Ep 157: Charlie Cole - In 15

Edited highlights of our full conversation.

Charlie Cole is the CEO of FTD. As you’re about to hear, Charlie is a high energy leader. Relentlessly positive, endlessly optimistic. He took over a bankrupt company in the early days of a pandemic. He put together an executive team that only now, a year later can he spend any time with in person.

Charlie discovered something brand new about himself in the middle of all of that. That he has a breaking point.

Every leader does. And thinking of yourself as a servant will shorten the time it takes for you to discover yours.

Are you in service? Yes. To the change you want to create in the world, and to providing the business with what it needs to reach that goal.

But you are not a servant. You have agency and free will.

Oh, and you have one other thing. Access to the levers of power. When a servant pulls the levers of power, it’s called a revolution. When a leader pulls them, it’s called a decision.