{"podcast":{"title":"Lead the Team (Top 2% of Podcasts)","slug":"lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768","podcast_index_feed_id":1064768,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/leadtheteam/","website_url":"HTTPS://benfanning.com/blog","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/10af0b95-04e6-42cc-b03d-73690ea3bb8a/QKJ4Hxs4kaKpd554m1ArvK6B.jpg","author":"Ben Fanning","episode_count":480,"summary":"Real CEOs. Real Stories. Hosted by Ben Fanning—2025 Gold Stevie Award winner for Best Business Podcast and ranked in the Top 2% globally—Lead the Team draws on over 600 CEO interviews to take you inside the minds of leaders from brands like Honeywell, HP, IBM, Dunkin’, and L’Oréal. In each episode, you’ll hear raw, unfiltered stories of leading through rapid growth, high-stakes decisions, and make-or-break moments—plus the CEO-tested tools and strategies they use to build high-performing teams. From turning around billion-dollar brands to sparking innovation at scale, these leaders share lessons you can put into action right now to lead your own team better. Subscribe now. ------------- https://www.benfanning.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/benfanning/","last_synced_at":"2026-09-23T12:21:49.293200+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768"},"episode":{"title":"SAP's Mark Niemiec - The Decision That Cost the Quarter, but Saved the Business","slug":"sap-s-mark-niemiec-the-decision-that-cost-the-quarter-but-saved-the-business","published_at":"2026-08-30T18:15:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/sap-s-mark-niemiec-the-decision-that-cost-the-quarter-but-saved-the-business","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768","url":"http://www.benfanning.com/theceosessions/mark-niemiec-sap","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/a4ffc39a-6833-4494-944d-f63c7221a370.mp3","summary":"What happens when leaders face intense pressure to compromise short-term gains for long-term survival? In this episode of Lead The Team , host Ben Fanning sits down with Mark Niemiec , Global Chief Revenue Officer for SAP Customer Experience. Mark shares the story of a massive enterprise deal where his team walked away from a short-term commission boost to do the right thing for the business long-term—and why the customer’s head of procurement called days later to thank him for not \"taking the bait.\" Key Takeaways & Highlights Don't Take the Bait: Why holding the line under extreme pressure builds enduring businesses. \"Down and Out\" Leadership: A game-changing framework learned at Cisco on pushing decision-making power to the front-line teams closest to the customer. Intellectual Honesty: The importance of holding \"strong opinions, loosely held\" and letting go of ideas when better facts arrive. The Premium on Judgment: Why high-level judgment and context are becoming the ultimate executive skills in the era of AI. Lead Through Influence: How to navigate culture and lead large teams without relying on command-and-control hierarchy. Episode Chapters 00:00 – \"Don't Take the Bait\": The Deal That Missed the Quarter 00:34 – Intro: Mark Niemiec (Global CRO, SAP Customer Experience) 01:32 – Discovering \"Down & Out Leadership\" at Cisco 03:36 – Front-Line Empowerment vs. Centralized Control 06:58 – The High-Stakes Deal: Choosing Long-Term Survival Over Short-Term Cash 08:30 – \"You Didn't Take the Bait\": The Call from Procurement 10:35 – Lessons from a $20/hr Temp Job: Making an Impact Fast 13:18 – The #1 Trait Every Leader Needs: Intellectual Honesty 14:20 – Strong Opinions, Loosely Held 17:10 – What to Do When the Playbook Fails 19:02 – Yoga, Solitude, and Stoicism for…","meta_description":"What happens when leaders face intense pressure to compromise short-term gains for long-term survival? In this episode of Lead The Team , host Ben Fanning…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1849,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/episodes/sap-s-mark-niemiec-the-decision-that-cost-the-quarter-but-saved-the-business/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/lead-the-team-top-2-of-podcasts-1064768/sap-s-mark-niemiec-the-decision-that-cost-the-quarter-but-saved-the-business.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}