VisionToMission

Please don’t come with just the problem. Bring a solution also. That was the response Joe Armas got from Graeme Hennessey, then head of global sales and marketing, after flagging a delayed shipment and asking what to do. At first, Joe was caught off guard. But after thinking through a few options, he realized how powerful that mindset was—it helped him take ownership, and it helped Graeme move faster by understanding the tradeoffs. I had heard the same line from Graeme during my time working for him. And like Joe, I was puzzled at first. But it taught me to think more like a leader: 💡 Offer “good enough” solutions, even with incomplete information ⚖️ Understand tradeoffs and consequences 🤝 Work cross-functionally to gather context and alignment 🎯 Focus on what truly matters to customers and the business Soon, I asked one of my team members to do the same. There was some natural hesitation, but with coaching, a few guiding principles, and a safe...

Help First. Years ago, as we were preparing to launch a new software platform for farmers, Bob Wold—head of our software team—told me something that stuck: “If your sales team runs into any issues signing up customers, call us. We’ll drop everything to fix it.” At the time, as head of inside sales, I appreciated the focus on what I assumed was revenue. But when we caught up recently, Bob clarified it wasn’t just about sales—it was about something broader: 👉 Help First. His view was simple: If one function is stuck, the whole organization slows down. So, step in. Help. Not just because it’s urgent, but because that real-time support often sparks automation ideas and long-term fixes. It reminded me of similar moments in my hardware and consumables days—when customer operations were down, our guiding principle was always: 🔧 “Achieve customer recovery first.” But here’s the challenge: not every issue is a crisis. Sometimes the process is just… manual. Or complex. Or the...