Here's something I've learned after coaching hundreds of CEOs. When a company stalls, the strategy is rarely the first thing that fails. The top team failed first, quietly, months before the numbers showed it. In this episode I walk through the six signs that tell you your leadership team is failing you, often long before the results do. Leadership breakdowns don't announce themselves. They show up as slightly slower decisions, a little more politics, one too many escalations landing on your desk, nothing dramatic enough to trigger alarm until the damage is already done. I cover the six signals to watch for, from decisions routing through the CEO and disagreement disappearing from the room, to bad news arriving late and leaders quietly working around each other instead of through each other. I also get into why CEOs consistently wait too long to act, and the one question every CEO should be asking about their leadership team before the board asks it for them. The bottom line is that a wrong person left too long in a leadership seat doesn't just underperform. They reset the standard for everyone below them. Timestamps 0:00 Introduction and the central idea 0:30 Why strategy doesn't fail first, the top team fails first 3:00 The six signals of a failing leadership team 8:00 Why CEOs wait too long to act 10:00 Closing thoughts and the question every CEO should ask _________________________________________________________________ BOOK PRE-ORDER 📘 My new book 'Reinvention at the Top: The Playbook for CEOs to Lead Under Pressure' (Wiley) is out in October. Pre-order your copy now: 👉 BOOK PRE-ORDER LINK _________________________________________________________________ FREE GUIDE Want to establish authority and lead with confidence from Day One as a CEO? Grab your FREE copy of '10 Foolproof Ways New CEOs Establish Authority From Day One': 👉 Download - https://bit.ly/10-fool-proof-ceo-strategies _________________________________________________________________ WCL21 WCL21 is a private, curated community of CEOs running mid-market companies. Monthly roundtables, masterclasses, and confidential conversations that don't happen anywhere else. We're in the founding member phase — a few seats remain. 👉 Request your invitation: https://andreapetrone.com/wcl21 _________________________________________________________________ 1:1 COACHING Want to work with me directly? I coach a small number of CEOs and senior leaders each year through exactly the challenges in this show. 👉 Apply for 1:1 coaching: https://calendly.com/andreapetrone/strategy-call-30 _________________________________________________________________ COACHING APP Want to grow as a leader on the go? My Executive coaching app helps Directors, VPs and C-suite leaders build world-class leadership habits, guided by the Throughline™ framework: Identity, Message, Presence. 👉 See the app: https://studio.com/apps/andreapetrone/executive _________________________________________________________________ NEWSLETTER Join 183,000+ leaders who read my weekly insights on leading at the top: 👉 https://www.andreapetrone.com/newsletter/ _________________________________________________________________ MORE FROM ANDREA Follow our Host Andrea Petrone on: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreapetrone/ Website: https://www.andreapetrone.com Instagram: instagram.com/andreapetrone_x Follow The World Class Leaders Show: Apple: https://shorturl.at/JZAmQ Spotify: https://shorturl.at/DSHUl LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-world-class-leaders-show/ Website: https://www.andreapetrone.com/podcast/

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related