Most leaders aren't struggling because they aren't working hard. They're struggling because they're working hard on too many things at once. Endless dashboards, quarterly OKRs no one remembers, and team meetings full of nodding without movement. This BizBlend conversation is for founders, CEOs, and leadership teams who can feel the cost of that scattered effort and want a way out.

Host Sana sits down with Lee Benson — Wall Street Journal best-selling author, founder of Execute to Win, and creator of the MIND Methodology — for a clear-headed conversation about what it actually takes to build a company that compounds. Lee grew Able Aerospace from 3 employees to over 500, hit fifteen consecutive years of 20% compounded annual growth, and exited to Textron Aviation at a 21.6x EBITDA multiple in an industry where 8x was considered strong. He didn't do it with more dashboards. He did it with one number, and the discipline to make every team find theirs.

About the Guest:

Lee Benson is the founder and CEO of Execute to Win (ETW), Wall Street Journal best-selling author of Your Most Important Number, and creator of the MIND Methodology — Most Important Number and Drivers. Over four decades as a successful entrepreneur, Lee has founded eight companies and had three exits, including Able Aerospace, which he sold to Textron Aviation in 2016 for nine figures. He is also CEO of Dinner Table, a community focused on helping families intentionally create value, and author of the recently released Value Creation Family. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, called the MIND Methodology the best business management operating system he had ever seen.

Key Takeaways:

• A business is a value creation machine. The CEO's primary job is to continually and responsibly increase the value of the business, and the leadership team's job is to make that happen together.
• Every team needs one Most Important Number. Not a dashboard of fifty. One number that reflects the value the team creates and drives the majority of the right behaviors when improved.
• Pick the right number, not the obvious one. "Retention" sounds like the right HR metric until you keep underperformers for three years. "Percentage of seats filled with capable people" drives different, better behaviors.
• Do less better. Never confuse efforts with results. Never confuse enthusiasm with capability. Focus on the one number, find the best work that moves it, and let everything else fall into place.
• Value creation is more than money. Material value, emotional energy, and spiritual connectedness all matter. The 21.6x exit multiple came from getting all three right, not just the financials.
• Operationalize alignment. Lee met with every employee, on-site or virtual, every single month. That cadence kept the rumour mill at thirty days max and the team genuinely connected to the strategy.
• Compensation has to match the system. Roughly 20% of total profits went back to the team proportionate to income, so every employee was actively in the game of growing the company.
• Change your relationship with struggle. All the opportunity in the world is in the struggle. Capability builds from the work no one wants to do, and self-esteem follows capability.

Connect With the Guest:

• Execute to Win: https://www.etw.com
• Lee Benson on LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/company/execute-to-win
• Dinner Table (family value creation): https://www.dinnertable.com
• Book — Your Most Important Number: Available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and major retailers
• Book — Value Creation Family: Available via Lee's websites and major retailers
• Leadership Value Lab: Free monthly live calls with leaders, accessible via etw.com

Episode Chapters:

[00:00] The real cost of effort without clarity — and the one number that changes everything

[03:00] Meet Lee Benson — pulling weeds at six, kicked out at seventeen, nine figures by sixty

[09:00] The value creation cycle — struggle, capability, contribution, fulfillment

[14:00] Why some leaders win and others stall — even with the same data

[16:00] What "value creation machine" actually means — and the CEO's real job

[19:00] One number per team — and how that number passes the test

[24:00] Value creation flow vs functional structure — where to focus your weakest link

[31:00] Most Important Numbers, the right way — and the HR retention trap

[37:00] Material, emotional, and spiritual value — the 21.6x EBITDA multiple

[42:00] Inside the rhythm — monthly all-hands, profit sharing, and the foundation that holds in tough times

[46:00] Value creation in the family — and why the operating system is the same

[48:00] Change your relationship with struggle — the foundation underneath all of it

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Sana: Most leaders I talk to, they aren't struggling because they don't work hard enough.

25

Sana: They really, really work hard. But they're struggling because they're working hard on too many things at once.

26

Sana: endless dashboards, quarterly OKRs, nobody remembers by the next month.

27

Sana: Team meetings that produce a lot of nodding, But very little movement.

28

Sana: So, what if the problem, listeners, it isn't effort? I mean, you're putting all the efforts in there, maybe more than 100%, but then…

29

Sana: What if the problem is that nobody, including the leader, can name the one number that actually matters?

30

Sana: Well, today's guest listeners, he built a 500-person company with 15 consecutive years, hear me out, the numbers, 15 consecutive years of 20% growth, and sold it for a 9-figure exit.

31

Sana: And he did it with one clear idea.

32

Sana: Let's talk about it. Stick with us. So, welcome back, everyone, listeners, to another very, very, I must say, crucial and interesting episode on the BizBlend podcast. I am Suna, your host, as always, and listeners, today I'm joined by Lee Benson. Well, he's a Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

33

Sana: He's the founder of Execute to Win, and he's also the creator of the MIND Methodology, which is a framework that has helped hundreds of companies find their most important number.

34

Sana: and build everything around it. Well, some numbers, of course. So, Lee grew Able Aerospace from 3 employees to over 500.

35

Sana: achieved 15 consecutive years of 20% compounding annual growth, and exited to Textron Aviation for a 9-figure sum.

36

Sana: And he did it without burning his people out. Let's see how he did that, and lee, welcome to Biz Splend, and I'm really, really absolutely honored having you here with us.

37

Lee Benson: It's so great to be here. Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to this conversation. I've listened to a number of your podcasts, and it's just so thoughtful, and it's not surface. It kind of goes deep in practical ways that people can apply it, so thank you for the work that you're doing.

38

Sana: Thank you so much, that really means a lot. And yes, something which I have realized through these many conversations, that yes.

39

Sana: numbers and titles are rows, of course. They bring a lot of credibility. They give a language, to, you know, someone who is actually putting up a lot behind everything is there. But then, you know, I think very few people talk about,

40

Sana: the tough moments, the highs and lows, the, you know, the efforts, the long nights sometimes, you know, working long hours, you know, especially when it comes to entrepreneurship and business. So, I'm really, really excited for this conversation, Lee. Thank you so much.

41

Lee Benson: Of course.

42

Sana: Okay, Lisa, to begin with, I would love to start somewhere human. I mean, you went from being the first employee of a

43

Sana: small electroplaning company, to building a nine-figure business. Yeah, that's quite a very interesting journey. But what kept you grounded through all of that growth?

44

Lee Benson: Yeah, what you're asking is sort of the origin story and how I got there.

45

Lee Benson: And I always tell people I started my entrepreneurial journey at 6 years old, pulling weeds for 25 cents an hour. And I came from in the United States, and totally different standards around the world when I say low-income, but a low-income family, money was always a challenge.

46

Lee Benson: It was a sort of a toxic and somewhat dangerous environment.

47

Lee Benson: But what I noticed, I'm walking, you know, through the neighborhood, actually riding my bike, and a woman that I didn't know flags me down and says, hey, would you be willing to do this?

48

Lee Benson: And for 25 cents an hour, I said, of course I'll do that. And I remember how good it felt. And so then I took the next step, and where I grew up, there was a lot of snow. I was shoveling snow, and then I was mowing lawns, and delivering newspapers, and then a dishwasher busboy cook

49

Lee Benson: By the time I was kicked out of the house at the beginning of my senior year in high school, I was earning $6 an hour, and back then, that was more than enough to pay for an apartment. I spent one night in a truck that I purchased with my own money, and then…

50

Lee Benson: I had a roommate, found somebody that needed a roommate the next night, and I just went on from there. And the first half of the 1980s, I played in a band, a rock and roll band. I played guitar, played over a thousand shows the first half of that decade. I don't count it as one of my businesses, but it's kind of like running a business.

51

Lee Benson: And what I've learned, and I call this the value creation cycle, I had one environment at home as a kid.

52

Lee Benson: And I had a completely separate environment outside where I'm trading my best efforts for other people's money, and the more value that I created for them, the more they were willing to pay me. These weren't friends, they weren't family members, so I knew it was real.

53

Lee Benson: And I could trust that based on the increased capabilities that I developed.

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Lee Benson: So I would struggle to develop a capability, I would apply it to create value, it would elevate my self-esteem and internal fulfillment, which fulfillment's my most important internal number, and I would keep taking bigger and bigger steps. So by 1993, I start the first business.

55

Lee Benson: And then, now I've started 8 companies from scratch. I've had 3 exits, one for 9 figures, as you mentioned, one for 8 figures, one for 7. I'm currently CEO of 2 companies, I'm doing a lot of other things. I love being on the front lines, creating value, and pursuing what I just called, this value creation cycle.

56

Lee Benson: Where I'm… I'm just, again, struggling building capability, and I feel like when I do that, I'm developing…

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Lee Benson: my capacity to deal with struggle and conflict and difficult situations every year, almost more than the previous 3 years combined. So that's what kind of got me here, and so…

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Lee Benson: interesting, going down this road, I started, actually negative financially, because my parents charged up debt in my name, and it took me years to pay it off, and parents shouldn't do that, most never would, but mine did.

59

Lee Benson: But I went from there to actually being able to generate multi-generational wealth in my short time here. I'm currently 64 years old, and I've got so much more gas in the tank to keep going.

60

Lee Benson: So that's kind of the origin story, and it doesn't matter the home environment, I think if you're building value in the real world with people that aren't friends and family, you can build on that and elevate self-esteem.

61

Sana: I mean, one thing I can, you know.

62

Sana: very confidently say I loved, you know, because…

63

Sana: 60… 60-plus years of journey condensed into, probably 16 minutes. That is… that is a, you know, that is something… I think, you know, in fact, I… I would have completely, you know, I don't know, blanked out or spaced out, because

64

Sana: I love that clarity, Lee. I love that clarity. I mean, you know, you went back, and I think,

65

Sana: That is something exactly what we are going to talk about today, clarity, how it can actually become our strength, but yeah, absolutely loved how you… you articulated it, how you framed it. That's… that's really, really something to really learn from you.

66

Sana: Okay. So, Lee, now, let's, let's start with the problem that, you know, you have dedicated your life to solving.

67

Sana: I mean, we have a lot of data, you know, we have a lot of information,

68

Sana: Most businesses are swimming in metrics.

69

Sana: But then, what is the actual misconception about measurement that, you know, that keeps, companies or founders stuck? You know, even if, you know, they have all the mechanisms, they have all the avenues to have the metrics, have the data everywhere.

70

Lee Benson: Yeah, I love that question, and I went through all of the different stages of the challenges that you're describing.

71

Lee Benson: And I can remember early on, you know, let's say up to about 100 employees in a couple of different companies.

72

Lee Benson: Asking the question, why are some leaders getting really good results, some leaders getting terrible results, a number of leaders in the middle not getting, you know, they're just mediocre results?

73

Lee Benson: We have numbers for everything, I can see everything, but it's not… it's not really happening, so…

74

Lee Benson: backing all the way up and saying, why are we really here? Every company, in my opinion, is a value creation machine, and it should be designed intentionally to create more and more value over time.

75

Lee Benson: And with that explanation, the number one job of the CEO, the founder, the top leader, is to continually and responsibly increase the value of their business.

76

Lee Benson: And by proxy, the leadership team's job is to work together to make that happen. And a question I love asking is, and this is for every leader, and then I take it to non-supervisory team members, how do you create value for the organization?

77

Lee Benson: And generally, I'd say 90% of the time, you get a job description, which is kind of good news, because you know there's a big opportunity here. They don't really understand how they create value for the business.

78

Lee Benson: And I wanted to simplify it and look at every single team in the organization. If we're working together to continually increase its value, and at Able Aerospace, the company you mentioned, we definitely did that, got an amazing exit to a great strategic partner in all of it. But when you look at every piece of the business, it's just a…

79

Lee Benson: collection of teams creating value. And so, for the overall company, I would come up with one number that's reflective of the value of the business. In that aerospace example, it was EBITDA, you know, version of profit, and when you sell in the industry that we were in, you would get a multiple of EBITDA.

80

Lee Benson: And now, when you look at all the teams, it could be operations, marketing, sales, customer service, you know, finance, legal, you could look at all these different teams.

81

Lee Benson: what's their one number that if they improve that, and all these one numbers, these most important numbers, have a plan? We start here, we're going there, at any point in time, we can see whether we're on track or not.

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Lee Benson: But all of these teams have a number, that will be representative of the value that they're creating and will drive the majority of the right behaviors that, when improved, it accretes up and increases the value of the business.

83

Lee Benson: So what I loved about this is I could have… when I sold the company, there were 64 leaders, 64 teams, I could see every single team, red, green, or yellow, on their most important number.

84

Lee Benson: And I knew exactly where to go within seconds to see where they needed help, or where people were bright green, like, where they were knocking out of the park so we can share practices across the board.

85

Sana: I guess.

86

Lee Benson: all of that without taking any time to get the lay of the land. And every one of these teams would have additional numbers. It could be 3, it could be 10, it could be more.

87

Lee Benson: But all those numbers had to pass the test of, you're using it in a productive way to make better decisions to improve your most important number for your team.

88

Lee Benson: And so then I went from 100 employees, some leaders great, some not so great, some right in the middle. Now everybody's performing, and all the non-supervisory team members are acting like they're the CEO of their own role. They totally get it. I would walk into an apartment.

89

Lee Benson: And they're talking about their numbers. They know the profitability of every single product going through their particular department. They know how they create value of their support function for the company. So now, all of a sudden, we went to, everything is working, we have this consistent, responsible growth year over year.

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Lee Benson: And that's where the concept of the most important number and drivers, which, what are the things that drive improving those numbers, came from. And it works spectacularly for me and my businesses, and it's worked for hundreds of other companies that have done this.

91

Sana: Hmm.

92

Sana: So what I understand, Lee, is, it's not a data problem, it's, you know, first of all, I love that phrase, value creation, and secondly.

93

Sana: You have that clarity, that, you know, you are the…

94

Sana: subject matter expert, or the problem solver, or the CEO of

95

Sana: the department, or the work, or the, you know, whatever you are doing. You are kind of the CEO in there. You know you have that clarity, what you are supposed to do, what value you are going to give in there, and what needs to be done in order to create that value.

96

Lee Benson: Yes, and so if I go back to the question, how do you create value for the business.

97

Lee Benson: Once an organization has deployed the mind management system, the leader would say, well, here's how I create value for the business. This is my team, this is our most important number. We're currently a little bit ahead, and this is the best work we're doing to make sure that we stay ahead of our most important number goal.

98

Lee Benson: That's really good. And then if you go to a non-supervisory team member and you ask the question, how do you create value for the business, they can say, well, this is my role, this is the team I'm on.

99

Lee Benson: this is our most important number. Collectively, we're ahead of plan right now, or we're behind, or we're right on track.

100

Lee Benson: And in my role, these are the 2 or 3 things that I'm held accountable to, to ensure that I participate in increasing the team's most important number. Now, where do you hear stuff like that? You just don't within companies. Again, usually it's a job description, so they're very clear.

101

Lee Benson: About how they create value as a team, and how they create value in their role as an individual contributor, and how it all sort of accretes up.

102

Lee Benson: And so, I think what's happening, Sana, is that in a lot of ways, we're making it a lot more difficult than it needs to be. I love the mantra, do less better.

103

Lee Benson: Because you can go into a company, see all this busy work going on, you pointed to it earlier, and in previous podcasts of yours I've listened to. Never confuse efforts with results. I always like to say, as well, never confuse enthusiasm for capability. You know, we need to confirm all of this stuff.

104

Lee Benson: But if we just do less better, focus on that number, and continually find the best work that we can with our team within a business, or the CEO of the senior leadership team, to continually and responsibly increase the value that we're creating for all stakeholders. You know, the business, our employees.

105

Lee Benson: Our suppliers, communities that we touch, for sure, our customers.

106

Sana: Absolutely, absolutely.

107

Sana: Yeah.

108

Sana: I think, it's very interesting to explore, you know, this kind of a balance, you know, we talk about, completing things, simple things, enough.

109

Sana: So that, you know, nobody is having an idea what direction we should go, and then also oversimplifying, that nobody exactly understands the value in this. I think it's a very, interesting balance to explore, and I also, I also believe, Lee, that,

110

Sana: a lot of leaders need to hear this, especially, you know, like, every, every major leadership reports we are seeing right now, you know, it's all pointing kind of at the same crisis. Like, leaders are drowning in dashboards, AI dashboards, and all of that, but then

111

Sana: It's kind of… they're starving for direction in there. They don't have that clarity what exactly… okay, I have a good, aesthetically looking, good dashboard in there, but what exactly am I supposed to do from there?

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Lee Benson: Damn.

113

Lee Benson: Now, how we get at that in the mind management system is, rather than thinking about a functional structure for an organization, think about a value creation flow structure. So, when you look at a functional structure, you've got, you know, the CEO, maybe, you know, a president, direct reports, then you've got teams that go out.

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Lee Benson: I can look at that and go, okay, this is how we're structured, do we have the right teams, are we configured the right way? But for most of the other employees, it's kind of like going to a mall. It's a mall map. You are here, what do you do with it? I don't know what to do with it, is what they would say.

115

Lee Benson: And it doesn't matter whether we think they should understand it and take good action from it. If they… if they just don't because of human nature, it doesn't really matter.

116

Lee Benson: And so I like looking at the value creation flow structure. If you take your business and everything from awareness, how do people find out about you? And that goes into marketing, and marketing qualified leads, sales qualified leads, closing sales.

117

Lee Benson: the design of your product or service, delivery of your product or service, ongoing customer experience. So.

118

Lee Benson: Every business can be a little bit different, but if you look at that, and you objectively rank each one of those segments I mentioned as red, green, or yellow, red behind, green on track, yellow at risk.

119

Lee Benson: You can look at that and know pretty quickly that's our weakest link and the value that we create for our customers, for all stakeholders. We need to work on that.

120

Lee Benson: And then you have a support structure, like operations, finance, HR, legal, you know, general admin, whatever. And usually those are just functions, they say they're cost centers.

121

Lee Benson: And they do their thing, and people have access to whatever they have. But in this approach, every one of those support structure functions

122

Lee Benson: intentionally reaches out and collaborates with value creation flow functions. How can we support you better so you can do that work the highest percentage of the time, the best way you can?

123

Lee Benson: And we get a ranking that way, so you've got this value creation flow, now I look at it, I know where I need to focus myself for the business.

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Lee Benson: And all the support functions aren't just sitting there going through the motions, they're intentionally enabling the value creation flow functions to perform better. And then when it comes to… I guess one last piece here.

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Lee Benson: When it comes to the leadership team.

126

Lee Benson: you know, they're setting the vision, this is where we're going, the strategy, how we're going to get there. Well, distilled out of the strategy should be strategic initiatives, or whatever you want to call those things, but something should come out, and I believe the purpose of strategy is to come up with approaches to increasing the value of your business responsibly.

127

Lee Benson: And strategic initiatives should cause a step change in the increase in the value of the business.

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Lee Benson: So, at any point in time, as a general rule for middle market companies and smaller, I think 3 is a pretty healthy number. Once you get past that, it becomes too big, you're trying to do too much.

129

Lee Benson: And each one of these strategic initiatives should have a clear return on investment analysis, where the ROI shows this is how, if our assumptions are correct, we'll increase the value of the business. So imagine, Sana, going into a senior leadership meeting, hey, why are we here today? We're here to continually and responsibly increase the value of the business. Great.

130

Lee Benson: Let's look at the value creation flow. Oh my gosh, we need to really focus on ongoing customer experience. That's currently red, or it's going to affect everything else. We won't get referrals, all of it. We need to really look at that.

131

Lee Benson: We can evaluate the support structure and the best work that they're doing, and making sure that they're doing it, and then we go to our strategic initiatives. We have to get these three things across the finish line by these dates to continually and responsibly grow the value of the business. Now we've got a purpose for the meeting, we're really clear about what we're looking at, not some giant dashboard and trying to figure out which one of the numbers we're supposed to talk about today.

132

Lee Benson: How does that resonate, Sana?

133

Sana: Absolutely, it does, it does. I mean, I was kind of, you know, visualizing it in my mind, because, yeah, you know, especially when you,

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Sana: Not exactly at that, you know, level, but when you look at it from the other end, you know, not as a part of the team, but, you know, someone who is actually,

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Sana: Responsible and accountable, for that clarity and direction in which, you know, as a team, as a whole company, whichever, you know, kind of size it is.

136

Sana: then I think it becomes more and more important to actually, you know, why we are sitting in the meeting, what is the purpose in there, and it's just not that we're looking at the charts and the dashboards and, you know, just kind of…

137

Sana: it kind of becomes this, you know, a freak-out session in there. Okay, this is not going good, this is not going good, what should we do? No, nothing, you know, clear coming from that meeting out, and

138

Sana: That's it. Your one hour, maybe, you know, whatsoever the time is allotted for the meeting, it's completely gone, wasted, nothing productive coming out for or from that.

139

Lee Benson: I think what you're saying is a pretty common scenario, and you're pointing to the value of a business management operating system. So you've got vision and strategy, where are we going, how we're going to get there, senior team sets it. Now we want to translate that into execution. That's your business management operating system, and think of it like a computer.

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Lee Benson: the operating system on your computer allows all the different applications to work really well, so they can, you know, work well, do the work you want to do, and not crash. Well, your business management operating system is the same. You've got all the different functions, they need to work well together so your business doesn't crash.

141

Lee Benson: And in there is going to be the transparency, the accountability, the alignment, which includes meeting structure and purpose, and making sure there are no surprises for anyone, and it can feel

142

Lee Benson: Yeah, there's… I guess there's two ways of looking at it. The senior team thinks everybody understands because they do, and the truth is, they just don't once you go down through the organization, even companies as small as 10 employees, they just don't.

143

Lee Benson: And one of the things that I did as a practical hack for getting this right in my operating methodology with over 500 employees at Able Aerospace.

144

Lee Benson: One day a month, without fail, I would meet with every single employee, whether they were on-site or virtually, we would be, you know, in the room together. I had a conference room that could fit over 300 people.

145

Lee Benson: And I would do it by function, you know, some of the bigger groups were over 100, and some were combined. But I would spend 15 minutes at most talking about the company and doing a safety case study review.

146

Lee Benson: And then 45 minutes of them sharing, the best work they're doing to increase value for the business.

147

Lee Benson: And ask any questions that they have. So, every single month, a rumor mill that can cause a lot of issues could never go longer than 30 days, because we met every single month. Everybody was aligned.

148

Lee Benson: Everybody felt like part of the team, and I never made the assumptions that they'll just know this and understand it, because I do. Nope, they don't. So you have to operationalize all of it, and that's such an important part of a management operating system.

149

Sana: It is, it is, and it's kind of, you know, specially, 500, I mean, yes, I think,

150

Sana: that effort…

151

Sana: I mean, of course, you know, we have to look at the output, the outcome of those discussions, those meetings, but then…

152

Sana: For a team of that size, for an organization of that size, you know, when your leader is actually coming and interacting directly with you.

153

Sana: I think more than that, that clarity and that, you know, discussion, it kind of instills this, trust and confidence

154

Sana: You know, within that team member that, yes, I am being heard, I am being seen, and in whatsoever capacity, you know, the concerns are there, they're actually, you know.

155

Sana: you know, going directly to the leadership. They're able to hear me, they're able to see me, that, yes, I'm also part of this big, large, you know, huge team.

156

Lee Benson: Yeah, we're all working together, we all have a job, your role is critical, I don't care what you're doing, or why would we have you here? We need all of us to work together to create the value as an organization.

157

Lee Benson: And there's two other things that I thought about. So, getting… hitting the numbers and having the cash flow to run the business, and the profitability and all that to have a valuation when you sell it, that's clearly in the camp of material value creation. All the team members need to make money in their paychecks to support their families. You've got all of that going on.

158

Lee Benson: But the two other things I focused on were emotional energy value creation and spiritual value creation. The emotional energy, to me, positive emotional energy is the scarcest commodity on the planet, and it's the X factor for leaders and how they…

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Lee Benson: Show up and how they create an energizing environment to encourage productive engagement.

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Lee Benson: So that was huge, and then on the spiritual value creation side, for me, that's about connectedness. It's not about religion. It can be, but it's not. It's about connectedness. So lots of programs for the team members to connect with each other.

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Lee Benson: And… and with our communities and our customers, and suppliers and all of it. Really incredible doing that, and… and that…

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Lee Benson: not just focusing on the dollars, which is wildly important. Focusing in balance on the emotional energy and spiritual value creation allowed us, when we sold the company, to get a 21.6x multiple of EBITDA in an industry where if you got 8X, that was a really strong multiple.

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Lee Benson: But because of how consistently we grew, the believable path to grow into the future, a strategic buyer, doing all of that stuff, for me, keeping the company

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Lee Benson: would have been an equally good, if not better, option for me financially, if that was, you know, interesting at the time. I wasn't looking for a buyer, they approached us, but you get a lot of attention when you're running a company right, you're focusing on creating value and balance the way I just described it.

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Lee Benson: And you'll get the top price when and if you ever choose to sell your business.

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Sana: Wow, yeah, 21.6 here. I mean, that's, that's quite… quite an interesting, you know, number in there. And, Lee, I would also like into… like to bring in the MIND methodology, which, centers on one idea.

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Sana: most important number. Now, you mentioned the number 3 in there, so that kind of…

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Sana: Really made me curious, like,

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Sana: If you can walk, you know.

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Sana: in fact, me as well, and the listeners, how a leader actually finds that number, you know, because I imagine that most of our leaders, you know, like, our first instinct is to just name revenue or profit, and, you know, that's it. Call it done. When you see the green in there, you kind of assume that, yes, everything is going, you know, all good and

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Sana: Perfect.

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Lee Benson: Yeah, and at the top of the organization, it should be a number reflective of the value of the business. So usually it's profit, depending on the company, it could be revenue, it could be a number of things, the industry.

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Lee Benson: But it's usually profit, and a most important number has to pass a test. So, what's the number that's most reflective of the value that this team creates? For the senior team, it's the value of the business.

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Lee Benson: and will drive the majority of the right behaviors, because you could pick a number that you could be green on, and you're hitting your goal, but it's not driving the majority of the right behaviors, and it's not helping the value of the business. So it has to pass that test.

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Lee Benson: And now where it gets, a little bit more,

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Lee Benson: complicated, but I think the word is really, you have to be a little bit more thoughtful about it, is for every single team. For your team, doesn't matter where you're at in the organization, what is your North Star, the one number that, above all others, is reflective of the value that your team creates for the business.

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Lee Benson: and will create the majority of the right behaviors. And I say that last part because you can make a list with your team.

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Lee Benson: If we go after this number.

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Lee Benson: What are the behaviors that will drive that will really be helpful to the business, and what are the behaviors that could drive that aren't going to be helpful to the business?

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Lee Benson: And a simple one, as companies get bigger, they often have an HR department, and when I work with new clients with, you know, enough employees to have an HR department, they usually say, oh, I think our most important number is going to be retention, because it's hard to keep people.

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Lee Benson: So, okay, well, let's see if it passed the test of drive the majority of the right behaviors. So, you could hire me to run HR,

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Lee Benson: And you give me retention as my most important number, and then 3 years later, we kept 95% of everybody, never mind that 50 or 60% of the people can't perform. We kept them, so I retain them, I'm green, but I hurt the company.

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Lee Benson: A better, most important number for HR would be percentage of roles or seats filled with capable people.

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Lee Benson: And capable is defined as, objectively, measurably achieving what we hired them to achieve, the outcomes.

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Lee Benson: And if they're not capable, they're somewhere below that line. And so now I'm driving all the right behaviors. I'm recruiting better, I'm onboarding better, I'm training better, I'm giving leaders the tools they need to really develop and align their team members to creating value.

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Lee Benson: So, you can cascade that out, whether it's, you know, 3 teams, 10 teams, 1,000 teams, 100,000 teams, it doesn't matter. It's kind of cool to look at it that way, and now you've got this common way of talking about creating value as an organization and within each team, and if we do that.

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Lee Benson: everything gets better. And then being able to see that in a way that within seconds, even with a thousand or more employees.

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Lee Benson: You know, right where to go, if there are any challenges happening.

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Sana: Hmm… That makes it really clear, you know, especially the example that you gave, that yes, you know,

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Sana: The number, or, you know, the… let's see the…

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Sana: the target number, it can be looked from a very two different ways. That if I'm just looking at the retention percentage, and let's say I have, you know, as we mentioned, 95% for the entire three years, on paper, I mean, yeah, I've achieved it. I mean, yeah, that's brilliant. But then.

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Sana: When we go to the nuanced, you know, part in there, it is hurting my business as well, because,

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Sana: we have to always look at, you know, certain scenarios from different perspectives. It…

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Sana: Yes, I mean, let's say something, you know, when it comes to policies, or… or objectives, or, you know, the way it… the value creation has to be… has to be done,

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Sana: these are driven by human behaviors, but I think, you know, keeping in mind

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Sana: it's not hurting the business aspect also. Because, you know, at the end of the day, you have to make sure that you are able to sustain and make the company thrive as well. So I think it's, once again, you know, it's kind of a very interesting balance to look at.

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Lee Benson: It is, and you talked early in this discussion about leaders being overwhelmed with dashboards and everything else.

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Sana: Yeah, alright.

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Lee Benson: What I've noticed in most companies that are overwhelmed by dashboards is that leaders have a tendency to game the dashboards. They'll change the goals and the metrics to make them look green.

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Lee Benson: I saw, you know, one business where their on-time delivery for their products was, you know, 28 days. A new leader comes in, the company's sold, and within a year, on-time delivery is 128 days.

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Lee Benson: And it's green, and they're taking almost all of it to get it out. So they got worse, but it looks green, and you don't even know.

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Lee Benson: And so that's why I like looking at it and saying, you know, what's most reflective of the value that we create, and we want to make sure that whatever we pick doesn't drive behaviors that aren't accreting up and improving or increasing the value of the business.

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Sana: Hmm, absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, the…

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Sana: When your foundation is, is,

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Sana: not rock solid. I mean, yeah, everything can look good on paper. You'll have more greens than reds, or yellows, or, you know, whatever color it is, but yeah. So, when the tough times come, and you know, because we are right now

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Sana: in a world, you know, which is highly, highly unpredictable. It's unpredictable at such, such a fast rate, Lee. So, when, you know, you have unpredictability.

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Sana: I believe that when you have rock-solid foundations.

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Sana: You can still, you know, you are able to survive, you know, any kind of unfavorable or, you know,

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Sana: Unfavorable circumstances or challenges, which can actually

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Sana: caused the existence of your entire company in there, or maybe it can actually, you know, for example, we saw different situations out there. We saw the pandemic, we saw the economic crashes, you know, we are seeing the AI bringing up, you know, the layoffs and the quite quitting.

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Sana: all these phenomenas, I mean…

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Sana: I think the foundation, it comes from that clarity when you know that, yes, it's not just for the sake of the numbers or the colors, but what exactly is working behind and driving all these numbers and behaviors.

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Lee Benson: Yeah, 100% agree, and with that foundation as in place, I had the culture and the foundation in place with over 500 team members that, when the company was going through a challenging time because of changing conditions in the world, the marketplace.

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Lee Benson: I could go to them and say, this is the challenge, if we don't solve for it, half of us could lose our jobs, but I know there's a solution, let's work together, and they all leaned in and they did it.

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Lee Benson: Because the foundation was in place. If the foundation isn't in place, it's really hard to even have that conversation. You scare everybody, they all run out and try to get another job.

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Lee Benson: But when the right foundation is in place, to your point, we all work together to get through tough times way more effectively, and consistently and responsibly grow the value of the business, and for all stakeholders, especially internal team members.

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Sana: Absolutely, absolutely.

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Sana: And before we wrap up, Lee, I mean, you grew Able Aerospace at a 20% compounded annual growth 15 consecutive years. It's not an accident, of course, you know, that's what we discussed, but then how did that clarity around

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Sana: your most important number show up in everyday reality of, you know, running the business. Not in the decks or the blueprints, but, you know, in actual day-to-day, the rhythm of work.

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Lee Benson: Everybody always knew what they needed to do to take the next step. Everybody was…

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Lee Benson: pushing the bar of creating more value, and you talked about, you know, burnout and all of that. The harder it got for us, because the right foundation is in place, which includes the culture, all the stuff we're talking about, the harder it got, the harder we laughed. And it was fun.

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Lee Benson: Going through it, and it never once felt like work to me. The team members are all in. You know, you and I could have a discussion for about 5 hours on this and not even cover 10% of it. I know that already, because your questions are so good, but you have to get the compensation right.

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Lee Benson: And in total, a little over 20% of our total profits went back to all the team members proportionate to their income. So whether you made $12 an hour or $300,000 a year.

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Sana: of 20.

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Lee Benson: 50% of the profit equaled, you know, 15% or 20% of the total payroll, that was your bonus that month. So everybody was in the game to help everybody else earn another dollar for the company because more went into their pockets.

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Lee Benson: So we, really designed, and the mind management system is all about this, a holistic system for running a business from, again, from vision, strategy, operating methodology, getting the work done, compensation, performance reviews, like, everything is in this. It's really comprehensive.

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Lee Benson: But it all has to kind of come together. You can't snap your fingers and make it happen, but if you… if you go to our website, etw.com, there's lots of free resources to do these things.

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Lee Benson: On the website, you can see something called the Leadership Value Lab. Every month, I do live calls with leaders where we talk about this stuff. Consider joining our Leadership Value Lab, where you can get these concepts. And the order of things matter.

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Lee Benson: And in my book, Your Most Important Number, if you take the time to read that.

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Lee Benson: It talks about all of this stuff, and the order in which you can do things, understanding, you know, the culture of your business, how ready for change everybody is.

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Lee Benson: But there is an order of things, and you can get there. And so what if it takes a couple years to fully do everything? Oh my gosh, you could be on this trajectory for 20% or more compounded annual growth for a really long time.

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Lee Benson: It's a… it's a fun journey.

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Lee Benson: And I think the best leaders, let's just say founders of small businesses, medium-sized businesses, CEOs, the best leaders are in it to create value for all the stakeholders.

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Lee Benson: And they can do this really, really well. The leaders that don't are in it to how quickly can I sell the company and make a bunch of money? They're not thinking about creating value for all the stakeholders.

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Lee Benson: that wouldn't be an ideal candidate for the mind management system. If you're just looking for a quick dollar, and by the way, your customers will notice that, too. Your team members will notice that too, and it will not drive a value creation culture, which your goal should be connecting culture to creating value.

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Lee Benson: But there's lots of resources at the website, etw.com, to go through and help you create a lot more value in the world. And, by the way, Sana, that's my purpose in life, is driving holistic value creation behaviors into the world.

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Lee Benson: Doing it through for-profits, non-profit, small, medium, large. In families, I recently released a book titled Value Creation Family about 8 weeks ago.

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Lee Benson: And it's about intentionally creating value in the family.

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Lee Benson: And I'm CEO, currently, of two different companies. One is ETW, and there's a lot going on over there. But the other one is called Dinner Table, and again, that's about helping families intentionally create value. And DinnerTable.com, you can see what we're doing there, and I encourage anybody that's

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Lee Benson: interested in doing this better with their family, consider joining that community also.

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Sana: Absolutely. And so it's really interesting, you know, because we often say that, you should always have clear boundaries between your personal and professional lives, but yeah, we should, but then…

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Sana: They always intersect with each other, and you don't…

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Sana: We, we, I mean, I have actually learned a lot, you know, through all these conversations that there are so many parallels between, you know, whether it's parenting, whether it's families, and, you know, your professional life as well, and leadership. So, I'm really happy that, you know, you're exploring not only the business side and the entrepreneurship side, but, you know, the family side as well.

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Lee Benson: Yeah, and I think all of us can ask that question, how do we want to create value in the world? And when we grow, accomplish challenging things, which, again, is growth, when we grow, personally, professionally, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically.

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Lee Benson: Our internal fulfillment rises. Self-esteem rises.

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Lee Benson: And I think the foundation of that is how do you want to create value in the world as an individual, as a family, as a business, and your North Star really starts to shine and, you know, show you what it's going to be. And for kids.

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Lee Benson: Because I personally lead, 5 different communities of families, in Dinner Table, 3 in person, 2 virtually.

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Lee Benson: And working with the kids over time, they start really developing how they want to create value. And we're designing intentional struggles to develop them so they have the character traits, the capabilities, and the beliefs that will make them the most successful when they become an adult. This is one big growth journey, struggle…

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Lee Benson: effort is required is actually a good thing, and maybe that's the last thing I could leave your listeners with, is if you haven't already, why don't… why don't you consider changing your relationship with struggle? Because all the opportunity in the world is in the struggle, personally, professionally.

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Sana: Oh, I agree, I agree with Julie. Yes, there are, there are, definitely. Both, personally and professionally.

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Sana: Beautiful, beautiful, and yes, listeners, I'll have all the links mentioned in the show notes, so yes, connect with Flee, and I mean, I, I, I really appreciate it, because this is genuinely, for, for me, it was…

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Sana: such an enriching, enriching conversation.

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Sana: you know, of course, you know, when it comes to clarity, I think it is not a luxury that, you know, you earn once the business is big enough. I think it's very foundational. It's a thing that, you know, it makes the business big enough to begin with. And I also believe that

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Sana: It… it is important at so many levels, you know, whether it's your individual, as an individual, maybe it's your relationships, you know, with your family, your loved ones, your relationships with your internal and external stakeholders, because, you know.

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Sana: Clarity cannot be faked. Energy cannot be faked. So, thank you so much, Lee, for this really, really learning conversation.

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Lee Benson: My pleasure, and thank you for the great questions and conversation. I could do this every week. It's awesome, thank you.

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Sana: Thank you so much, Lee, thank you, and thank you to all the listeners for tuning into this episode of BizBlend, and yes, if something in this conversation connected with you, yes, share this with that one founder or entrepreneur who definitely needs it, and do explore about the mind methodology, do explore Lee's work, and connect with him, refer to all the links mentioned in the show notes.

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Sana: Along with this episode. And yes, do follow this show, because that keeps the wheels running here at Bisblood. Until next time, this is a hostel signing off. Thank you.