How Leadership Looks Under Pressure

I’ve worked alongside Mark Abbott for a long time, so I’ve heard him talk about vision, culture, and building for the long haul more times than I can count. But in this conversation, we went somewhere different.

We talked about last year.

Leading up to 2025, Ninety grew fast, added layers, added people, added complexity, and at some point, it stopped feeling as tight as it should have. Internally, we knew the culture was not as strong as it had been.

That is not an easy thing for a CEO to admit.

At one point in our conversation, Mark said something simple: “That’s on me.” Not defensively, but just plainly owning the shift.

If something is misaligned in your structure, in your standards, or in your decision-making, scale will amplify it. And at some point, someone has to say, “That’s on me,” because that’s where real leadership begins.

Focus Points
"If it’s a one-way door decision, you don’t delegate that."
— Mark Abbott

Impact Moments
Impact Moments x Founder’s Framework: Owning the Hard Decisions

In this crossover episode of Impact Moments, I sit down with Mark Abbott, CEO of Ninety and host of the Founder’s Framework podcast, to talk through what happened inside Ninety last year when growth revealed cracks we could not ignore.

In this conversation, you’ll hear:

• Why culture slipped during a rapid growth phase.
• What he would redo about Ninety’s first reduction in force.
• The danger of delegating decisions that cannot be undone.
  

If you are scaling and carrying the weight of irreversible decisions, this conversation is one you need to hear.

On the Calendar
Using EOS® & Tactical Empathy™ to Strengthen your People Component™

Get the most out of Ninety. Join our live webinars to sharpen your Weekly Meetings, strengthen accountability, and make your Scorecard actually drive the week. Upcoming webinars include: 

• March 18 — Introduction to Ninety & Meeting Basics

• March 25 — Using EOS® & Tactical Empathy™ to Strengthen your People Component™

• April 2 — Deep Dive Session- Knowledge Portal

Your Team Isn’t Working — Here's How Trust Can Fix It

As we talked about with Mark, when a company grows fast, structure and culture get tested.

You can have the V/TO®, the Scorecard, and a strong Level 10 Meeting® rhythm in place, but if trust is thin, conversations get cautious and real issues stay under the surface. The tools create clarity. Trust is what makes the system work.