Peak Performing Leaders

Peak Performing Leaders Peak Performing Leaders helps leaders lead with clarity, confidence, and consistent follow-through. Nobody climbs alone. Est. 2023

Fifteen tabs open. That is just what is on my desktop.My head is even worse sometimes.A work deadline. The theme of the ...
09/03/2026

Fifteen tabs open.
That is just what is on my desktop.

My head is even worse sometimes.

A work deadline. The theme of the school day. A newsletter issue. The next leader interview. A coaching moment missed and follow up needed. A baby appointment. Two emails answered in my head, not yet sent. Something I forgot to do yesterday that just came back to me. Our 10 Year Anniversary (no worries that one was last week and I remembered...)

Then I went for a walk.

Not the workout. Already did that.
This was for other needs.
No plan, no podcast, just out the door to let my head sort itself out.

By the time I got back, fifteen tabs were down to about two.
And I could actually think again.

That's the part that matters for leading.
A brain running fifteen tabs doesn't lead. It reacts.
It snaps at the wrong thing.
It half-listens to somebody who needed all of me.

My team (my wife, my kids) feels the difference, even when I think I am hiding it.

In this month's newsletter, Twyla Hayes said the same thing in her own way.

She runs a marketing company, screens everywhere, fifteen things going at once.
So she paints.
Gets her hands on something real and lets her brain go quiet.
A hobby, maybe. Maintenance? Absolutely.

Mine's the walk. Hers is the brush.

Doesn't matter which. What matters is you've got one, and you actually use it.

Your move this week: find your off switch and hit it once.
Ten minutes. Off the screen, out of the noise.

A walk, a paintbrush, a guitar, pulling weeds.
Whatever gets your head to reduce those tabs.
Lead yourself first.

The full story on Twyla, and where that habit came from, is in Issue #3.
Subscribe and it lands in your inbox right away: peakperformingleaders.kit.com/peakleaderletter

P.S. The painting? One of Twyla's! She is good.

My favorite parts of doing this.Sitting across from someone I've admired for years and just getting to hear their story....
09/02/2026

My favorite parts of doing this.

Sitting across from someone I've admired for years and just getting to hear their story.

Twyla Hayes tells stories for a living. But halfway through lunch she stopped, laughed, and said, "Why don't you just ask me questions? I get so squirrely."

The storyteller did not love being the story.

I get it. The leaders I admire most are almost all like this. Choosing to direct the credit and spotlight at others. Ask how they built the thing and they point at everyone but themselves.

So someone else has to tell it.

That's the second best part, sharing it with you.

It is why I started The Peak Leader Letter.
To sit down with leaders right here in our area, learn from them, and pass it on to you.

Her full story, the one leadership move from it, and a healthy habit pulled straight from her paintbrush, are all in Issue #3.

Subscribe and it lands in your inbox right away: peakperformingleaders.kit.com/peakleaderletter

Twyla and me after lunch. Thanks again Twyla!

Nine words.Now live!Yesterday I teased about a leader in a small Ohio town. Twenty-two years running a marketing company...
09/01/2026

Nine words.
Now live!

Yesterday I teased about a leader in a small Ohio town. Twenty-two years running a marketing company that, for years, never went looking for a client.

Here she is.

Twyla Hayes, Owner & Creative Director of Brand It Marketing Communications in Rockford.

She started above her garage. Built-in desks, room for maybe three people. Now in a historic building on Main Street. Gutted and rebuilt, with her own paintings on the wall.

Ask her how she did it and she won't take the credit. She points at her husband. Her first hire. Her team. The clients who've passed her name around for two decades without her ever asking.

A marketing company, run by someone who barely markets herself.

And the whole thing runs on the nine words her grandma gave her as a kid:
"If I say it out loud, I do it."

That is the engine under 22 years.
Say what you'll do.
Then do it.
Every. Time.

The full story, the one leadership move you can put to work this week, and a healthy habit to lead yourself better, are all in the issue.

Subscribe and it lands in your inbox right away: peakperformingleaders.kit.com/peakleaderletter

Thank you, Twyla. For the time, for the tour, and for letting me tell your story!

Many of us have read this stat before: Less than half of new businesses make it to year five.She's at twenty-two. In a s...
08/31/2026

Many of us have read this stat before: Less than half of new businesses make it to year five.

She's at twenty-two. In a small Ohio town. Running a marketing company that, for years, never once went looking for a client.

The work came by word of mouth, people passing her name along, year after year.

Her business is telling other people's stories.
She's never really stopped to tell her own.

So I asked if I could.

We sat down. I came with questions about how she built the thing. She kept turning them around, pointing at everyone but herself.

And somewhere in the middle of it, she said one line. Something her grandma drilled into her as a kid. About nine words. It explains all twenty-two years.

Find out what those 9 words are and the lesson you can steal and use immediately in Issue #3 of The Peak Leader Letter.

Drops TOMORROW! Tuesday, September 1. 6:40 am.

Subscribe and it lands in your inbox in the morning: peakperformingleaders.kit.com/peakleaderletter

08/28/2026

One question to ask yourself as the week comes to an end.

If your team described what it was like to be led by you this week, what would they say?

Not what you meant to be.
What they actually got.

Were you steady, or were you reactive?
Did you listen, or did you jump straight to the fix?
Did you follow up, or did you let it slide?

I do not always love my own answer.
That is kind of the point.

They live with whatever version showed up.

Have a great weekend.
Then go give them a better answer next week.

Keep leading.

When I was a plant manager, I thought the answer was hours. 60, 70, 80, sometimes 90+ in a week.I told myself it was the...
08/27/2026

When I was a plant manager, I thought the answer was hours.

60, 70, 80, sometimes 90+ in a week.

I told myself it was the only way to see everyone and touch everything.
Be everywhere.
Do it all.

What it actually did was wreck me.
The sleep deficit alone took me apart.
So my team did not get the version of me I intended to be.
They got the version I starved and exhausted.

At 7am I could be patient, steady, present.
By 4pm on no sleep and bad food, I was short. Reactive. The kind of leader people were not sure how to approach, because they did not know which version they would get.

A leader I would never want to work for.
And an even worse husband and dad.

That is the same lesson I now teach every cohort.
Lead yourself first.
Because you cannot show up for anyone else on empty.

I have changed a lot since then.
Same breakfast every day. Same snack. Same lunch. Boring on purpose. It keeps my energy flat and steady instead of a rollercoaster of highs and crashes.

And the one I would hand anyone first, because it is the easiest win there is.
A walk after lunch. Ten minutes, twenty if you can. Do it with a coworker and you build a relationship while you are at it.

It regulates the blood sugar, clears my head, and has done more for my afternoon energy than almost anything else I have tried. The 4pm me is a completely different leader now.

The other habits took real work and prep. This one does not.

Your move this week: walk ten minutes after lunch. That is it. See what your 2pm and 4pm feel like by Friday.

Your team gets whatever version of you that shows up.
Give them a good one.

P.S. I write about this kind of thing, leadership and the habits under it, once a month in The Peak Leader Letter. Free. peakperformingleaders.kit.com/peakleaderletter

We had a virtual huddle with the Cohort 2 FLA leaders today. And one thing came up that gets almost every one of us.The ...
08/26/2026

We had a virtual huddle with the Cohort 2 FLA leaders today. And one thing came up that gets almost every one of us.

The second we provide feedback to someone, or someone brings us a problem, every part of us wants to fix it. Solve it. Hand them the answer and move on. Move away from the conflict.

It feels like helping.
It is usually the opposite.

Because when I jump straight to the solution, I take the problem off their plate before we even know whose problem it is.
I rob them of the reps.
And half the time I am solving something I do not fully understand yet.

We practiced a feedback tool called SBI+.
Situation, behavior, impact.
Then check for understanding/next steps (that is the added plus).

The hardest part for everyone?
Holding back the fix.

Give the situation. Name the behavior you actually saw. Share the impact it had. Then stop.
Ask a question.
Let them think.
Let them own what is theirs to own.

I have spent years as the guy who jumps to the solution.
My brain craves it.
Still catch myself 'twitching' to do it.
But I know asking one more question is the better way.

Are you solving problems for your people, or building people who can solve them?

P.S. The picture with the o so true quote is from The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier. Every leader in the Frontline Leadership Academy gets their own copy. I find flipping to almost any page to be helpful before a conversation.

This leader tells other people's stories for a living. Finds the thread, pulls it out, hands it back better than she fou...
08/25/2026

This leader tells other people's stories for a living.

Finds the thread, pulls it out, hands it back better than she found it.

Twenty-two years doing it.
And in twenty-two years I'm not sure she's ever stopped to tell her own.

So I asked if I could.

We sat down. I brought questions about how she built the thing. She kept answering with other people's names. Her husband. Her first hire. The team. Clients who've sent her business for two decades without her once asking.

A marketing company. Run by someone who barely markets herself.

And somewhere in there she said one line, something her grandma drilled into her as a kid, that explains all twenty-two years in about eight words.

I'm not giving you the eight words yet.

Issue #3 of The Peak Leader Letter drops Tuesday, September 1.
The full story, and the one move you can steal and use that same week.

Subscribe: http://peakperformingleaders.kit.com/peakleaderletter

A lot has changed. Time to reintroduce myself.Who I am, in four letters. --> FROG.Family, Recreation, Occupation, Goals....
08/24/2026

A lot has changed. Time to reintroduce myself.
Who I am, in four letters. --> FROG.

Family, Recreation, Occupation, Goals.

A simple way I connect with the teams I have led and the leaders I have trained.

So here is mine.

๐—™๐—ฎ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—น๐˜†: Husband. Dad to three boys under 8 and one brand new baby girl. Plus one very good boy (golden retriever).

๐—ฅ๐—ฒ๐—ฐ๐—ฟ๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป: Hiking, especially with my boys. Walks. Run/Ruck/Bike/Working out. Coaching and watching my sons in sports. Garage sales with my wife. Reading. Traveling. Cooking. Eating (a big reason I am happy I love working out too).

๐—ข๐—ฐ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐—ฝ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป: Engineering QMS Manager at Lincoln Electric. Leadership Coach and Founder at Peak Performing Leaders. Dozen+ years in manufacturing. Operator, Engineer, Supervisor, Manager, Plant Manager. I have done a version of most jobs in a plant. Failed at plenty of them first. Then found real success with some great teams.

๐—š๐—ผ๐—ฎ๐—น๐˜€: Too many to list. Top one: raising a loving and supported family. Right behind it: helping as many leaders as I can become the leader their people deserve. Their family, their team, their community.

Now the WHY.
I believe everyone is called to keep getting better. And anyone can choose to lead. To lead their own life first, then the people around them. Title or none.

Peak performance is not a finish line. There is no arriving. No perfect. It is a way of living. Always working to be a better person, a better parent, better in our health, our leading of others, and in our communities.

It is in the name.

That belief is why I stopped climbing alone. And why I am building the structure, systems, and place where other leaders do not have to either.

A community of local leaders who lift each other up, lean on each other, and hold each other to keep growing.

No one climbing alone.

That is why. That is what I post about. That is what I am building.

If any of that resonates, or you just want to talk leadership, reach out.

I would love to know your FROG!

08/21/2026

...My emotional control was at zero.

I was 25, just handed a room full of people, and never taught the first thing about leading them.

Nobody sat me down. Nobody handed me a playbook. Nobody climbed with me.

So I climbed alone, and I failed. Sometimes small. Sometimes in front of 110+ people.

That is the whole reason Peak Performing Leaders exists.
Not because I am a natural. Because I was not. I am not.

Because I know exactly what it feels like to get the title, get the responsibility, and get zero support. And then get blamed for struggling.

That is not a talent problem. It is a support problem. And it is fixable.

And the thing I did not understand at 25?!
That climb never actually ends.

The new supervisor learning that machines are easy and people are hard? Climbing.

The plant manager carrying a whole building?
Still climbing.

The owner at the top, the one everybody assumes has it figured out?
Climbing too, usually with the fewest people to lean on.

The climb does not stop.
The mountain just changes.

So here is the belief this whole thing is built on:
--> No one climbs alone.

From the shop to the top.
The frontline to the front office.

We build the room I wish I had at 25.
And the room I still want now.

Leaders at every level, in person, local, pushing and supporting each other to get better.

If you are climbing alone right now, you do not have to.
It does not matter how high you have already gotten.

Reach out. Let's talk.

Keep leading.

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