Growth Think Tank (fka "Leaders in the Trenches")

Having a nimble culture is a requirement when you want to have a fast-growing company. A nimble culture is one where people move fast, break things, and challenge the old way. Being nimble becomes a way of doing everything. Fast decision and quick pivots are natural. Today I am talking to Jan Bednar, Founder, and CEO of ShipMonk. ShipMonk has exploded in growth to reach 29th out of 5000 on the 2018 Inc list. Jan shares with me how to internalize the core elements of a nimble culture.

When you have a fast-growth culture, you have a team that will move with agility and one that embraces change. Culture is often claimed to be important to company stability. It is critical to company growth. Today, I talk with Kevin Lustig, CEO of Scientist.com to discuss the power of a fast-growth culture. Kevin shares details about leadership and team that will help you develop your fast-growth culture.

Discover how to hire the best employees with one of the fastest-growing companies in the 2018 Inc Magazine List. Founder and CEO, Ben Wright, shares how Velocity Global grew so fast. He decided only to hire 10s. He wanted a culture of the best employees. Get the details on how to hire the best employees in this interview with Ben. He shares the five steps and why he does not start with looking at the employee's resume.

Growth Think Tank is the new name. Welcome to the podcast. For five years this show has been called, Leaders in the Trenches. The change to Growth Think Tank is to represent significant changes happening. Tune in to this episode to see what is different and what is the same. Growth Think Tank is here to help you grow your company and grow as a leader.

Flexible working arrangements are the new craze. Employees want to work from home or coffee shops on their time. Employers want to embrace flexibility and yet get the work done too. Beyond flexible working, arrangements are the notion of working less than 40 hours in a week.

Mental barriers for leaders can stop even the strongest most committed. We all have mental barriers or if you prefer psychological obstacles. We can do the work to go beyond them, or we can let those mental barriers prevent us. I sought out someone that has pushed past many mental barriers and who has helped millions do the same.

Creative ideas are necessary for companies that are evolving quickly and innovating in their market. Creative ideas don't come from just the good ideas. You have to have bad ideas too. I talked with Zvi Band, co-founder of Contactually, the CRM that provides unique features to enhance relationships. Zvi shared with me how bad ideas become creative ideas.

Discover how to create team alignment that improves your company growth. One critical factor for a leader is to create team alignment so that each person is going in the same direction. Most companies find it easy to alignment when they are small (less than five employees) and tend to struggle in creating team alignment as the team grows.

Improving your leadership skills is required in today’s professional world. The pace of change drives us to think of new ways to activate people. Improving your leadership skills will make you more valuable to your company. Joel Beasley is the founder of Leader Bits, a company that creates bite-sized training that aims to improve your leadership skills.

Leading a turnaround will challenge even the best leaders. The momentum is going the wrong way, and there is never just one thing off. In my decades of leadership, leading a turnaround for a company is hard. Today I’m talking with Steve Lucas, former CEO of Marketo.

Developing a content strategy is often overlooked. Either we become reactive and create content when we feel like it. Or we fail to create content that aligns with our goals and leads people through the customer journey. I generate a ton of content.

Better 1 on 1 meetings with your direct reports starts with a better understanding of the person that you are talking too. If you understand what they want to accomplish, the progress they have made lately, and the challenges they are facing, your 1 on 1 meetings with each employee will improve. There are many ways to tune in to them before the meeting. Today's guest is David Hassell, CEO of 15five.com.

Operationalizing Your Values is a process that takes understanding and application of values to the deepest levels in the company. When you operationalize your values, you create a way for the people to live and work according to the values of the company. Operationalizing your value is often skipped.

Leading a rebrand is a challenge no matter what the business. But when you have a brand with a legacy in the their market the biggest challenge is aligning people inside and outside the company to this new change. Our guest today is David Marine, Chief Marketing Officer for Coldwell Banker. David shares his strategies so you can learn from the process.

Buy-in for a shared vision of the company is a powerful force for growth. A shared vision is one with the alignment of direction. It like the crew boat that has all the crew members rowing together in rhythm.