I just left an incredible meeting with my team where we chose to do something you aren’t “supposed” to do in business: We lowered our financial goals for this quarter.

A couple months into the pandemic, I had a sobering moment with my fiancé, Spiros.

I imagined what it actually felt like to be coming from their viewpoint. I thought about the solutions I had proposed and asked how those solutions would make me feel if I were on the other side. What was missing?

Suddenly, his chemistry brain clicked with my leadership brain: He doesn’t want to be the leader who slows things down for his team.

I looked into my camera at the virtual audience and said, “Remember how I told you at the beginning of today that I might screw something up? Well . . .”

Our leadership team had our quarterly review last week, and together, we got to wrap up and celebrate the best quarter we’ve ever had.

I believe that it’s possible to make every single decision with intention, but few do. It requires knowing our values and operating from them.

For many years, my leadership journey looked like a constant search for consensus. It made other people happy, but for me, it was exhausting. I thought it was the right thing to do, but it actually hurt us.

One of the greatest sources of stress and disappointment is when our expectations don’t align with reality. So what if we changed our mindset?

So far, our bonus experiment is working better than any structure we’ve had. I thought I’d share how we approached this new system in case you too have struggled with how to best create rewarding, meaningful financial incentives.

Have you ever heard of a “you are allowed to” list?

One of the most common questions I get is, “When you see something that could be better but don’t have the power to fix it, what do you do?”

Recently, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect, and I’ve realized that I need someone on my team who can help me think through challenges and ideas in a low-pressure, low-stakes environment.

I’ve learned so much about discipline and health, and ultimately, this challenge has taught me that I don’t have to do something just because everyone else is doing it.

It used to be rare for me to slow down and appreciate the progress, but I’m grateful to my coach for helping me see the value of taking time to pause once a quarter for a review with my team.

No matter how insignificant the failure may seem—and no matter if it’s in our control—it can still feel really bad. Big or small, in our control or not, we have to bounce back

Last week, I led one of the most important and uncomfortable conversations we’ve ever had as a team: What do we believe as an organization?

Sometimes the words and the ideas flow, and sometimes there are days like today, when I can’t find the words, no matter how hard I try.