Sebastien Page, Chief Investment Officer at T. Rowe Price, shares unconventional leadership wisdom from 25 years managing high-performing teams. Discover why the best leaders listen more than they talk, why strategic quitting beats stubborn perseverance, and how stress can actually improve your performance.

Key Takeaways:

• Mastery vs ego orientation - competing with your former self, not others
• Why knowing when to quit is the most underrated leadership skill
• The Yerkes-Dodson curve: how stress improves performance (up to a point)
• Goal-setting beyond KPIs: why relationships matter more than wealth
• The "clear your slides" technique that instantly improves presentations
• How to reframe stress as activation for better performance

Sebastien's book: The Psychology of Leadership (available on Amazon)Connect with Sebastien on LinkedIn.com/in/sebastien-page

Joseph Anderson, CEO of Connex E-commerce, shares his 16-year journey from software sales to building an automation company that helps e-commerce businesses sync orders between selling channels and accounting systems.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Transitioning from corporate employee to entrepreneur (and doubling his income in year one)
• Building training systems from scratch when hiring your first employees
• The challenges of onboarding and managing remote teams across the US and India
• Why 80% of his team is now fractional consultants and contractors
• His hiring mistakes through LinkedIn (90% turnover) and what he learned
• The difference between promoting from within vs. hiring outside expertise
• Using agencies for SEO, marketing, and development instead of full-time hires
• His straightforward approach to communication and setting clear expectations

Key takeaway: Small businesses don't always need full-time employees for every role. Strategic use of fractional talent and agencies can provide expert-level skills without the overhead.

Connect with Joseph Anderson:

• Connex E-commerce: https://www.myconnex.com
• Books & Coaching: https://www.josephmanderson.com

About NeuroConversant Leadership:I help engineers and technical professionals transition from individual contributors to confident leaders and communicators. New episodes every Thursday.

90% of people describe their meetings as unproductive, and yet they spent one third to one half of their time in them! In this episode, we talk to Chris Fenning who recently published a book titled "Effective Meetings: Great Results. Less Pain. Every Time." We explore how to make meetings more productive, or how they can be replaced by something more productive and less time consuming. Learn more about Chris at www.ChrisFenning.com

Takeaways

Effective communication is crucial in STEM leadership.

Frameworks can help engineers communicate more clearly.

Understanding the audience's intent is key to effective conversations.

Meetings should have a clear purpose and output.

Avoid unnecessary meetings to improve productivity.

Meeting-free days can significantly boost team efficiency.

Identify the right participants for each meeting.

Clear meeting invitations enhance engagement and relevance.

Virtual meetings have increased but can lead to disengagement.

Pausing before speaking can improve communication quality.

Chapters

02:03 Frameworks for Clear and Concise Communication

08:21 Understanding Intent and Audience in Conversations

13:44 The Importance of Effective Meetings

19:25 When to Hold a Meeting: Key Considerations

22:54 The Impact of Meeting-Free Days on Productivity

28:47 Identifying the Right Participants for Meetings

32:28 Avoiding Unnecessary Meeting Invitations

37:34 The Rise of Virtual Meetings and Their Challenges

44:20 Conclusion and Key Takeaway on Communication