Day 2056. I am back to running properly after a broken foot. My breathing is working harder than it should be right now. The cardiovascular fitness has not yet caught up with the fact my legs are moving again. Every morning I notice the gap. From 2056 days of this, I know it closes with consistency.

Today I want to write about something I have been working through on this morning's run. I have been reading "All In" by Mike Michalowicz. The central question of the book is how you get your team genuinely invested in the mission of your business. Not merely showing up and performing to a standard. Properly committed.

One specific idea in the book has already changed how I operate. I want to explain what I did and why I think it works.

Most businesses run performance reviews through the lens of the business only. Targets, output, gaps, what the company needs. All of this is necessary. But on its own, it positions the person sitting across the table as a resource rather than a human being with their own goals and life context. Do this long enough and you lose people, even the ones who stay in the role.

The question I was not asking often enough was straightforward: what do you want from your life this year?

So I changed the process. Every year, each person on my team now creates a vision board for the coming twelve months. Not a work plan. A proper life plan. Vocational, financial, physical, mental, family, social, spiritual. At least one goal in each area.

To remove the friction, I built a custom AI agent. You speak your goals into it, it generates a well-presented vision board, and you set it as a screensaver on your phone or device. No form to complete. No worksheet. You talk, it builds, you see it every morning when you look at your screen.

From there, the vision board gets added to the team member's record on our system. When we sit down for a performance review, we look at two things side by side: what the business needs from this person, and what this person needs from their year. Both go into the conversation.

When I know someone wants to buy their first home this year, or afford a holiday they have been putting off, or finish a qualification they have been working toward for two years, something shifts in how I lead them. I stop managing a resource and start helping a person move toward where they want to go. The business becomes the vehicle for their goals, not mine alone.

This is not a management technique. It is a more honest way to lead.

Since building this into our process, the engagement I see from my team has changed. They bring more initiative. They stay more invested in the outcomes. Not because I have asked for more, but because the connection between the business growing and their own life improving is visible to them. Those two things are no longer separate in their minds.

It has also made me a better leader in a practical sense. I know my people now in a way I did not before. I understand what is driving them, what they are working toward, what this particular year means for them beyond the job description. Every conversation has a real foundation beneath it.

A performance review without personal context is a task audit. With personal context, it becomes a real conversation about direction.

The core insight from Michalowicz is this: when your team members see their personal goals and the business goals pointing in the same direction, they stop working for you and start working with you. The distinction matters more than most business owners realise until they have experienced it from both sides.

The business owner who knows what each team member is working toward will always lead more effectively than the one who does not. Not because of superior management technique, but because they lead with context. Context, in my experience, is worth more than any incentive scheme.

This morning I ran in Vibram FiveFingers, barefoot style, as I have done every single day for 2056 consecutive days. I have covered 15,910.38km of the 40,075km lap of the world I am running. There are 24,164.62km still to go.

I do this for children. The fundraising goes to Great Ormond Street Hospital and BBC Children in Need. The logic is simple: more people see this, more money is raised, more children receive the support they need. So I show up every day, run, reflect, and share what I am working through.

The parallel between the running and the leadership work shows up on its own. No shortcuts. No single effort substituting for consistent daily action. Consistency compounds over time. The streak proves it. Building and leading a committed team proves it.

The vision board process takes a couple of hours once a year. The AI agent removes most of the friction from the exercise. The performance review conversation adds roughly thirty minutes. The return on those hours, in terms of a team who understand why they are there and where they are heading, is disproportionate to the time invested.

If you lead people and you have never asked them what they want from this year of their life, this is where to start. Not with a new incentive structure. Not with a revised performance framework. One honest question: what do you want from this year?

Ask it. Listen fully. Then build a bridge between their answer and the work you are asking them to do.

Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/JXRkuHLpu0k