A Deep Dive on Compensation

Listen in Your Browser Questions Asked Verne Harnish: Crafting Company-Wide Compensation Plans (3:06) Verne Harnish is the founder of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (“EO” for short), a global network of entrepreneurs and CEOs that boasts over 16,000 members worldwide. He is the author of multiple global bestselling books including Mastering the Rockefeller Habits, and Scaling Up,Continue reading “A Deep Dive on Compensation”

A Deep Dive on Hiring

Listen in Your Browser Questions Asked Randy Street (3:30) Many of you will know Randy Street as co-author of the book Who: The A Method for Hiring, which introduced the now widely used Topgrading hiring method to the world. The book went on to become a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, USA Today,Continue reading “A Deep Dive on Hiring”

The Smallest Changes That Had the Largest Impacts: 4 CEO Case Studies

My Guests This is a very special episode of In The Trenches: In today’s episode, I will be interviewing 4 different CEOs of 4 different SMBs, and asking them just a single question: “What are some of the seemingly small changes you’ve made that have had the largest impacts?” When taking over a new business,Continue reading “The Smallest Changes That Had the Largest Impacts: 4 CEO Case Studies”

Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index: Hiring, Personality Profiling Tools, Working with a Partner, and Other Lessons from 20 Years as a CEO

My Guests My guest today is Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index. The Predictive Index serves more than 9,000 clients across 142 countries, helping businesses optimize their hiring and team composition decisions through a combination of behavioral science, software, and professional consulting from the world’s top workplace behavior specialists. Mike has been CEO ofContinue reading “Mike Zani, CEO of The Predictive Index: Hiring, Personality Profiling Tools, Working with a Partner, and Other Lessons from 20 Years as a CEO”

Knowing Who, When, and How to Fire

I will never forget the first time that I had to fire somebody. In the days, hours and minutes leading up to the meeting that morning, sleep was elusive, my heart was racing, my mind was completely incapable of focusing on anything else, and the sense of existential dread growing in the pit of myContinue reading “Knowing Who, When, and How to Fire”

Employee Burnout and The Great Resignation

My Guest My guest today is Carin-Isabel Knoop, Executive Director of the Harvard Business School Case Research & Writing Group. Carin has spent decades writing cases on managers and leaders all over the world across a wide array of functions and industries. In 2019, alongside co-author John Quelch, Carin published Compassionate Management of Mental HealthContinue reading “Employee Burnout and The Great Resignation”

A Leader’s Most Important Skill

Listen to This Blog Post Though effective leaders tend to possess a multitude of different skills and abilities, my experience as a CEO taught me that the most important skill for any leader to possess is that of clear and effective communication. Indeed, a CEO’s strategy is only as good as her ability to communicateContinue reading “A Leader’s Most Important Skill”

Rich Manders: Lessons from Founding, Growing, Buying, Selling, Coaching, and Investing in SMBs

My Guest Rich Manders Co-Founded and led iAutomation, a Massachusetts-based machine control and automation company, and grew the business from $0 to $90M in sales with 180 employees. After selling that business to The Riverside Company (a leading global Private Equity firm), Rich stayed on with the business, and alongside his partners at Riverside, grewContinue reading “Rich Manders: Lessons from Founding, Growing, Buying, Selling, Coaching, and Investing in SMBs”

Why Your Company Needs a Set of Core Values (or Why Yours May Not be Having an Impact)

Listen To This Blog Post Particularly in my early years as a CEO, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes whenever somebody suggested that I needed to codify and publish a set of core values for my company. Weren’t core values the tired, hollow, and meaningless platitudes that companies created simply because they felt theyContinue reading “Why Your Company Needs a Set of Core Values (or Why Yours May Not be Having an Impact)”

Sales: Hiring, Onboarding, Compensating, Scaling & Supporting a World Class Sales Team

My Guest Dave Prusinksi is the Chief Revenue Officer at SafeAI, a hyper-growth silicon valley company in the autonomous vehicle space. Prior to his current role, Dave spent 10 years as the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing at FleetComplete, a technology provider to fleet-owning businesses around the world. Under Dave’s leadership, FleetComplete grewContinue reading “Sales: Hiring, Onboarding, Compensating, Scaling & Supporting a World Class Sales Team”