Many organizations are still staffed for the world that made them successful, not the one they are navigating now. As technology, AI, and business models shift, leadership requires a different way of thinking about roles, risk, and growth. Here are six truths I see again and again in organizations that are getting this right.
Hat tip to Dale Cyr, CEO of Inteleos, and Marci Thompson, CEO of the Society for Marketing Professional Services – conversations with these two leaders sparked this piece.
1. Staffing, strategy, and growth must reinforce each other.
Talent decisions made in isolation create friction at the top. Strategy, growth ambitions, technology choices, and staffing models need to interlock so they strengthen each other instead of adding cognitive load to leadership.
2. Value emerges around risk, not routine.
As automation drives down the cost of routine work, human value concentrates around judgment, context, relationships, and decision-making where mistakes are expensive. Staffing choices should follow risk, not habit.
3. CEO confidence is an organizational asset.
As the one person who fully interfaces with the board, staff, members, and partners, your clarity matters. Structure and staffing should reduce unnecessary burden on you and amplify your ability to achieve clarity and mobilize trust, alignment, and momentum.
4. Continuous Adaptation
After stress and success, “pause” often feels prudent. In volatile environments, it can be riskier than continued adaptation. The discipline is not stopping change but choosing intentionally which risks to take and which to defer based on readiness and appetite.
5. Rebundle and Optimize Roles
Roles that evolved organically over years often bundle skills that no longer align with where value and risk are going. As technology, AI, and business models shift, the right question is not “Who do we have?” but “What capabilities and risk management do we need now, and how should those capabilities be recombined?”.
6. Relationships can be converted into scalable value.
Turning a trusted relationship into a pilot, then into proof, and then into revenue is not luck. It is a repeatable capability. When designed deliberately, trust becomes a growth engine.
The common thread here is intentional design. Organizations that thrive are not merely staffed. They are consciously built around where value, risk, and leadership attention matter most.
If you are wrestling with intentional design and want a sounding board, or are not sure how to start, feel free to write me. You do not need a contract to have a conversation.
