Zombie: Breaches of privacy and trust Imagine a hungry horde of data leaks and privacy breaches, chomping through your company’s reputation. The risk is real: employees can unknowingly feed sensitive information into AI tools that aren’t as secure as they seem. How to face your fear: Arm your people with knowledge and your systems with armor. Set strict data standards for every AI tool, and offer training that’s memorable, not dry policy slides, but real-world examples of what to share (and what not to). Make it clear that protecting data isn’t just IT’s job, it’s everyone’s defense against the zombie apocalypse. The Monster: Job security jitters AI might as well be the monster under the bed for many employees. As automation creeps into every department, fear of being replaced or rejected can eat away at confidence and morale. When learning opportunities don’t keep pace with AI’s evolution, even your best talent can start to feel like they’re falling behind. Facing your fear: Exorcise the monster with transparency and training. Be candid about where AI will change roles , and where it will elevate them. Invest in continuous learning that helps employees offload tedious tasks and flex their creativity instead. When people see AI as a sidekick, not a saboteur, they don’t just feel safer, they feel unstoppable. HR: The magician that turns fear into progress AI doesn’t spell the end of human work, it demands a redefinition of it. HR is the magician in this story, blending data with empathy, strategy with storytelling, and innovation with inclusion. There are HR fears about AI adoption, but that’s okay. Your potion for progress? A mix of policy, education, data, and transparent dialogue. Stir in a culture of trust, and you’ve got the secret sauce for turning AI anxiety into alignment. With HR leading the charge, AI becomes more than a disruptive force, it becomes a partner , helping people do their most meaningful work. 

By: Sam Reese As CEOs plan for 2026, uncertainty and rapid change can make it easy to get stuck in incremental thinking. From persistent economic volatility to shifting workforce expectations and the acceleration of AI adoption, many business leaders are defaulting to caution. CEOs tend to play it safe and can be hesitant to make big moves. Caution is understandable; the past few years have been unpredictable. However, that mindset can be dangerous. Incremental progress might feel secure, but it rarely leads to real growth. Now is the time to think big — to revisit the long-term vision and ensure every part of the strategy supports it. Below are 5 strategic planning priorities for best-in-class leaders as they map out 2026 and beyond: 1. Think Big, Not Incremental Right now, many leaders are frozen by uncertainty. They’re so focused on surviving the next quarter that they’ve lost sight of the bigger picture. Hitting a few short-term targets might feel like progress, but focusing solely on the short term could come at the expense of long-term success. Incremental thinking can quietly stall growth. When leaders lower their expectations or assume the next year will be a “reset” period, they stop challenging their teams to innovate. Employees pick up on that mindset immediately. If leaders tell their team it’s going to be a tough year, they’ll take that as permission to play it safe. The best leaders keep their long-term vision front and center, even in uncertain times. These long-term goals drive every decision. 2. Integrate External Trends Strategically One of the biggest mistakes I see leaders make is tinkering with trends without a clear strategy. Take AI, for example. Some companies are experimenting with tools and calling it a strategy. But the most successful CEOs develop a clear plan for how AI fits into their business, enhances their operations, and strengthens their value proposition. Otherwise, AI becomes a distraction rather than a driver of growth. The same principle applies to workforce strategy. Hybrid and flexible work arrangements are here to stay. According to our recent Vistage research, CEOs are increasingly settling into stable workplace models: 43% report a hybrid workforce, 45% are fully onsite, and 8% are fully remote. Retention now depends on giving workers choice and autonomy. In many industries, leaders are adapting how they communicate, manage, and engage teams to make flexibility work without sacrificing alignment or culture. Supply chains and geopolitics are another critical area where leaders can’t afford to be reactive. Businesses with connections to global supply chains are proactively planning to manage tariffs, regulations, and potential disruptions. Waiting until a problem hits is too late. Strategic leaders anticipate these risks and build their plans around them, rather than hoping for their preferred outcome. 3. Communicate Mission, Vision, and Values Relentlessly Leaders may assume their teams understand their organization’s mission, vision, and values because they shared them at a past employee meeting. In reality, people forget. They get caught up in day-to-day tasks and lose sight of why the work matters. Especially in hybrid or decentralized work environments, effective communication is constant, clear, and specific. And, great leadership isn’t just about talking. It’s about listening and empowering others. The people closest to the frontline often have the best ideas. Great leaders encourage them to speak up, take ownership, and contribute solutions. 4. Balance Growth Ambitions with Focused Investment Ambition is essential, but so is focus. Great leaders filter every decision and new initiative through the lens of their core business purpose. They ask: “Does this move us closer to being the very best at what we do?” If the answer is no, then it’s a distraction. Focused investment may mean saying “no” as often as “yes.” Growth doesn’t come from piling on more initiatives. It comes from concentrating energy, resources, and attention on the few things that truly drive value. 5. Prioritize the Metrics That Truly Matter One common pitfall in strategic planning is focusing on too many metrics. When everything feels important, nothing really is. Successful leaders identify the single key success metric that drives their business forward. This metric helps track whether a company is fulfilling its purpose and moving the organization in the right direction. Once that metric is defined, dashboards, reports, and meetings are simplified. Too often, teams get bogged down in secondary metrics that create noise but don’t drive impact. In effective organizations, every initiative, KPI, and project supports the primary goal. If there’s one piece of advice I would give CEOs planning for 2026, it’s this: Lead the strategic planning process. Great leaders don’t delegate strategy to someone else or treat it like a box to check. They know they need to be in the room, asking the tough questions, shaping the direction, and ensuring the team is aligned with the vision. And they are disciplined about where they invest their time, energy, and resources. The companies that succeed will be the ones that combine bold vision with relentless focus, clear priorities, and leadership that actively guides the path forward. This story first appeared in Entrepreneur . 

Most owners assume growth is the goal. More customers. More revenue. More staff. And they’re right. Buyers do reward growth. But they pay a premium for companies that grow while keeping a positive cash flow cycle. More than 80,000 business owners have completed their Value Builder Score Report , offering a window into how they think about money inside their companies. One of the questions on the intake questionnaire asks owners to “Select the statement that best describes your cash needs,” with four options: 1. We regularly or occasionally raise or borrow money. 2. We keep excess cash as a rainy-day fund. 3. We distribute excess cash to shareholders. 4. Unsure. The results reveal something telling; Owners who maintain excess cash receive acquisition offers that are, on average, 25% higher than those who don’t. It’s a reminder that cash creates confidence and buyers pay a premium for businesses that show it. That’s a lesson Stan Markuze learned when he co-founded Joyride Auto, a marketplace for impounded vehicles. Before Joyride, buying auctioned cars was painfully outdated. Every other Wednesday, a few local dealers would gather in a parking lot to bid on abandoned cars. Stan and his partners moved the process online and, more importantly, re-engineered how the money flowed. Each car sold for about $1,000. Joyride added a 15% buyer’s fee, charged up front. The tow yard got paid later, when the buyer collected the car. Joyride got its cut immediately. No inventory. No receivables. No waiting. Within two years, the company was generating millions in revenue with fewer than twenty employees. When a private equity firm acquired Joyride, they paid roughly seven times annual revenue — thanks to its positive cash flow cycle. By collecting before delivering, Stan was able to fund growth from profits instead of investors, keeping more of his equity until the exit. Why Buyers Love Positive Cash Flow A business with a positive cash flow cycle collects money before it spends it. That means faster cash conversion, less capital at risk, and the freedom to grow without taking on debt or dilution. Buyers prize these businesses because they can scale without sucking up cash. The faster a company turns sales into money in the bank, the higher its valuation.

By Trent Lee — The CEO’s Sage We all assume big companies execute better. More resources. More people. More experience. More structure. That should mean more alignment, right? Not so fast. What we’re seeing in execution assessments across dozens of organizations—from high-growth mid-sized firms to mature enterprises—is a surprising trend: Mid-sized companies are actually outperforming their larger counterparts when it comes to execution. Let me unpack that—and more importantly, what it means for you. When Bigger Doesn't Mean Better You might expect that organizations with 500+ employees would dominate when it comes to communicating strategy, leading with confidence, and measuring what matters. After all, they’ve got departments for everything—HR, Ops, Finance, Strategy, Communications. But the reality? Mid-sized companies (150–500 employees) are showing stronger execution across nearly every key discipline : Leadership Strategic Understanding Balanced Metrics Activities & Structure Human Capital In particular, one area where they’re clearly ahead: Balanced Metrics . These companies often hit a tipping point where informal systems won’t cut it anymore—so they’re investing in dashboards, KPIs, and operational rhythm. They’re still lean enough to stay agile but big enough to need structure. It’s a sweet spot. Why Larger Organizations Start to Stall Once organizations grow past a certain size, especially beyond 500 employees, we start to see real friction. Not because they’re not trying hard—but because complexity starts outrunning clarity . Here’s what typically breaks down first: 1. Strategic Understanding Leaders assume people “get it” because they talked about it once in an offsite. But the truth? Most employees are several levels removed from those conversations—and don’t know how their daily work connects to the bigger picture. 2. Leadership Communication Vision gets lost in translation. Execution starts to feel like a game of telephone, where each layer adds interpretation, doubt, or delay. 3. Decision Agility Bigger orgs move slower. Bureaucracy creeps in. Teams become risk-averse. And the ability to respond to the market in real time starts to fade. The Mid-Market Edge Mid-sized companies still have enough proximity to the front lines to stay connected. In many cases, founders or original visionaries are still in the building. Communication is faster, trust is higher, and strategy feels personal. That closeness breeds alignment—and alignment powers execution. But here’s the catch: as you grow, that edge can fade—unless you deliberately protect it . Final Thought If you’re building toward scale, here’s your reminder: Execution doesn’t automatically grow with headcount. The more people you lead, the more deliberate you must be about: Communicating strategy (again and again) Simplifying structure and decision-making Creating clarity from the C-suite to the front line Using metrics that matter—not just ones that are easy to collect Small might be beautiful—but scale can be powerful if you align it with purpose, structure, and clarity. — Trent Lee helps CEOs and leadership teams align strategy, structure, and execution—especially during high-growth transitions. Learn more at www.compassleadershipadvisors.com or connect on LinkedIn .

By Trent Lee, Compass Leadership Advisors One of the most common frustrations I hear from CEOs is this: “I want my people to make decisions without running everything through me… but I don’t want them making decisions that violate our core values or take us off strategy.” It’s the leadership paradox. You want ownership—without drift. Autonomy—without chaos. Initiative—without misalignment. And here’s the truth most CEOs don’t see: Misalignment isn’t a people problem. It’s a clarity problem. In almost every organization I step into, each layer of the company is operating from a slightly different version of the truth. The CEO has one interpretation of the vision. The executive team has another. Mid-managers filter it again. Frontline employees receive whatever finally trickles down. Those “slight differences” compound into big issues: Employees hesitate because they’re unsure. Managers firefight instead of leading. Executives question whether the team is ready for autonomy. And the CEO—hoping to delegate—slides right back into the role of chief problem-solver. The real issue isn’t capability. It’s the breakdown of what I call the Clarity Cascade™ . High-performing teams nail four things: 1. Vision Clarity Not slogans. Not posters. But a shared, lived understanding of where the company is heading and why. 2. Strategic Priorities Three to five true priorities that drive value— not a laundry list of “everything we hope happens this year.” 3. Decision Filters Values translated into behaviors. This is how employees learn to make decisions the CEO would make even when no one is watching. 4. Communication Rhythm Repeating the same message across all levels until it feels almost “too obvious.” Because alignment thrives on repetition, not novelty. When these four elements are in sync, something powerful happens: People make consistent, independent, aligned decisions. When they’re not, CEOs get one of two things: Surprises… or silence. Leadership Question for the Week: If every employee made decisions tomorrow exactly as you would, what would they need to understand more clearly? If alignment is something you’re wrestling with right now, you’re not alone. I’m helping several CEOs implement the Clarity Cascade™ inside their organizations through my Vistage groups, Value Builder work, and leadership advisory. If you'd like the framework or the worksheet I use with leadership teams, reply “ALIGN” and I’ll send it over. ]