C-Suite Intelligence

In today’s episode, Stephen is joined by John Nasr, Senior Managing Director at TMG, for the second part of our two-part series on building effective relationships with Boards. Together, they explore how trust and alignment between leadership teams and the Board can improve decision-making, clarify strategy, and support long-term success.Join us as we discuss:Practical strategies for handling tough questions and facilitating productive discussions using a Socratic approach.How to establish trust with the Board through consistent, thoughtful engagement and communication.Techniques for managing aggressive Board members and maintaining strategic alignment.

In today’s episode, Stephen is joined by John Nasr, Senior Managing Director at TMG, for the first part of a two-part series on building effective relationships with Boards. Together, they explore how trust and alignment between leadership teams and the Board can improve decision-making, clarify strategy, and support long-term success.Join us as we discuss:Practical strategies for handling tough questions and facilitating productive discussions using a Socratic approach.How to establish trust with the Board through consistent, thoughtful engagement and communication.Techniques for managing aggressive Board members and maintaining strategic alignment.

In today’s episode, TMG CEO Stephen Miles and Managing Director Stephanie McCoy Loquvam discuss the importance of fostering idea conflict without devolving into social conflict. They explore going “hard on the idea, soft on the person” to drive effective decision-making and encourage diverse perspectives. Tune in for insights on what causes social conflict, why it undermines team dynamics, and how leaders can create the conditions for open, productive debate.Join us as we discuss:Practical strategies for promoting idea conflict without causing personal friction.The role of context, trust, and structured processes in fostering a culture of constructive debate.How to lead open debates that center on the ideas, not the individuals.

In this episode, Stephen is joined by Taylor Griffin, COO of TMG, to explore how spotting early signs of potential threats can transform the way senior leaders navigate their organizations. Together, they’ll discuss how the ability to identify subtle warning signs—before a full-blown crisis emerges—empowers leaders to make smarter, proactive decisions. They’ll also share a practical toolkit for detecting those early whiffs of smoke and preventing issues from escalating into larger problems.Join us as we discuss: How successful leaders act on weak or missing signals to stay ahead of emerging threats.The importance of ongoing team engagement for effective signal detection and spotting emerging threats and opportunities.The courage it takes to challenge the status quo and address potential issues that others may not see.

What exactly is founder mode? Is it just another form of micromanagement, or is it a practical approach to leadership in today’s fast-paced business environment?In this episode, Stephen and Taylor dive into the debate sparked by figures like Paul Graham and Brian Chesky, proposing a middle ground between founder and manager mode—micro-leadership. By striking the right balance between employee empowerment and direct managerial involvement, leaders can drive results and foster innovation, staying engaged with both their work and their teams while supporting autonomy and creativity.Join us as we discuss:How to embrace micro-leadership by staying connected to your team’s work.How to build a management system with regular check-ins that balance stability with high performance.How to give top performers the context and guidance they need to maximize their potential and drive success.Learn more:Founder Mode, by Paul Graham Lenny’s Podcast featuring Brian Chesky 

Choosing the right talent for a role is always important, but it's even more crucial when that role is essential to meeting your company's strategic priorities. A leader in a critical position who can't foster deep team alignment and synchronized prioritization can have a cascading negative effect. In this episode, TMG CEO Stephen Miles and COO Taylor Griffin discuss how to determine a role's criticality and evaluate whether a leader has what it takes to be effective.Join us as we discuss: Judo vs. MMA and why "sharp-elbowed" executives aren't always the most effective.The importance of stress testing executives in critical roles.How a clear 12-month plan can help mitigate scope risk when an executive takes on a new role.

In today's episode, we're joined by Courtney Hamilton, Senior Managing Director at TMG, to discuss one of our favorite coaching concepts: shifting to a manual operating mode. As leaders succeed in their careers, they often start defaulting to autopilot. However, there are situations where making the conscious decision to "go to manual"–a process that involves consciously hijacking your automatic response to an event and taking a new, more deliberate approach–will help you become a more effective leader.Join us as we discuss:How slowing down and staying open can help you avoid stasis and maintain a growth mindset.Ways to shift out of automatic mode in everyday activities, such as meetings, to consistently show up as the best version of yourself.The importance of shifting to manual during times of crisis to ensure you're acting as an absorber and not an amplifier.

Join TMG’s CEO Stephen Miles and COO Taylor Griffin as they unpack the secrets to developing the next generation of general management talent. From doing a staff job to taking something good and making it better, they walk through key experiential moves that can help you take your career to the next level. Whether you're focused on your own development or tasked with developing people, this episode is your go-to guide for rounding out general management talent.Join us as we discuss:The challenges facing general managers and practical skills that can help you lead more effectivelyThe importance of learning how to make your mark as a leader, whether you’re turning something around or working to improve something that is already successfulHow staff and headquarters positions can help you develop a deeper understanding of how your organization operates

Today, our host Stephen Miles, CEO of TMG, is joined by Senior Managing Director John Nasr for an insightful discussion on how executives can effectively lead during turbulent times. In today’s high-velocity, high-stakes environment, understanding the intricacies of leadership under stress has never been more important. From practical tips on turning outward and leveraging your team to the nuances of decision-making and prioritization, Stephen and John break down the hallmarks of effective leadership and pitfalls to avoid. This episode is packed with actionable advice to help you and your team navigate the storm.Join us as we discuss:Balancing instinct and data to ensure best outcomes during a crisisLearning to turn stress into strengths for effective leadership. How absorptive leadership allows you to manage your emotions, slow down decision-making processes, and foster team cohesion.

While the world is saturated with content on leadership, most of us spend the majority of our careers as followers. Today's guest, TMG SMD John Nasr, joins us to explain effective followership and why it's essential for career advancement.In this episode, we discuss practical strategies for creating a low-friction relationship with your leader and how to manage interpersonal dynamics between different personality types, such as introverts/extroverts and thinkers/blinkers. Together, we provide actionable advice on adjusting your energy levels and approach to match your leaders' goals, reducing friction and opening doors to new opportunities.Join us as we discuss:The importance of understanding a leader's preferences for communication and interaction.What distinguishes thinkers from blinkers, and how these two personality types can work together more efficiently.How adapting to your leader's preferences reduces friction and drives results.

Micromanagement gets a bad rap, but could more involvement in the details be the key to successful leadership?This week, Stephen Miles and Taylor Griffin dive deep into the difference between detail-oriented micro leadership and overbearing micromanagement. Listen in as we uncover how a hands-on approach empowers leaders, enhances team alignment, and boosts organizational velocity.Learn more about:A disciplined management operating system that helps leaders remove obstacles for their teams while staying immersed in the details that matter. How the weaponization of micromanagement has caused many leaders to take a hands-off approach centered on delegation that’s detrimental to team building.Why detail matters for leaders and how micro leadership helps create psychological predictability for teams while maintaining healthy tension in the system.

In part two of our discussion on the challenges facing CEOs in 2024, Stephen and Taylor dive deeper into the mechanics of the return to office, the ins and outs of virtual collaboration, what to expect from the regulatory environment in an election year, and the importance of embracing generative AI.Join us as we discuss:How CEOs can help teams balance the need for in-person socialization and collaboration while maintaining flexibility.Our predictions on how political change could affect M&A activity in the U.S. Why CEOs should stop fearing Generative AI and start preparing for how executive, legal, and people teams will put guardrails around its use.

”What you actually hear from CEOs is that they're more in Crisis Leadership planning mode than ever before.”From the issues surrounding return-to-office policies and decreased headcounts to broader geopolitical challenges, Taylor Griffin, Chief Operating Officer at The Miles Group, joins us to talk about how CEOs can navigate the ambiguity of 2024.Join us as we discuss:Leadership strategies for CEOs facing challenges to their company’s license to operate, including ESG, regulation, and more.Learning to plow 40 fields instead of 5: how a dynamic approach to prioritization can help CEOs drive efficiency.The importance of friction for CEOs and why being more involved in day-to-day challenges could actually open up capacity, as opposed to bogging you down.

Special guest Harley Finkelstein, President of Shopify, joins TMG CEO Stephen Miles to discuss their successful coaching relationship and what an ideal high-performance coaching experience can achieve. For executives and founders who may have never considered executive coaching or are unsure of what a coaching relationship looks like day-to-day, Stephen and Harley illustrate what the very best executive coaching relationship can provide.

Employees and teams are experiencing burnout across all levels of the organization. Burnout challenges not only workforce engagement, but quality, productivity, and problem-solving abilities. Courtney Hamilton and Christina Woodard discuss the causes of burnout and the strategies to combat it in order to reconnect teams to their company, culture, and meaningful work.

Every time there’s a threat against a company, there is almost always a weak signal or a whiff of smoke that can serve as an early warning of the risk to the organization. If that threat is dismissed or ignored, the whiff of smoke can turn into a forest fire. Then the organization faces a much bigger problem, with fewer options to solve it. CEO Stephen Miles and Managing Director John Nasr discuss the importance of embedding weak signal detection in the company culture.

Without trust, there is no shared or mutual accountability, and teams do not have strong enough foundations to accomplish their goals. Yet, many people cannot articulate what they and their teams actually need to do in order to form that trust. Stephen Miles and Maizie Nelson share the 8 ways to build trust on your team and inside your company.

Derailment rates for executives in transition, particularly in senior level roles, tend to be higher because they don’t always have the proper understanding of the degree of difficulty related to a given transition. Courtney Hamilton and Christina Woodard discuss how to develop an effective onboarding plan for the first year, allowing proper time to connect with stakeholders, build alignment on the mandate, and prioritize your time effectively, among other strategies.

Regardless of raw potential and natural talent, every person who is serious about their leadership development and growth demonstrates coachability. Taylor Griffin and Samantha Smith explore the concept of coachability – openness to feedback and new ways of doing things, and following through with those changes as part of an iterative, ongoing process.

Culture is most often shaped and fortified on the margin, when leaders must make hard choices. Depending on what they can tolerate, their decisions will either result in a high-performing company culture or one that leads to high levels of conformity and stasis. TMG CEO Stephen Miles and Managing Director John Nasr discuss the criticality of a company’s culture to its longevity and long-term success; and explore the dark side of corporate culture – stagnation that can lead to an organization’s irrelevance and decline.