Ask A

As CEO, it’s easy to get so caught up in doing your job that you lose connection with the customers who keep your business running. This week, Joel discusses how CEOs can stay in touch with the customer experience—and why doing so is important.

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Personality tests and assessments are popular in many corners of the business world. But are the insights they deliver really useful in a business context? Should CEOs care about their teams’ Myers-Briggs type or CliftonStrengths themes? Hear what Joel has to say about it this week on Ask a CEO.

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

As CEO, one of your many responsibilities is directly managing the executive team. This week, Joel discusses the finer points of hiring executives who will make a substantial difference in company performance and culture.

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Hiring is not just about the candidate selling themselves to the employer—the employer must also communicate why it offers an environment where talented candidates can thrive and grow. This week, Joel discusses the concept of the “employer value proposition” and why CEOs should understand its effect on bringing in top talent.

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Behind nearly every major business catastrophe—from Theranos to scandals involving Wells Fargo and Boeing—is a leader who wasn’t listening to their employees. How can CEOs encourage people to speak up, and how do you know when to react to the problems they raise?

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

The CEO is called upon to make the most difficult and consequential decisions of anyone in the organization. But at the same time, the CEO cannot make every decision him or herself. This week, Joel discusses when a decision is the CEO’s to make and when it’s a better idea to delegate the decision to another person in the organization.

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

We talk about caring being one of the essential ways that CEOs build influence with their teams. In a time when the CEO is looking out for the survival of the business, how can they also show that they care about their employees’ as people? How can they demonstrate that their putting the well-being of the organization as a whole before their own self-interest?

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

The CEO has multiple challenges when it comes to getting feedback and understanding how well they are doing in the role. First, people in the organization may be reluctant to tell them the unvarnished truth. Second, their only real “boss” is the board, with whom they likely meet infrequently. How can the CEO identify their strengths and weaknesses as a leader and work on improving?

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Many US workers are now in a fourth month of working remotely—and for many people, it’s going well. Are open-plan offices a thing of the past? And how do managers and leaders fulfill their roles when their team may be offsite for the foreseeable future? Joel discusses that and more on this week’s episode.

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company

Over the past week, every state in the US has seen protests following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. This week, Joel discusses this tragic circumstance and what it might tell us about leadership—or the failure of leadership—in police departments and in the country more broadly.

Sponsored by: Texas Mutual Insurance Company