CEO BrainFood

00:55 – Michael introduces today’s guest, Albert Erisman

03:23 – Al talks about why he started Ethix Magazine & The Theology of Work Project 

06:25 – Why purpose, meaning and focus outweigh the importance of profits 

09:21 – Al talks about his book, The ServiceMaster Story, and the Four Objectives

20:09 – The concept of ‘Shingles on the Roof’ 

22:42 – The importance of leaders understanding the value of service workers 

27:37 – Al ex...

01:01 – Michael introduces today’s guest, Jack Stack

04:21 – Jack’s origin story and the goal of The Great Game of Business

14:25 – The importance of forward-thinking forecasting

20:29 – The secret sauce of The Great Game of Business

27:50 – The importance of the critical number

34:14 – Jack speaks to a story in his latest book, Change The Game

38:03 – The importance of creating jobs

39:59 – Michael and Jack discuss the value of culture

45...

00:54 – Michael introduces today’s guest, Mark Green

03:55 –Coaching for Results vs. Coaching for Growth

07:04 – Michael promotes Mark’s book, Activators

10:29 – Mark speaks to hidden growth killers

17:56 – Universal quantifiers

20:35 – Mark talks about three different types of fear

26:08 – Mark lays out the five symptoms of fear

32:45 – Mark tells the story about his Grandpa Ben and the importance of changing your neighborhood

37:55 – The...

00:58 – Michael introduces today’s guests, Rich Armstrong and Steve Baker

01:41 – Michael promotes Rich and Steve’s latest book, Get In The Game
03:41 – The origin story of The Great Game of Business

08:48 – How Jack Stack began the process of teaching the language of business to his team

12:08 – Steve addresses the concept of open-book management

15:31 – Jack’s philosophy of lifetime hiring

18:16 – Building a dominant workforce

20:49 – H...

01:01 – Michael introduces today’s guest, Paul Adams

02:17 – Paul talks about his upcoming book, Your Business Your Wealth

03:55 – Michael speaks to his experience working with CEOs who take a salary that is lower than the market rate

09:15 – Two common mistakes entrepreneurs make when it comes to valuing their business

11:49 – The danger of not thinking about an exit strategy

16:45 – Michael talks about the ever-expanding role of today...

00:58 – Michael introduces today’s topic, making purpose central to strategy

02:00 – Michael recalls working for an absent manager whose purpose and values were misaligned 

04:07 – Why making money should not be the sole purpose of an organization 

05:46 – How the CEO of Michelin incorporated purpose into strategy 

07:40 – The rise of entrepreneurship 

10:03 – The pursuit of purpose crisis that our society is facing today

11:14 – Risks w...

00:53 – Michael introduces today’s guest, Daniel Marcos

02:47 – Why everything starts and ends with the CEO

05:10 – Daniel speaks to why the strength of the founder usually becomes the weakness of the company

07:12 – Level Five Leaders

09:39 – The Southwest Airlines example

10:56 – Daniel’s entrepreneurial journey

16:50 – The importance of coaching

20:45 – Daniel speaks to his fundraising prowess

25:39 – Keeping up with the speed of scalin...

00:58 – Michael recaps the last few episodes of CEO Brain Food

01:29 – Introducing today’s topic: Three Execution Disciplines 

03:25 – The strategy horizon

05:09 – Discipline One: Priorities 

06:51 – Discipline Two: Data Metrics 

10:25 – Creating a mini game to identify the critical number 

11:19 – Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) 

13:28 – Discipline Three: Communication Rhythms 

15:59 – The value of operating as a team 

16:54 – Line item ...

01:09 – Introducing today’s topic: Driving Growth with KPIs

01:33 – Reinforcing the importance of tracking your critical number 

02:28 – Defining the critical number 

07:12 – Michael invites listeners to take a moment to reflect on their critical number 

07:44 – The factors that influence and drive positive action towards your critical number 

11:24 – The importance of financial literacy 

13:21 – The Weekly Huddle 

15:18 – Sharing the pro...

01:02 – Introducing today’s topic: Do You Know Your Critical Number?

02:17 – Michael speaks to his own experience working with his CFO on his critical number

03:48 – The Mariano Rivera example

05:30 – The value of historical data

07:30 – Identifying the critical number

10:02 – Engaging your team to achieve your critical number

11:17 – The Great Game of Business

13:05 – Other strategies for engaging your people

14:00 – The importance of edu...

01:56 – Introducing today’s topic: Creating a Living Culture with Authentic Leadership 

02:10 – Defining what we mean by ‘culture’ 

05:35 – The Theranos Example 

07:12 – Culture as a differentiator 

08:12 – Understanding your core values 

10:19 – The Zappos Example 

12:22 – Why leadership is key to culture 

14:19 – Authentic leadership defined 

16:17 – The importance of building trust 

18:08 – The Operations vs. Sales Example 

19:24 – Taking...

01:10 – Welcoming back today’s guest, Blaine Millet
04:08 – Blaine poses an intriguing question about customers
05:24 – Results companies can expect by adopting a strategy of customer obsession
06:36 – Building long tail differentiation
08:02 – The Disneyland example
09:52 – The Ace Hardware example
11:05 – Michael dives deeper into the Disneyland example
11:53 – How a company can start the journey to customer obsession
13:30 – The...

01:02 – Introducing today’s guest, Blaine Millet
02:45 – Focusing on customers
06:42 – The importance of differentiation
11:18 – The Holy Grail of customer obsession
14:29 – Why Blaine advocates for organizations to stop marketing
17:45 – Strategies to get customers to talk about your organization with others
19:48 – How customer obsession ties into the culture of a company
21:19 – The Zappos example
25:23 – Blaine provides some ad...

00:57 – Introducing today’s topic, building a culture of trust
04:36 – The importance of trust
05:28 – The three pillars of an organization
07:19 – The five key points of culture
07:32 – One: Find and Defend Your Cores
09:38 – Two: Build Authentic Relationships
13:27 – Three: Lead Transparently
16:14 – Four: Develop a System of Feedback
18:12 – The Rule of One Percent
19:37 – Five: Be Present
21:36 – Michael teases the topic of the...

01:01 – Introducing today’s topic, Multiplier or Diminisher (Leadership Styles)
01:58 – Michael recalls his experiences working with both multiplier and diminisher kind of leaders
06:09 – A Diminisher Leader Mindset
07:09 – A Multiplier Leader Mindset
09:10 – Closing the gap between “where we are” and “where we want to go”
12:47 – Diminisher leaders create anxiety
15:01 – Multipliers are “debate makers” not “decision makers”
15:43 ...

00:51 – Introducing today’s topic, “The 3HAG Way” planning system
01:13 – Background of Shannon Susko
03:01 – How 3HAG System bridges the gap between 1-year goal and BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) System
05:38 – An anecdote from General Dwight Eisenhower
08:18 – The significance of aligning your team to the core values of the organization to effectively build enterprise value
10:51 – Mapping out your internal and external environm...

01:01 – Introducing today’s topic, coaching
01:41 – The preconceived notions about coaching
02:46 – The importance Michael places on reading
06:13 – Why everyone needs a coach
07:12 – Attributes of a great coach
09:15 – The golf example
09:51 – A compelling argument for having a coach
10:58 – How Michael views potential client needs
12:17 – Bill Campbell: The Trillion Dollar Coach
15:57 – The importance of having courage as a leade...

01:12 – Introducing today’s topic, How Do You Scale Leadership
03:43 – Michael recalls a leader he met early in his career
08:18 – The value Michael places on humility
09:55 – Michael speaks to a recent article he read from Harvard Business Review
11:00 – The Simon Sinek Video
13:47 – Leadership is a choice
14:23 – What makes a great leader
15:04 – Defining leadership through alignment, execution, and renewal
15:55 – Leading throug...

01:00 – Introducing today’s topic, Leading High Performance Cohesive Teams
03:50 – How the size of the team impacts its cohesive state
05:31 – Michael speaks to a leadership retreat he recently attended
06:26 – The importance of being present
09:40 – John Maxwell’s Five Levels of Leadership
10:46 – Hiring the right people
11:33 – Turning the hockey match into the ballet
13:42 – How a CEO can develop a highly functional and cohesive...