Today My Son Turned 21

I’m doing something a little reckless for a “leader”. I’m opening with a personal moment.

Today my son turned twenty-one, and instead of panic or nostalgia I feel strangely calm because I spent the last two decades making sure I wouldn’t have to panic today.

I’m sharing the poem I wrote for him, then pulling a thread from it into something very practical: how not to panic when year-end decisions land.

So it goes a little something like this (Disclaimer- he’s not a fan of AI, but I am lol):

If that reads like pure dad-mode (guilty), there’s a reason I’m sharing it with the work crowd. Raising a kid taught me lessons that map uncannily well to running teams and steering organizations into Q4 without the usual chaos.

Here are a few of those lessons, not just aphorisms but practical habits that kept panic from creeping in:

Plan for small, repeatable wins.

Two decades of parenting taught me the power of tiny, reliable rituals. In business, pick the few signals that actually predict outcomes and make them your daily rituals. Don’t chase every shiny metric.

Create a decision rhythm.

We had “bedtime” like clockwork; decisions got made because the rhythm demanded them. In September, lock a weekly 30-minute decision review. Make it ruthless: one owner, one data slide, two clear options, a decision or escalation.

Reduce friction between talk and action.

I learned that asking “who will pick up the pizza?” actually changed outcomes. Same at work: every meeting should end with explicit owners, deadlines, and systems that turn those into tasks before anyone forgets.

Use tools to extend discipline, not replace it.

Tech helps (yes, even AI, which, again, somewhat ironically, my son hates and I not-so-secretly adore). Use it to synthesize feedback, model scenarios, and auto-generate follow-ups. But tools amplify whatever process you already have; build the process first.

Make accountability obvious and kind.

Kids respond to clear expectations delivered with patience. Teams respond to clear expectations delivered with consequences. Make both transparency and empathy part of the package.

This is not sentimental advice, it’s operational. The same structure I used to parent intentionally is what I now use to keep my calendar, my teams, and my company from spiraling in the last 90 days of the year.

September is prep month.

Do the work now so Q4 behaves.