Operations

As a Gen X leader, I’ll admit something that surprised me. For most of my career, I viewed job hopping as a red flag. Short stints on a resume often signaled a lack of loyalty—or a lack of commitment worth investing in. Loyalty mattered. Staying, contributing, growing within an organization felt like the right path—for individuals and employers alike. And as a mother of both a Millennial and a Gen Z professional, that’s exactly what I taught my children: Be loyal. Work hard.

In many organizations, the tension between sales and operations is almost expected. Sales is pushing for growth. Operations is protecting delivery. Sales wants speed. Operations wants stability. And somewhere in between, friction builds. This dynamic is especially visible in people-intensive businesses—but it exists everywhere. When left unexamined, it quietly erodes trust, performance, and margin. The issue isn’t that one side is right and the other is wrong. The issue is th