Last update: December 13, 2025
TL;DR:
Leadership doesn’t need to be complicated. Dr Lisa distills Theory of Constraints thinking into 2 simple but powerful laws: (1) Don’t be a sissy – choose your direction, commit to it, own the results, and don’t let fear or excuses stop you; (2) Just do it – focus, execute now, and measure what matters (reliability and effectiveness). These principles have helped over 550 custom job shops results, including Troy’s.
Watch a summary video instead:
Theory of Constraints Leadership
Theory of Constraints Leadership or leadership in general, is a topic I’ve never given much thought to. I’ve owned a job shop and now I help custom job shops and machine shops to reduce lead-time, improve due date performance, and reduce chaos with our nationally recognized 14 week Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program. We also have a holistic coaching program called Velocity Pricing System where we help job shops capitalize on their VSS improvements and increase their return on sales by least 10%. And, to do that, some leadership is involved, no doubt. So I did a little internet surfing on leadership, some deep thinking and then developed my 2 Laws of Leadership, all of which I share in this article.
Definition of Leadership (according to dictionary.com):
“the action of leading a group of people or an organization”.
Leadership
In a 2022 Google search there were 2,650,000,000 (up from 455,000,000) results for the word leadership. On the National Speakers Association’s website there are over 2075+ speakers (up from 650) who are experts on Leadership. As of Nov 2025 update, I cannot update these search numbers but:
- Global search interest in “best leadership practices” is up 300% in the past year
- “AI leadership” searches are up 390%
- “how to lead a team” reached all-time highs in September 2025
I don’t know about you, but as an engineer and NOT a very touchy feely kind of person, I have trouble relating to all the discussion on leadership.
I don’t have anything against leadership or the people who speak on it or write about it (there are tons of those people and some of them are my friends), I just don’t see what the big deal is. It just doesn’t seem that complicated to me.
I obviously use some leadership and help my clients to do the same, so I had to think about my views on leadership and try to write them down. So here goes…
At the end of 2025, with AI tools now assisting with everything from scheduling to decision-making, leadership discussions have become even more complex. Yet these two laws remain as relevant as ever—perhaps more so, as technology requires even clearer direction and faster execution.
I’m an expert in Theory of Constraints. Theory of Constraints is about focus, so assuming you are focused. There are only 2 things – guiding principles if you will — that a leader or manager needs to keep in mind. I call them the Theory of Constraints 2 Laws of Leadership.
I don’t think there are 10 qualities of a leaders, 9 leadership principles or 5 key elements of leadership. I think there are just 2 laws.
NOT Goldratt Approved!
FYI, these are not Dr. Eli Goldratt approved. I developed my thoughts on leadership after he passed. However, I’ve used what I learned from him and working with him to formulate these two laws.
What is a law? (from wikipedia.org)
Scientific laws or laws of science are statements, based on repeated experiments or observations, that describe or predict a range of natural phenomena.[1] The term law has diverse usage in many cases (approximate, accurate, broad, or narrow) across all fields of natural science (physics, chemistry, biology, Earth science). Laws are developed from data and can be further developed through mathematics; in all cases they are directly or indirectly based on empirical evidence. It is generally understood that they implicitly reflect, though they do not explicitly assert, causal relationships fundamental to reality, and are discovered rather than invented.[2]
2 Laws of Theory of Constraints Leadership
Theory of Constraints Leadership LAW 1) Don’t be a sissy!
Theory of Constraints Leadership LAW 2) Just do it!
Law #1 – Don’t be a sissy!
Any leader, who is bold about what they want and goes after it without apology and with perseverance, has my attention. And if this direction is delivered in a respectful way, they have my respect. I will follow where they lead. (Am I alone here?)
Now that sounds easy, probably too easy. So let’s apply it. Don’t be a sissy means – don’t let old patterns, past ways of doing things, and failures stop you from finally getting 99+% on time all the time, reducing lead-time, and from dramatically reducing chaos or whatever your goals are.
Pick a technique, a philosophy, or anything that you think might get you closer to your goals. And realize that if you want improvement, you have to DO SOMETHING different. It is also true that not all change is improvement, so select carefully, but DO make a selection.
I once told a client who wanted to do an incentive program (which generally I’m against) that I didn’t care if they wanted to bring clowns in on Fridays – but to DO SOMETHING.
