the boss blog

Articles and thinkpieces from Stu on company culture, leadership, strategy, and more.

Resource Management: Stop Looking for the Perfect Tool

Your Tools aren’t the problem. I’ve been in a number of conversations lately with firm owners trying to get a handle on resource management. Almost all of them are struggling—and for good reason. Project schedules are dynamic. Project management discipline is inconsistent. And let’s be honest, our people aren’t interchangeable

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Introducing the BOSS Strategy Execution System

Introducing the BOSS Strategy Execution System™ I’ve always been a pretty good vicarious learner. Early on, that meant watching my older siblings—seeing what worked, what didn’t, and adjusting accordingly. Later, that shifted to reading the work of people who had already figured some things out, and spending time in peer

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Co-workers having a one-on-one meeting

Why Regular Reviews Matter—Even When You’re “Too Busy”

A surprising number of firms still don’t run any kind of structured employee review process—not annually, not quarterly, not ever. And when you dig into why, the answer is usually some version of this: “Our technical leads are slammed. They don’t have time to review their people.” Fair point. In

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frustrated owners

Why Small Business Owners Stay Frustrated (And How to Break the Cycle)

I had coffee with a fellow consultant today, and our conversation drifted into familiar territory—small business frustration. At one point she joked, “Aren’t all small business owners frustrated?” It was tongue-in-cheek, but let’s be honest: it wasn’t far from reality. You’d be hard-pressed to find a small business owner who

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