How Leaders Lead with David Novak

Today’s guest is Lauren Hobart, President & CEO of Dick's Sporting Goods. If you look at any job description for a leadership role, the one thing that’s ALWAYS going to be listed there is … drumroll, please … excellent communication skills. In fact, we talk about communication skills in leadership so often that it’s easy to forget what it actually means to communicate well. Today’s conversation wi...

Today’s guest is General Ray Odierno, the former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army – which is the top job in the Army. He retired in 2015 as a four-star general and now works in the private sector, consulting on minor little subjects like country risk and cybersecurity Now it’s one thing to talk about trusting a leader in a workplace setting. But trusting a leader in the military goes up a whole oth...

Today’s guest is Kevin Johnson, CEO of Starbucks. Do you ever feel like your organization is incredibly complex? Like it takes forever to get anything done? It’s a pretty common issue, especially if you lead in a big or fast-growing organization. Now, obviously, Starbucks is a massive company. They operate in 82 countries with 383,000 employees. But they’re still able to innovate and adapt quickly...

Today’s guest is Madeline Bell, President & CEO of the world-renowned Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Now you’ve probably heard how important it is for leaders to “walk the talk” – for our actions to sync up with our words. After all, our people are only listening to us some of the time. But they are watching us all the time. What’s our tone? Our body language? Do we listen? Do we take time o...

Today’s guest is Lindsey Johnson, Cofounder and CEO of Weezie Towels. She and her co-founder Liz Eicholz are long-time friends who joined forces to build something really special. At Weezie, they have made a unique product people love. They’ve created differentiators no one else has. They’ve wrapped it all up in fun, thoughtful branding. They’re making a splash everywhere from Forbes to Southern L...

Today’s guest is John Calipari, head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky. Yes, the legendary Coach Cal!  I gotta tell you, if you’re listening to this podcast first thing in the morning, you can just skip the coffee. Coach Cal will get you fired up with just his passion and energy alone.  But you know, there’s something even more powerful behind that enthusiasm – and that’s how much Coa...

Today’s guest is Jack Nicklaus, who is widely regarded as the best golfer to ever play the game. He hardly needs an introduction! He won 117 professional tournaments over his 44 year career, including six Masters, five PGA championships, four U.S. Open titles, and three British Open titles.  But his legendary status doesn’t stop with his playing career. He’s gone on to design world renowned course...

Today’s guest is Dave Cote, former CEO of Honeywell. Dave led an incredible turnaround at Honeywell. When he took charge in 2002, the company was in dire straits. Dave was in charge for 16 years, and in that time, Honeywell's market cap grew from $20 billion to a whopping $120 billion.  And at every point along the way, Dave fought the misconception that leaders have to choose between two seemingl...

Today’s guest is Frank Blake, former CEO of The Home Depot. He actually calls himself the “accidental CEO” – and it was a bit of a surprise when he was appointed back in 2007. It’s not every day that a former lawyer for GE finds his way to the top role at a home improvement store. However, his success at The Home Depot has been anything BUT accidental. He made big calls that turned the company aro...

Today’s guest is Steve Burke, Chairman of NBCUniversal. Since taking over NBCUniversal in 2011, he's almost tripled the profits from around $3 billion to over $8 billion and is leading the fastest growing media company in the world. Before that, Steve was the #2 guy at Comcast alongside Brian Roberts as they acquired NBCUniversal. He’s also led hugely successful efforts at Disney and ABC. He has a...

In any organization, there’s always some kind of chaos. It’s just the way of the world. But leaders don’t just face chaos. They’re defined by how they handle it.  And that’s why we’re thrilled to have today’s guest, Mory Fontanez. She's the founder of 822 Group, a consultancy which is helping companies and leaders reconnect with their higher purpose to grow their businesses. Now, if you’re the typ...

Today’s guest is Tim Ryan, US Chair and Senior Partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, one of the top accounting and consulting firms in the world.  You don’t get elected to this kind of position if you’re not absolutely at the top of your game. And Tim sure is. He is one of the smartest guys around.  But that does not mean he has all the answers. In fact, in his words, he “drives himself crazy with li...

Today’s guest is Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. If you haven’t already heard part one of this conversation, check the feed and start there instead. It’s a masterclass in dealing with problems by preparing for them ahead of time. But some problems aren’t possibilities waaaaaay off in the future. They’re right here, right now! And in part two, we get into how Jamie deals with those...

Today’s guest is Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. He took this job back in 2006 – and it has not been an easy road. He faced the global financial crisis in ‘08, the COVID-19 pandemic, and all its aftermath. It’s just been one thing after another.  But I love the no-nonsense way Jamie approaches leadership in these tough moments. He isn’t surprised by problems. He’s prepared for the...

Today’s guest is NHL Hall of Famer Mark Messier. The man hardly needs an introduction! He’s won the Stanley Cup a whopping six times and is one of the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorers.  He’s a legend of the game. But he’s also widely regarded as one of the best leaders in the game – not just in hockey, but in all of sport.  In this conversation, you’ll get a glimpse into his leadership style an...

Today’s guest is Larry Merlo, CEO of CVS Health. When Larry took the helm at CVS in 2011, they were doing about 100 billion dollars in revenue. That’s a lot of money. But guess what? Now they’re doing almost 250 billion in revenue. It’s a remarkable amount of growth. But it’s not the most remarkable thing Larry has done. He also made the bold decision to remove tobacco products from CVS stores – e...

Listen to the second part of our conversation with Tom Brady, quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. If you haven’t heard the first part yet, find it on the podcast feed – you’re going to want to start there.  In the second half of our conversation, we talk about Tom’s upbringing, which is where his incredible discipline really starts.  Tom also talks in depth about the specific mentality shifts...

Today’s guest is Tom Brady, the quarterback of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And if you know anything about Tom Brady, you know he’s incredibly disciplined. His nutrition, his fitness, his training, his prep, his mindset – the guy has an elite level of dedication to being his best. And that hard work is a huge reason why he is the greatest of all time, the GOAT! But here’s what a lot of people miss. A...

Today’s guest is Indra Nooyi, the former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo. Indra is an incredibly accomplished leader. In her twelve years in charge at PepsiCo, she navigated all kinds of challenges – a global recession, major restructuring, sweeping changes in consumer habits. And yet, in those same twelve years, PepsiCo sales had risen by 80%. That kind of leadership is impressive. But what’s even mo...

Today’s guest is Bobbi Brown, Founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics & CEO of Beauty Evolution.  She is an absolute creative genius. Not just in makeup. In her whole life! When Bobbi comes up against a problem, she approaches it in the most wonderful and nontraditional ways.  And it works! She basically reinvented makeup in the 80s. She built a billion dollar brand. Today, she’s leading a successful wel...

Today’s guest is Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard. Ajay is one of the most respected leaders in the world, and he’s a classic example of that old adage, “When you do the right thing, the right things happen.” In fact, that idea of doing the right thing is so core to his leadership style that he coined a term for it – he calls it the “decency quotient.” As a leader it’s not enough to have a good IQ an...

Today’s guest is Ethan Brown, Founder and CEO of Beyond Meat. You hear a lot of leaders say they want to change the world. But that is literally Ethan’s mission at Beyond Meat. Their company is devoted to getting the same protein as animal meat straight from plants – so they can reduce climate change, improve human health, and help animal welfare. Now that’s an epic mission!  And when you listen t...

Today’s guest is Tony Xu, Cofounder and CEO of Doordash.  Getting a nice tasty burrito delivered to your door may seem pretty straightforward.  But when you think about all the moving parts – vendors, drivers, logistics, traffic, weather, technology – there are a lot of places where problems can pop up! Tony and his team love to solve those problems. And they do it by breaking them down to their s...

Today’s guest is Seth Waugh, CEO of the PGA of America. Seth Waugh’s background is actually in finance – most recently, as the CEO of Deutsche Bank. That’s obviously impressive, but what really sets him apart is his unique ability to relate to people at every level of an organization.  And that’s exactly what he did when took over as CEO of the PGA of America. He listened, he learned, and he gave...

Today’s guest is Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap.  The tech world is driven by innovation. And Snapchat has set the gold standard for getting new ideas to take off, ever since 2011 when Evan Spiegel co-founded the company while he was a student at Stanford.  But there’s a lot more to Snapchat’s success than just having these good ideas. They have created a culture where those ideas can actually develop....