x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)

Real CEOs. Real Stories. Hosted by Ben Fanning—2025 Gold Stevie Award winner for Best Business Podcast and ranked in the Top 2% globally—Lead the Team draws on over 600 CEO interviews to take you inside the minds of leaders from brands like Honeywell, HP, IBM, Dunkin’, and L’Oréal. In each episode, you’ll hear raw, unfiltered stories of leading through rapid growth, high-stakes decisions, and make-or-break moments—plus the CEO-tested tools and strategies they use to build high-performing

business careers

All Episodes

33:13

Why Great Leaders Ignore Noise and Direct Attention...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/31

Noise vs Focus.Bob McCuin, Chief Revenue Officer and EVP at Clear Channel Outdoor, has spent decades inside the attention economy...radio, sports media, and literally the most valuable billboards on the planet.When you live in that world long enough, you start to notice something about leadership.What's shaping how organizations behave.Bob told me that attention determines priority.Most leaders think priorities are set through goals, meetings, and KPIs.But teams don’t really follow the slide

en

41:29

Why Leaders are Losing Their Best People (Adam Block...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/29

Leadership BlindspotAdam Block, Chief Revenue Officer at Motive, who helped scale the company to serve 100,000+ customers and more than a million drivers, shared a real wake up call with me.Early in his career, he spent a lot of energy trying to help struggling employees succeed. Then he realized something uncomfortable.“The people that suffer the most in that situation are actually the best players.”Because when leaders spend most of their attention fixing what’s broken… the people who are actually

en

39:03

The AI Leadership Choice Every Leader Must Make (CEO...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/22

My AI just joined the meeting...I expected Abhijit Mitra, CEO of Outreach, a multi billion-dollar AI company, to tell me about their legendary tools and automation.Instead, he it took a different direction.When he’s in a meeting… his AI agents actually join the meeting and coach him in real time.Not summarize it later.Not send notes afterward.They’re in the meeting, helping him think, respond, and prepare.That’s when the real insight hit.Myself and most leaders today are experimenting with AI

en

39:15

When Mistakes Cost Lives, How to Lead (Fluke CEO,...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/17

Lives Depend.Parker Burke, Group President at Fluke Corporation, leads an organization whose tools help technicians safely test electrical systems in power grids, hospitals, factories, data centers, and mines around the world.So when a technician trusts the reading on a device…they’re trusting it with their life.A 99% success rate isn’t success.Because the remaining 1% can mean catastrophe.That reality forces a different kind of leadership perspective.Parker’s years in the Marines shaped how he

en

47:04

Nuclear Submarines and $22B Mergers Shaped a CEO ...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/15

Details Define You.Bob Hughes, President & CEO of Deltek, learned that lesson when the stakes were highest.. on a nuclear submarine… in the middle of a $22B merger… and during a ransomware attack that shut everything down.He was inspired early in his career when a leader told:“The devil’s in the details… but so is salvation.”Years later he’s leading through a massive merger.Then the cyber attack hits.Bob leaned in even more...“You can’t control the environment, but you can control your

en

43:56

From Team USA to CEO (Bluebeam CEO Usman Shuja)

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/10

Elite CEOs and athletes share a belief.Usman Shuja, CEO of Bluebeam, learned it long before the boardroom, representing the USA national cricket team and becoming one of the top wicket-takers in U.S. history.Talking with him made me think about how differently pressure shows up across seasons of life.In sports, the pressure is loud and public.In leadership, it even heavier....Board expectations. Team decisions.Real consequences.For most of my career, I thought confidence was what carried leaders

en

43:36

Google's "Wolverine" to CEO (PandaDoc's CEO Keith...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/08

Google’s “Wolverine” is now a $100M+ CEOKeith Rabkin, CEO of PandaDoc, is one of the few leaders I’ve met who can bridge the gap between "big-tech discipline and scrappy underdog grit".At Google, Keith was one of only 25 people (out of thousands of geniuses) to win the "Great Manager Award."His secret isn't just a high IQ; it's what he calls the "Wolverine Mindset" .It’s a relentless, "never-give-up" grit that focuses on one thing: obliterating roadblocks so the team can win.Our conversation forced

en

41:58

The $1.1B Transformation Most Leaders Fail (Winpak's...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/03

THE TRANSFORMATION WALLRandall Troutman, Winpak's, Chief Operational Excellence Officer leads a massive $1.1 billion transformation, tasked with turning 13 independent "kingdoms" into one efficient operating system.But there’s a moment in every change effort where leaders mistake resistance for failure, and that’s when teams stop following.Randall discovered that project success is never about the initial launch; it’s about what you do when the "physics of people" takes over.We went deep into the

en

45:48

How Great Leaders Navigate Uncertainty (CEO Jed...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/03/01

Leaders Are Built in the Blur.Jed Ayres, CEO of ControlUp, told me something most leaders won’t say out loud:Clarity usually comes after you move, not before.If you’re waiting for the perfect signal…You’re already late.That “responsible” decision you’re about to make?It might be the very thing slowing your flywheel before it ever turns.We talked about what it really takes to move when things aren’t clear:- When the leader (who drove 600% revenue growth in three years and a $1B valuation) believes

en

47:10

The Question That Reset Avaya (CEO Patrick Dennis)

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/02/22

That first all-hands. Patrick Dennis, CEO of Avaya, walked in expecting nerves and optimism. Instead, one question changed the room. It wasn’t dramatic or confrontational. And that’s what made it telling. In that moment, he realized something many leaders miss: The organization wasn’t aligned on reality. And misalignment at that level doesn’t stay neutral. It compounds. I’ve seen this pattern more times than I can count. Leaders hear questions and assume pushback. But sometimes the question asked IS

en

34:20

What Only Hard Seasons Teach (CEO Planview's Matt Zilli)

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/02/18

The Hard SeasonMatt Zilli, CEO of Planview, told me the hardest years of leading a company through billion-dollar growth (including restructures, tough people decisions, and uncertainty) became the most valuable leadership training of his career.That really resonated for me. Some of the most uncomfortable stretches building my podcasts and business were the exact moments I wondered if I should pivot, slow down, or walk away. The audience wasn’t growing yet.The results weren’t obvious. The path felt

en

33:43

Repeat Elite Performance (The Change that Matters)-...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/02/16

Is obsession with "The Win" actually preventing it?John Leach CEO of FLS Transportation shared with me that fixating on the win is the fastest way to lose control.He breaks down what happens when he walked away from "personality-first" leadership to build a system where success isn’t a roll of the dice.It made me reflect on some of my own team's results where we delivered short term but they weren't always sustainable. Wish I'd chatted with John years ago!We discuss:The End of the "Charismatic"

en

39:46

Monetize Your Leadership (Thinkific CEO & Founder...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/02/08

Missed Opportunity.Greg Smith, Founder of Thinkific, shared with me how most leaders are sitting on their most undervalued asset: their own expertise.And I’ve been guilty of this too.For years, I thought growth meant building something new (a new product, new offering, new initiative).BUT some of the biggest growth I’ve seen (in my own business and with companies I work with) came from teaching what they already knew.Not as marketing.Not as training.As a product.When leaders and their organizations

en

35:18

Why Your "Best" People ARE THE RISK (CEO Americas at...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/02/01

High performance deceives.Alain Dias, CEO of Nortal Americas, knows a thing or two about building at scale..after all his team helped build the world’s very first "digital nation."When a leader with his kind of track record speaks about growth, I'm in!His interview is a gut-check for most organizations:If your expansion depends on a "Hero," you aren't ready to scale.In many cultures, we celebrate the "firefighter" who pulls the all-nighter to save the project. We give them the shout-outs and the

en

31:10

Why Scaling Deceives - CEO of Forescout, Barry Mainz

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/01/23

Scale deceives.Barry Mainz, CEO of Forescout Technologies Inc., reveals how leaders unknowingly become responsible for massive risks they never personally approved.As your organization grows, leadership doesn’t just get harder, the real issues become harder to see.More effort stops producing better outcomes.And more hustle just starts masking risk.Barry’s work shows something unsettling:even elite tech leaders are often blind to 30–50% of the devices actually connected to their networks inside their

en

25:26

This RESET Made Him a Better CEO (CEO VitalEdge,...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/01/19

Vikram Savkar, CEO of VitalEdge Technologies, shares how a demanding moment pushed him to rethink how he was operating...AND why choosing to reset earlier than most leaders do changed how he showed up as a leader, at work, and at home.The business here wasn’t the problem.But time at home was shrinking.And the way work followed him everywhere wasn’t something he wanted to normalize.Instead of waiting for a breaking point, Vikram created deliberate daily reset—and what happened next accelerated his

en

28:51

One Skill You Only Learn Under Extreme Pressure...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/01/13

Pressure doesn't change the game...it reveals the leader. Mitch Stevison, President & CEO of Frontgrade Technologies, recently shared how a high-stakes missile test forced a decision no textbook could prepare him for. In this conversation, we break down the one skill he leaned on when the eyes of two nations—and a Senior Admiral—were watching.If you've ever had to make a high-stakes call under a microscope, Mitch’s insight on trust is a masterclass in leadership. What is the most important trait

en

26:26

The Question 99% of Leaders Are Too Afraid to Ask -...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/01/11

Questioning unlocks elite performance.Pete Harris, President of Pipedrive, was at the pinnacle of his previous profession (one that he’d spent his entire career pursuing).Everything was on track... the prestige and the rank. But while many founders and leaders might push uncomfortable thoughts aside, Pete did something different.He used a specific type of curiosity to ask himself a question that 99% of leaders are too afraid to face....a question that forces you to confront whether you’re actually

en

31:47

Why Office Design Is a Leadership Decision (President...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2026/01/05

Your office is deciding results.Anna Squires Levine, President of Industrious, leads a company that has spent more than a decade observing how office space impacts human behavior (across hundreds of locations and millions of workdays).Many leaders assume the office is just a place where work happens.But it's far more than that!She explains that the office space is quietly influencing things leaders usually attribute to culture, motivation, or performance.In their work, incredible patterns emerged at

en

41:08

The Mistake That Taught a Future President How to...

Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts) ·

2025/12/21

Nothing was said.Marcus Perez, CEO of Altera Digital Health, described a moment that began as a mistake and still shapes how he leads thousands today.No meeting followed.No email.No correction in the usual sense.Instead, the situation escalated.The next day, someone more senior took control — not to punish, not to explain — but to recreate the risk.Closer.Lower.Long enough to make the point unavoidable.What stayed with me wasn’t the danger...It was the restraint.The decision to teach without

en

442 results

Similar Podcasts

TaxTalent.com The Golden Rule Podcast

Adam Golden

TaxTalent.com Podcast

Tony Santiago

Handelsblatt Crime - spannende Streitfälle der deutschen Wirtschaft

Ina Karabasz, Solveig Gode, Sönke Iwersen

Deffner und Zschäpitz – Der Wirtschafts-Talk von WELT

WELT

Black Box - La scatola nera della finanza

Guido Brera e Gian Luca Comandini -...