Lessons in leadership with a gun on the table and your share price plummeting

Vision gets a lot of attention in startups. It's the thing founders pitch to investors, talk about with customers and use to inspire teams. But as Dane Hudson argues, vision alone isn't enough. After more than 25 years leading businesses across five industries and mentoring more than 150 founders and CEOs, Dane learnt that scaling a company requires something less glamorous but ultimately more important: discipline. This week on episode 62 of Startup 360, Simon and Majella sit down with the founder of Impactful Leadership and author of Discipline Beats Vision to talk about what it really takes to lead as a business grows. Dane isn't speaking from theory. He has the scars to prove it. There was the time he was running KFC in Southern Africa and a franchisee came to a meeting with him, put a gun on the table and named Dane’s three daughters. And also watching as CEO of a listed wine company as its share price fell 97%. Those experiences shaped the leadership lessons he now shares with founders, CEOs and executive teams across Australia and Southeast Asia. Simon and Majella ask about the difference between grit and resilience, the mistakes leaders make as companies scale, why transparency matters more than most founders realise, and what boards and CEOs often misunderstand about each other. They also unpack some of the key lessons from Discipline Beats Vision, including why leadership is ultimately a set of behaviours rather than a title, and why the habits that get a business started are rarely the same ones that help it scale. It's a candid conversation from a veteran leader about how to be disciplined and what you need to do when the pressure is really on. Startup 360 is a SmartCo. Media production, produced and edited by Matt Jackson, with Ciarán Harte, and supported by Deel. Hire, manage and pay – anyone, anywhere. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube, and read StartupDaily.net for all the ANZ tech news for free!