# LBW: Want your team to change? You first.

- Date: 22 November 2025
- Mirror: https://sidjashnani.com/blog/lbw-want-your-team-to-change-you/
- Original: https://sidjashnani.substack.com/p/lbw-want-your-team-to-change-you
- Author: Sid Jashnani, CEO of Outgrow and Outgrow Certified Advisor
- Type: Letter

The embarrassing lesson I learned about walking the talk.

TLDR: Your company initiatives are failing because you (yes, YOU) aren’t following them. Ask me how I know.

2015: I went full Tony Robbins.

- Dropped $$$ on leadership programs and exec education
- Filled notebooks with “game-changing” frameworks
- Bought enough business books to start a library
- Almost got a “hustle harder” tattoo (kidding... maybe)

My company, Momentum, was scaling fast. $4M → $35M.

But here’s the thing about scaling...

It’s like trying to build a plane while flying it. Except I was the pilot telling everyone else to follow the manual while freestyling my own moves

## The Leadership Trap

Quick story time:

Me in meetings: “Guys, we NEED systems and processes!” Also me: *hasn’t updated my scorecard in 3 weeks*

Me to team: “No phones in Level 10 meetings!” Also me: *sending emails under the table like a high schooler texting in math class*

Me on processes: “Follow the system!” Also me: “But this deal is different...”

Notice a pattern?

## Rules Don’t Apply To Me

Know what happens when the founder plays by different rules?

- Trust dies faster than my New Year’s resolutions
- Eye rolls become an Olympic sport
- “Yes boss” becomes code for “whatever you say, buddy”
- New initiatives are treated like crypto in 2024

## The Numbers Don’t Lie

In departments where we actually followed the system:

- Project completion: ⬆️ 40%
- Chaos: ⬇️ 80%
- Hair pulling: ⬇️ 90%

But because I kept making “founder exceptions,” we couldn’t scale it.

## The Wake-Up Call

Every Monday at 10am, L10 time. The rules were crystal clear:

- No phones
- To-dos completed
- Scorecard updated
- Issues list prepped

Me at 10:07am, typing on my phone: “Sorry team, client emergency. Keep going, I’m listening...”

Until one Monday my Integrator just stood up: “Let’s cancel today. We’ll restart when you’re ready to play by your own rules.”

## The Fix

Want your company to actually change?

- Do the thing
- Keep doing the thing
- No “special founder circumstances”
- Seriously, just keep doing the thing

That’s it. That’s the newsletter.

When I finally started eating my own dog food

- Meetings got shorter
- Decisions got faster
- Problems got solved
- My blood pressure dropped

## The Bottom Line

Stop being the “rules for thee but not for me” founder. (Trust me, your team already has a group chat about it)

Keep it real,

Sid

P.S. I still have those 2015 notebooks. They’re great for propping up my monitor. At least they’re supporting something.

*Know a leader who preaches process but plays by different rules? Forward this email. Their team already has a group chat about it.*

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