The Leadership Stack Podcast

Sean: We have a question from Michelle, how can one overcome shiny object syndrome in learning something that's beyond your current role? Oh, good question. That's a good question. Jeff: In learning, how can one overcome the shiny object syndrome in learning something that is beyond your current role? I'm not too familiar, Sean, with the shiny object syndrome. Sean: It's like "Ooh, I want to learn...

Even the tiniest mistakes in negotiation can get you to a no-deal. Watch this, so you can avoid these common mistakes and be able to successfully close a deal! Negotiation is more than just closing a business deal and asking for a salary raise. You also negotiate when haggling with a seller, solving conflicts, and the list just goes on. Be it with your friends, families, or clients, you negotiate...

Sean: We have a question. How do you map out a plan for your employees' growth and promotion? Jeff: You have to probably first identify where do you want to bring the company in the first place? Again, growth in a company happens when your people are also growing. See, I've seen many companies in the past that, as you know, they grew too fast, too soon, and forgot the people that are in the compan...

Sean: The first one is from Vicente and from Facebook. I have a question. I just started a design agency and I have an upcoming project. It's a design and development project which will be a few months of engagement. Is it best to hire my dev team or partner with a dev agency? And Jeff, what do you think? I want to know what you think about this? Jeff: Well, Sean, I would always advise most of the...

Sean: How do you look for those people who you mentioned could represent you could represent the brand well and could actually make sales because you're paying a first world country salary, which we're not really used to here in the Philippines. Bant: You know, it's a great question. One of the things I've found is you'll get a lot of people will tell you like,' oh, well, you need to go hire someo...

Sean: I mean, it's the leaders dilemma, the founders dilemma. Yeah, we eat problems for breakfast and it just keeps going. But it's also why we pay ourselves the most. Right? Bant: Well, you know, that's a really interesting one. You know, I actually suffered on that one, Sean. You know, I've read recently about how, you know, there's a lot of startup folks that always say, like, make sure you pay...

The self-centeredness of happiness often leaves a legacy of selfishness and regret. He or she left because he/she was not happy here and wanted to be happy elsewhere – hence he/she has made all our workload heavier and left our lives worse than before.   Fulfillment leaves nothing behind. We look out for each other and serve one another. We grow each other by working together. Growth does not come...

Sean: So one of the things that I'm wondering about, aside from the entrepreneur or the executive doing a million things every day, why else should they get your services aside from them being too busy? Bant: Right. Well, I mean, I think the biggest reason that they do it is that it obviously helps them to garner other opportunities that will help their business as well. So we find that our client...

Sean: So we have people tuning in the podcast today. We have over 4000 followers on Spotify, over 10,000 listeners. It's been a little over two years and they're listening to you right now. Sean: And they're thinking, why is this important for me? I'm just starting out. No one cares about who I am and my business is under the radar right now. It's just been three years. Yeah, I have a million prob...

Sean: Do you have any advice for people who want to build a business but can't really afford to fail? These are the people that want to know that even before leaping on their entrepreneurial journey, they should at least have a parachute or even a trampoline for them to land on. Josh: In my opinion, it is really a leap of faith. When I started my first venture, Pushcart.ph - it was on my own. I wa...

Sean: When you're looking for farmers or suppliers, what were the KPIs or metrics you were looking for in a supplier to maintain quality control? Josh: For us, it is always relationship-based, are you in it for the long term? Is this the right partner that we should get? Because when you talk to farmers - first of all, they are already decades in terms of trading their fruits and vegetables. So wh...

I’ve been into car camping recently with my family. We’ve had tons of fun doing it. We camped out at The Beach Garage Campgrounds in Lian, Batangas. The super typhoon (Rai) that hit a significant part of our country has just passed. I’m not even sure how long this campsite will last if the landmass of this campsite gets pummelled away by the sea at this rate. For now, we are thoroughly enjoying Go...

Sean: We have a question from Nino. How did the agricultural supply chain disruption caused by the pandemic affect your agribusiness? Josh: And that's a good question. We started Zagana as traditional e-commerce, we take your order and we deliver it in 3 to 5 days. So when we take the order, we send it to the farm saying "here are the orders" then we'll send it to our storages then that's when we...

Sean: What is Zagana's vision as a company? Josh: I'll start with our purpose. Our purpose is to uplift lives using technology. So technology comes a lot into play. You have the logistics process where you bring the produce from point A to point B. Number two is how you will be able to prolong and maintain the produce. And number three is how you can make transactions as seamless as possible - so...

Sean: How were you able to get connected with venture capitalists in Silicon Valley? Josh: One very funny story. You just have to apply online, and it is also quick and easy. I think there are a lot of people who also applied to Y Combinator. Just send your application and then they will get back to you. You just need to return back their questionnaires and eventually they will call you. Like, for...

Jay: And there are not many decisions you make as an organization or as a leader which are truly not reversible. There are very few. Hiring people is one of the kinds of in-between gray area ones. So when we think about the rate of decision making, this is written right into our sensei values. One-way door decisions are different than two-way door decisions. And what I mean by that is some decisio...

Leaders and managers are both integral to your business’ success. To utilize them well, you have to know how they differ from each other. Watch this! A company needs both a leader and a manager. You have to recognize their key differences as leaders and managers have different approaches in managing a team. Some people may think that they are the same, but there are clear distinctions between the...

Jay: And so if you're thinking about this from a cultural perspective where you're thinking about it from a training perspective, where do we invest in learning and skill development for leaders? Those two moments is the first time you become a leader and the first time you become a leader of leaders. And so the change is important because when you become a leader for the first time, your skillset...

Sean: Is there a reason why you didn't do it in such a way as we did where we have a multiple choice answer and they could just answer the test? Are there advantages to doing it live? Jay: It doesn't scale as well. So I will say that your approach is certainly more scalable. However, I think the differences between self-reported data and observed data. And so if you ask a candidate a question duri...

Sean: And I want to rewind a little bit back to when you started that digital company, so you were able to sell it, but what were some of the earliest challenges that you discovered? Sean: Because one of the reasons why we started the Leadership Stack podcast is leadership is not really that natural for a lot of people. And even for those who are kind of like they were born with some leadership po...

Sean: Okay. We have our next question from Chucks - how do you find the time, energy, and space to keep working and improving your business? Ven: That is the hardest thing because time is the most precious valuable resource out there. But this is something you need - we need to build into ourselves. You can't 'not' do it because there's such a thing as working on your business and working in your...

Leading Millennials and Gen Zs is not difficult and is not complicated. But if you find it difficult to lead and retain them, this video is for you! Millennials and Gen Zs are independent, career-driven, and love challenges. However, they tend to job hop when they feel like they are not growing at all. Understanding how you can lead and manage a team like them is very important for the success of...

Sean: What kind of leadership style have you adopted that you found to be most useful for your company, for your team? Ven: That's a great question because I did not adopt it. It was always been who I was. So that's the thing. I found the best parts of myself and offered that. I think you - Sean and I are familiar with strengths, and strengths development. So I lead with futuristic. So I also lead...

Sean: The first question, straight to the point - would be about family business. What skills did you find to be the most useful in managing a family business? Ven: I didn't expect that question because that's a lot of reflection. The thing about family business, they haven't been really writing any books about it, right? They tell you how to be a good employee. And I remember actually there's thi...

Sean: What would be something that you would suggest for people to build into their habit routine to become a better leader and manager at the same time with their work or career? Darby: Yeah, so I think it's going to be different for everybody. However, what I would say is that what everybody should focus on because this is related to habits is, as you analyze, like sitting down and thinking abou...