The CEO Playbook

Your team's culture? It starts at the top. "If you have somebody at the top who's a backbiter, or wants all the glory… suddenly the people underneath them are gonna be exhibiting the exact same behavior," says Jim VandeHei, founder of POLITICO and Axios. Ego has no place in leadership. James says leaders need to: 1️⃣ Have strong values and maintain those values 2️⃣ Uphold ethics 3️⃣ Perform (even when everything else around them is collapsing) You also have to have the humility to realize, "you're not that smart." "With leadership, with power, really does come great responsibility." What qualities do you think matter most in a leader? Share your perspective in the comments! Subscribe to #Catalyst for more insights from founders like Jim: https://lnkd.in/eShV662j

 “In the real world, you have to motivate people.” For Red Lobster CEO Damola Adamolekun, working in finance was the ultimate training ground in strategy and risk — but it didn’t prepare him for the hardest part of running a company: leading people. In this episode of CEO Playbook, Adamolekun breaks down why motivating teams, not just managing numbers, defines real leadership.

We interrupt Week/Episode 4 of The CEO Playbook “How to Fail As A CEO” to bring you this message, in the form of a lil’ ditty I remixed that you may know. Wanna hear it? Here it go. Hint: “Gu-Gu” 🎶 “Let It Snow” ————————————————————————— **play button** Oh, the weather ouchea [outside] is failure [frightful] But da [the] “real” [fire] is so delightful And since we've ‘till year-end [no place] to go Let us [it] know [snow!] Let us [it] know [snow!] Let us [it] know [snow!] Man, it doesn't show signs of stopping And I brought some Culture KPIs; Intuition as a Company Value; Skill Up Not Just Out; Authenticity Investment (AI); Generation to Generation Conversation (G2G) [corn] for processing [popping] The thoughts [lights] are turned way up [down] high [low] Let us [it] know [snow!] Let us [it] know [snow!] Let us [it] know [snow!] **pause button** ————————————————————————— “What Resonated With You?” is my favorite way to get individualized perspectives that move thoughts & ideas forward in ways I may not have previously seen, felt, or heard. • It’s where “next up” gets “up next” iterations. • It’s where minds marinate & hearts heal. • It’s where purpose plants & joy dwells. “To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Required,” so I’m giving episodes through year-end, but giving “requires” knowing what resonated with you thus far & what you want to resonate with, in future episodes. Upcoming topical themes are in the aforementioned “ditty.” Thank you in advance for trusting the question’s intent & honoring it with your comments. ————————————————————————— Dear Psychological Safety Principles, Failure is something I changed my relationship with in many ways, including sharing my philosophy (i.e. Five-Fails-A-Day Linkedin Learning Course) and punctuated real time reflection when “in mode,” not because it helps or hurts me, more for others to get from it what is useful. I get that some may make confession correlations and other CYA assumptions about this series in particular, but for me those types of assumptions imply a motive tied to punitive, fearful admission to circumvent possible consequence & maybe even earn empathy. Again, logical but not my reasoning. Informed by my broader “failing” philosophy, this series is a continuation of liberation from the bondage my inner saboteur ignites when “failure” happens, & levity-laced candid reflection for those similarly looking to change thier relationship with the bully that is, failure. So Engage. It’s Safe. It’s For All. It’s Necessary. Sincerely, The “Introduced” Elephant In The Room. P.S. Your “Favorite Failer” is in a deep “Gu-Gu” rabbit hole trying to extract the official origin story of “Chucking The Deuce.” Holla back if you know. ✌🏿 ————————————————————————— So if the failure-lessons are “The Biscuits” then the purpose-learnings are “The Tea.” As Kermit-The-Frog would say, “Sip Curiously!” 🍵 Fa[re]il Well My Friends, Fail Well 🤝🏿…and “purpose-ly!” 😎 See you next week!

Owning a mistake once gave me more credibility—not less. Early in my career, senior leaders criticized a decision my team had made. I could have stayed quiet—it wasn’t clear they were holding me responsible. But I remembered my father’s advice: “If you accept the blame when you deserve it, you’ll get responsibility.” So I spoke up: “That was my mistake, the team had the wrong approach because of what I said.” I was worried that by admitting my mistake, I’d undermine my reputation, but in fact, the opposite happened. My admission built trust. That’s why I remind myself: Enjoy the fun of failure. Failure never feels fun, but it’s often the first step toward progress. Is there a phrase or reminder that helps you keep perspective after a mistake?

You are probably ambitious. But are you morally ambitious? Rutger Bregman, the Dutch historian who wrote the bestselling book Humankind argues in his new book Moral Ambition that most of us waste our skills on jobs that don’t, in the end, matter. If we are truly ambitious, he says, we should be using our talents to transform the world for the better. Does your work have a clear positive impact on the world? I have not always been able to answer that question with an unequivocal “yes.”  Since turning 50, I have been making an effort to have a bigger positive impact. Still working on it. How about you?

Most leaders focus on doing. James Clear challenges us to focus on becoming. Outcomes and results don’t dictate our happiness. They’re milestones, not meaning. I’ve seen CEOs hit record numbers and still feel empty — because growth without alignment leaves you unfulfilled. Happiness and fulfillment come from identity. From becoming the kind of leader who builds clarity, discipline, and purpose into every day. When you focus on who you are becoming, your outcomes become a reflection of that growth — not the source of your worth. 👉 As a leader, ask yourself today: Who am I becoming?

I’ll admit it: I’ve got dark circles under my eyes. People who know me well sometimes even point it out! I know it's not to be unkind, but because it’s noticeable. And while some of it is genetic, I’ve also realized there’s a deeper lesson in it. I recently read Chronoleadership by my friend and colleague Camilla Kring, PhD, and it made me rethink how we talk about work and rest. Her book highlights the power of aligning our work schedules with our natural circadian rhythms. In today’s nonstop, competitive environment, we often push ourselves (and our teams) to be on at all hours. But when we ignore our body clocks, we’re not getting anyone’s best work. If you’re a leader, one of the most powerful things you can do is create space for people to work when they’re at their peak, rather than to reward “face time” that comes at the expense of sleep and health. This is something I try to adopt in my own life, and I think it’s a valuable lens for all of us. Because better-rested people make better leaders, better collaborators, and better teams. How do you personally balance rest and performance in your own work?

Contrary to popular opinion, quitting is for winners. Let me explain... 👇 We often glamourise starting something but no one talks about the fact that you have to quit something in order to start. It takes courage to quit something and start again. Knowing when to quit, change direction, leave a toxic situation, demand more from life, give up on something that wasn't working and move on, is a very important skill that people who win at life all seem to have. Society traps you in the toxic narrative that quitting is a weakness, an easy way out or, worse yet that quitting is failure. I assure you, quitting is for winners and quitting is a skill. When's the last time that you quit something that wasn't serving you?

JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon once sent his team to China to see emerging technologies like AI firsthand. They came back flush with ideas. "Leaders have to get out," Dimon says. "They have to be curious. Ask a million questions." Getting out and staying curious, Dimon says, is key to avoiding stasis. Exposure leads to learning, which can unlock new capabilities. “If you don’t have an accurate assessment of the real world out there, what's changing what they're doing… you will eventually fail.” What’s a strategy you use to learn from the world around you? Share your insights below! And check out #ThisIsWorking for more insights from leaders like Jamie: https://lnkd.in/gTdPZZB

The CEO Playbook EXCLUSIVELY on LinkedIn “How To Fail As A CEO” Episode “Thriced and Diced” or “3” if you’re unfun. If you’ve ever participated in [played] THE sacred cultural joust [card game] that “mainstream” refers to as Spades, you know there are infinite regional variations of governance decrees [rules] on how to fight [play] but what tends to be consistent is the Empire vs. Empire [“US/THEM”] markings on a papyrus scroll [scorecard] ensuring that the annihilation of whichever gladiator [set of partners] is [are] defeated and proven unworthy in the coliseum [the card table] is codified in perpetuity and leveraged to inflict perennial shame…in my Maximus “Are You Not Entertained!?!” voice. In business we know that a leader “Us” and a team “Them” are partners in the joust for marketplace victory and the team must feel “supported” to fulfill business objectives, and leaders should model “working for the team” not “the team working for them”…insert your version of “inverted pyramid” theory here _______. Uhhhh, that’s cute and whatnot but in real-world practice as a CEO, “US” and “THEM” is a “goat-rodeo” of nuance in balancing how you want the team to feel and what you need the team to do. Humility is a noble value that can become a benevolent leadership addiction with dire consequences if not appropriately calibrated. The impact of its overuse tends to emerge during inopportune moments that require haste and necessitate direct instruction without time for discussion. Assuming everyone innately understands the urgency, when you discover delays in the team’s execution fueled by an imbalance in authority, you realize that the “leadership” pyramid you inverted is now inverting you, to the detriment of whatever action needed to happen. Welcome to the beast you built, pimpin’! Your “favorite failer’s” imbalanced humility sometimes gave way to hostility due to my hesitancy and discomfort with my title, its authority, and intellectual justification honoring the “I work for them” rhetoric, absent of healthy circumstantial agility. So in the infinite wisdom of 21st century philosopher Kendrick Lamar, 🎶”Sit Down, Be Humble”-ish,🎶 and when CEO calibration needs recalibrating, purposefully remember another K-DOT proverb, 🎶”THEM[y] Not Like US.”🎶 Everything is good for you in moderation, including moderation. 😎 So if the failure-lessons are “The Biscuits” then the purpose-learnings are “The Tea.” As Kermit-The-Frog would say, “Sip Curiously!” Fa[re]il Well My Friends, Fail Well…and “purpose-ly!” See you next week!