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Thank you to the 1,400 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 questions!
I hope reading
7 Questions with Craig Handley
helps you in your leadership.
Cheers,
Jonno White
7 Questions with Craig Handley
Name: Craig Handley
Current title: CEO
Current organisation: ListenTrust/Social Close
Craig Handley has never been afraid of clowns. He likes clowns. Craig will tell you that he is handsome, humble, and smart, and people generally agree that “yes, he is a smart guy” and “no, winning 2nd place in the beauty contest in Monopoly does not make you handsome”. He wrote a best selling book called “Hired To Quit” so he’s an author, but he really views himself as an entertainer and musician who moonlights as CEO of his 13M-15M dollar company ListenTrust which was named #1 in Business Products and Service (#27 overall) on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 list and employs around 1,000 really awesome people.

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1. What have you found most challenging as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise?
patience: allowing the employees to learn and execute on their own and trying not to do everything.
2. How did you become a CEO or executive of a large enterprise? Can you please briefly tell the story?
I was consulting and helping people and I thought I could do it better. Saved up some money and built it. Started with 20 people and in 3 years had over 1000
3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?
I'm a night owl. today it's different from the past.. I wake up and try to bump off all my little tasks in between calls. This allows me to focus on bigger projects...
4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?
do what you love and what you're good at. hire everything else. and be patient - 24 hour rule - always take 24 hours before taking action on serious things -
5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?
W Clement Stone - Success System that Never Fails - Helped me to understand sales and a system that could be built on everyday -
6. How do you build leadership capacity in a large enterprise?
through core values and committed action
7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a CEO or executive of a large enterprise so far?
when a charity event on TV had the lead business go down and in 12 hours we rerouted 175K calls -