READ TIME: 7 MINUTES | 4 FEBRUARY, 2026 | READ ON PHILHSC.COM​

The highest compliment in leadership isn't "visionary", "brilliant" or "charismatic."

It's this: "They're a safe pair of hands."

That phrase signals something every CEO craves but few actually earn. It’s the trust that comes from being unshakeable when pressure arrives.

It means you can't be played. You can't be blindsided. You understand what's actually happening, not what you hope is happening.

And in a world where so few leaders actually deserve that compliment, the ones who do stand out as an impressive force of nature.

So how do you become a safe pair of hands?

You know your numbers.

Not in some academic way or as a box to check.

But with an intimacy that lets you make complex decisions with little notice and steer through tough times while capitalising on growth opportunities.

What it means to be safe hands

Being a safe pair of hands means you understand how you make money and how money flows through your organisation.

Without that knowledge, you cannot navigate your ship through rough waters. And there's next to no chance you'll make great financial decisions.

Now, let me be clear: you need more than this to be a great leader.

Numbers alone don't make you effective. People leadership, strategic thinking, product intuition and market awareness are very important.

But so few leaders know their numbers that this single quality makes the safe hands immediately recognisable.

The unsafe hands

I've seen the opposite too many times.

Senior leaders who say out loud, "I'm not close to the numbers." That's not humility. That's a confession of being dangerously disconnected from their business.

I’ve worked with CEO’s who take over regional businesses that look relatively strong on their balance sheet and P&L, only to discover the organisation is in a precarious situation. Why? Because the previous leadership didn't understand when material customer or supplier contracts would expire, or how regulatory and tax treatments of different countries would influence their viability.

Everything looked fine on paper. But the numbers they were watching didn't tell the real story.

Leaders who hand-wave. Who say "we're doing great!" without data to back it up. Who need three days to answer simple questions.

They live in hope.

And when the pressure comes, when investors ask hard questions, when the market shifts, when a competitor moves, they're exposed.

They don't know if they're growing what's profitable or what's easy to sell.

They don't know if customers are getting picked faster or slower.

They don't know if they're growing revenue or just growing receivables.

And in those moments, they lose credibility. Fast.

Sadly these leaders are more liability than safe hands.

What safe hands look like

Contrast that with the CEOs I've worked with who deserve that compliment.

I've run growing companies where cash runway was one of the most important metrics. But it wasn't just the number itself that mattered. It was understanding the suite of metrics that influence that runway and not just the numbers themselves but how they show up in terms of timing to influence the runway.

In those situations, one wrong move and the life of the company can be dramatically shortened (or extended).

I worked with a CEO who ran a beverages company. She understood the production economics, the marketing effectiveness, and the unit economics so intimately that she could make complex calculations on the fly.

When market conditions shifted, she knew exactly which levers to pull and when growth opportunities appeared, she could assess them instantly.

She was safe hands. And it made all the difference.

A framework that leads to a safe pair of hands

Here's what I use with CEOs to build the financial literacy that makes them trustworthy at scale.

It's organised around how money and people flow through the business.

Think of it as your Health Dashboard, a mix of known metrics and ones that surface what's really going on below the surface.

Category 1: Money IN (Revenue Health)

Is revenue real, repeatable, and resilient?

1. Revenue growth rate (year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter). Everyone tracks this, but watch for volatility. Smooth growth vs spiky growth tells different stories.
2. Revenue concentration is where it gets interesting. What percentage of revenue comes from your top 1 or top 5 customers? If your top 5 customers represent 40-60%+ of revenue, your business is fragile. One loss could be catastrophic.
3. Net Revenue Retention is a strong health signal for subscription and repeat-contract businesses. It reveals if customers stick and spend more over time. It's calculated as: (Starting revenue + expansion − churn) ÷ starting revenue.
4. Average sales cycle time is a quiet killer metric. If this number is increasing, it's an early warning system that product-market fit is slipping, approvals are getting harder or your value proposition is weakening.

Question to keep asking: Are we getting "picked" faster... or slower?

​

Category 2: Money OUT (Cost Structure)

Are we building a cost engine that scales... or a leak that grows with revenue?

1. Gross margin shows delivery efficiency and pricing power. It’s simple and vital.
2. Operating leverage compares your revenue growth rate to your operating expense growth rate. OpEx growing faster than revenue is a troubling sign.
3. Cost-to-serve per customer or per transaction. This isn’t usually tracked properly and it reveals hidden unprofitability inside what looks like "good revenue."
4. Margin by product or segment is underused. A growth business can quietly be built on the wrong mix of margin.

Question to keep asking: Are we growing what's profitable... or what's easy to sell?

​

Category 3: Money FLOW (Cash & Timing)

Do we have cash strength and clean timing or are we living on borrowed time?

1. Cash runway matters in startups and liquidity is just as important in "stable" businesses too.
2. Operating cash flow is where truth lives.
3. Cash conversion cycle measures the time (in days) it takes for a company to convert its investments in inventory and other resources into cash flows from sales.
4. Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) shows how long it takes to get paid. A rising DSO is a silent tax on growth.
5. Collections Effectiveness Index is less common but very important. It measures how efficient your company is at collecting accounts receivable over a specific period.

Question to keep asking: Are we growing revenue... or growing receivables?

​

Category 4: Unit Economics (Does This Actually Work?)

Is each "unit" of growth profitable and does it stay profitable?

1. Contribution margin(CM) is where truth starts. It tells you how a particular product contributes to the overall profit of a business. It’s measured as revenue minus direct costs.
2. Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) payback period shows how manymonths are required for a business to recover the costs spent to acquire a new customer. Short payback means momentum. Long payback increases stress on the business.
3. Life Time Value : CAC ratio compares the total revenue a customer generates over their relationship with a business to the cost of acquiring them. A common benchmark is 3:1, meaning a customer is worth three times what it costs to acquire them. Note that most people overestimate lifetime value.
4. Churn and "Silent Churn" matters. Don't just track churned customers. Also track customers who stay but reduce usage or spend.
5. Revenue per employee isn't about squeezing people. It measures efficiency of systems, clarity of positioning, and effectiveness of organisational design.

Question to keep asking: If we doubled demand tomorrow... would we become more profitable?

​

Category 5: People FLOW (Talent Health)

Is the organisation compounding in capability?

1. Voluntary attrition rate—but segmented. Don't just track overall attrition. Track top performers, high potentials, and critical roles separately.
2. Regrettable loss rate is essential. It answers: "How many people did we lose that we wish we hadn't?"
3. Time to fill plus time to productivity tells you if onboarding and management actually work. Hiring speed matters but productivity speed matters more.
4. Manager span of control and team load is one of the most underrated health metrics. Too many direct reports creates a fragile leadership system. Too few creates bloat risk.
5. Execution confidence. Ask monthly: "Do you believe we can hit our goals with the current plan and resources?" This predicts delivery failure earlier than financials.

Question to keep asking: Are people growing in confidence... or surviving week to week?

The Core 12

If you want the minimum set that works across most industries, track these 12 numbers:

1. Revenue growth rate
2. Gross margin %
3. Revenue concentration (top 5%)
4. Net revenue retention
5. Sales cycle time
6. Pipeline coverage (90 days)
7. Operating leverage (revenue growth vs OpEx growth)
8. Operating cash flow
9. Cash conversion cycle
10. Contribution margin
11. CAC payback period
12. Regrettable loss rate (talent)

This set gives you clarity, confidence and early warning signals

And one sentence I like to keep front of mind: Revenue tells you what happened. Cash tells you what's true. Unit economics tells you if it's sustainable. People flow tells you if you can repeat it.

What changes when you become safe hands

When you know your numbers with this level of intimacy, everything shifts.

You walk into board meetings with confidence.

You can answer investor questions on the spot.

You can make decisions quickly because you understand the trade-offs.

It's harder to be played or blindsided.

When someone pitches you on a "great opportunity," you can run the unit economics in your head and know within minutes if it makes sense.

When your CFO says "we need to cut costs," you know exactly where to look because you understand cost-to-serve by customer segment.

When your head of sales says "we're killing it," you know if that's backed by pipeline coverage or just wishful thinking.

Importantly, you become the kind of leader people trust.

Not because you have all the answers, but because you know how to find them.

And here's the thing: great operators notice this immediately.

When you're in a partnership conversation, a fundraising pitch, a board discussion, the moment you demonstrate intimate knowledge of your numbers, you're no longer a hopeful founder or an optimistic executive.

You're a serious operator. A safe pair of hands.

People want to back you. Partner with you. Follow you.

Because you've earned something most leaders never do: the trust that comes from being unshakeable when pressure hits.

What CEO’s need to know

Now, some roles require deeper financial expertise than yours. Your CFO should know more. Your VP of Finance should know more. Your controller should definitely know more.

As a CEO, you have more than the numbers to worry about. You're balancing people, strategy, product, market, culture and vision.

But you should have a personal collection of numbers you understand and track. The ones that tell you about the underlying health of your organisation.

You don't need to know every line item on the balance sheet.

But you need to know the core 12. You need to understand how money and people flow through your business.

Because when you don't, you're flying blind. And no amount of charisma or vision compensates for that.

Are you safe hands?

Here's a quick test.

Can you answer these questions right now, without looking anything up:

• What's your gross margin?
• What's your cash runway?
• What percentage of revenue comes from your top 5 customers?
• What's your CAC payback period?
• What's your sales cycle time, and is it getting faster or slower?

If you can't answer those questions immediately, that needs to change.

The good news? This is learnable.

It's not about being a finance person or a numbers person. It's about caring enough to understand how your business actually works.

Because being a safe pair of hands isn't just about financial literacy. It's about earning the highest compliment in leadership.

It's about becoming the kind of leader people trust when it matters most.

So tell me, what metrics do you keep a close eye on? What have I missed?

Reply to let me know and I read every email.

And thanks for reading, I appreciate you being here.

THE PARTNERSHIP PLAYBOOK PODCAST

Here are this week’s podcast episodes for your walk, commute or workout.

PARTNERSHIPS MOMENT

EP 157 - 9 min: How GTM leaders can forecast growth without pretending certainty. As a GTM leader, forecasting today isn’t just about numbers. It’s about trust and credibility. In this episode, I’ll show you how to earn confidence by naming risk, structuring uncertainty and leading with judgment. Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify​

LEADERSHIP MOMENT

EP 159 - 8 min: You want to lead a basketball team (not a golf team). Are you leading talented people who work hard but don’t really move together? In this episode, I break down a simple but powerful distinction that reshapes how CEOs think about leadership, growth, and team performance. Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify​

CEO INTERVIEW

EP 158 - 59 min: With CEO Hamid Ghanadan. If you’re scaling in healthcare, biotech or B2B you already know this : the complexity is compounding. Partners are either a liability or your greatest growth accelerant. Hamid Ghanadan shares how to engage, sell and partner with experts on the other side of the table. Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify​

See you next Wednesday,

Phil Hayes-St Clair
Executive Coach

​Find me on LinkedIn​

​