What do you do as a CEO when two opposite decisions are both right — and choosing only one puts your business at risk?

In this episode of The Partnership Playbook, Phil Hayes-St Clair breaks down how to build the paradox leadership muscle — the capacity to think clearly, decide confidently, and coach teams effectively when contradictions are real and unavoidable.

You’ll learn:

1. How to recognize and name the paradoxes shaping growth and leadership in 2026 — before they paralyze decision-making
2. Why the human brain resists contradiction, and how strong leaders train capacity instead of chasing certainty
3. A practical coaching framework to help your team communicate, revisit, and act on paradoxes as they mature over time

If you want to grow as a leader who brings clarity without false certainty — and helps your organisation move forward inside complexity — this episode will give you the language, structure, and confidence to lead.

New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More from Phil Hayes-St Clair:

Subscribe to the Wednesday Partnership Newsletter (and get immediate access to my Frameworks Vault)

Find me on LinkedIn

The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts.

PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

Can your partnerships actually scale—or are they just good intentions?

Many leaders confuse volume for value and "partner" for "vendor." But as David Johnson, CEO of Vervent, explains—real partnership is a strategic lever for growth and resilience, not just a nice-to-have.

In this deep-dive episode, you’ll learn:

1. A proven 3-part framework to identify and grow strategic partnerships
2. Why integrity, not innovation, is your real growth multiplier
3. How to balance risk, regulation, and go-to-market velocity

🎧 Listen now to redefine how you scale through partnership and growth.

New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More from Phil Hayes-St Clair:

Subscribe to the Wednesday Partnership Newsletter (and get immediate access to my Frameworks Vault)

Find me on LinkedIn

The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts.

PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

My thoughts on leading in light of the devastating events at Bondi Beach in Australia on 14 December 2025.

Learn more at philhsc.com

Are you building partnerships that actually work or just deals that eventually die?

Damon Lembi, CEO of Learnit, shares 30+ years of lessons from growing a 2-million-learner business and surviving the dot-com bust. In this episode:

1. Learn the “Ideal” framework to pressure-test any partnership
2. Discover the biggest growth mistake Damon made—and how he’d fix it
3. Reframe training as your most powerful revenue unlock, not a cost

Listen now to reimagine how partnerships and growth really scale.

New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More from Phil Hayes-St Clair:

Subscribe to the Wednesday Partnership Newsletter (and get immediate access to my Frameworks Vault)

Find me on LinkedIn

The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts.

PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

Are you leading from presence or from a body that’s in quiet panic while you hold the room together?

Most CEOs underestimate the emotional load of leadership. This episode reframes emotional steadiness as an executive skill, not a personality trait, and gives you the tools to build it.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

1. Use breath, grounding, and cognitive tools to regulate your emotional state in real time
2. Identify emotional triggers before they appear so you can stay ahead of escalation
3. Separate facts from the stories your nervous system creates under pressure

If you want to lead with more clarity, consistency, and emotional steadiness—and set the tone for company-wide growth and leadership—press play and step into the version of you your team already believes in.

New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More from Phil Hayes-St Clair:

Subscribe to the Wednesday Partnership Newsletter (and get immediate access to my Frameworks Vault)

Find me on LinkedIn

The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts.

PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

What would happen to your company’s growth engine if GTM, Product and Partnerships finally spoke the same language?

Most companies struggle because their core functions operate on different maps, different clocks, and different definitions of success. This episode gives GTM leaders the clarity and structure to unify the business, restore operational calm, and accelerate growth and leadership maturity.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

1. Build a shared operating system that aligns GTM, Product, and Partnerships around one North Star
2. Create a unified customer journey and ownership model that removes friction and increases execution speed
3. Establish a rhythm and language that transforms cross-functional chaos into predictable, confident growth

If you’re a GTM leader who wants to drive growth with more clarity and more leadership control, listen to this episode and reshape how your company moves.

New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More from Phil Hayes-St Clair:

Subscribe to the Wednesday Partnership Newsletter (and get immediate access to my Frameworks Vault)

Find me on LinkedIn

The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts.

PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

What happens when you treat partnerships like internal rituals not just external deals?

In this episode, JobAdder CEO Martin Herbst shares how to lead with trust, simplify strategy, and build partnerships that actually scale.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

1. Why internal partnerships must come before external ones
2. How to avoid complexity and accelerate value in partner deals
3. The discipline of saying “no” to grow the right way

Martin and Phil break down actionable frameworks, partnership psychology, and growth tactics that work in the real world.

🎧 Listen to unlock how partnership becomes your best bet for sustainable growth.

New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More from Phil Hayes-St Clair:

Subscribe to the Wednesday Partnership Newsletter (and get immediate access to my Frameworks Vault)

Find me on LinkedIn

The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts.

PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.

What happens to growth when your business scales faster than the leaders running it?

Every CEO eventually feels it: managers who were strong at 10 people struggle at 30, directors quietly absorb pressure they don’t want to reveal, and culture begins to crack under the weight of rising expectations.

Leadership doesn’t automatically scale just because the company does and ignoring that gap slows growth more than any external threat.

In this episode:

1. Learn how to identify when your leadership team is stalling
2. Understand the three levers CEOs must pull to accelerate leadership growth
3. Walk away with a practical framework to lift your leaders to the next altitude

Listen to learn how leadership growth becomes the engine of sustainable growth and resilient leadership.

New episodes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

More from Phil Hayes-St Clair:

Subscribe to the Wednesday Partnership Newsletter (and get immediate access to my Frameworks Vault)

Find me on LinkedIn

The Partnership Playbook is the podcast for leaders who want to grow with clarity, create leverage through partnerships, and lead their teams with meaning. Each episode gives you practical insights drawn from two decades of building and backing companies, coaching CEOs, and closing high-value partnerships across industries. You’ll learn how to scale yourself as a leader, choose partners that help you grow faster, and turn trust, alignment, and first wins into momentum that lasts.

PS - Have a CEO guest recommendation for the show? Share this link with them.