Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)

Ben Fanning
  • 4.8 (67)
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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 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. Subscribe now. ------------- https://www.benfanning.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/

  1. How Resource-Starved Teams Use AI to Beat Massive Budgets (CEO Bonterra, Scott Brighton)

    2d ago

    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 episode of Lead The Team, Ben Fanning sits down with Scott Brighton, CEO of Bonterra, to break down a massive paradigm shift: how resource-starved, underfunded teams are leveraging agentic AI to completely transform operations and defeat massive budgets. Scott reveals the exact operational playbooks behind "capacity amplification"—explaining how agentic AI can function like hiring five or six additional staff members to reactivate lost revenue streams at scale without increasing your headcount. But with rapid tech adoption comes severe executive pressure. We dive into the hard governance lines leaders must draw regarding data privacy, automation boundaries, and human accountability. You'll discover: Capacity Amplification: How agentic AI steps in to handle data and execution workflows for lean teams.The Long Tail Strategy: Using automation to deliver high-touch, personalized donor experiences to smaller accounts at scale.The Accountability Line: Why critical decisions regarding human service delivery must always remain human.The Subscription Death: Why the traditional SaaS seat-based pricing model is dying and shifting toward outcome-based value.Harnessing Passion: Managing the high kinetic energy and internal friction of mission-driven organizations. Whether you’re a CEO, executive, founder, or ambitious professional navigating leadership under pressure in the AI era, this episode will challenge you to think differently about scaling your team and your impact. Want to boost your productivity and decision making? Get vital insights from each episode delivered directly to your inbox at BenFanning.com/Insight. ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    42 min
  2. BNI COO: The Networking Mistake Costing Leaders Millions (Dave Collins)

    4d ago

    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 try to sell directly to the room, wondering why nothing ever converts into sustainable growth. In this episode of Lead The Team, host Ben Fanning sits down with Dave Collins, the Chief Operating Officer of BNI. Dave oversees a staggering global network of 355,000 members across 76 countries that generated over $27 Billion in self-reported closed business over the last 12 months alone. Dave shares the exact structural behaviors and core mindset shifts required to transform casual interactions into a relentless, highly profitable referral machine. If you are relying purely on automated digital outreach or cold algorithms to scale your pipeline, this conversation will completely reframe your approach to modern leadership and business development. The "Selling Through" Mindset: Why you should never go to a room to sell to your network, but rather to teach them how to sell through them.The VCP Framework: A definitive breakdown of how deep Visibility leads to executive Credibility, which directly unlocks compounding Profitability.The Power of the Specific Ask: Why broad pitches fail and how targeting hyper-specific niche market seats transforms your sales pipeline.Human Networks vs. AI Disruption: Why face-to-face accountability is becoming a leader's ultimate defense against synthetic content, deep fakes, and automation fatigue.The 30-Day New City Playbook: Dave's exact operational strategy for leveraging an established network to seamlessly break into an entirely new market. [ABOUT THE GUEST]Dave Collins is the Chief Operating Officer of BNI, the world’s largest business networking and referral organization. With over 41 years of sustained global growth, BNI helps small businesses, solopreneurs, and elite executives build powerful, long-term relationship pipelines that drive massive revenue impact. [CONNECT WITH BEN]Get vital leadership insights delivered straight to your inbox: benfanning.com/insightDiscover our 5-step Profitable Podcast Framework for your organization: BenLeads.com/schedule ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    50 min
  3. Why Energy Became a CEO Problem | SmartestEnergy US, CEO Andy Cormie

    Jun 16

    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-driven demand spike can send a company’s energy costs from $2M a month… to $12M almost overnight. That’s not a utility problem anymore. That’s a REAL leadership problem. Most companies still think about energy as a line item on a bill. But according to Andy, energy is rapidly becoming: a margin issuea board issuea risk issueand potentially a competitive advantage. One line that hit me hard: “Boards shouldn’t be giving you a pass…” Especially as AI, data centers, aging infrastructure, and geopolitical instability continue reshaping global energy demand. The leaders who win over the next decade may not be the ones who react fastest after disruption. They may be the ones who planned before it arrived. What’s an operational risk most companies still underestimate right now? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    37 min
  4. Why Great Leaders Don't Trust Polished Reports | John Case, CEO of Acumatica

    Jun 14

    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 John Case, CEO of Acumatica and former Microsoft executive who helped scale Office 365 into one of the most successful cloud businesses in the world. John shares why one of the most important responsibilities of leadership is creating direct access to truth before critical information gets filtered on its way up the organization. From customer conversations to strategic decision-making, he explains how great leaders stay connected to reality as their companies grow. Along the way, he shares lessons from helping drive Microsoft's transition to the cloud, scaling high-growth companies, building executive teams, and navigating the opportunities and risks of AI. You'll learn: • Why leaders must create unfiltered feedback loops with customers • How scale can separate executives from the truth they need most • Lessons from helping grow Office 365 into a global cloud powerhouse • The biggest mistakes leaders make during periods of rapid growth • Why "the job will outgrow everyone" • How to identify when a problem is really a leadership problem • Where AI should accelerate decisions—and where humans must remain in control • Why trust may become the most valuable competitive advantage in the AI era TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – What Happens When Truth Gets Filtered 01:44 – How John Case Built Unfiltered Customer Feedback Loops 08:40 – Lessons From Scaling Office 365 at Microsoft 13:36 – The Biggest Mistake Leaders Make During Rapid Growth 16:22 – "The Job Will Outgrow Everyone" 18:04 – How to Tell When a Problem Is Really a Leadership Problem 20:05 – Where AI Should (and Shouldn't) Make Decisions 22:45 – The Biggest AI Risk Most Leaders Overlook 24:16 – Why Trust Is the Ultimate Competitive Advantage 25:15 – The Career Setback That Changed Everything 27:50 – Leaving Microsoft After 16 Years 30:17 – Why AI May Be the Biggest Technology Shift in 20 Years 34:35 – Leadership, Trust, and the Future of AI 35:00 – John's Advice for Leaders Navigating What's Next Whether you're a CEO, executive, founder, or ambitious professional navigating leadership in the AI era, this conversation will help you think differently about customer insight, executive decision-making, organizational trust, and leading through rapid technological change. Subscribe to Lead the Team for weekly conversations with top executives, founders, and business leaders on leadership, AI, organizational transformation, and high-performance teams. ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    36 min
  5. The AI Mistake Costing Companies Millions (iMerit CEO Radha Basu)

    Jun 10

    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 blindspots. In this episode of Lead The Team, Ben Fanning sits down with Radha Basu, Founder & CEO of iMerit, to break down why "right beats fast" when scaling technology. Discover how to navigate high-stakes AI disruption, structure true organizational ownership, and prevent executive burnout while leading a hyper-growth team. What You'll Learn in This Episode: How a missing piece of real-world context nearly triggered chaos in an autonomous vehicle model.The exact moment Radha risked losing an industry-leading client by refusing to drop her quality standards for speed.The 4 mission-critical AI roles leaders need to scale machine judgment safely.The Radical Feedback Loop: Overcoming executive burnout by building an organizational culture that talks back.The Slack Rule: Why data trainers must have a direct line to the CTO. ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    37 min
  6. How to Build an AI-Native Company (KK, CEO of Ascendion)

    May 27

    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 ahead are rebuilding how they operate. And that’s a very different conversation! KK walked away from one of the world’s largest IT services companies because he could already see the old model starting to crack: More headcount. More layers. More complexity. Meanwhile, AI was changing how decisions get made, how work gets executed, and what great leadership actually looks like going forward. One of my favorite moments was when he said the first move every CEO should make is building an AI agent for themselves first. Not for the company but for themselves. Because your team can tell pretty quickly whether leadership is truly embracing change… or just asking everyone else to do it. I think that’s the real shift happening right now. AI isn’t just changing technology. It’s rebuilding leaders. What’s one part of your workflow you’d trust an AI agent to help you with today? ----- Follow KK here on LinkedIn Learn more about Ascendion ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    14 min
  7. Why Safe Leaders Stall (CEO Greene Tweed, Magen Buterbaugh)

    May 26

    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 she realized something… Success can become a trap. Her role was secure. The path was clear. The reputation opened doors. But she knew she had stopped growing. So she left the corporate safety net to help build a startup with one employee, real payroll pressure, and no guarantee it would work. That decision completely changed how she leads. In this conversation, we get into questions every ambitious leader eventually has to face: • How do you know when your career has become too comfortable? • What happens to your leadership when the safety net disappears? • Are you actually growing… or just getting better at protecting what you’ve already built? She told me: “Until your back is against the wall, you really haven’t faced adversity.” I think a lot of leaders spend years trying to avoid discomfort. But discomfort is usually where the real growth starts. When has leading outside of your comfort zone helped you grow? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    45 min
  8. I Fight AI Fraud with Military Tactics (Socure President, Matt Thompson)

    May 20

    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 machine identities already outnumber humans 80 to 1. And fraud isn’t just growing… it’s evolving faster than most businesses can keep up. Most leaders are still treating this like a tech problem. It’s not. It’s truly a strategy problem. The adversary is decentralized, fast-moving, and increasingly powered by AI. After spending over a decade in Army Special Operations under Stanley McChrystal, Matt is now applying those same battlefield-tested tactics to fight this new kind of enemy. Which means the old playbook—protect the front door and call it a day—is already outdated. In this conversation, we break down: Why fraud now behaves like a networked enemy. What leaders are getting wrong about defending their organizations. And how battlefield-tested thinking is being used to fight it at scale. So the real question for leaders is: Can your team and organization adapt faster than the threats evolving around it? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    43 min
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Trailer

4.8
out of 5
67 Ratings

About

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 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. Subscribe now. ------------- https://www.benfanning.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/

Information

  • Creator
    Ben Fanning
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    461
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Ben Fanning

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