As any good CEO can tell you, successful leadership has many moving parts. Doug Conant, former president and CEO of Campbell’s Soup, put it succinctly: “To win in the marketplace you must first win in the workplace.”
Patrick Thean certainly embraces that principle. He’s a CEO coach and serial entrepreneur. His tools and methods have helped scores of organizations achieve sustainable top performance and have been adopted by educational programs such as Cornell University’s Family Business Initiative. Thean is the CEO and co-founder of Rhythm Systems, an organization that helps CEOs get their teams focused, aligned, and accountable.
His latest book is The Journey to CEO Success: 7 Practices for High Growth Leadership.
In brief, here are the seven practices:
- Be curious (effective listening accelerates learning)
- Level up (check for blind spots, be eager for feedback)
- Establish your early warning systems (if you can’t see a problem, you can’t avoid it)
- Achieve full alignment (silos are deadly)
- Make culture your competitive advantage (establish the right environment for success)
- Build a strong people ecosystem (continually grow and renew team skills)
- Focus on serving your core customer (identify the primary user of your product or service)
Thean says cultivating a curiosity mindset begins with valuing questions over answers. “Leaders sometimes feel pressured to provide immediate answers, but if we’re genuinely curious, we’ll seek to learn from the experiences and insights of our teams,” he says. “The best ideas come when we open ourselves up to the perspectives of others.”
Feedback is another key ingredient, he says. He encourages leaders to embrace what he calls “spicy conversations”—those candid, sometimes challenging discussions that lead to growth. “Each piece of feedback offers a chance to adapt and improve, building trust within the team and encouraging openness,” he says.
So, what does performance-enhancing curiosity look like in terms of observable habits and behaviors?
Thean says high performers don’t stop at “Why isn’t this working?” They go deeper, asking things like, “What specific factors might be causing this issue? How can we measure those?” Next, they experiment constantly, but with focus. They don’t wait for perfect information. Instead, they run small tests, measure the results, and adjust quickly.
“Top performers also look for insights everywhere, not just in their field,” he says. “They read widely, pull ideas from other industries, and bring in fresh perspectives. This cross-disciplinary curiosity is often where innovation happens, as it allows them to connect dots others miss. Finally, they practice patience and persistence.”
Curiosity, he says, doesn’t always lead to instant answers. “Sometimes it takes weeks, months, or more to crack a tough problem. But high performers keep pushing, keep iterating. They don’t give up just because progress is slow.”
Thean advocates replacing fear with curiosity.
“Fear and curiosity are actually two sides of the same coin,” he says. “They’re both responses to the unknown. We can either let fear take over, which tends to shut us down, or we can lean into curiosity, which opens us up to possibility.”
He offers an example. “If a project isn’t going well, the fear-based response might be to cover up mistakes or blame others. But a curious response would be to ask, ‘What can we learn from this? What went wrong, and what could we do differently next time?’ That kind of thinking moves you forward. It’s constructive.”
Thean tells leaders to actively cultivate curiosity in their teams, because it changes the culture. “When people feel they have permission to explore without fear of punishment, they’re more engaged. They’re willing to take calculated risks, ask better questions, and push the boundaries a bit. Over time, that curiosity-driven culture leads to better performance and innovation.”
What roles do humility and self-awareness play in a person’s aspiration for or success in a leadership position?
Thean points out that no CEO role comes with a guarantee of success—which means we all fail sometimes. “Humility keeps you open to learning, reminding you that you don’t have all the answers—which encourages you to seek input and build stronger teams,” he says. “Self-awareness helps you recognize your own strengths and weaknesses, so you can lead authentically and avoid blind spots. Together, these traits create trust and respect. Leaders who are humble and self-aware connect better with their teams, adapt more effectively, and make smarter decisions.”
How can a leader create an environment in which team members are comfortable raising problem issues and even pointing out the leader’s blind spots?
Leaders do have blind spots, Thean acknowledges, and accidents happen. He says critical feedback keeps leaders accountable, so they should thank team members for their honesty and treat feedback as a gift. “By responding with openness and gratitude, you create a safe space for constructive dialogue, encouraging candid input that strengthens the team.”
Many leaders talk about alignment, then they discover that it can be elusive. What are some of the mistakes that cause and perpetuate misalignment?
Thean says leadership is a full-contact sport—not an opportunity for deeply segmented delegation. “Misalignment often results from focusing only on end goals, neglecting the ‘how’ of execution,” he says. “Full alignment is about how we get things done, not just what we want to get done. Leaders can avoid this by setting milestones, maintaining ongoing check-ins, and ensuring alignment on both objectives and approaches.”
Storytelling, Thean says, can help establish and maintain a culture that workers are happy to “own” and practice. “Storytelling reinforces core values and brings the company culture to life. Sharing stories of values in action connects employees to the purpose behind their work, fostering a culture of ownership and pride.”
Aside from financial issues, what are the costs of getting people decisions wrong?
Thean says culture is really about the intersection of mindsets and core values, “resulting in the various behaviors that work to further define and evolve your culture. Hiring misfits costs knowledge, alignment, and morale. Wrong hires disrupt cohesion and dilute values, and opportunity costs include wasted resources and missed potential that the right people could have leveraged.”
In clarifying an organization’s “core customer,” Thean recommends focus on a series of questions, such as: “Who would really care about what we offer? Whose life or job would really be much better? Who would embrace us?” A focused customer profile, he says, informs decisions, products, and messaging, simplifying processes and boosting impact by serving a well-defined audience.
What strategies does Thean use to sustain business growth and drive long-term success?
He recommends developing an early warning system with leading indicators to proactively identify and address potential issues. “Results, while important, are lagging indicators—they reflect the outcomes of efforts already made, like fruits that have been planted, nurtured, and harvested,” he says. “They offer little insight into future growth. Don’t rest on past successes; stay focused on the future to anticipate challenges, drive continuous improvement, and avoid being complacent. It’s essential to stay grounded and not get caught up in your own hype.”