In nearly every leadership conversation today, the focus always drifts to numbers – sales numbers, productivity and labor numbers, engagement scores, turnover rates and market share.
Numbers matter, but they are not where great leadership begins. When leaders obsess over numbers, they miss the deeper truth – numbers are outcomes, not causes.
The most effective leaders understand a simple but powerful principle: We cannot coach numbers; we can only coach behaviors. When behaviors are right and values are aligned, the numbers take care of themselves.
This month, I want to explore that principle through passages in my book, “The 5 Rules,” showing why culture-driven behaviors outperform metric-driven management every time. Starting off the new year with this as our foundation really sets us up for a great 2026.
I believe that our formula for success was wrong for decades. The old equation was good numbers equal success. The new equation is good values plus good behaviors equals good numbers, which result in success.
We are a people-focused business and value our teams and what they know. When we set good behavior expectations from “The 5 Rules” by modeling them, coaching to them and holding each other accountable, the good numbers will follow. And the formula works only in that order.
Numbers are easy to measure and point to. Behaviors are more difficult, as they require observation, consistency and courage. Yet leadership that relies primarily on numbers often creates short-term gains at the expense of long-term health.
When a leader says, “We need to increase sales by 10 percent,” he or she provides a target but not a path. Numbers do not tell people how to succeed; they only tell them whether they succeeded. Coaching behaviors, on the other hand, creates clarity and ownership.
I’ve shared before how Jimmy Carder, my former district manager at United Supermarkets in Oklahoma, did this better than anyone.
If we needed to get better labor numbers, he didn’t come in and tell me to just “get better numbers.” He would ask me to grab my schedule, and we’d go over every single line on it.
And in that, he was coaching with a behavior that taught me how to write better schedules – under Rule No. 1: Do your job. He was making sure I knew how to do my job.
Great leaders ask different questions:
- Are team members greeting customers with energy and authenticity?
- Are we executing fundamentals consistently, even when no one is watching?
- Are people doing their jobs – and doing them well – every single day and in every department?
These are behavioral questions that focus on controllables. Team members cannot control market conditions, competitor pricing or economic shifts, but they can control their attitudes, effort, preparation and execution.
When leaders coach to behaviors instead of numbers, accountability improves. The conversation moves from excuses to execution. People know exactly what is expected, and leaders can observe, reinforce and correct in real time.
Behaviors produce numbers
Numbers are lagging indicators. Behaviors are leading indicators.
If customer satisfaction scores are declining, the solution is not to lecture the team about survey results. The solution is to examine behaviors that lead to customer satisfaction – eye contact, follow-through, cleanliness, speed, accuracy and empathy.
We are connecting – not just communicating, as I’ve shared before from John Maxwell’s book, “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect.”
If profitability is slipping, the answer is not to post bigger spreadsheets. The answer is to coach behaviors related to waste reduction, inventory management, teamwork and decision-making.
Every outcome has a behavioral root. When leaders focus on behaviors:
- Performance becomes predictable
- Improvement becomes repeatable
- Success becomes scalable
This is why high-performing cultures look deceptively simple from the outside. They are not chasing new initiatives every quarter. They are relentlessly consistent with fundamentals.
They understand that excellence is not an event, it is a habit. And this is creating “atomic habits,” like those James Clear writes about in his book, “Atomic Habits.” They get “a little better every day.”
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Personal values shape behaviors more than company values
Many organizations display company values on walls, websites and onboarding materials. Yet values written on paper do not automatically translate into values lived out in practice.
Here is the hard truth – personal values drive behavior more powerfully than company values.
I now use a values exercise in my coaching practice that helps us understand the values of the team. We work on how they align with the company values. Sometimes, we’ve changed company values to align more with individual values, with positive results.
If people value comfort over accountability, no amount of corporate messaging about excellence will change their behavior. If someone values personal recognition over team success, collaboration always will suffer.
This is why hiring, promotion and development decisions matter so much. Leaders must look beyond skill and experience and ask deeper questions:
- What does this person truly value?
- How do they behave under pressure?
- Do their actions align with the culture we are trying to build?
Culture is not what we say, it is what we tolerate. When leaders allow behavior that contradicts stated values, they unintentionally communicate that values are optional.
Strong cultures are built when personal values and organizational values are aligned – and when leaders are willing to coach, correct and sometimes make difficult decisions to protect that alignment.
Alignment plus ‘The 5 Rules’ equals results
When values are aligned and behaviors are clear, “The 5 Rules” become more than a philosophy, they become a practical operating system for culture and a movement in an organization.
The power of “The 5 Rules” is not in their complexity but in their clarity. They translate values into behaviors. They remove ambiguity. They give leaders and team members a shared common language for expectations and accountability that runs both ways. We allow our teams to also hold us accountable.
When leaders consistently coach to these rules:
- Teams know what “good” looks like
- Feedback becomes objective, not personal
- Performance conversations become simpler and more effective
The result? The numbers show up in the right places.
Not because people are chasing metrics but because they are executing behaviors that naturally produce strong outcomes. Sales grow. Engagement improves. Turnover declines. Trust increases.
My clients can attest to this now that many have rolled out “The 5 Rules” companywide. This is not magic; it is discipline.
Now to tie this all together: The first life lesson under Rule No. 1 – Do your job – is one of the most important truths in leadership and in life.
In the book, I share the story of coaching my youngest son, Travis, in the city league youth baseball program. I used this quote to get the boys inspired to do better, even after we’d gone undefeated and won the championship multiple years. We were playing a horrible game and I gathered them around and made this statement: “It doesn’t matter what you can do – it matters what you do.”
Talent without discipline is unreliable. Potential without execution is meaningless. Ability matters only when it is consistently applied.
We see this in sports, business and families. The most gifted person is not always the most impactful. Impact belongs to those who show up prepared, focused and committed to fundamentals every day.
Leaders must reinforce this lesson constantly. Praise effort, consistency and execution more than raw ability. Celebrate people who do their jobs well, even when it is unnoticed. Model the behavior yourself.
When a team embraces this life lesson, excuses fade, ownership grows and performance becomes sustainable.
In the end, leadership is not about what we could do if conditions were perfect. It is about what we choose to do – today, tomorrow and every day after.
And when leaders coach behaviors, align values, live “The 5 Rules” and insist that everyone simply does their job – the numbers will be there. Always.
Steve Black is CEO and founder of abrighterday.life, a business and leadership coaching organization devoted to helping people and companies with personal growth and implementing simple leadership principles. A 47-year-veteran of the retail grocery arena, Black is the author of “The 5 Rules” and offers an online Masterclass.