Level Up Your Leadership: Pete Srodoski on CEO Humility, Strategy & Building High-Performing Teams

Matt Hines welcomes Pete Srodoski to season three of Hines On Air to return to the show’s motivational roots for entrepreneurs and leaders. Srodoski, a former CEO/COO with 20 years of experience and author of Lead With Empathy, Build Kick Ass Teams, and The Small Business Playbook, explains the common pattern he sees among executives: despite outward confidence, many privately admit they don’t know what they’re doing and lack a playbook, making leadership lonely. He describes his Level Up Your Leadership training as a step-by-step framework focused on structure, vision, strategy, and accountable execution to stop “rudderless” decision-making that causes team whiplash, emphasizing that vision can be short-term (weekly or monthly) with KPIs and proactive incentives. They also discuss the role of coaching, luck versus preparation in business, Pete’s background across multiple industries, and self-publishing versus traditional publishing economics and distribution.   00:00 Season Three Welcome 00:21 Meet Pete Srodoski 01:50 No One Has a Playbook 03:45 CEO Ego and Loneliness 05:46 Why Startups Feel Hard 07:36 Luck and Preparedness 08:51 Structure Vision Strategy 13:40 Stress and Flying Blind 14:41 Short Term Vision Systems 16:23 Targets Incentives KPIs 17:16 Leading Metrics Mindset 18:55 Knowing What Good Looks Like 19:27 Why Coaches Matter 21:03 Ego Costs Real Money 21:47 Thinking Bigger Targets 22:47 Airplane View Strategy 24:22 Small Business Playbook 26:59 CEO COO Background 28:58 Failures And Scar Tissue 32:39 Coaching Model In Practice 34:52 Where To Find Pete 35:37 Self Publishing Economics 39:27 Final Wrap And Callouts Sponsor by Hines Law https://hineslaw.org/ Sponsor by Bravos Leadership https://bravosleadership.com/#