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What matters today

If your team works hard but it never seems to add up to real progress, chances are you’re skipping one small but crucial step.

Before your first meeting, write down in one sentence what truly matters today.

Just one.

Then, when the meeting starts, say it out loud.

“Here’s what matters most today…”

That’s it. That’s the whole move.

It sounds naive. But it’s a true game changer.

Most teams drift because everyone assumes they know what matters, but no one actually says it out loud. They dive straight into tasks and updates, and everyone leaves with a slightly different picture in their head.

But the moment you name the point, you align attention. You give people a direction to aim for. You make the next step obvious.

This is not about inspiring speeches or grand visions. It’s simply about a clear direction, spoken out loud, before the debates begin.

Try that this week. Start each meeting by reminding everyone of the PATH you’re on.

It will change how people show up for the work.

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

The price of focus

Focus is wildly popular in theory, but immediately suspicious in practice.

Here’s how focus efforts typically unfold:

Day 1
“Focus on X is our top priority this year.”

Week 2
“Let’s define what focus actually means.”

Week 4
“Okay, so maybe we don’t need to decide today…”

Week 6
“We should keep all options open. Focus doesn’t mean being rigid.”

Week 8
“Maybe ambiguity is a strategic asset.”

Month 3
“Anyway, focus is important. But so is flexibility.”

Month 6
“Our vision is to pursue all opportunities while staying agile.”

And just like that, we’re back in the same unfocused mess as always.

The problem is, focus means making choices. Taking a stand. Committing to something. Leaving other things off the table.

In other words, it has a price not everyone is willing to pay.

Are you?

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

The most unexpected 40th anniversary in business

Believe it or not, the last Blockbuster store celebrates their 40th anniversary. I think that most people miss a crucial point about their decline.

And it’s all about meaning what you say.

On paper, there’s no way they should have lost.

They had a dominant market position and used what sounded like a brilliant core credo:

→ “Make this a Blockbuster Night!”

It scores incredibly high on all four PATH principles: plain and simple, actionable, transformative, and heartfelt.

And for many years, a typical Friday night indeed meant going to a Blockbuster store and setting yourself up for a great movie night with your family or friends.

Until Netflix made a better promise: Why not get your movies by mail and start your movie night directly from home?

Everyone knows that Blockbuster dismissed it and was doomed as a result.

But most people ignore that this shouldn’t have happened. It’s almost unbelievable that Blockbuster didn’t see it coming.

Because if you look at their credo, DVD by mail is clearly a more convenient way to “make this a Blockbuster night”.

Let’s put it that way: DVD by mail is just another LANE on the same strategic PATH.

You can even see how streaming would have fitted neatly into the promise. Also just another lane.

BUT.

The above credo wasn’t their ACTUAL credo.
It was just a MARKETING slogan.

Their actual credo was …
well …

… non-existent.

It was a scattered company with many competing interests and just as many competing voices that couldn’t agree on how to face the changing market conditions.

Their CEO wanted to a push for online.
Investors around Carl Icahn were vocally against it.
Marketing was trying to please customers.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

But when leadership can’t agree on a path, what is the team supposed to do?

More fundamentally, how can you move forward when there’s no agreement on which direction actually is forward?

That is the actual lesson here. Not short sightedness but lack of alignment doomed them.

And it’s why in the book, I’ve dedicated a whole chapter to that first step: You need to make a choice. Someone needs to be brave enough to make the call, define the path, own that choice, and align the team.

This is the actual act of lighting the path. It’s not about predicting the future or persuading harder. It’s about creating clarity so strong that everyone knows where forward is.

That’s not easy, but it’s essential.

What’s your take on Blockbuster’s decline?

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

PS: If you enjoy these real life cases and would like me to dissect one through the PATH lens, hit reply and let me know me which case fascinates you.

Undivided attention

Could it be that you underestimate your abilities?

According to Steve Morse that’s very likely. He’s one of the best guitarists alive, not a household name but every guitarist knows him. Morse is famous for working incredibly hard and pushing things to the extreme while making them feel easy.

In a recent interview he said that even the best musicians tend to underestimate their abilities.

His full answer is fascinating:

Another thing I learned being a band leader is that musicians underestimate their ability. Even really good musicians. They would often say: “Let me work on that at home.”

I say: “How about this? Give me five minutes, just five minutes of your undivided attention, and let’s just see where we are.”

And I would show him that 16 bar difficult part in five minutes by breaking it down and they would be able to play it. Maybe not at the exact tempo, but they would have it.

Almost universally, five minutes of attention can bring anybody doing anything to a higher level of understanding. So why is it so hard for us to give five minutes?

That very much matches my experience. Spend just five minutes learning something and everything changes. It might be reading, watching a tutorial, thinking something through, practicing something, or speaking it through with an expert.

These five minutes change everything.

How often do you do that?
And, honestly now, how often do you find yourself glossing over it, postponing it, or simply moving on to the next thing?

Keep lighting the path!

PS: If you’re willing to invest four hours, imagine what a Clarity Lab can do for you.

What to cut

“But if I cut things… how do I know what’s safe to leave out?”

Here’s the uncomfortable truth.
You don’t know.
Not with absolute certainty.

But here’s the other side of the truth.
If you don’t cut, your audience will.

With a 100% guarantee.

They just won’t remember your 12 topics, 23 subtopics, and 31 most important details.

They will cut.

And they won’t do it gently.

They will tune out the moment it becomes confusing, overwhelming, or boring.

They will skip, scroll, drift.

They will slice your message in ways you can’t control.

In other words: if you don’t choose, they choose.
You might not like their choice.

Better to do it yourself.

Focus based on one question: What will they pass along?

Keep lighting the path!

Opportunities

Distraction looks like opportunity.
Until focus shows you the difference.

So what are you calling an opportunity
because you don’t want to decide?

Keep lighting the path!

So you want to focus?

What hard choice are you willing to make out loud?

I’ve seen so many strategies fail because no one had that courage. No one dared to say what must be given up.

What not to do.
What to stop.
What to ignore.

But of course, the trade-off doesn’t magically disappear.
You can’t have it all.

It simply becomes someone else’s problem. When you won’t name the trade-off, you essentially pass it down the line. (Or delegate it to time.)

And this could be the result:

Strategic drift.
Each team selects their own focus.
They’re busy, but not aligned.

Decision paralysis.
No one wants to get it wrong.
So teams escalate, delay, or wait for more guidance.

Frustration.
Mid-level managers and frontline teams juggle with ambiguity.
They’re the ones left to “translate” it to tasks.
Always at danger of picking the wrong translation.

Leadership distortion.
When leadership doesn’t make the call, someone else will.
Someone will fill the gap.

In short, teams waste time in debates,
they build the wrong things (perhaps beautifully),
and smart people stop trusting what they hear.

If that’s not what you want, don’t delegate focus. Own it.

Keep lighting the path.

Focused messages

The more focused your message is, the better it spreads.

Not because people try harder to remember.
But because you make it easier for them.

Yet most communicators do the opposite:
They bury their message under layers of “just to be safe” details.

They think that when they cover all bases, they’re being thorough.

What they’re really doing is forcing their audience to do the work.

But when you make people work too hard, they won’t.

They won’t pass your message along.
They won’t remember what mattered.
Or worse: they’ll remember the wrong thing.

In the end, it comes down to a choice:
Either you decide what your message is about.
Or your audience will decide for you.

Not long ago, I wrote a little ebook about this, called Super Focused Communication.
It’s now free to download.

It helps you strip away the noise and sharpen your message until it truly resonates.

So people remember exactly what you want them to remember.

So it’s easy for them to pass your message along.

Hope you find it useful. (And pass it along)

Keep lighting the path!

The secret to clarity

You’d think the secret to clarity is finding the perfect words.

It’s not.
It’s having the courage to cut everything else.

The clever line you loved? Gone.
The extra context that makes you feel smart? Gone.
The slides you spent hours on? Maybe gone too.

Almost always, clarity isn’t about what you add.
But about what you’re willing to give up.

And that’s why it’s hard.
Not because you don’t know enough.
Because you know too much…
and you’re afraid to leave any of it behind.

But here’s the truth:
Every extra word competes with your point.
Every added slide weakens the signal.

Clarity means stripping it down—
until only what matters remains.

And when that’s all that’s left?
People finally have a chance to get it.
(And so, act on it.)

What was the toughest thing you had to leave behind so your message could land?

Keep lighting the path!

Say less. Mean more.

Most people think focus is about saying less.
But it’s about meaning more.

Like a single spotlight in a dark room,
it draws all eyes to what matters.

You don’t turn down the volume.
You tune into the signal.

In other words,
focus isn’t quiet.
It speaks volumes.

Just not in how much you say.
But in how clearly others understand you.

When your focus is sharp,
your signal gets stronger.

People don’t just hear you.
They know exactly when to lean in.
Exactly what you’re about.
Exactly when to say, “That’s for me.”

In the next “Leaders Light the Path Session” we’re going to explore this.
→ How to know what to focus on
→ How to say less and mean more
→ Why focus works differently than you think

April 8th | 11am Eastern · 5pm CET | Zoom

As always, it’s a highly interactive session, in a small group setting with like-minded peers. A great mix of joy and insight.

I would love to see you there.

It’s free but seats are limited! Reserving your spot is easy, though. Simply reply to this email (No fancy forms. Just a simple yes).

Keep lighting the path!

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Dr. Michael Gerharz