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Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts): Daily Summaries Delivered
by Ben Fanning
Real CEOs. Real Stories. Hosted by Ben Fanning, 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 teams. From turning around billion-dollar brands to sparking innovation at scale, these leaders share lessons you can put into action right now to lead your own team better.
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- Today25 min
The Leadership Mistake Your Team Never Forgets | Booz Allen CPO Aimee George Leary
What you say as a leader may take them seconds to forget...OR stay with someone on your team for decades.Aimee George Leary is Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Booz Allen Hamilton, where she leads the people strategy for more than 35,000 employees. In this episode of Lead The Team, she shares the painful early-career moment that permanently changed how she leads.After honestly telling executives that a critical project was behind schedule, Aimee received a devastatin voicemail from a senior leader. She spent the entire weekend anxious about it. When she returned to work Monday, the leader didn’t remember leaving the message.That experience taught Aimee a lesson she still carries more than 25 years later: Your words as a leader carry. Choose them wisely.Ben and Aimee also explore:• The three things that kept her at Booz Allen for 30+ years• Why doing great work gets noticed—even years later• How to create career opportunities without chasing promotions• What listening and vulnerability look like at the executive level• How Booz Allen is preparing 35,000+ people for AI• The mistake leaders make when using AI to improve existing processes• Why intentionality, optimism, and energy matter in leadershipIf you lead a team, this conversation is a powerful reminder: You may forget the moment. Your people may never forget how you made them feel.Follow Lead The Team with Ben Fanning for conversations with top executives, CEOs, founders, and business leaders about leadership, high-performance teams, AI transformation, communication, and building organizations that thrive through change.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
- 1 weeks ago32 min
How Great Leaders Stay Calm in a Crisis | GitLab CISO Chaim Mazal
What do you do when everything goes wrong...and everyone is looking to you for answers?Chaim Mazal knows that feeling.As Chief Information Security Officer at GitLab, he operates in a world where one alert can suddenly mean it’s “all hands on deck.”In this episode of Lead The Team, Chaim shares the story of a major cybersecurity incident at a previous company where sensitive customer data was exposed. At one point, the potential impact appeared to include more than 3,000 customers.Teams worked nights and weekends, the clock was ticking, and, as Chaim describes it, everyone was “collectively freaking out.”His job as a leader was to remain the voice of reason.His lesson: “It’s not what happens, it’s how you deal with it.”Chaim and Ben also explore:• Why resilience matters more than perfection• How to stay calm when your team is under intense pressure• Chaim’s daily practice of “positive projection”• Why great leaders hire talented people and then trust them• The three leadership traits he believes matter most in the AI era• How Brazilian jiu-jitsu, running, and physical challenges build mental resilience• The COVID realization that changed how he manages stress• Why becoming a better leader starts with investing in yourself as a human beingChaim’s career requires him to prepare for things to go wrong. Yet his leadership philosophy is rooted in optimism, trust, curiosity, and the belief that his team can find a way forward.Whether you’re leading through a crisis, managing an ambitious team, or simply dealing with the everyday uncertainty of leadership, this conversation offers a practical reminder: you can’t control everything that happens, but you can control how you show up when it does.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
- 1 weeks ago30 min
Why This CEO Became an Intern | Puneet Raj, Fieldwire
When Puneet Raj became CEO of Fieldwire after its acquisition by Hilti, he inherited a successful 250-person startup facing a pivotal transition: the founders were leaving, employees were worried about losing the startup culture, and a new leader was walking in.Instead of arriving as the new boss with all the answers, Puneet introduced himself as an intern.For six months, he rotated through Fieldwire’s teams, learned the business from the ground up, listened to the people who had made it successful, and even failed the company’s demo certification twice. The approach helped him earn trust, opened a direct channel with employees, and gave him a deeper understanding of the company before trying to change it.Puneet shares what that experience taught him about humility, listening, organizational trust, leading experts, and creating alignment at scale.He also explains why he now treats his leadership team as his most important “product”, and why leaders in the AI era need to know when NOT to use AI.His warning: when leaders outsource their thinking to AI, they can lose the ability to debate, question, and think deeply about the decisions that matter most.In this episode:Why a new CEO deliberately became an “intern”How listening before leading can earn trustWhy great leaders don't need to know everythingHow to align hundreds of people around one directionWhy your leadership team may be your most important “product”The danger of outsourcing critical thinking to AILeadership starts with learning and sometimes the best way to lead is to become a student first.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
- 2 weeks ago37 min
HP Solutions President Manoj Leelanivas - How to Lead Through Uncertainty
How do you lead through uncertainty when the path forward isn’t clear?Manoj Leelanivas has done it at extraordinary scale. Today he’s President of HP Solutions. Before HP, he helped lead a major transformation at Juniper Networks, moving into new markets, building belief across thousands of employees, and helping create an enterprise business approaching $3 billion.In this episode, Manoj shares the leadership lessons behind that transformation, including why people don’t resist change...they resist uncertainty, how small wins can create momentum for massive change, and why speed with learning beats waiting for certainty.He also shares the courageous question an employee asked that changed the way he leads, why he had to reinvent himself as he moved from engineer to business leader, and what he’s learning about innovation inside one of the world’s most iconic technology companies.If you’re leading a team through change, making decisions without all the answers, or trying to turn disruption into growth, this conversation is for you.Manoj Leelanivas is President of HP Solutions and former COO of Juniper Networks.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
- 3 weeks ago30 min
The Decision That Cost the Quarter, but Saved the Business | SAP's Mark Niemiec
What happens when leaders face intense pressure to compromise short-term gains for long-term survival?In this episode of Lead The Team, host Ben Fanning sits down with Mark Niemiec, Global Chief Revenue Officer for SAP Customer Experience.Mark shares the story of a massive enterprise deal where his team walked away from a short-term commission boost to do the right thing for the business long-term—and why the customer’s head of procurement called days later to thank him for not "taking the bait."Key Takeaways & HighlightsDon't Take the Bait: Why holding the line under extreme pressure builds enduring businesses."Down and Out" Leadership: A game-changing framework learned at Cisco on pushing decision-making power to the front-line teams closest to the customer.Intellectual Honesty: The importance of holding "strong opinions, loosely held" and letting go of ideas when better facts arrive.The Premium on Judgment: Why high-level judgment and context are becoming the ultimate executive skills in the era of AI.Lead Through Influence: How to navigate culture and lead large teams without relying on command-and-control hierarchy.Episode Chapters00:00 – "Don't Take the Bait": The Deal That Missed the Quarter00:34 – Intro: Mark Niemiec (Global CRO, SAP Customer Experience)01:32 – Discovering "Down & Out Leadership" at Cisco03:36 – Front-Line Empowerment vs. Centralized Control06:58 – The High-Stakes Deal: Choosing Long-Term Survival Over Short-Term Cash08:30 – "You Didn't Take the Bait": The Call from Procurement10:35 – Lessons from a $20/hr Temp Job: Making an Impact Fast13:18 – The #1 Trait Every Leader Needs: Intellectual Honesty14:20 – Strong Opinions, Loosely Held17:10 – What to Do When the Playbook Fails19:02 – Yoga, Solitude, and Stoicism for Better Decision-Making21:34 – Leading Through Influence at SAP23:53 – AI & The Future of Leadership: Why Judgment is at a Premium27:05 – Stoic Philosophy in Modern BusinessConnect & FollowSubscribe to Lead The Team on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube so you never miss an episode!Get Vital Episode Insights: Join the weekly email list at benfanning.com/insight.Build Your Corporate Podcast: Learn about our profitable 5-step podcast framework for your company at BenLeads.com/schedule.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
- 3 weeks ago37 min
The Leadership Rule That Changed Tony Ball's Career | CEO of Entrust
What does it really mean to take ownership as a leader?In this episode of Lead the Team, Ben Fanning sits down with Tony Ball, CEO of Entrust, to explore the leadership lessons that shaped his career—from working alongside Intel during one of the most demanding periods in technology history to leading a global cybersecurity company with more than $1 billion in annual revenue.Tony shares how one defining experience taught him a principle he still lives by today:"When you find a problem, you own it until conclusion."Ben and Tony discuss:Why ownership is the foundation of great leadershipLeading under intense pressure and scrutinyBuilding trust with customers and teamsWhy listening is a leader's greatest advantageEmpowering teams through accountabilityReverse mentoring and staying ahead in the AI eraHow setbacks and career pivots can become your greatest opportunitiesWhether you're leading a team, building a business, or navigating your own career, this conversation offers practical insights on trust, ownership, resilience, and leading through change.About Tony BallTony Ball is the CEO of Entrust, a global leader in digital identity and cybersecurity serving organizations in more than 150 countries. With more than 25 years of leadership experience, Tony has built a career helping organizations earn trust, navigate disruption, and lead through transformational change.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
- 4 weeks ago42 min
The Multi-Million Dollar Failure That Started a Billion-Dollar Company | Anthony Woods, Co-Founder of Grafana Labs
What do you do when you inherit a problem everyone else has given up on?Before helping build Grafana Labs into one of the world's leading infrastructure software companies, Anthony Woods inherited enterprise software that had already cost millions of dollars—and concluded it was never going to work. Instead of accepting it, he spent one weekend building a better solution. That single decision became the turning point that ultimately led him to co-found Grafana Labs, now a company valued in the billions.In this episode of Lead the Team, Anthony shares the leadership lessons behind innovation, confidence, and building organizations where great people do their best work.You'll learn:Why your biggest career opportunity may be hiding inside your biggest problem.How one manager's belief can change someone's entire career.Why the best leaders create environments where people are encouraged to experiment and fail.How Grafana built a thriving remote-first culture across the globe.Why solving problems—not titles—is the fastest path to leadership.Whether you're leading a team, building a business, or looking for the confidence to take your next bold step, Anthony's story is a reminder that extraordinary careers often begin with one decision to solve a problem no one else will.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
- Aug 18, 202629 min
The Customer Conversation That Changed a Company | CEO Motus, Phong Nguyen
When Phong Nguyen stepped into the CEO role at Modus—a technology platform processing over $2 Billion annually in driver reimbursements—he skipped the victory lap and did something his team was terrified to arrange: he got on a call with one of their biggest, angriest ex-customers.The client "ripped them a new one," exposing a hard reality: Modus had lost its innovation edge and treated them transactionally. But instead of getting defensive, Fong took a walk to cool down, gathered his leadership team, and used that uncomfortable call to recalibrate the company’s "true north". Within 12 months, they won that customer back.In this episode of Lead The Team, host Ben Fanning sits down with Phong Nguyen to discuss:The Ex-Customer Playbook: Why calling lost accounts yields the rawest, most valuable strategic data.Customer Centricity vs. Customer Success: Why true customer focus is a business strategy, not a metrics-driven department.Leading Through Perspective: How growing up as a Vietnamese refugee shaped his long-term view on work ethic, discipline, and opportunity."Liked vs. Respected": The screaming match early in his career that forced him to develop his own philosophy on modern management.Uncovering Hidden Signals: Moving past surface-level KPIs to align with actual customer business outcomes.Resources & LinksGet Weekly Insights: Receive vital takeaways from every episode directly to your inbox at benfanning.com/insight.Rate & Review: Enjoying the show? Take 10 seconds to rate, follow, and drop a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts to help more leaders discover the show.-----Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben FanningSpeaking and Training inquiresSubscribe to my Youtube channelLinkedInInstagramTwitter
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About Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)
Real CEOs. Real Stories. Hosted by Ben Fanning, 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 teams. From turning around billion-dollar brands to sparking innovation at scale, these leaders share lessons you can put into action right now to lead your own team better.
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