The Missing Middle

People don't always resist leadership decisions. Sometimes they simply wait to see whether they'll stick.Les explores four signals that reveal whether a leadership system is genuinely trusted: decision velocity, decision stability, ownership clarity and visible follow-through.The episode shows why execution problems often appear long after leadership-system problems begin and why organisational behaviour is one of the best diagnostic tools available to an SLT.Keywords: leadership system, decision velocity, decision stability, organisational trust, SLT performance, strategy execution#LeadershipSystems #DecisionMaking #SLT #Execution #BusinessLeadershipConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

Your SLT may not be dysfunctional. It may simply be stuck.Meetings happen, capable people turn up and decisions get made, yet execution still drifts and the CEO remains too involved.Les calls this the missing middle, the gap between good leadership intentions and genuine enterprise performance. This episode explores the small system failures that create repeated friction across a growing organisation.If the business feels harder to run than it should, look at the connections between the parts.Keywords: leadership systems, SLT effectiveness, enterprise performance, leadership alignment, business growth, execution#LeadershipSystems #SLT #CEO #BusinessGrowth #ExecutionConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

Unclear decision rights quietly make growing businesses slow.Les looks at the difference between a decision problem and a decision-architecture problem. He explores which choices belong with individual executives, the SLT, the CEO or the board, and why authority must be real rather than delegated only on paper.When people know where decisions belong, pace improves and unnecessary escalation falls.Keywords: decision rights, decision architecture, CEO delegation, SLT decisions, business scaling, leadership systems#DecisionMaking #Leadership #CEO #SLT #ScaleUpConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

Some of the politest leadership teams are also the most political.Psychological safety doesn't mean avoiding uncomfortable conversations. It means creating the conditions where disagreement, uncertainty and challenge can happen without damaging the relationships needed to solve the problem.Les explores why strong teams use conflict to create clarity and why CEOs must pay close attention to how they respond when somebody challenges them.Safety should make an SLT braver, not softer.Keywords: psychological safety, leadership trust, constructive conflict, senior leadership teams, executive teamwork, leadership culture#PsychologicalSafety #Leadership #Trust #SLT #HighPerformanceConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

Not every meeting should try to do everything.Les explains how annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly and operational meetings can work together as one organisational rhythm.You'll hear why every recurring meeting needs a specific purpose, how a good cadence reinforces strategy and accountability, and why meetings should be designed as part of the management system rather than treated as isolated calendar events.What job is each meeting in your diary actually there to do?Keywords: meeting cadence, leadership meetings, SLT meetings, strategy execution, operating rhythm, effective meetings#Meetings #Leadership #SLT #StrategyExecution #BusinessSystemsConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

If the CEO disappeared for four weeks, what would slow down?That question reveals an enormous amount about the scalability of a business.Les explores how CEO dependency develops, why simply telling founders to delegate more doesn't solve it, and how clear authority, leadership capability and better decision architecture create genuine enterprise capacity.A scalable company isn't one where the CEO becomes less important. It's one where leadership exists beyond the CEO.Keywords: CEO dependency, founder to CEO, business scaling, delegation, senior leadership team, decision rights#CEO #Founder #ScaleUp #LeadershipSystems #SeniorLeadershipTeamConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

A strategy can be perfectly clear in the boardroom and almost unrecognisable three levels down.Les explores the missing middle between strategic intent and organisational action. He explains why communication alone doesn't create execution and why ownership, decision rights, management rhythm and consistent leadership behaviour determine whether strategy actually lands.The real test of strategy isn't whether people received the presentation. It's whether behaviour changed.Keywords: strategy execution, strategic alignment, leadership systems, SLT strategy, organisational clarity, business execution#StrategyExecution #Leadership #SLT #BusinessStrategy #ScaleUpConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

When senior leaders fight over territory, somebody else takes the prize.Les explores how silos, turf wars and functional priorities quietly damage enterprise performance. Strong directors can each be doing a good job while collectively creating friction, delay and politics.This episode looks at the shift from functional leadership to enterprise leadership and why senior executives must sometimes make decisions that are harder for their own department but better for the business.Are your leaders protecting functions or leading the enterprise?Keywords: leadership silos, enterprise leadership, senior leadership team, cross-functional leadership, SLT alignment, business performance#LeadershipTeam #EnterpriseLeadership #SLT #BusinessGrowth #TeamworkConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

How many times should a CEO have to ask for the same thing?In this episode, Les explores the idea of a promise culture, where accountability comes from clear expectations, explicit commitments and trust rather than chasing and micromanagement.You'll hear why ownership must be visible, why accountability should run between peers rather than only upwards, and why leaders have to model the standards they expect from everybody else.A promise culture makes commitments mean something.Keywords: accountability culture, promise culture, SLT accountability, leadership behaviour, management systems, high-performing teams#Accountability #Leadership #SeniorLeadershipTeam #BusinessCulture #HighPerformanceConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO

Your SLT measures the business. But who measures the SLT?Revenue, EBITDA and cash tell you what has happened. They don't tell you whether your leadership team is becoming more capable of producing those results repeatedly.Les explores five practical dimensions of SLT performance: decision velocity, strategic alignment, execution reliability, cohesion and dependency risk. He also explains why making leadership performance visible creates better conversations and more targeted improvement.If your leadership team had its own dashboard, what would it reveal?Keywords: senior leadership team performance, SLT metrics, leadership measurement, decision velocity, execution, CEO leadership#SeniorLeadershipTeam #Leadership #CEO #BusinessGrowth #SLTPerformanceConnect with Les:LinkedInWebsite: 20-20 YouTube: Services ShowreelYouTube ChannelBook: Amazon SLT Quiz: ScoreappNewsletter: Sign Up CalendlyCreated by AI voice cloning tech in conjunction with the lovely humans at WAVEMAKERS AUDIO