In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Deborah Magid, Co-Founder and Managing Director at NextStar Venture Partners, shares why leadership is ultimately defined by the opportunities you create for other people—and why trust sits at the center of both numbers and relationships. Drawing on her path from GE to IBM’s corporate venture world and into building a new fund, Deborah explains how her background in cognitive psychology shapes how she evaluates founders: not just on experience, but on how they engage, build credibility, and influence others across an ecosystem. Deborah and Lindsay explore why remote investing makes team assessment harder, how great leaders avoid micromanagement by distributing ownership and responsibility, and why many early-stage teams stall by chasing too many opportunities at once. They also discuss what founders need to understand about enterprise selling, how to use networks and external validation to drive focus, and why “AI dust” is the new “blockchain dust” in startup storytelling. The conversation closes with Deborah’s view of the next wave of value creation: investing in the physical world—energy, healthcare, agriculture, and other real-world systems—where enduring moats are built through trust, community, and impact.

In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Michael Frank, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Gildre, shares how a career on the trading floor shaped his leadership philosophy and why the habits that create success in markets translate directly to entrepreneurship and private equity. From his early days on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange to building and exiting a multi-exchange trading operation, Michael reflects on what it means to reset every day, take accountability for outcomes, and stay sharp in environments where the rules can change overnight. He explains why great leaders listen before they act, including a pivotal story about taking a painful loss after finally trusting his partners’ instincts and how that lesson mirrors the founder’s challenge of letting smarter people run with the ball. Michael and Lindsay explore the difference between “organized chaos” and the real-world messiness of startups, including why credibility, execution, and incentives matter more off the floor than most investors expect. They also discuss how value creation is shifting as distribution becomes the true barrier to building, why Michael believes more entrepreneurs should consider search funds and acquiring durable businesses instead of starting from scratch, and how AI is changing the risk landscape for leaders across every industry. The conversation closes with Michael’s practical advice for founders: work hard, build community, hire people who are better than you, and always be the person willing to raise your hand and ask for the ball.

In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Henry Myers, Co-Founder and Managing Director at High Water Search, shares why entrepreneurship is one of the clearest mirrors for leadership and what that reveals about talent in private equity today. Drawing on his path from finance into building a global PE-focused search firm, Henry explains how personal responsibility, self-awareness, and discernment shape effective leaders on both the investor and operator sides of the table. He unpacks why great recruiting is less about volume and pedigree and more about pattern recognition, timing, and deep alignment between a firm’s culture and an individual’s direction of travel. Henry and Lindsay explore the growing bifurcation between mega-funds and emerging managers, how incentives like carry structures shape behavior and collaboration, and why many investment professionals struggle when moving from large institutional platforms into more entrepreneurial environments. They also discuss the behavioral traits that increasingly differentiate successful PE leaders—empathy, adaptability, communication, and the ability to build trust with founders and management teams—and why reputations travel fast in a small ecosystem. The conversation closes with a look ahead at how private equity talent needs are shifting as value creation replaces multiple expansion, AI reshapes deal teams, and a new generation of leaders reassesses what kind of firms—and cultures—they actually want to build.

In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Neil French, Co-Founder & Director at STOIX, shares why the executive search industry needs a more iconoclastic, evidence-driven approach—especially in private equity. Drawing on his unconventional path from aspiring musician to finance recruiter through the 2008 crash, Neil explains how that “challenger” mindset shaped Stoics and why the traditional black-book model still holds back outcomes. He and Lindsay unpack what makes PE roles so attractive to CFOs—finite goals, transformation mandates, and wealth creation—while also acknowledging the reality: these are some of the hardest jobs in business, often with longer hold periods and shifting leadership needs across stages. Neil outlines why many processes still overvalue confidence and prior PE experience, and how that bias can crowd out high-potential, left-field candidates who outperform once given the shot. They also discuss the modern CFO profile—cross-functional influence, calm under pressure, comfort in ambiguity, and learning agility—as well as the importance of aligning stakeholders early, building a realistic scorecard, and evaluating CFO fit in the context of the broader leadership team.

In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Anderson Williams, Talent Development Principal at Shore Capital Partners, shares why sustainable value creation in founder-led private equity depends less on spreadsheets and more on how leaders navigate change. Drawing on his path from fine arts and nonprofit leadership into entrepreneurship and microcap private equity, Anderson explains how creative courage, adaptability, and understanding human drivers shape effective leadership during periods of growth and integration. He unpacks Shore Capital’s founder-first approach to investing, why building management capacity is essential to scaling businesses, and how silence during acquisitions often creates unnecessary fear and resistance. Anderson and Lindsay also discuss how leadership bottlenecks evolve across the hold period and why the next generation of private equity performance will be driven by firms that intentionally develop people alongside the companies they build.

In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Lee McCabe, Partner at Claymore Partners, shares why the future of value creation in private equity depends on planning for talent early, fixing the broken operating partner model, and building businesses that run on data, not instinct. Drawing on his career across eBay, Expedia, Facebook, Alibaba, and now private equity, Lee explains how exposure to truly digital organizations reshaped his view of leadership, culture, and scalable growth. He unpacks why data eliminates subjectivity and conflict in portfolio companies, why CEOs must deeply understand what business they are actually in, and how clarity around a few core drivers outperforms scattered execution. Lee and Lindsay also discuss why CEO turnover remains stubbornly high in PE, the limits of talent diligence, how digital transformation represents massive untapped upside across traditional industries, and why the next generation of private equity winners will differentiate themselves by pairing strong people with disciplined, data-driven operating models.

In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, Don Purdon, Director of Transformation, Operating Models, Organization Design, and Business Change at Purdon & Associates, shares why sustainable value creation in investor-backed companies depends on treating organizations as integrated systems—not just financial assets. Drawing on his background in organisational psychology, large-scale mergers, and hands-on leadership in PE-backed and listed businesses, Don explains why integrity and behavioral consistency are non-negotiables in change, and how misaligned owner-managers can quietly stall even the best investment thesis. He unpacks a practical way to think about companies as systems of strategy, capability, structure, process, people, and culture, and why “capability transfer” is the real vehicle for scaling what works without killing innovation. Don and Lindsay also discuss the challenge of moving from entrepreneurial, founder-led cultures into more structured, scalable operating models, how leadership charters help define and reinforce the behaviors required for successful integrations, and why larger acquirers so often suffocate the very capabilities they’ve paid to acquire. Finally, Don touches on how AI is changing the build-versus-buy equation, and what it will demand from leaders who want to create lasting value in the next wave of investor-backed growth.

In this episode of the Leadership Quotient Podcast, John Lepto, CRO at Chamberlain Advisors and Senior Advisor at Clear Go-To-Market, shares why the next generation of value creation in private equity will be led by operator-minded, data-literate revenue leaders—not just financial engineers. Drawing on his path from healthcare banking and B2B SaaS sales leadership into PE-backed value creation and go-to-market advisory, John explains why most teams don’t fail for lack of talent but for lack of clarity, and how “strategy without execution” derails even the best investment theses. He unpacks what good looks like from the CRO and operating partner seat in PE—cognitive agility, bias for execution, servant leadership, radical ownership, and the ability to be truly boardroom-ready on metrics like NRR, CAC, and sales efficiency—while still leading people, not just roles. John and Lindsay also discuss the shift from pedigree hires to field-proven specialists, why private equity needs to stop guessing at win/loss and churn data, and how a more human, patient approach to developing sales leaders can improve both portfolio performance and long-term enterprise value.