How Leaders Lead with David Novak

Welcome back to 3 More Questions, an episode series where we continue the conversation that we started last week with our featured guest. On this episode, we're talking about our interview with Bill Harrison, the former Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Listen in to hear even more about why it's important to prepare the next leader. If you want a simple plan to improve as a leader, you can get o...

Have you ever worked for somebody who’s taken you under their wing and believed in you enough to pave the way for you to take his or her job?  Let me tell you, throughout my career, I’ve had the great fortune of this happening to me multiple times.  But here’s the sad thing, I don’t think this is all too common of a story. Too many leaders have a “you work for me” mentality and the last thing they...

Welcome back to 3 More Questions, an episode series where we continue the conversation that we started last week with our featured guest. On this episode, we're talking about our interview with Dawn Sweeney, former President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association. Listen in to hear even more about why speaking up when something can be better is a quality of great leaders. If you want a sim...

Today’s guest is Dawn Sweeney, the former President & CEO of the National Restaurant Association. Steve Jobs used to say of Apple: “Excellence is the price of admission.” What he meant by that was that excellence was standard operating procedure. It’s what was expected. In an environment like this, colleagues push each other to make things better. They push the boundary of what’s possible, and if...

Welcome back to 3 More Questions, an episode series where we continue the conversation that we started last week with our featured guest. On this episode, we're talking about our interview with Rob Manfred, Commissioner of MLB. Listen in to hear even more about how finding common ground is a quality of every great leader. If you want a simple plan to improve as a leader, you can get one here for f...

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you have to make a tough call and you know that no matter what you choose, someone won’t be happy? What are you supposed to do in those moments? Well, Rob Manfred is no stranger to this dilemma. Each and every day, he has to manage relationships with the 30 team owners, the players, the fans, and the union. What you’ll hear in this conversion is...

Welcome back to 3 More Questions, an episode series where we continue the conversation that we started last week with our guests. This week, we're talking about Jason Kelly, Cofounder and CEO of Ginkgo BioWorks. Today my co-host Koula Callahan asks me about learning from companies in other industries, communicating vision to get employee buy-in, and explaining the complexities of Yum! Brands with...

Today’s guest is Jason Kelly, the cofounder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks, the largest designer of synthetic DNA in the world. Think back to the last time someone asked you what you did for a living. For as simple of a question this is, it can actually be really hard to answer. The reason is, in the back of your mind you might be thinking “where do I even start?!”  Running a business is complex! But...

Today is the first edition of 3 More Questions, an episode series where we continue the conversation that we started last week with our guests. This week, we're talking about Ken Langone, Cofounder of The Home Depot. To co-host the show, I’m bringing in someone from my team so we can dive deeper into my conversation with Ken and learn a little more about leadership. Koula Callahan leads our conten...

Today's guest is really special. He’s a person I love with all my heart and who's been a mentor of mine for several years. He's Ken Langone, the Cofounder of The Home Depot and Chairman of NYU Langone Health.  Now, here's a guy who's had more success than you could ever imagine in almost every way you could think about it. He's the most popular guest host of Squawk Box. He’s sought out on every ma...

Today’s guest is Carol Loomis, Former Senior Editor-at-large at Fortune magazine. There’s so much I admire about how Carol has navigated her career. She’s blazed her own trail and done things no women had ever done before in the journalism field, which has paved the way for women in other industries too. Not only did she create what is known today as the Fortune 500 list, she was an advisor, edito...

There's so much to admire about Jon Rahm. He's obviously super talented, absolutely the real deal, and an extraordinary competitor. But I think you'll be surprised to learn that one of his most distinguishing characteristics is his love for the history of the game.   Not only does it help him to appreciate those who’ve come before him, but he uses what he’s learned to give him a competitive edge a...

Today’s guest is Bill Acquavella, one of the most renowned art dealers in the world and Head of Acquavella Galleries. In the art business, reputation is everything. Bill has sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art and his customers, people like Mick Jagger and Steve Wynn and Henry Ford II, have absolute trust in what they’re buying from him. They’re confident spending money with Bill lik...

Today’s guest is Juliet Funt, the CEO of the Juliet Funt group where she’s a tough-love advisor to Fortune 500 companies like Google, Costco, Nike, and Spotify. She’s also an author and we’re going to be talking about her book A Minute to Think throughout the conversation.  Now when was the last time you had a minute to think? Because if you’re like a lot of leaders, your calendar is jam packed an...

Today’s guest is Ryan Serhant, star of Bravo’s television series Million Dollar Listing: New York and Sell it Like Serhant. He also runs a wildly successful real estate firm. We all know that a leader casts a shadow in their organization, meaning the people in the company mirror what they see in their leader. The truth is, some leaders aren’t fully committed. While they may be clocking in everyday...

Today’s guest is Paul Varga, the former Chairman and CEO of Brown-Forman, the largest distilling company in the world with brands like Jack Daniels and Woodford Reserve.  They have a saying at Brown-Forman, “Build Forever.” The company started in 1890, and the way Paul sees it, it was his responsibility to steward two key parts of the business. He wanted to continue to build their iconic brands, b...

Today's guest is Molly Fletcher, who CNN hailed as the female Jerry Maguire, for her work negotiating over $500 million in contracts as a sports agent.  If I were to ask you what you do for a living, my guess is you likely wouldn't respond with “I'm a negotiator.” But when you think about it, you're in negotiations multiple times a day: as you collaborate with your team about a project deadline, a...

Today's guest is Patrick Spence, the CEO of Sonos. So many tech companies that build consumer products are set up in a way where they make their products obsolete every time they launch a new product. The idea is that the minute the new device is available, their customers will abandon the old product and buy the newest model.  But what's interesting is that Sonos has a very different strategy. Th...

Today's guest is Terry McGurk, the Chairman of the Atlanta Braves. In 2016, right after the Braves went 68-93 (a pretty rough season), Terry told me that it would take five years to turn the franchise around. Well guess what? He had a turnaround plan that worked. And in 2021, the Braves won the World Series, which is exactly what he predicted.  In this episode, you'll hear him talk about how they...

Today’s guest is Larry Bossidy … the former chairman and CEO of Honeywell International and author of the book Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. Have you ever put together a business strategy that didn’t work? Or perhaps the plans to execute that strategy weren’t effective and ultimately, you failed? Building a strategy is one thing and executing it successfully is another.  But La...

Today’s guest is Elane Stock, the CEO of ServiceMaster Brands. There’s an adage I’m sure you’ve heard: the only way to gain control is to give up control. If you’ve ever run a business or led a team, you know how true this statement is. I’m sure you also know how hard it can be to give up control.    But if we want our companies to grow, we have to learn to trust our partners and team members and...

Today’s guest is James Gorman, the Chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley. In Australia, there’s something known as the Tall Poppy Syndrome. In a field of poppies, there are always one or two that stand out from the rest and it disrupts the beauty of the field. And so for that reason, they’ll snip off those poppies … they trim them down so they don’t stand out amongst the others. What’s interesting is...

Today’s guest is Jim Nantz, an Emmy Award winning sports commentator, and in my opinion, the top sports commentator in the world! He’s the voice of the NFL on CBS, the NCAA’s March Madness, and golf—in particular, the Masters. As you well know, Jim is an incredible storyteller and communicator. He is able to pull stories and statistics seemingly from nowhere that really capture the moment.  What y...

Today, we're going to talk about a book that I coauthored with my friend Jason Goldsmith, a sports performance coach for world class athletes. The book is available now wherever you buy books, and is titled Take Charge of You: How Self-Coaching Can Transform Your Life and Career. Now, what makes this book different is you can obviously read this book from front to back, and I know you'll enjoy the...

In this BONUS episode of How Leaders Lead, David shares the introduction to his new book, Take Charge of You: How Self-Coaching can Transform your Life and Career. Find out how to take the methods and metrics of coaching into your own hands and find the success you want in life.