Most companies don’t fail because they lack strategy.
In fact, many have very well-developed strategies. Leadership teams spend months working with consultants, defining strategic pillars, mapping out five-year growth plans, and aligning around where the business is going.
On paper, it all looks right.
But then execution begins. And that’s where things start to break down.
Roger Jansen captured this gap clearly: “That’s all really interesting. But do you have the players who can actually execute it?”
That question sits at the center of scaling. Because strategy, no matter how well designed, only creates value if the organization can bring it to life.
And that depends entirely on people.
You Don’t Leave Yourself at Home
One of the advantages Roger brings is his background in neuroscience. It shapes how he thinks about organizations at a fundamental level.
As he put it, “We bring our whole person to work every day.”
There is no clean separation between personal and professional identity. The brain doesn’t compartmentalize that way. Relationships, stress, beliefs, and emotions all show up in how people perform.
Yet many organizations operate as if they don’t.
They expect consistency without understanding motivation. They expect alignment without understanding whether people feel secure, valued, or connected to the group.
Roger pointed out that humans evolved in small groups where acceptance and role clarity were essential for survival. Those same drivers still exist in modern organizations.
If people don’t feel secure, performance suffers. If they don’t understand their role, execution slows.
At the same time, too much alignment introduces a different risk.
Without dissent, without people willing to challenge assumptions, teams drift into groupthink. Decisions begin to rely more on hierarchy than on critical thinking. And by the time someone questions the direction, it may already be too late.
The Talent and Strategy Gap
Roger’s experience as both Chief Strategy Officer and CHRO gave him a unique perspective on scaling.
He saw firsthand that talent and strategy cannot be separated.
You can have the best strategy in the world, but if your team cannot execute it, the outcome won’t change.
He framed it simply. You can have the perfect playbook, but if the players can’t run the plays, you won’t win.
What makes this more complicated is that experience doesn’t always translate into effectiveness.
In some cases, the people who built the current system are the least equipped to reinvent it. Roger challenged the assumption that deep industry experience is always an advantage, especially in industries that are fundamentally broken.
That forces a harder question.
Are you building your future with people who can think differently, or with people who are anchored to the past?
Hiring for Comfort vs. Hiring for Performance
This challenge often shows up first in hiring decisions.
Many CEOs, often unintentionally, hire based on comfort. They choose people they like, people they connect with, people who feel familiar.
Roger described it well: “We fall into that gap of hiring future friends… versus actually hiring who’s best for the company.”
It’s easy to rationalize these decisions. Cultural fit becomes the justification. But over time, this creates blind spots.
Teams become aligned in personality, not capability.
And the cost of that is significant.
Roger made an observation that highlights the issue. Companies often spend more time debating small operational details than they do evaluating critical hires. The imbalance is clear, but it persists.
The solution requires discipline. Hiring needs to focus on competencies and context. Not just what someone has done, but how they will operate within the broader system.
Because no role exists in isolation.
Your Leadership Team Is the System
Once the right people are in place, the focus shifts to how they operate together.
Many organizations default to functional silos. Finance optimizes finance. HR focuses on HR. Operations runs independently.
Over time, that creates fragmentation.
Roger emphasized that the executive team must function as a single unit. If that group is not aligned, the rest of the organization cannot execute effectively.
This requires a shift in perspective.
Leaders are not just responsible for their departments. They are responsible for the success of the system as a whole.
That means breaking down silos, increasing collaboration, and ensuring that decisions reflect the broader organizational goals.
Getting the Most Out of Your Team
From there, the role of the CEO evolves again.
Roger does not view leadership as having all the answers. Instead, he focuses on building an environment where strong ideas can emerge and be tested.
“I don’t think leadership is about having all the answers.”
That approach creates space for high performers to operate effectively. It encourages ownership, experimentation, and learning.
At the same time, it does not remove accountability.
There are moments when a decision must be made. When alignment is required. When direction must be set.
The balance is knowing when to step in and when to step back.
Too much control limits the organization. Too little direction creates drift.
The role of the CEO is to manage that tension.
Scaling Yourself as a CEO
As the organization grows, this balance becomes even more important.
Roger’s perspective is straightforward: “The CEO is just one person.”
But many leaders operate as if they are the central point of every decision.
They insert themselves into every conversation. They speak first and last. They feel responsible for solving every problem.
Over time, that creates dependency.
Instead, Roger focuses on how to structure the organization so that teams can operate independently when appropriate, and collaboratively when needed.
He described it as managing lanes. Sometimes you allow teams to move quickly within their own space. Other times, you bring those lanes together to ensure alignment.
The effectiveness comes from knowing when each approach is required.
AI Will Expand Capability, Not Replace Connection
When discussing AI, Roger took a measured view.
In healthcare, AI will significantly expand access to knowledge. It will process vast amounts of information, identify patterns, and support decision-making in ways that were not previously possible.
But it will not replace the human element.
Sitting with a patient, understanding their concerns, responding with empathy, and guiding them through uncertainty remains a human responsibility.
What will change is the composition of teams.
There will be less reliance on purely technical expertise and more emphasis on emotional intelligence. The ability to interpret, communicate, and connect will become more valuable as information becomes more accessible.
In that sense, AI doesn’t remove the human role. It elevates it.
A Final Thought
When I step back and look across the CEOs I work with, I see a consistent pattern.
- They invest heavily in strategy.
- They assume execution will follow.
- They hire based on comfort instead of capability.
And they underestimate how much alignment and team dynamics drive results.
Roger’s perspective brings this back into focus.
- Strategy is important. But it is not sufficient.
- Execution comes from people.
And your job as CEO is to ensure that you have the right people, working together effectively, aligned around something that actually matters.
I am Glenn Gow. I coach CEOs. If you want to scale, start with your team. Listen to the full episode of The Scaling CEO here.
