Step 1: Eliminate the noise and get back to basics

The first thing I have every CEO do is go analog and get away from the distractions. If Bill Gates had to do it frequently while running Microsoft, so do you.

Take time off the grid. Not a working vacation - actual time away from Slack, investor updates, and industry newsletters.

Then, grab a pen and paper (not your laptop) and write down:

• Why you started this company in the first place, without thinking about what investors want to hear

• Why you care about your customers and the problems that make their lives 10x more difficult

• In one simple sentence, what your company does to solve that problem

The “one simple sentence” becomes your North Star. Everything your company does or doesn't do has to align with it.

Step 2: Run the brutal company audit

Once you have your north star written down, it's time to audit how well your current company actually reflects it.

Here's the test most CEOs fail: If I asked every employee to write down what they think your company's mission is, could they do it with reasonable accuracy?

Most founders think they're better at communicating their vision than they actually are. Your team likely doesn’t know the vision nearly as well as you think they do.

So actually do this exercise. Send a quick survey. Ask people to write one sentence about what the company does and why it matters.

The results will probably scare you.

Then ask yourself:

• What initiatives are we wasting time on that aren't aligned with the North Star?

• Why did I choose to do those things if I'm being totally honest? (Usually the answer involves FOMO, investor pressure, or competitor envy)

• What initiatives ARE aligned with the North Star? Do we have 80% of our resources allocated here with only a small percentage dedicated to experiments? Should it be 100% if we’re pre-product-market fit with limited runway?

Step 3: Evaluate your talent density against your north star

This is the hardest part emotionally, but it's essential: not everyone who helped build your company is the right person to help scale it.

Talent density comes down to two things:

• IQ: Technical skills needed to reach your north star (building, scaling, selling, distributing)

• EQ: Personality and cultural fit for what the company needs to become

Your company values aren't abstract ideals - they're determined by your north star. If your north star requires a heavy-writing, async culture to move fast, everyone needs to be excellent at written communication. If it requires constant customer feedback loops, everyone needs to be comfortable with rapid iteration.

👉 Ask yourself: Who on the team represents the talent density and focus needed to reach the north star? Who doesn't?

The people who don't fit need to go. I know it's brutal, especially with early employees who helped you get here. But keeping the wrong people is unfair to them, to you, and to your mission.

Step 4: Translate the big vision into immediate next steps

Take your lofty, ambitious north star and scale it back to reality. What would need to be true in the next quarter or two to get meaningfully closer to that vision?

This isn't about creating a five-year strategic plan. It's about identifying the three to five things that absolutely must happen in the near term.

👉 Ask yourself: What 3-5 things need to be true in the next two quarters to reach the north star more readily?

If your north star is "making design accessible to everyone," maybe that means launching templates for small businesses, improving mobile editing, or building better collaboration features. Pick the ones that move the needle most.

Step 5: Get your leadership team excited about the vision

Schedule a leadership offsite focused entirely on who you are as a company and what you're building.

Not a strategy session about OKRs or quarterly planning. A vision session about why this company exists and why the work matters.

Get your leaders and culture carriers genuinely excited about the mission again. If they're not bought in, nobody else will be.

For more reading, check out Implementing Decisions from the Ground Up.

Step 6: Implement with discipline

Having a north star is worthless if you don't actually follow it. Every decision - from hiring to product features to partnership opportunities - gets measured against one question: Does this get us closer to our north star?

If the answer is no, don't do it. Even if it seems like a good idea. Even if your competitors are doing it. Even if investors are asking about it.

The companies that scale without losing their soul are ruthlessly disciplined about saying no to distractions.

And if you’re reading this - you're already ahead.

Because you know where to find the stuff that’s actually good. Like my templates and resources, and this newsletter.

Want more operational content?

Check out Coaching Founder for over a dozen free, downloadable Notion templates to use at your company, and tons of write-ups on how to level up your execs, your teams, and yourself.

About Regina Gerbeaux

Shortly after her role as Chief of Staff, then COO, she opened her own coaching practice, Coaching Founder, and has worked with outrageously talented operators on teams like Delphi AI, dYdX, Astronomer, Fanatics Live, and many more companies backed by funds like Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz.

Her open-sourced write-ups on Operational Excellence and how to run a scaling company can be found here and her templates can be found here.

She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her partner Lucas and dog Leia, and can be found frequenting 6:00AM Orangetheory classes or hiking trails nearby.