Month: October 2024

In this episode of The Cred Podcast, host Mack McKelvey sits down with Gary Goldberg, Founder and President of SquadLocker, Inc., to explore the complexities of leadership, decision-making, and the powerful role of failure in success. Drawing from his early experiences observing his father build a successful textile business, Gary shares valuable insights that shaped his approach to leadership and innovation.

When it comes to decision-making, Gary stresses that everything should be wrapped in the company’s goals, cautioning that leaders often overlook the importance of communicating and truly contextualizing those goals for their teams. “Not only do we have to set goals and get people beating the drum to the mantra, but these people in their individual work style have to contextualize the mantra for their own passions.”

In this candid conversation, Gary also opens up about the challenges and rewards of managing people: “The hardest thing about businesses is the people. The best thing about businesses is the people.” He offers advice for aspiring leaders, encouraging them to embrace failure as a crucial part of the journey: “Take pleasure and triumph in your failures. Don’t fear them. The majority of my career has been a series of failures leading to an accomplishment. And I tell people I fail forward.”

Tune in to discover how Gary leverages passion, curiosity, and creativity in every decision he makes.

In this episode of The Cred Podcast, host Mack McKelvey chats about decision-making with Paul Hanges, CEO of JibJab, where the mission is to spread joy.

Paul believes in empowering his team to make decisions by acting as the “bumper” in the bowling lane—guiding them while providing the context necessary for them to see the bigger picture. He explains, “I’m going to guide you to knock down the pins and make sure you’re not veering off course, but I’m not here to do the work for you.”

Rejecting hustle culture, Paul embraces hyper-prioritization, keeping his schedule as open as possible to support his team and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

When it comes to navigating outcomes, Paul draws on his experience playing poker, saying you need to divorce yourself from the idea that the outcomes determine whether a decision was right.  Instead, it’s all about embracing data (to a degree), core values, context, and risk tolerance.

From managing an emotional piggyback to leading the fondly dubbed “cockroach of the internet,” Paul shares his professorial take on leadership and decision-making, both big and small.

In this episode of The Cred Podcast, host Mack McKelvey sits down with Gina Bianchini, founder and CEO of Mighty Networks. With an impressive background in the tech world, Gina shares her distinctive approach to decision-making, underscoring the importance of self-care, taking bets, and building a culture that’s safe to fail.

At Mighty Networks, Gina and her team harness the OODA Loop Framework—observe, orient, decide, act—to make decisions, continually cycling back to observation. This iterative process strips away emotional biases from decision-making and is most effective when executed with speed.

For Gina, effective leadership ultimately hinges on managing your own psychology to make better decisions. As she puts it, “If I work so hard that I’m not in a position to make good decisions, I’m gonna’ fail.” Rejecting the hustle culture that is so prevalent in the Silicon Valley, Gina emphasizes the importance of effective delegation, which allows her to prioritize essential elements that fuel sound decision-making: nutrition, exercise, and adequate rest. “I think it’s very difficult to make good decisions on four hours of sleep.”

Gina is passionate about cultivating a culture where it’s safe to fail, encouraging teams to experiment and take strategic bets. She believes that the interplay of these bets often leads to the best discoveries.

In the end, Gina’s approach reminds us that successful decision-making thrives on self-care, a solid framework, and creating a culture where innovation can flourish.