The goal is to become a shaper of culture and builder of people so that the company can be great for decades beyond your own life span. When you’ve found people who are as fanatic about getting the essential details right as you are, when you’ve taught them how to build and lead a system that delivers consistent tactical excellence, when they strive to far surpass what you yourself achieve during your own tenure, then you’ve truly set the foundation for an enduring great company.

Most people want to do more than bring home a paycheck. They want work they can believe in and that has meaning. This may not be true of all people, but it’s certainly true of the people most likely to be solid contributors to a great company. Tap into the basic human desire for meaningful work and the traditional management problem of “how to motivate employees” largely evaporates. People will be self-motivated when doing work they believe in.

So, each and every week these leaders have a brief check-in with each team member, during which they ask two simple questions:

What are your priorities this week?

How can I help?

They are not looking for a to-do list from the team member. They simply want to discuss the team member’s priorities, obstacles, and solutions in real time, while the work itself is ongoing.

All goals, at least in the real world, function in this same way. You are either done, or you are not done: goal attainment is binary. You might want to set some intermediate goals along the way, and tick these goals off as they are done (or not done). But you won’t ever be able to assign a “percent complete” to your bigger goal as you tick off these mini-goals. And if you attempt to, or if your company asks you to, you will only be generating falsely precise data about the state of your progress.

KEY QUESTION: Are the stakeholders (employees, customers, shareholders) happy and engaged in the business; and would you “rehire” all of them?