It’s not each day that a C-suite chief turns to 1 Chronicles for recommendation, however there’s one thing right here for us. 1 Chronicles chapter 12 describes every of the tribes of the nation of Israel as they moved their allegiance from the home of Saul to the newly topped King David. The scripture recounts a formidable array of warrior clans able to combat for his or her new king, till it reaches the tribe of Issachar, described in verse 32 as “males who had understanding of the instances, to know what Israel should do.”
Think about King David, freshly topped and surrounded by his fiercest officers—but it was Issachar’s perspective, not their energy, that stood out. Their distinctive present? Perception. The power to see past what others observed.
Right here’s what I take from this previous story: efficient technique begins with clear imaginative and prescient—each internally and externally. The Issachar CEO isn’t simply an operator—he’s a pacesetter who calmly and with out prejudice interprets the instances, anticipates the longer term, and aligns his group accordingly. Issachar CEOs deal with development rooted in information.
The Issachar CEO Mindset
An Issachar CEO combines three distinct skills:
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Inside Perception: A transparent-eyed view of what’s taking place throughout the 4 partitions of the enterprise—efficiency, individuals, and profitability.
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Market Consciousness: An information-driven understanding of financial tendencies and trade shifts—not simply surface-level headlines or intestine really feel.
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Decisive Motion: Turning information and perception into technique and execution—then measuring the outcomes.
Avoiding the Traps
Like King Saul, who David changed after he was killed in a battle, most CEOs don’t fail due to ignorance—they falter due to partiality. Two of the largest traps:
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Affirmation Bias: Solely accepting information that validates what you already consider.
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Water Cooler (or Golf Course) Economics: Letting headlines, opinions, or rumors substitute for elementary market evaluation and conclusions.
The Issachar CEO avoids each by grounding selections in goal financial information and reliable main indicators.
How one can Lead Like an Issachar CEO
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Undertake The Progress Gears: Construct your development engine with Perception (Gear 1), Technique (Gear 2), and Execution (Gear 3), and achieve this in linear order. Don’t let execution run forward of perception or technique. Accomplish that, and also you’ll be responsible of conducting random acts of selling and gross sales. You’ll additionally waste some huge cash and sources.
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Have interaction an Financial Compass: My colleagues at ITR Economics taught me years in the past in regards to the very important significance of using charges of change (ROC), particularly the three/12 and 12/12 ROC, to find out an organization’s financial section and trajectory. You’ll have a way of your corporation’s present financial situation, however with out the three/12 ROC, you might be seemingly flying with one eye blind.
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Align the Management Workforce: Guarantee everybody recurrently critiques and interprets the info the identical means—and commits to unified motion.
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Act with Braveness: Anticipation is meaningless with out decisive execution. Issachar CEOs transfer means earlier than the group. And the group normally unwisely considers the recommendation of water-cooler chatter.
Why It Issues Now
The present panorama—marked by regular however uneven development, unpredictable tariffs, and labor pressures—calls for management with the self-discipline to learn the actual numbers and lead from the entrance, not the headlines.
Closing Thought
Ask your self: Do I comprehend the instances? Do I’ve a agency sense of our enterprise development trajectory? Do I perceive the economics of the marketplaces the place we compete? Based mostly on all this, what ought to my enterprise do subsequent?
If not, it’s time to enhance your instruments by growing an efficient financial compass. Your competitors might be responsible of training golf course economics—steering by rumor, opinion, and innuendo. Which means they’re susceptible.
I’ve discovered that, in my very own work, the leaders who outperform others aren’t clairvoyant—they only ask higher questions and search extra trustworthy indicators. That’s the Issachar edge.
