Back in March I wrote about a quarterly audit. The Q1 version was about the business. Pipeline. Receivables. Cash. Working. Broken. Missing. Confused. Most of the questions were external. The numbers tell you the answer.
The Q3 audit is different. The Q3 audit is about you.
By the end of September you have nine months of evidence. Nine months of how you actually responded under pressure. Nine months of which conversations you had and which ones you ducked. Nine months of decisions that moved the team forward and decisions that drifted. The numbers are not silent. The people are not silent. There is a leader your team would describe behind your back, and you have been showing up as that leader for three quarters.
The question for this week is whether you like that leader. And whether you are still going to be them in December.
September is the right month for this kind of audit because you still have a quarter to course-correct. November is too late. January is too far away. September is the honest mirror.
The shift from "what did we ship" to "who am I becoming"
Most leaders I know run an end-of-quarter review of their business. Almost none of them run an end-of-quarter review of themselves.
Part of the reason is that we do not have a clean format for it. The business review has dashboards. The personal one has feelings, which we do not trust. The business review has accountability partners. The personal one is mostly silent. The business review has a deadline. The personal one quietly slips into next month.
I want to give you a format that takes thirty minutes on a Saturday morning. Five questions. Honest answers. One person you read them to before the next quarter starts.
That is the whole exercise.
The five questions
These are the five I run on myself.
One. What is the decision I made this quarter that I would make differently if I had to make it again today?
Not the catastrophic one. The everyday one. The hire I rushed. The client I took. The meeting I let go off the rails. Pick the one that still costs you something, three months later. What does the answer tell me about my pattern?
Two. What is the conversation I should have had this quarter and did not?
Every leader has at least one. The senior person whose performance is sliding. The peer whose behavior in a meeting was out of bounds. The team member who is clearly not okay. Name it. Now ask why you did not have it. Was it fear? Calendar? You told yourself it would resolve itself? Did it?
Three. What is the promise I made and kept that I am most proud of this quarter?
The temptation in any audit is to spend all your time on the failures. The data point that actually changes your behavior is what you did right under pressure. Name one promise you made this quarter and kept, especially one nobody saw you keep. That is your character on display, not your performance.
Four. What pattern keeps showing up that I keep pretending is a one-time thing?
This is the hard one. The ducked conversation that was also ducked last quarter. The hire you rushed that you also rushed in March. Name the pattern. Then look at it long enough to admit it is a pattern, not an incident.
Five. Who am I becoming, based on the last 90 days of evidence?
This is the question that closes the audit. Look at the four answers above and write a one-paragraph description of the leader they describe. Read it out loud. Is that the leader you want to be in December?
If yes, the next quarter is consolidation. If no, the next quarter is correction. Pick one.
- Which decision from this quarter would you make differently today?
- Which conversation should you have had and didn't?
- Which promise did you make and keep that you are most proud of?
- Which pattern keeps showing up that you keep pretending is a one-time thing?
- Based on the last 90 days of evidence, who are you becoming?
The five levels of ownership
The other frame I keep coming back to is from the chapter on ownership in the AI book draft.
Level one. You complete the task you were assigned. Nothing more.
Level two. You complete the task and you flag the obvious problems you noticed.
Level three. You complete the task and you propose solutions to the problems you flagged.
Level four. You complete the task, propose solutions, and own the implementation of the chosen solution end to end.
Level five. You operate at the system level. You ask why the problem existed at all and propose a change to the way the work gets done so the problem does not recur.
Most leaders think they live at level four or five. The Q3 audit is the place where you can find out where you actually lived for the last 90 days. Pull a real example. The big problem that came up in July. Where did you operate? Did you complete the task? Did you propose the solution? Did you own it end to end? Did you change the system so it would not happen again?
Most leaders, in any given quarter, live one or two levels lower than they tell themselves they live. The audit is when you get to be honest about that.
What I found in my own September
I ran this on myself last weekend. I will give you one.
Conversation I should have had and did not. There is a senior team member I have been quietly hoping would self-correct on a behavior I should have named in July. I have not named it. The cost is going up every week. I have it on the calendar for next Tuesday now. Writing the audit is what moved it from "I should" to "I will."
Pattern. I keep saying yes to speaking opportunities because the title flatters me. The lesson is the same one I have learned twice already this year. I keep saying yes to flattery and no to focus. That is a pattern, not an incident.
Promise kept. The whiteboard calendar with Claire from January. We hit every family non-negotiable so far this year, even the ones that cost me business hours I did not want to give up. That is the one I am quietly proud of, and nobody outside my house knows about it.
Yours will be different. The format is the point.
Your move
This Saturday morning. Thirty minutes. A blank page. The five questions.
Then read your answers out loud to one person before the week is over. Spouse. Mentor. Trusted peer. Pastor. Someone who will not let you spin.
The reason you read them out loud is the same reason you write down a hard conversation before you have it. The act of saying it changes the relationship you have with it. You can no longer pretend you did not see what you wrote.
Most leaders will not do this. Most leaders will close this tab and go back to their inbox. The few who do it will be running the next quarter as a slightly different leader by Monday.
Which one will you be?
The mirror is the work.
