The Partnership Playbook: Lead with Clarity, Create Leverage & Reclaim Time

Phil Hayes-St Clair
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Management
  • Updated Twice Weekly

Helping leaders grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and bring real meaning to their teams. The Partnership Playbook is for CEOs, founders, and go-to-market leaders who want to grow without noise, scale without burnout, and build partnerships that actually matter. You’ll hear clear thinking on: - How to become a great CEO - How distribution, supply chain, and product partnerships create resilience - How leaders use partnerships to simplify strategy, not add more work Hosted by Phil Hayes-St Clair - CEO coach and partnerships advisor with 20+ years of experience across healthcare, biotech, aerospace, and eCommerce. Each episode blends practical insight with leadership reflection you can actually apply. New episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, including: - A weekly partnership episode - A weekly leadership episode - A long-form CEO conversation If you’re looking to grow with intent, lead with confidence, and build something your team believes in—you’re in the right place. Start anywhere. Stay for the clarity. Learn more at philhsc.com Know a great future guest? Send them here: philhsc.com/expression-of-interest

  1. 26 Aug

    246. Most replayed episode: Why the best GTM partnerships this year start with 6 questions

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com What if this year’s partnership growth doesn’t come from doing more but from choosing better? Most GTM leaders are pushing harder on partners in a market that’s already tight on trust, attention, and momentum. The result? Activity without progress. Deals that drift. Partnerships that quietly stall. In this episode: Learn how to open deeper, more transparent partner conversations that drive growth instead of frictionDiscover how IDEAL+™ helps you decide which partnerships deserve focus, and which don’tBuild leadership confidence by designing partnerships around intent, trust, and long-term momentum If you’re responsible for partnership-led growth and want to lead with clarity instead of pressure, this episode will change how you approach every partner conversation. Learn more about the IDEAL Framework here: https://philhsc.com/ideal The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    246. Most replayed episode: Why the best GTM partnerships this year start with 6 questions

  2. 24 Aug

    245. Most replayed episode: As CEO do you lead a basketball team or a golf team?

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com Are you leading talented people who work hard but don’t really move together? Most leadership teams don’t struggle with effort. They struggle with coordination. As companies grow, it’s easy to drift into a model where everyone performs individually, yet progress feels heavy, slow and overly dependent on the CEO. In this episode, Phil breaks down a simple but powerful distinction that reshapes how CEOs think about leadership, growth, and team performance. Learn how to diagnose whether your company is operating like a golf team or a basketball teamUnderstand why individual excellence can quietly stall company-wide growthDiscover practical leadership moves that shift teams from effort-driven to intent-driven performance If you want to lead a team that creates real momentum (not just activity) this episode will give you a clearer way to see, think and act as a CEO. The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    245. Most replayed episode: As CEO do you lead a basketball team or a golf team?

  3. 21 Aug

    244. RE-RELEASE: CEO Bob Moore on the human side of building and selling companies

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com This episode of The Partnership Playbook explores the untapped potential of partnership data with Bob Moore, CEO and co-founder of Crossbeam. Learn how data can reveal your best potential partners, optimize collaboration, and drive growth. Key Takeaways: The Role of Data in Partnerships: How organizations can utilize data to identify and connect with the right partners.Data Gaps in Collaboration: The history and common mistakes of underutilizing partnership data.Maximizing Potential: Practical steps to unlock the power of the data you already have. Connect: LinkedInWebsite —---------------- Thanks for being here! The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    244. RE-RELEASE: CEO Bob Moore on the human side of building and selling companies

  4. 19 Aug

    243. How CEOs can hire for a function they can’t personally assess

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com Ever hired a CFO, a CTO, or a general counsel and quietly hoped rapport and a good reference would be enough? This episode makes the case that you can't assess craft you don't have, and shows what to do instead. Phil argues that the fix isn't a better interview technique but a borrowed one: pulling in someone who's actually run the function, one size ahead of where your business is headed, and using them to test judgment rather than knowledge. Why references confirm likeability, not competence, and why that gap gets expensive fastHow to define the outcome you need before you write the job spec, so you're hiring against a result instead of a resumeWhy testing decision-making under real constraints catches what a knowledge-based interview never will Name the two people you'd ask to sit in on your next technical assessment, then call one of them this week. The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    243. How CEOs can hire for a function they can’t personally assess

  5. 18 Aug

    242. Three insights every new executive needs to be successful in the first 90 days

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com Have you actually told your newest executive hire, in concrete terms, what winning looks like at day ninety? Most CEOs leave decision rights, sponsorship, and success measures for a new hire's first quarter loosely implied rather than clearly said. In this episode, Phil unpacks why a hire you're privately doubting is more often a design problem than a judgement error, and how to fix it inside a single week. Why the first six weeks of a new executive's tenure often quietly shape the rest of itThe three things that tend to go undefined at the start, and how to close each one in under twenty minutesHow to tell whether your doubt about a hire is about them, or about what you never told them Listen now, then sit down before Friday and write two or three concrete measures of what day-ninety success looks like for your newest hire. The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    242. Three insights every new executive needs to be successful in the first 90 days

  6. 14 Aug

    241. Former Medtronic CEO Art Collins on what it means to lead, listen and deliver sustained excellence.

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com What changes when there is nobody above you to make the final decision? For Art Collins, becoming CEO of Medtronic brought a sudden realisation: tens of thousands of employees, patients and investors were depending on decisions for which the responsibility ultimately stopped with him. His response wasn’t to become more invincible. It was to listen harder, get closer to the front line and surround himself with exceptional people. Those same principles shaped his approach to leadership, partnership and long-term growth. Learn why saying yes is always an implicit decision to say no somewhere else.See how leaders create conditions where bad news reaches them before it becomes a crisis.Use Art’s simple partnership test to find capabilities that can accelerate growth rather than merely add complexity. Listen for lessons earned across the Navy, Medtronic boardroom and global business community and apply them to the decisions already sitting on your desk. Learn More about The Adventures of Archibald & Jockabeb The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    241. Former Medtronic CEO Art Collins on what it means to lead, listen and deliver sustained excellence.

  7. 12 Aug

    240. How to build redundancy into your revenue engine

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com Which part of your revenue would take the whole quarter down if it stopped on Monday? Most revenue engines look healthier than they are, because growth quietly concentrates the number onto one channel, one segment, or one person without anyone deciding it on purpose. This episode gives you a way to find your single point of failure before the market finds it for you. Why the channel carrying your growth is the one most able to end it, and how concentration accumulates one sensible decision at a timeThe difference between fragility that's already showing and fragility that's invisible because everything is workingA branch you can act on this week, whether your risk is a channel or a person Name your single point of failure out loud to one person on your team, and turn a private worry into a decision the business has to make. The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    240. How to build redundancy into your revenue engine

  8. 10 Aug

    239. Does your 90-Day plan survive the experienced CEO test?

    Get the CEO Leadership Collection: Five curated conversations in a private podcast, each under ten minutes, on the decisions and pressures that define the role. Visit listentophil.com What if your 90-day plan isn't failing because it's ambitious—but because it was never designed to survive reality? Most quarterly plans don't collapse because the strategy is wrong. They collapse because they're brittle. Discover the three hidden failure modes that quietly derail execution by week two.Learn a practical stress-test you can apply to any strategic plan in under fifteen minutes.Build plans that increase confidence, improve execution, and reduce unnecessary board pressure. Listen now, then stress-test your current 90-day plan before reality does it for you. The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts. PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

    239. Does your 90-Day plan survive the experienced CEO test?
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5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Helping leaders grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and bring real meaning to their teams. The Partnership Playbook is for CEOs, founders, and go-to-market leaders who want to grow without noise, scale without burnout, and build partnerships that actually matter. You’ll hear clear thinking on: - How to become a great CEO - How distribution, supply chain, and product partnerships create resilience - How leaders use partnerships to simplify strategy, not add more work Hosted by Phil Hayes-St Clair - CEO coach and partnerships advisor with 20+ years of experience across healthcare, biotech, aerospace, and eCommerce. Each episode blends practical insight with leadership reflection you can actually apply. New episodes every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, including: - A weekly partnership episode - A weekly leadership episode - A long-form CEO conversation If you’re looking to grow with intent, lead with confidence, and build something your team believes in—you’re in the right place. Start anywhere. Stay for the clarity. Learn more at philhsc.com Know a great future guest? Send them here: philhsc.com/expression-of-interest

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