3 Ways To Bring More Discipline Into Your Company’s Operation

This expert opinion by Daniel Marcos, co-founder and CEO of Growth Institute, was originally published on Inc.com.

Good companies rarely change industries, attract top talent, or build legacies that last. That’s right. When a company is “good,” it usually looks fine from the outside. Targets are met, customers are served, and returns are respectable.

But as Jim Collins argued in Good to Great, the real enemy of greatness isn’t failure, it’s comfort. Most organizations settle into “good enough” because it feels safe.

Collins’s team studied over a thousand companies and found only eleven that made the leap from ordinary to exceptional performance — and sustained it. What separated them wasn’t flashy moves or superstar leaders. It was discipline. Discipline in people, discipline in thought, and discipline in action.

And while the findings read like a framework, they resonate more like leadership truths.

1. Discipline In People

Most leadership teams obsess over vision and strategy before addressing talent. Great companies invert that order. They get the right people on the bus (and the wrong ones off) before deciding where to drive it.

Why? Because in a world that changes faster than any five-year plan, adaptability comes from people, not PowerPoints. If your team is right, direction can shift without chaos.

• Audit your leadership bench. If you had to start tomorrow from scratch, who would you fight to keep? Who’s merely taking up space? Answer honestly.
• Raise hiring standards. Make “who” decisions with rigor. Never compromise on culture-fit just to fill a seat.
• Remove gently, but quickly. Keeping the wrong people is unfair to the right ones. Speed matters.

2. Disciplined In Thought

Great companies create cultures where truth is spoken openly, data isn’t sugarcoated, and “sacred cows” can be challenged. How to practice it?

• Institutionalize openness. Hold monthly “Red Flag Meetings” where teams surface the toughest realities without repercussion.
• Kill sacred cows. Products, divisions, or strategies that once worked but no longer serve, cut them. Quickly. Even if they once defined the company.
• Balance facts with faith. Brutal honesty doesn’t mean pessimism. It means clarity with confidence that the company will prevail.

When leaders face reality with discipline, they inspire confidence instead of panic.

3. Discipline In Action

Unlike the heroic CEO archetype we love to glorify, the leaders who elevate companies from good to great are humble in credit but relentless in execution. Their decisions prioritize the company’s long-term health, not short-term applause. Here’s how to practice it: 

• Shift the pronoun. In success, say “they.” In failure, say “I.” This builds trust and signals accountability.
• Build a succession pipeline. Actively grow leaders who can replace you. That’s how you create long lasting companies and the base of your legacy.
• Channel ego into mission. Ask daily: Am I building a company that matters, or just polishing my own résumé?

What Greatness Actually Looks Like

For most CEOs, the question isn’t “Are we good?”—because the answer is usually yes. The real question is, “Are we willing to do the tough, unglamorous work it takes to become great?”

With investors demanding more, talent markets shifting, and technology reshaping industries almost daily, it’s easy to settle for “good enough.” But greatness doesn’t come from flashy announcements or quick wins. It comes from steady, disciplined choices made day after day, often without recognition.

So ask yourself: Are you steadily building momentum in the right direction, or are you letting yourself believe that good is as far as you can go?