Many people can come up with a business idea and start something, but to build and maintain large companies, leadership is the true key to success. We had the opportunity to sit down with former Chairman of JetBlue Airways, Joel Person. Joel also is a Consulting Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Chairman and Founder of Peterson Partners, and the former CEO of Trammell Crow Company.

Joel talks about his experience as a leader in various roles from being a CEO of a large company to Chairman of a publicly-traded company, and as an investor of 200+ companies. We discussed his five key types of leadership, what it takes for companies to teach their workforce to embrace failure, some of the biggest lessons he has learned during his amazing career, and so much more!

Make sure to grab your copy of Entrepreneurial Leadership here: Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Art of Launching New Ventures, Inspiring Others, and Running Stuff

Official Episode Breakdown:

5:05 - The age-old question of entrepreneurship, are they made or born. Plus we discuss Joel’s perspective of being a professor at Stanford, and what his students discover

6:10 - At what point in Joel’s career did he move from being an entrepreneur to a business leader?

8:40 - Why Joel believes it's so important for aspiring leaders to take on service jobs at a young age, and how they can teach perseverance.

10:10 - When it comes to perseverance, Joel shares a moment where he was knocked down, and the lessons he learned by a mentor who taught him how to move forward

13:20 - The importance of optimism as a leader, and why that is crucial now more than ever

14:20 - The five different types of leaders (5-Tool Leader) that Joel defined in his book, and the specific traits are more important now, in times of a pandemic and a looming recession

18:10 - There are people who are lucky and have those five naturally but is it possible for someone to have a few, but the others are impossible to get to?

20:50 - Is it typical for the MBA students at Stanford to have experience under their belt, or are they usually coming fresh out of undergrad?

23:30 - Talking more about his experience at Harvard Business School with business powerhouses like Ray Dalio.

25:00 - Joel’s strategy has been to invest in people over the business concepts and has had a lot of success by investing this way. He discusses what he looks for when deciding what kind of company he wants to invest in.

29:10 - When it comes to investing, is there a typical strategy to knowing when to invest vs bootstrapping your way to the top?

31:50 - When it comes to failing forward, what’s important for leaders to understand that as they transition away from a start-up that they keep that mentality?

34:00 - How can you find the happy medium of being able to ask for feedback from your team without losing your ‘power’ as a leader?

36:30 - How important are mentors when building a career, and when did Joel recognize that he needed to make sure he should always have a mentor?

37:50 - When it comes to being a great leader, quick decision making is a must. Joel discusses his decision-making process.

40:20 - Once a decision is made, how do you know when to change strategy vs letting more time gather results?

41:30 - Understanding the difference between instincts and emotions

44:12 - As a leader, are you hindered if you’re not an introvert by nature?

44:35 - Has the curriculum of the MBA changed drastically in the past 30 years, or are the core values still the same?

46:25 - Where is the future of leadership going?