A weekly bulletin for leaders who have outgrown founder-led hustle and are ready to build systems that sustain their vision and scale their business. Each issue decodes one “signal” — those subtle patterns that reveal friction, bottlenecks or untapped leverage. You’ll learn what it means, why it matters and how to fix it, all in 5 minutes or less, so you can shift from signal to system and from vision to velocity.
Goal setting for founders who dread goal setting
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If you haven’t set your 2026 goals yet, you’re not alone. And you’re not too late. Most scale-up founders delay, dilute or avoid goal setting not because they don’t care or don’t see the value, but because they’re already overloaded and can’t shoulder another heavy lift. But intentional goals are how you protect yourself from another year of reactive decision-making. This issue gives you a fast, founder-friendly system for setting goals without burning hours and energy you don’t have to spare. The Signal (your clue that there’s work to do)If you don’t have your goals set for 2026, it’s probably not because you don’t see the value in them, but because every prior attempt has been either:
You want goals that matter, not a list of wishes. You want alignment, not annual theater. You want a process that doesn’t feel like torture. I want that for you too. The Root CauseGoal setting breaks down for founders for a few common reasons: 1. You zoom in too early. “Fix onboarding” sits next to “improve margins” sits next to “expand into new markets,” sits next to “launch xyz new business line” so effectively everything sits at the same priority level… which basically means nothing is a priority. 2. You mix strategy with tasks, breakthrough innovation with business as usual. Trying to name goals before extracting everything that’s on your mind guarantees an incomplete (or unrealistic) list that you dismiss almost immediately. 3. You skip the prioritization step. You make your list, refine it, and then default to the items that feel immediate, so urgency ends up driving your choices instead of impact. 4. You underestimate the foundation. Growth goals get the attention, while systems and team capacity get deferred. As a result, the business expands faster than it can support, leading to operational issues, slower execution, rampant burnout and constant firefighting. The problem isn’t an inability to set actionable and ambitious goals for your business. The problem is that the traditional goal-setting methods you’ve tried were built for big companies — not for fast-moving, founder-led businesses in which priorities shift quickly and resources are limited. The Tool: The Goal Setting FrameworkThis is the 5-step system I use with visionary founders who want clarity fast, but who struggle to narrow down the infinite possibilities they see into strategic priorities their teams can execute against. STEP 1: Wide-Angle ScanAnswer the four prompts below. Write whatever comes to mind, no wordsmithing, no constraints, just raw capture. What outcomes would make 2026 a successful year?
(Think: revenue, growth, product, operations, culture, systems, reputation.)
What foundations or systems must be built so the business stops leaning so heavily on you?
What problems or inefficiencies do you want solved once and for all?
What opportunities or big bets do you want to pursue?
STEP 2: Sort Into Three BucketsCategorize each item from your wide-angle scan into one of the three buckets below.
These buckets reduce the likelihood that goals skew purely toward growth while ignoring the operational backbone that needs to be built to support that growth, and they mitigate against burnout by making sure “business as usual” (BAU) responsibilities don’t get ignored. You should now have three short lists of goals, organized by category. To stay organized in the next step, turn your lists into a scorecard. You’ll want 4 columns to record scores in. STEP 3: Apply a Prioritization FilterScore each item from 1–3 (1- low; 2 - moderate; 3 - high) on the following four factors:
You should now have a completed scorecard in which all goals have been scored against these 4 criteria. Total up the scores for each goal. Scores will fall between 4-12 for each goal. STEP 4: Select the Top ScorersCurate a meaningful but manageable working list. Using the scorecard totals, create a shortlist of goals that includes:
With your shortlist in place, the technique that follows will help you dial it in. The Technique: Goal RefinementMost founders stop at the shortlist and wonder why execution falls apart. The truth is simple: fewer goals executed well will outperform a broader set every time. The technique that follows distills your list into the goals that actually make the difference. A. Check for bucket balanceA strong goal set in a scaling company pulls from all three buckets. As a general rule of thumb:
This is not meant to be overly prescriptive, just a safeguard against a common founder pitfall — growing faster than your systems can support. Once your foundations are shored up, you can lean heavier into the STRETCH category. B. Remove duplicates in disguiseLook for goals that address:
Keep the one with the highest leverage and drop the rest. This prevents unnecessary complexity and protects your team’s bandwidth. C. Assess feasibility honestlyAsk three questions for each goal:
If the answer is “no” to any of the above, redesign or defer the goal. A goal your team cannot realistically deliver on is not a goal, it’s a distraction. D. Use the outcome testFor each goal, complete this sentence: “If this were the only goal we achieved next year, it would be worth it because…” If you cannot answer confidently and convincingly, the goal may not merit company-level significance. E. Land on 5 or 6 goals, no moreThis is the operational sweet spot for a scaling company, and, as a general rule, less is more. Visionary founders often assume more goals equals more impact, but by narrowing down to a refined list of goals, you create the conditions for real momentum instead of scattered effort. With your company goals defined, the next step is turning them into action, translating each one into clear departmental and individual commitments that drive execution across the business. We’ll tackle that in the next issue. Why It WorksThis approach works because it gives you structure without slowing you down. Instead of choosing goals based on urgency or instinct, you’re using a simple system to evaluate what the business actually needs: direction, traction and focus.
Most importantly, this process unlocks future focus. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what you accomplish with it. Your TurnReply and tell me: Which part of this process did you struggle with most: generating the list, scoring it, or narrowing it down? Your answers will help me tailor future issues to the real friction points founders face. And if you want help turning your refined company goals into departmental and individual commitments that drive measurable progress and high performance… Book a Signal Session. We’ll convert your goals into clear accountability at every level so execution stops slipping through the cracks. And if this felt like a lot and you didn’t finish it, no judgment. We can tackle that in a Signal Session too. 🙌 |
The Signal Report
A weekly bulletin for leaders who have outgrown founder-led hustle and are ready to build systems that sustain their vision and scale their business. Each issue decodes one “signal” — those subtle patterns that reveal friction, bottlenecks or untapped leverage. You’ll learn what it means, why it matters and how to fix it, all in 5 minutes or less, so you can shift from signal to system and from vision to velocity.
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