Metronomics

Most execution problems get blamed on people. After working with 3,000 leadership teams, the pattern is almost always structural....functions without permanent owners, priorities with no single name attached, and no shared visibility into how work actually flows. Shannon breaks it down in this month's newsletter, including the tools we use in practice: the Organizational Function Chart, KFFM, Scorecards, Widgets, and the Open Playing Field. Worth a read if your execution ever feels harder than it should.

What does the best‑selling book 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴 say about ensuring your leaders drive a healthy culture? We’ve discussed the Culture Growth Tax: that invisible, soul-sucking drain on profits caused by misaligned leaders and unproductive conflict. 📉 But as a CEO, you aren't looking for more theory; you’re looking to operationalize. This is why 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴 by Shannon Susko is essential reading. It provides the high-performance engine to drive the "what" and "why" of a healthy culture. 📘 In 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴, Susko argues that a company is a "human system" requiring a repeatable rhythm. Culture isn't just about feeling good; it’s about predictability. When your executive team is culturally aligned, you can predict how they will react to crises or opportunities. This alignment allows you to scale without the wheels falling off. 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 "𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗯𝘀" 𝗕𝗲𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝘀 🗣️ A core value is only real if you’re willing to "hurt" for it; meaning you’d fire a top producer who violates it. Susko reinforces this by insisting on 𝗯𝗲𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆. By defining specific "verbs" for each value, you remove subjectivity. If you can’t see the value in action, it doesn't exist. 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 "𝗥𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺" 🥁 Successful CEOs create a "cadence of accountability." By sharing 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 in weekly and monthly meetings, you‘re reinforcing the "rules of the road." This storytelling keeps culture from gathering dust on a breakroom poster and moves it into the daily flow of work. 🏆 𝟯. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 📈 A leader cannot be high-performing if there is a "clear gap" in their cultural fit. 𝘔𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘴 uses the 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 to move conversations away from vague feelings toward objective behavioral standards. It’s about identifying exactly where the gap lies and closing it. 𝟰. 𝗧𝗼𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴: 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁 🛡️ Susko is a massive advocate for replacing leaders who cannot meet the cultural standard. The disciplined 𝗧𝗼𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 process moves your success rate from 25% to 90%. This ensures the person you hire today won't become the "growth tax" you pay tomorrow. A healthy culture is the connective tissue of your business. It speeds up execution and prevents your best people from burning out. When you commit to defining behaviors, sharing stories, coaching for fit and hiring with confidence, culture becomes your greatest edge. If you’re a CEO ready to align your executive team to drive a healthy culture, let’s connect.🤝 #ExecAlignedCulture #BusinessGrowth #PrairieBusiness #SmallCompanies #MidSizeCompanies

We're thrilled to announce Dr. Gerald Bell as a keynote speaker at Tip Top 2026. - 50+ years of leadership research. - Ph.D. from Yale. - New York Times bestselling author. - Trusted advisor to YPO and EO for decades. - Visiting professor at Harvard, Stanford, Cornell, and the London School of Business. Dr. Bell has spent his career on one mission: building world-class leaders who build world-class businesses. His insight — "The secret of making a contribution is to build your leaders so they build your business. The key is to build yourself first." — is exactly why he belongs on this stage. Thousands of leaders around the world have experienced personal and professional growth by implementing his methods. This October, 350 CEOs and growth leaders will get to experience it firsthand. Tip Top 2026 October 28–29 · The Ritz-Carlton, Toronto metronomics.com/tip-top

Every CEO starts here. Reacting to chaos. Working weekends. Holding everything together — and wondering why it keeps getting harder instead of easier. That's not a you problem. That's a stage. Shannon Byrne Susko calls it the Desperate CEO phase. She lived it while scaling her first company. She wasn't broken — she just didn't have the right system yet. Here's what changes when you do: → Cash flow becomes predictable, not a surprise → Revenue goals get hit...consistently → Your business starts running without you at the center of every decision → You become exit-ready...whether you want to exit or not The Metronomics Compound Growth System was built by a CEO who scaled and sold two companies using it. Not a consultant. A practitioner. Where are you on this staircase?

Most CEOs have a vision. Very few have a clear path from where they are today to where they want to be. That gap, between knowing the destination and knowing how to get there, is where companies stall. Here's how Metronomics closes it: ↓ BHAG: Your 10-30 year bold destination. Where you're ultimately going. ↓ 3HAG: A 3-year, month-by-month plan with strategy, positioning, and winning moves. Not aspirational fiction, a detailed, achievable picture your whole team can see. ↓ Annual Plan: 1-year Priorities, targets, and theme. What this year is actually about. ↓ Quarterly Plan: 13-week Priorities, KPIs, and owners. The work that moves the needle. ↓ Weekly Execution: KPIs, issues, commitments, rhythm. Where accountability lives. ↓ Daily Huddles: What's Up, Stuck, Needs, On Fire. Keeps the team moving together. This is the system. Vision connected to daily action, every level reinforcing the one above it. That's not a goal-setting exercise. That's compound growth.

Excited to share that Shannon Byrne Susko will be at the 2026 Acetech Leadership Retreat in Whistler, April 13–15. Acetech has been bringing together Canada's most ambitious tech CEOs for over 30 years. This year's retreat features a Harvard Business School case study on Anthropic's next move, sessions on capital raising, product-led growth, and an unconference format that past attendees called some of the best conversations they've had. If you're a CEO attending...Shannon would love to connect. The work of building a great leadership team and a strategy that actually sticks doesn't happen in isolation. It happens in rooms like this one. See you in Whistler. 🎟️ Tickets still available: https://lnkd.in/gwqeSffw #Acetech #CEOLeadership #Whistler2026 #TechCEO #Metronomics https://lnkd.in/g5A4CJPr

The Market Map exercise does exactly this....it breaks the "we've always done it this way" ceiling by showing leadership teams where the market actually is versus where they've been looking. Richard J. Bryan, CSP work with this family business is a good example of what happens when a leadership team finally sees the full picture...the conversation changes fast. This is the kind of clarity that compounds over time.

Good coaches ask great questions. Great coaches deliver a system that outlasts the engagement. The difference isn't skill. It's durability. A good coach can facilitate a powerful offsite. Unlock a breakthrough conversation. Help a CEO see a blind spot. All valuable. But what happens six months after the engagement ends? Great coaches leave behind a system...a cadence, a set of integrated tools, a language the team uses every day. Something that compounds after the coach steps back. That's what the 7 Systems in Metronomics are designed to do. Each quarter, you introduce the next system. Your client's team absorbs it, builds on it, and eventually runs it. You don't create dependency. You create capability. Dominic Monkhouse said it directly: "I don't think anybody gets to be amazing without a coach." True. But the coach who delivers a system that keeps working without them? That's the one who gets referred to the next CEO. 80+ Metronomics coaches are building their practices on this model. Not personality-dependent. System-driven.

You Don't Have the A-Player Team You Think You Do    In This Newsletter, Shannon Byrne Susko goes into: - Why the team that got you here won't get you there - The A-Player definition most CEOs are applying wrong - The real cost of tolerating below-standard performance - Step-by-step: How to run the A-Player Team Assessment

Not all A-players are created equal. In fact, most companies don't have as many as they think. Here's how we assess every person on a leadership team: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗔𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 Two dimensions. Nine boxes. Three grades. 𝗫-𝗔𝘅𝗶𝘀 — Performance Below Expectations / Meets Expectations / Exceeds Expectations 𝗬-𝗔𝘅𝗶𝘀 — Core Values None of the time / Some of the time / Most of the time The results: ✅ A — Top-right box only. Exceeds expectations. Lives your values most of the time. This is your culture carrier and your performance anchor. 🟡 B — One box: meets expectations, lives values most of the time. Not a problem — a project. Coach them up. 🔴 C — Everything else. Low performance OR low values = C. Yes, even the top performer who doesn't live your values is a C. The CEO mistake I see most often: Keeping the C who performs because removing them feels risky. But every day they stay, they're telling your whole team: values don't actually matter here. Your A-players notice. And they leave. Be ruthlessly honest. Do the assessment. If you want to learn more on developing A-Player teams then join us Mar 24th as Shannon Byrne Susko teaches the Metronomics Human System. Link in the comments to join