Best of: The Pursuit of Excellence with Ryan Hawk

Dec 24, 2025

Ryan Hawk, an author and keynote speaker, shares insights on transforming leadership skills. He reflects on his Ohio upbringing where sports shaped his grit and growth. The conversation delves into the power of diversity in teamwork and the importance of deep listening. Hawk discusses the struggle to celebrate wins and advocates for continuous learning and self-care to fuel leadership effectiveness. He emphasizes the significance of seeking permission in teaching, fostering stronger relationships, and the liberating journey of always pursuing excellence.

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ANECDOTE

Formative Lessons From High School Football

Ryan Hawk learned grit, preparation, and belief from playing football under coach Bob Gregg in Ohio.
He credits that experience for his desire to study leadership and impact others at scale.

INSIGHT

Diversity Makes Leaders More Reasonable

Working with people from diverse backgrounds forces you to see the world in gray rather than black and white.
That perspective makes you more reasonable, curious, and effective as a leader.

ADVICE

Adopt An Always-Becoming Mindset

Embrace lifelong learning and accept you'll never be fully 'finished' mastering something.
Surrender to the process and find liberation in always becoming better.

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As entrepreneurs and CEOs, how can we continuously develop our leadership skills?

This episode features Ryan Hawk, an author, advisor, keynote speaker who is on a mission to make people like you become smarter leaders. He’s also the host of the Learning Leader Show, a podcast about helping leaders become more effective.

Key topics that Bill and Ryan explore in this episode:

- Ryan’s personal story of growing up in Ohio and learning leadership skills through sports.

- Surrounding yourself with people from diverse backgrounds to gain perspective and become a better person.

- Listening to others and gaining a more profound understanding of their perspectives.

- Struggling with celebrating accomplishments.

- The impermanence of past accomplishments.

- Intentionally practicing gratitude to shift your mindset.

- Starting and ending meetings with positive news to create a more optimistic atmosphere.

- Ryan’s experience in corporate America and pursuing an MBA.

- The audacious goal of impacting millions of business leaders before retiring.

- The importance of self-care and fueling yourself to be effective in leading others.

- Continuous learning.

- Seeking permission before leading or teaching others.

- The importance of permission in building fruitful relationships.

Thanks to Ryan Hawk for being on the show!

Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanhawk12/

Listen to Ryan’s podcast, The Learning Leader Show: https://learningleader.com/

Buy one or all three of Ryan’s books: "Welcome to Management," "The Pursuit of Excellence," and "The Score That Matters": https://amzn.to/4eBceth

Bill Gallagher, Scaling Coach and host of the Scaling Up Business podcast, is an international business coach who works with C-Suite leaders to achieve breakthrough growth.

Join Bill in the Growth Navigator Coaching Program: https://ScalingCoach.com/workshop

Bill on LinkedIn: https://www.LinkedIn.com/in/BillGall

Bill on YouTube: https://www.YouTube.com/@BillGallagherScalingCoach

Visit https://ScalingUp.com to learn more about Verne Harnish, our team of Scaling Up Coaches, and the Scaling Up Performance Platform, which includes coaching, learning, software, and summit. We share how the fastest-growing companies succeed where so many others fail. We help leadership teams with the biggest decisions around people, strategy, execution, and cash so that they can scale up successfully and beat the odds of business growth.

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