308: 4 Secrets to Growing Leaders with Adam Joseph

https://youtu.be/Da2JjKuwqiI Adam Joseph, entrepreneur, 5-time PE-funded CEO, two-time Fortune 100 executive, and Summit OS Guide™, shares how developing people through ownership, mentorship, and trust drives leadership growth and organizational success. We explore Adam’s journey from first-time founder to leading multiple private equity–backed companies, and how his Leadership Growth Framework—Identify Talent, Launch Careers, Mentor, and Allow Them Room to Fail—has helped him build empowered, high-performing teams. Adam explains why potential matters more than experience, why CEOs must coach forward instead of managing backward, and how giving people space to fail builds resilience and confidence. He also discusses the “Burn the Boats” mindset—what it means to go all in as a leader—and shares how to balance ambition with purpose, family, and fulfillment. --- 4 Secrets to Growing Leaders with Adam Joseph  Good day. Dear listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint podcast, and my guest today is Adam Joseph, who's an entrepreneur, a five time private equity funded CEO. A two time Fortune 100 executive and the Summit OS Guide. Adam, welcome to the show,  Steve. Thank you. It's been a long wait. I'm thrilled to be a part of blueprint. It's good to have you here on the show and, you know, let's dig in. I always ask guests about their personal why and how they manifest it in their professional life, in their business, in the practice. So what is yours?  So, I know this sounds cliche, but you know me a little bit, so I think you can validate that. I really try to live life to its fullest when it comes to my career. I love to fill my days with people that share my passion for building. When I come home, I wanna be with people I love, and when I have time off, I want to enjoy the adrenaline sports that give me energy, whether it's skiing or biking or hiking. Or climbing, whether it's with other experts or newcomers who wanna learn. For me, that's what energizes me. And I have found in my career that it's possible to do this in business as well. I can remember as a young entrepreneur, building my first company, trying to get my very small team to be as productive as possible and to work as hard as possible. And part of the magic with that was to get the most out of them. I bought two cheap hockey goals at a Costco, and every day at lunch we play a little roller blade hockey. Not only did it make them more fit, but they, we really got to know one another and, and enjoy one another aside from sling and code. And I, not only rewarded them with a little bit of fitness, but we were fortunate to get a trade sale just a few years later.  Wow.  I truly believe in all things you need to savor the journey, not grind to the finish line. It's true in a bike race, it's true over dinner, and it's certainly true with a business. Yeah, I like to say also that it's so hard to make a business successful if you don't at least enjoy the ride and you don't have fun along the way.  Absolutely. I mean, and there was absolutely times in my business career where it was nearly impossible for me to come up with that right balance and it impacted my family, it impacted my personal wellbeing. I would argue that many of the management skills I developed as an operator were so that I could make the time to recover that balance between work and everything else.  So what does it take to create the time? What does it take to have this balanced life as a top executive? It's not something that CEOs brag about, that they are having balanced lives. Well. A lot of it is being part of or building a great team. To me, the best thing you can do is have people that you know and trust, that you can not only delegate things to, but know that they'll be done as well or better than you can.Share on X 'Cause quite honestly, particularly as a growth stage, CEO, a lot of your time is spent either doing other people's j...