Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)

Ben Fanning
  • 4.8 (66)
  • CAREERS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

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. Why Great Leaders Ignore Noise and Direct Attention (Clear Channel Outdoor CRO Bob McCuin)

    MAR 31

    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, sports media, and literally the most valuable billboards on the planet. When you live in that world long enough, you start to notice something about leadership. What's shaping how organizations behave.Bob told me that attention determines priority. Most leaders think priorities are set through goals, meetings, and KPIs. But teams don’t really follow the slide deck. They follow what the leader consistently pays attention to.If the leader reacts to the loudest issue…the team learns to chase noise. If the leader jumps to every new idea…the team learns that focus doesn’t matter. But when a leader consistently directs attention to what truly matters…the entire organization starts to align around it. Bob put it this way to me: “Where I place my attention determines the organizational energy.” That’s an enormous leadership responsibility. Because attention isn’t just something leaders give. It’s something they teach the organization to VALUE.What do you think? Are most organizations struggling with strategy…or with leaders who simply can’t stop chasing noise? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    33 min
  2. Why Leaders are Losing Their Best People (Adam Block CRO, Motive)

    MAR 29

    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 million drivers, shared a real wake up call with me. Early in his career, he spent a lot of energy trying to help struggling employees succeed. Then he realized something uncomfortable. “The people that suffer the most in that situation are actually the best players.” Because when leaders spend most of their attention fixing what’s broken… the people who are actually driving results start getting less attention. Less coaching. Less challenge. Less investment. And eventually, they start looking elsewhere. That insight changed how Adam approaches leadership today (and the results are undeniable). Instead of trying to make everyone great, he focuses on hiring great people and making them even better. And it raises a tough leadership question: Should leaders spend more time fixing weak performers… or investing in the people already carrying the team? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    41 min
  3. The AI Leadership Choice Every Leader Must Make (CEO Abhijit Mitra, Outreach)

    MAR 22

    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 tools and automation. Instead, he it took a different direction. When he’s in a meeting… his AI agents actually join the meeting and coach him in real time. Not summarize it later. Not send notes afterward. They’re in the meeting, helping him think, respond, and prepare. That’s when the real insight hit. Myself and most leaders today are experimenting with AI tools. But we aren't fully redesigning how our teams operate around AI. And Abhijit made something very clear: “It has to be a top-down initiative… this cannot be delegated downwards.” Boom! Because if that’s true, AI isn’t really a technology shift. It’s really a leadership shift. The leaders that win this era won’t just deploy better AI. They’ll have leaders willing to own the operating model change that comes with it. So consider... How many of us are treating AI like a project… when it might actually be the most important leadership decision we make this decade? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    39 min
  4. When Mistakes Cost Lives, How to Lead (Fluke CEO, Parker Burke)

    MAR 17

    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 systems in power grids, hospitals, factories, data centers, and mines around the world. So when a technician trusts the reading on a device…they’re trusting it with their life. A 99% success rate isn’t success. Because the remaining 1% can mean catastrophe. That reality forces a different kind of leadership perspective. Parker’s years in the Marines shaped how he approaches it.Not by carrying the weight alone…but by serving the people who carry it WITH him. If he didn’t lead that way, the pressure would crush a team. Fear would creep in. People would hesitate. And hesitation in environments like these can be dangerous. He explains in our conversation: - Reverse Rank Leadership In the Marines, officers eat last.Parker carries that mindset into Fluke — leaders support the team first because the mission depends on them. - Ending the “What If” Spiral In high-stakes environments, leaders can’t allow teams to live in fear.Instead, Parker aligns people around a mission bigger than themselves:keeping the world up and running safely. - Process Is Respect When the stakes are this high, discipline isn’t bureaucracy. It’s how you honor the people trusting your products and decisions. The idea that sticks with me most: 👉 Purpose crowds out fear. His teams don’t pursue excellence because a boss demands it. They pursue it because “good enough” actually betrays the people counting on them. How do you see leadership differently when someone’s life actually depends on the outcome? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    39 min
  5. Nuclear Submarines and a $22B Merger Shaped a CEO (Deltek's, Bob Hughes)

    MAR 15

    Nuclear Submarines and a $22B Merger 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… in the middle of a $22B merger… and during a ransomware attack. He was inspired early in his career when a leader told him: “The devil’s in the details… but so is salvation.” I particularly appreciated his insight: “Operational discipline scales trust.” We’ve all seen the opposite play out too. One meeting starts late. One deadline gets missed. One “good enough” decision slips through. Trust doesn’t explode. It erodes....gradually. Bob’s team didn’t lose trust in those massive moments because he refused to let the small things slide when they mattered most. That’s what I keep thinking about: When leaders lose trust its rarely the big thing; it's because of the details long before. 👉 What do you think the "details" say about leadership? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    47 min
  6. From Team USA to CEO (Bluebeam CEO Usman Shuja)

    MAR 10

    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 cricket team and becoming one of the top wicket-takers in U.S. history. Talking with him made me think about how differently pressure shows up across seasons of life. In sports, the pressure is loud and public. In leadership, it even heavier....Board expectations. Team decisions. Real consequences. For most of my career, I thought confidence was what carried leaders through those moments. Loved how Usman reframed it for me: Pressure is a privilege. It’s PROOF that what you’re doing actually matters. That belief was forged for him in a hostile away game in Nepal with 20,000 fans cheering against him and everything on the line. They even rioted❗ Years later, he taps into that perspective everyday as CEO. Leadership isn’t about avoiding pressure. It’s about learning to INTERPRET IT differently than everyone else. 👉 Is pressure the cost of leadership or the reward? ----- Connect with Usman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/usmanshuja/ Learn more about Bluebeam: https://www.bluebeam.com/resources/ebooks/aec-tech-outlook-2026)/ ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    44 min
  7. Google's "Wolverine" to CEO (PandaDoc's CEO Keith Rabkin)

    MAR 8

    Google's "Wolverine" 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-tech discipline and scrappy underdog grit". At Google, Keith was one of only 25 people (out of thousands of geniuses) to win the "Great Manager Award." His secret isn't just a high IQ; it's what he calls the "Wolverine Mindset" . It’s a relentless, "never-give-up" grit that focuses on one thing: obliterating roadblocks so the team can win. Our conversation forced me to rethink my own leadership style, especially how much time I spend clearing roadblocks versus just setting direction. Three ways Keith has lived the Wolverine mindset: - How the best "strategic" leaders get into the details to accelerate progress. - Why Keith left the safety of a global giant (Adobe) to hunt for survival in the trenches. - The controversial move he made that instantly drove 5x profitability. Question: Are we overvaluing "vision" and undervaluing raw determination? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    44 min
  8. The $1.1B Transformation Most Leaders Fail (Winpak's Chief Operational Excellence Officer, Randall Troutman)

    MAR 3

    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 with turning 13 independent "kingdoms" into one efficient operating system. But there’s a moment in every change effort where leaders mistake resistance for failure, and that’s when teams stop following. Randall discovered that project success is never about the initial launch; it’s about what you do when the "physics of people" takes over. We went deep into the "Valley of Despair" in this interview... ...that predictable, dangerous phase where the initial hype dies and the true energy requirement sets in. EVERY BIG project I've ever been part of hits make-or-break moment! It’s the exact point where most leaders flame out, pack up, and say, "I knew it wouldn't work". In this episode, you'll discover: - How to recognize the "Valley" phase in real-time before it stalls your progress. - Why most change efforts quietly die exactly when they should be accelerating. - The framework for keeping thousands moving when fatigue and doubt peak. - The "Visual Roadmap" Randall used to make a global crisis actionable. If your initiative feels stalled, you aren't failing....you're just hitting THE WALL. It takes a courageous leader to admit they've lost momentum, but it takes a PRO to expect it and share the map to get out. Question: Ever had a big project lose momentum? What helped? ----- Connect with the Host, #1 bestselling author Ben Fanning Speaking and Training inquires Subscribe to my Youtube channel LinkedIn Instagram Twitter

    42 min
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Trailer

4.8
out of 5
66 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
    442
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Ben Fanning

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