Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)
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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...
Recent Episodes
462 episodes
How Great Leaders Eliminate Team Silos | TeamViewer CRO, Mark Banfield
When growth pressure hits an organization, it triggers a hidden survival instinct: teams become political, siloed, and reactive.
Most executives...
How Resource-Starved Teams Use AI to Beat Massive Budgets (CEO Bonterra, Scott Brighton)
What if the organizations doing some of the most critical work in the world are being held back the most by traditional technology?
In this epis...
BNI COO: The Networking Mistake Costing Leaders Millions (Dave Collins)
Most business leaders approach networking completely wrong—and it is costing them real revenue. They show up to events, hand out business cards, and t...
Why Energy Became a CEO Problem | SmartestEnergy US, CEO Andy Cormie
ENERGY GOT STRATEGIC
Andy Cormie, CEO and Board Chaiir of SmartestEnergy US, shares how one hurricane, one geopolitical conflict, or one AI-driv...
Why Great Leaders Don't Trust Polished Reports | John Case, CEO of Acumatica
The bigger your company gets, the more polished reports can distort vital truth.
In this episode of Lead the Team, Ben Fanning sits down with Jo...
The AI Mistake Costing Companies Millions (iMerit CEO Radha Basu)
AI is changing leadership faster than most executives realize, pushing teams to move at a speed that introduces multi-million dollar operational blind...
How to Build an AI-Native Company (KK, CEO of Ascendion)
AI IS REBUILDING LEADERS
KK, CEO of Ascendion, believes most companies are still thinking about AI too small-scale.
The leaders pulling ah...
Why Safe Leaders Stall (CEO Greene Tweed, Magen Buterbaugh)
Comfort Stops Growth.
Magen Buterbaugh, President & CEO of Greene Tweed, walked away from leading a billion-dollar business at DuPont because sh...
I Fight AI Fraud with Military Tactics (Socure President, Matt Thompson)
Most leaders are preparing for the wrong enemy.
Matt Thompson, President and Chief Commercial Officer at Socure, is helping lead the fight—where...
The Biggest Mistake Leaders Make in a Crisis (CEO of Cygnet, Keval Hutheesing)
Pressure reveals leaders.
Keval Hutheesing, CEO of Cygnet.One, was 25 when he suddenly became responsible for 900 people—in the middle of a cris...
Why Most AI Initiatives Are Failing Before They Start (Ascendion CCO, Arun Varadarajan)
Getting AI Wrong
Arun Varadarajan, Chief Commercial Officer at Ascendion, reframed how I think about why so many AI initiatives are failing.
The Best-Scaling Teams Share One Leadership Lesson (Josh Kanagy, Hightouch CRO)
The Scaling Mistake
Hightouch CRO, Josh Kanagy, showed me how companies scaling fastest right now are creating their biggest future leadership p...
Bruce Springsteen Revolutionized My Company (Chairman at Virtual, Andy Freed)
Do you know BRUCE?
Andy Freed, Chairman of Virtual, Inc. has seen Bruce Springsteen nearly 100 times, and was so inspired by what he saw that he...
monday.com CRO - Why Great Mentors Push You to Leave, Case George
Why Leave Success?
monday.com CRO Case George once got career advice he never expected.
After decades at IBM a close mentor looked at him...
From NYSE to DailyPay: The Risk That Reshaped a COO’s Career (Andrew Brandman)
They Said Don’t.
Andrew Brandman, COO of DailyPay and a former leader at the New York Stock Exchange, knows risk taking
When he decided to...
ZOOM COO Admits Fastest Tech Adoption in History (Leadership Talk with Aparna Bawa)
Fastest Tech Adoption in History.
Zoom COO Aparna Bawa was right in the middle of it...
helping lead the company as the entire world moved...
Microsoft CEO Changed How I Lead My Company (Hayden Stafford Seismic CRO)
Inside the Room.
Hayden E. Stafford, President & CRO at Seismic, had a front-row seat to Satya Nadella rebuilding Microsoft from the inside out....
You Still Own It: The Leadership Skill You Can’t Delegate to AI (with PROS CRO Eileen Sweeney)
AI isn’t accountable. Leaders are.
Eileen Sweeney, PROS CRO, operates in a world where algorithms influence billions in airline revenue.
T...
The Automation Mistake That Costs Millions (CEO Americas HAI Robotics, ex-Target, GXO, Adrian Stoch))
Looks Like Progress. It’s Not.
So I asked Adrian Stoch, CEO Americas at Hai Robotics:
What’s the mistake that looks right… but costs milli...
Why Charisma Fails Leaders (After 10,000 Interviews) CEO Rod McDermott, McDermott + Bull; Activate 180
After 10,000 Interviews...
Rod McDermott, CEO of McDermott + Bull and founder of Activate 180, has noticed that the executives who win interview...
Why Great Leaders Ignore Noise and Direct Attention (Clear Channel Outdoor CRO Bob McCuin)
Noise vs Focus.
Bob McCuin, Chief Revenue Officer and EVP at Clear Channel Outdoor, has spent decades inside the attention economy...radio, spor...
Why Leaders are Losing Their Best People (Adam Block CRO, Motive)
Leadership Blindspot
Adam Block, Chief Revenue Officer at Motive, who helped scale the company to serve 100,000+ customers and more than a milli...
The AI Leadership Choice Every Leader Must Make (CEO Abhijit Mitra, Outreach)
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...
When Mistakes Cost Lives, How to Lead (Fluke CEO, Parker Burke)
Lives Depend.
Parker Burke, Group President at Fluke Corporation, leads an organization whose tools help technicians safely test electrical syst...
Nuclear Submarines and $22B Mergers Shaped a CEO (Deltek's, Bob Hughes)
Details Define You.
Bob Hughes, President & CEO of Deltek, learned that in moments when the stakes were highest..
on a nuclear submarine…<...
From Team USA to CEO (Bluebeam CEO Usman Shuja)
Elite CEOs and athletes share a belief.
Usman Shuja, CEO of Bluebeam, learned it long before the boardroom, representing the USA national cricke...
Google Wolverine Manager to CEO (PandaDoc's CEO Keith Rabkin)
Google’s “Wolverine” is now a $100M+ CEO
Keith Rabkin, CEO of PandaDoc, is one of the few leaders I’ve met who can bridge the gap between "big-t...
The $1.1B Transformation Most Leaders Fail (Winpak's Chief Operational Excellence Officer, Randall Troutman)
THE TRANSFORMATION WALL
Randall Troutman, Winpak's, Chief Operational Excellence Officer leads a massive $1.1 billion transformation, tasked wit...
How Great Leaders Navigate Uncertainty (CEO Jed Ayres, ControlUp)
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...
The Question That Reset Avaya (CEO Patrick Dennis)
That first all-hands.
Patrick Dennis, CEO of Avaya, walked in expecting nerves and optimism.
Instead, one question he was asked changed th...
What Only Hard Seasons Teach (CEO Planview's Matt Zilli)
The Hard Season
Matt Zilli, CEO of Planview, told me the hardest years of leading a company through billion-dollar growth (including restructure...
Repeat Elite Performance (The Change that Matters)- CEO John Leach of FLS Transportation
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...
Monetize Your Leadership (Thinkific CEO & Founder Greg Smith)
Missed Opportunity.
Greg Smith, Founder of Thinkific, shared with me how most leaders are sitting on their most undervalued asset: their own exp...
Why Your "Best" People ARE THE RISK (CEO Americas at Nortal, Alain Dias)
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...
Why Scaling Deceives - CEO of Forescout, Barry Mainz
Scale deceives.
Barry Mainz, CEO of Forescout Technologies Inc., reveals how leaders unknowingly become responsible for massive risks they never...
This RESET Made Him a Better CEO (CEO VitalEdge, Vikram Savkar)
Vikram Savkar, CEO of VitalEdge Technologies, shares how a demanding moment pushed him to rethink how he was operating...
AND why choosing to re...
One Skill You Only Learn Under Extreme Pressure (President and CEO Frontgrade Technologies, Mitch Stevison)
Pressure doesn't change the game...it reveals the leader.
Mitch Stevison, President & CEO of Frontgrade Technologies, recently shared how a hig...
The Question 99% of Leaders Are Too Afraid to Ask - Pipedrive President, Peter Harris
Questioning unlocks elite performance.
Pete Harris, President of Pipedrive, was at the pinnacle of his previous profession (one that he’d spent...
Why Office Design Is a Leadership Decision (President of Industrious, Anna Squires Levine)
Your office is deciding results.
Anna Squires Levine, President of Industrious, leads a company that has spent more than a decade observing how...
The Mistake That Taught a Future President How to Lead (Altera Digital Health's Marcus Perez)
This mistake taught leadership.
Marcus Perez, President of Altera Digital Health, shares a moment that unfolded in a helicopter at low altitude...