Simple Leadership with Josh Holtzman

Josh Holtzman
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Management

Leadership is simple. Courage is the hard part. Simple Leadership is for anyone who leads people at a growing company. You don't need to be the founder or the CEO. If you have even one direct report, this podcast is for you. Every two weeks, a new episode shares an article from the Simple Leadership newsletter. It's written and read by Josh Holtzman. One timeless idea, worked all the way through, in about ten minutes. Made for the drive, the gym, or the walk between meetings. Josh has spent 25 years building companies and coaching teams. He's founded three companies, made three successful exits, and led more than 1,000 full-day sessions with leadership teams. Different industries. Different people. The same patterns. What he learned is that leadership can be simple. When it feels complicated, there's usually something underneath that takes courage to face. If you lead a team, you'll recognize these moments: The conversation you keep rehearsing and keep putting off. The week that disappeared into fires your team could have handled. The project you handed off, then took back. The vision everyone applauded, while departments still pull in different directions. The good person who resigned, and you never saw it coming. The quarter that ended with the same misses as the last one. Each episode takes a problem like these apart, gets underneath it to the root, and gives you a simple way to act. No fluff. Real experience, made practical. Subscribe free at simpleleadership.com to get every article in text and audio, delivered to your inbox. Follow Josh on LinkedIn for daily leadership ideas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-holtzman1/

Episodes

  1. 3d ago

    The Owner Exception

    The Owner Exception: You Own the Company. You Don't Own the Seat. One of my clients was running two leadership meetings every week. The second one was held without their cofounder and CFO, who didn't even know it existed. The rest of the team had lost confidence in him, and no one knew how to tell an owner he was falling short. In this episode, I share what that cost the company, and how the conversation they finally had changed everything. In most privately held companies, the owner wears two hats: one as an owner, and one as an employee in a seat. When those hats get blurred, and an owner is held to a different standard than everyone else, the whole team pays for it. In this episode, you'll learn: The difference between an owner's responsibilities and the responsibilities of their seatWhat it really costs a company when the standard bends for one personWhy this conversation is so hard for both the owner and the team, and four practices that make it easierThree healthy ways forward when an owner's seat no longer fits, including how Gino Wickman, creator of EOS, stepped out of his seat entirelyHow the CFO story ended, eight years laterUnderstanding the two hats is the easy part. Acting on it takes courage.

    The Owner Exception

  2. Oct 6

    The Planning Paradox

    Why Most Big Goals Fail, and How to Avoid It In 2012, I told my 20-person team we’d grow from $4 million to $15 million in three years. Eighteen months later, we were still stuck at $4 million, and the energy in the room had gone flat. In this episode, I share the hard lesson that came from that stall, and how it later helped me grow a merged company from $13M to $40M in three years and sell it in an all-cash deal. At the heart of it is a paradox: the ambition and optimism that fuel a bold long-term vision are the same traits that can derail short-term execution. I’ll walk you through how great leadership teams use both mindsets, each in its proper place. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why 10 years is the sweet spot for a truly ambitious goal, and how the economic cycle affects your timelineReal-world examples of long-term goals, from NASA and Nike to small and mid-sized firmsWhy focus fades after about 90 days, and the simple cycle top teams use to reset each quarterWhy hitting 80% of your goals still builds real momentumThe warning signs of a widening gap between ambition and execution, and how to close itDream big. Execute small. Do it again in 90 days.

    The Planning Paradox

  3. Sep 28

    What 100 High-Growth Teams Taught Me About Sustainable Success

    Every ambitious leader wants growth. Few have the discipline to sustain it. For the past decade, I’ve coached leadership teams while obsessing over one question: Which business practices actually move the needle — and which just waste time? That’s the heart of Simple Leadership — my new newsletter about timeless truths for modern business builders. Now I’m sharing those insights — because too many good leaders are stuck repeating the same patterns.

    What 100 High-Growth Teams Taught Me About Sustainable Success
  • 3 Episodes

About

Leadership is simple. Courage is the hard part. Simple Leadership is for anyone who leads people at a growing company. You don't need to be the founder or the CEO. If you have even one direct report, this podcast is for you. Every two weeks, a new episode shares an article from the Simple Leadership newsletter. It's written and read by Josh Holtzman. One timeless idea, worked all the way through, in about ten minutes. Made for the drive, the gym, or the walk between meetings. Josh has spent 25 years building companies and coaching teams. He's founded three companies, made three successful exits, and led more than 1,000 full-day sessions with leadership teams. Different industries. Different people. The same patterns. What he learned is that leadership can be simple. When it feels complicated, there's usually something underneath that takes courage to face. If you lead a team, you'll recognize these moments: The conversation you keep rehearsing and keep putting off. The week that disappeared into fires your team could have handled. The project you handed off, then took back. The vision everyone applauded, while departments still pull in different directions. The good person who resigned, and you never saw it coming. The quarter that ended with the same misses as the last one. Each episode takes a problem like these apart, gets underneath it to the root, and gives you a simple way to act. No fluff. Real experience, made practical. Subscribe free at simpleleadership.com to get every article in text and audio, delivered to your inbox. Follow Josh on LinkedIn for daily leadership ideas: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-holtzman1/

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