Embracing Output Over Hours | A Paradigm Shift for COOs

Executive overview

Most founders focus on sales and marketing while neglecting the operational foundation that makes growth sustainable. Without the right structure — vision, values, people systems, and meeting rhythms — more clients just accelerate the chaos.

Cameron Herold walks through a complete operating framework, from crafting a vivid vision to measuring employee output, delegating correctly, and building a team of A players.

The core insight: stop measuring hours and start measuring output — then build systems so the right people hit their own goals without being managed.

The jigsaw puzzle framework

• The picture on the box lid = the vivid vision (four to five pages describing the company three years out)
• Four corners: core values, core purpose, BHAG, and the plan
• Sides: people systems (recruiting, onboarding, training), strategic planning/goal-setting, meeting rhythms, and financial systems
• Centre (last): sales, marketing, culture
• Don't drive leads to a business with weak foundations — you'll just churn them faster

Vivid vision vs. vision statement

• Traditional vision statements: group exercise, whiteboard, vote on words, mash into one sentence — result is generic and unmemorable
• Vivid vision: write as if you stepped into a time machine three years out and describe everything you see — meetings, what employees say, what customers say, what media writes, dashboards, every department
• Written by the CEO alone first; four to five pages; designed to be shared with employees, suppliers, and customers
• Tip: record yourself walking around and talking through it; transcribe later
• Once shared, employees reverse-engineer which parts of the vivid vision to build first, second, and third

Core values, core purpose, and BHAG

• Core purpose: the single underlying reason the company exists (Simon Sinek's "why") — must belong to the company, not just the CEO
• Core values: four or five short phrases, easy to understand, not single words, not an acronym — e.g. "deliver what you promise" not "integrity"
• The test: are you willing to fire someone who breaks it? If not, it's an aspirational value, not a core value
• Limit to four or five; ten or more is unenforceable
• BHAG: a 20–30 year goal that looks impossible from the outside but feels possible from the inside (e.g. Microsoft: "a computer on every desk")

Activity inventory: finding your unique ability

• Imagine being filmed for a month — list everything you do, one item per row
• Categorise each as: I (incompetent), C (competent), E (excellent), or U (unique ability)
• Unique ability = great at it, love doing it, get energised by it, would do it for free
• Goal: remove everything that isn't unique ability from your plate
• Second filter: calculate your effective hourly rate (last year's net income ÷ annual hours); outsource anything you'd pay someone less than that rate to do
• Remote workers in other countries can handle research, list-building, proofreading, Upwork sourcing for as little as $3–$25/hour

Delegation and systems

• If work comes back wrong, the delegation was wrong — employees can't read minds
• Specify the output you want, the time budget, and the money budget (not just one of the three)
• "Clean my kitchen" open-ended ≠ "clean my kitchen, no more than 15 minutes"
• Create screen-recorded templates for every repeatable task so any contractor can step in immediately
• Script everything as if you're franchising — your least competent employee must be able to execute it perfectly every day
• Sales scripts should be known forwards and backwards; 15 minutes of daily role-play beats one-hour weekly sessions

Hiring: A, B, and C players

• A players (racehorses): self-driven, get results without oversight, never unemployed — you have to poach them
• B players (workhorses): solid results, meet core values, need occasional coaching — the reliable singles and doubles hitters
• C players (glue factory): toxic, cultural cancers, underperforming — cost 15× their annual salary when you factor in negativity, A-player attrition, customer loss, and management time
• Rule: give your grain (attention, coaching, resources) to your best horses, not your worst
• Hire revenue-producing roles first; back-office overhead second
• The "mommy shift": parents who want 9:30–2:30 hours are often loyal, highly capable, and don't require a full-time salary or office space

Output over hours

• The 9-to-5 model measures the wrong thing — showing up and leaving drives neither revenue nor customer satisfaction
• Measure output: are they hitting the results you're paying for?
• Hire accountable people and they'll manage themselves; forcing accountability on the wrong person doesn't work
• Avoid hiring C players even when short-staffed — the cost of keeping them always exceeds the cost of the gap

Scorecards and goal-setting

• Get employees to propose their own metrics; sign off only if the bar isn't sandbagged
• Every goal needs a dollar sign, number sign, or percentage sign — if it's not measurable, it's not a goal
• Goals must be a stretch but attainable (SMART, with emphasis on the stretch)
• Reframe scorecards: not "I'm watching you" but "I'm helping you hit your own goal"
• Ask salespeople how much they want to earn, then build a plan backwards to the daily activity level that gets them there
• Once metrics make personal sense, employees self-motivate rather than resisting accountability

The 11 entrepreneurial traits

Entrepreneurs commonly identify with most or all of these traits — which are also the clinical diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder:

1. Often filled with energy
2. Mind flooded with ideas
3. Driven
4. Restless, unable to keep still
5. Often working on little sleep
6. Gets euphoric
7. Easily irritated by minor obstacles
8. Burns out periodically
9. Acts out sexually (flirting)
10. Feels persecuted by those who reject the vision
11. High risk tolerance

Five or more = on the spectrum. Entrepreneurs as a group score dramatically higher than the general population. Awareness of this wiring — not medication — is the point.