Lever Talent, Inc.

As founder & CEO of Lever Talent, Inc. - the talent strategy agency - I get to lead our efforts to help leaders implement strategies to bring their best selves to work and take control of the biggest lever in business.

Our mission is to help leaders realize they are capable of more than they could ever imagine. We believe individuals make a business, not the other way around, and all business is personal.

The employee-employer relationship is broken. Thankfully, employees are gaining leverage. Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and Web3 are shifting the power dynamic. We’re flipping the script by helping businesses lean into this shift - bringing humanity back to business in the future of work.

At Lever Talent, we help businesses deploy technology-enabled talent strategies that empower leaders to find leverage in themselves and their teams to spur growth in any market. Maximizing team performance while ensuring they maximize their greatest asset - their career.

We help with:

- Talent Strategy: We help leaders align their people strategy to their business strategy and accelerate growth with talent optimization.

- Career Development: We give people the training and coaching they need crush their current job and achieve their goals.

- Leadership Communities: We bring growth-minded leaders together to share ideas, learn from each other, and grow.

Detailed Services Overview:
- Leadership & Strategy Alignment Consulting
- Mission, Vision, Values & Culture Transformation
- Hiring Process and Strategy Consulting
- Management Training
- Leadership Coaching 
- Team Building Workshops
- Career Development Communities
- Employee Engagement / Performance 
- The Predictive Index Software sales and client service - we are a PI Certified Partner.

Founder & CEO

The Lever with Drew Fortin Show

With a goal to redefine your understanding of the future of work, "The Lever with Drew Fortin" launched on YouTube and your favorite podcast streaming app starting on August 7, 2023.

Over the first half of 2023, Connor Lewis, Executive Producer and founder of Studio Lewis, and I set out to find experts to dive deep, not just into the technology but its implications on our world of work, investment, academia, economics, and businesses.

There is a lot of fear-mongering out there on the rise of AI and robots are coming to take jobs. It's important to remember that every major platform shift before AI has led to more prosperity and further innovation. The Lever is designed to challenge current thinking and highlight the transformative effects of AI, robotics, and Web3 on the traditional employee-employer relationship. It emphasizes the good things these advancements mean for workers.

Each of the six episodes in Season 1 of The Lever is about 10-20 minutes long and is a carefully crafted composition of news, research, and expert commentary on future of work trends. With pre-drafted episode summaries in hand, we set out to interview leaders, innovators, and trailblazers across work tech, investing, academia, economics, and business. We then carefully analyzed 25 hours of footage and transcripts from 23 interviews and dozens of news and research articles to finalize the show scripts for Season 1.

Learn more 👉 Levershow.com

Co-creator, Host, and Future of Work Researcher

The Predictive Index

The Predictive Index (PI) is a private-equity-backed talent optimization software and services company.

I was promoted three times in my tenure:
- Chief Growth Officer 7/2021 - Present (1 yr)
- Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing 11/2018 – 7/2021 (2 yrs 9 mos)
- Vice President, Sales & Marketing 9/2017 - 11/2018 (1 yr 3 mos)
- Vice President, Marketing 5/2015 - 9/2017 (2 yrs 5 mos)

As Chief Growth Officer, I reported directly to the CEO and was responsible for maintaining their unified vision and go-to-market plans by keeping tight collaboration and cross-functional alignment - breaking down silos and challenging the status quo.

I was part of the senior leadership team since my start. We achieved over 550% revenue growth since 2015 (28% CAGR - breaking $100M ARR in 2022!), 100% growth in the paying subscriber base (achieving 11.5K), and 2,000% growth of the PI certified partner network (achieving 1.1K partner firms).

I led the development of our strategy to create the talent optimization (TO) category and evangelize the TO discipline, which led to the $50M growth equity investment from General Catalyst in 2019.

My charter was to navigate the transition from sales-led to product-led growth (PLG). We successfully launched our first PLG product in 2021 called PI Design - which quickly grew to 2K paying business subscribers and grew our client expansion billings over 50%. Followed by PI Hire and PI Diagnose in 2022.

I spent most of my time focused on PI’s long-term growth plan and goals to develop the TO category and remain the industry-leading SaaS platform. Healthy growth was the name of the game, so there was constant, necessary conflict to manage between long-term/short-term goals and results. (👈 That was the fun part. I love that stuff!)

I was extremely fortunate to work with a dream team of direct reports who led our sales, partner recruitment & activation, demand generation, product marketing, brand, and content marketing functions (of 100 PIoneers).

Chief Growth Officer

In Confidence Podcast

Difficult co-worker? Meddling micromanager? Tough team? Sabotaging self-talk? No doubt, work perpetually challenges everyone’s confidence causing us to feel uncomfortable, unworthy, and unengaged. Get science-backed confidence coaching from two of the best in the biz.

I co-hosted this leadership and personal growth show with Alyssa Dver of the American Confidence Institute. We take calls from real callers and help them work through workplace issues that are getting in the way of them being their best.

Podcast Host

PennySaver USA

The California PennySaver was a local advertising and classified media icon from 1962-2015. I joined at a time of great risk and change - we had the strategy to introduce digital products to fill the ever-growing void created by declining print ad revenues. It was my first executive leadership position reporting directly to the CEO. We were generating $175M in annual sales revenues from 12K business clients and millions of consumer classified ads. 

While there, I led a strategic revamp of our full-service local digital marketing and SaaS website service to a monthly subscription model, integrated 3rd party applications, and kicked off a 3rd Party Reseller Program that increased our growth rate 90%. We also introduced new digital ad products on our classifieds website, which grew revenue from our online listings & classified product by 100%.

I managed many different teams of many shapes and sizes - including a field sales team, product management, engineering, development, and design teams in Poland, India, and Arkansas. I also set up and managed our strategic partnerships with companies like Google, Bing, and Yext.

In 2013, I was tasked with downsizing efforts, restructuring, and assisted the company through a pitch and spin-off of ownership from Harte-hanks, our parent company, to any acquiring private equity firm. Although it was an amazing learning opportunity, I was exposed to the dark side of business when our owners shut the company down in 2015 with little notice - they were subsequently sued for not providing proper notice before firing hundreds of employees.

Vice President, Marketing & Digital

HubSpot

The growth and success we were achieving at Compete caught the eyeballs of HubSpot's CMO and I and jumped at the opportunity to join this growth-stage SaaS start-up on their marketing team. Although brief (the team dynamic was admittedly not for me!), I learned so much and made long-lasting relationships.

We were able to grow our already gargantuan monthly lead flow by 20% while I was there to 45K leads. I managed all of our advertising and search marketing. I implemented mobile marketing, affiliate marketing, and ad retargeting programs. I also wrote a lot of content and held presentations to educate our users on topics that were near and dear to me like SEO, search engine marketing, and content generation. 

Check out this top-ranking article I wrote when I was there (which was accompanied by a 20+ page guide I also wrote) been since been updated several times and generated thousands of views and leads.

Inbound Marketing Manager - Advertising Programs Lead

Compete, Inc.

Compete was a competitive web analytics start-up co-founded by David Cancel (current CEO and co-founder of Drift). I joined as their first dedicated marketing manager responsible for running demand gen programs for their SaaS start-up product called Compete PRO (competitive intelligence and market research tool). This was product-led growth before product-led growth was cool! I reported directly to the GM of Compete PRO. 

The freemium client firehose was on and the problem of the day was figuring out how to convert this free client base into paid subscriptions and monetize our products. 

I created a multi-channel marketing and go-to-market strategy that leveraged our brand strength in the marketing technology space (we had an AdAge Top 25 ranked marketing blog) across all digital channels.

In less than a year, we grew our freemium base 83% to 220K accounts and increased free to paid conversions by 30%+! The result was 50% growth to $6M ARR while maintaining 85% retention rate - this was in 2010! 

Compete was acquired by WPP's Millward Brown Digital, formerly Kantar, formerly TNS just as I started there. The Compete PRO product was eventually folded into other products and assets were sold off as M&A activity evolved.

See the attached presentation I prepared and presented at a Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (aka MassTLC) meeting in 2010.

Senior Manager, Internet Marketing (SaaS)

Staples

I developed and executed growth strategies to drive e-commerce sales and revenue on Staples.com. This was a very exciting time in retail and e-commerce. Staples.com generated about $500M in annual revenues from over 30K+ products - it was one of the world's largest online retailers at the time. Amazon was starting to gain traction and disrupt, but no one had a clue just how significant and transformational the rise of e-commerce would be.

This was also the beginning of the SEO movement. I had the unique opportunity to spearhead Staples.com's first SEO task force. We met regularly to talk about how to implement site-wide optimizations and execute a transformational strategy to democratizing our product data. 

I also managed our affiliate marketing and comparison shopping engine programs which generated over $60M in annual revenues. We had over 1,000 affiliate publisher websites. 
 
I quickly fell in love with web analytics and learned about website architecture, programming, and merchandising products online. I became obsessed with digital marketing, analysis, and growth modeling and projections.

Online Marketing Manager - Staples.com

Online Marketing Specialist - Staples.com

Corporate Communications Coordinator - Staples Copy & Print Center

Picture this… I had just graduated with my music degree, I landed an interim choir director gig at my old high school. I was in a band and we played many times a week. I needed health insurance, so picked up a shift at my local Staples store in Acton, MA (Store #1219) in their copy and print center. 

I’ve always been infatuated with business (I set up our band as a general partnership, ran our books, and admin stuff). I quickly became passionate about running this copy and print center too.

When my choir gig was up I became manager of the copy and print center. I had my own $650K P&L. I managed a small team. I ran the business, kept the engine humming, went knocking on doors to increase business, managed the books, ordered supplies, covered gaps in shifts, etc.

This was truly an amazing experience that led me to becoming an assistant store manager and attracted the eyeballs of our corporate offices.

Assistant Store Manager

Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | Host of The Lever Show | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.

You're capable of more than you could ever imagine.

I started my career impatient, driven, and naive - pushing hard to climb the corporate ladder and eventually found myself fired from a highly coveted growth-stage start-up in my mid-20s. 

That moment sent me on a journey of self-discovery. I realized I'm a fixer, visionary leader, relationship builder, and goal setter. I’m fascinated by the human condition and the impact that technology is having on humans at work.  

Innovations in AI, robotics, and web3 stand to scale our potential, strengthen our superpowers, and free us up to focus on the more human elements of work. Over the last 20 years, I've learned that if you paint an inspiring vision, surround yourself with people you admire and trust, and embrace technology, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can grow.  

In 2022, I decided to follow my passion and became the Founder & CEO of Lever Talent, Inc. - the talent strategy agency. I spend my time helping business leaders deploy talent strategies and tools to find leverage in themselves and their teams to spur growth in any market. Join the movement at levertalent.com. 

I use my LinkedIn to network, learn from others, and share any wisdom I've gained along the way.  

With technology, our leverage is limitless. Let's embrace and change the world. ⚡️🌎 

Specialties: Talent Strategy, Growth Leadership, Cultural Transformation, Mission Vision Values, Team Building, Talent Optimization, Go-to-Market Strategy, Digital Transformation, Consulting, The Predictive Index, Engagedly

Drew Fortin

I’ve seen a lot of posts from leaders talking about how hard layoffs are for them.

They’re right, it is brutal to sit across from someone and tell them their job is gone. 

I’ve done it more than once. It never gets easier.

But here’s what I don’t see enough of: 

Acknowledgment that the person being let go has it far, far harder.

They’re the ones facing an insurance crisis, mortgage payments, daycare costs, food bills, and the emotional gut-punch of losing purpose overnight.

As leaders, we talk a lot about empathy and “doing it the right way.” 

But if we’re being honest, most layoff comms are designed to protect the company’s emotions, not the individual’s livelihood.

We’ll say things like “this was the hardest decision I’ve ever made” while the person we’re letting go is quietly wondering how to tell their family.

Layoffs are sometimes necessary. But if you have to do them, don’t center your pain.

Center their reality.

If you’ve ever had to do layoffs, reflect on this:

Who carried the real weight of that moment, you or them?

Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | SHRM-SCP | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.

Amazon doesn’t pretend to have a great culture.

That’s exactly why their strategy works.

Andy Jassy has been blunt: automation is driving results, and they’re doubling down on it.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Amazon’s culture has never been warm and fuzzy; it’s designed for efficiency, precision, and relentless execution.

And for them, that alignment works.

Where leaders go wrong is pretending their company can act like Amazon but feel like Patagonia.

You can’t build a cutthroat, hyper-optimized operating model and then talk about “psychological safety” and “belonging” like it’s in your blood.

If your business is tightening up, getting lean, and optimizing for efficiency, own it.

If you’re trying to grow through experimentation and empowerment, build the space for that.

But don’t sell one and live the other.

No, your coworkers are not your family. 

And the “workplace family” is one of the biggest lies we keep telling ourselves.

Sociologist Sarah Mosseri’s new book, Trust Fall, takes that myth head-on, and I’m here for it.

For decades, leaders have used “we’re a family” as shorthand for belonging, loyalty, and trust. 

But as Mosseri’s research shows, it’s often a cover for imbalance: companies say “family,” but act like corporations.

Her work reminded me of how often I see teams confuse trust with comfort.

True trust is risky and vulnerable. It means giving people the freedom to question the system without being punished for it.
 
Most workplace "families" rally during a crisis, “bond in the trenches,” and call it teamwork, but never stop to ask why they're always in crisis. 

That’s a leadership problem, not a culture win.

The best workplaces are communities built on shared accountability and mutual respect.

If you have to call it a family to keep people around, you’ve already lost their trust.

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Talks about #culture, #leadership, #futureofwork, #humanresources, and #transformation

No one cares more about your career than you do.

It is the single greatest asset you own.

Yet most people treat it like a group project, waiting for someone else to tell them what’s next.

Promotions, stretch projects, mentorship, even recognition, none of it just happens because you deserve it. 

It happens because you’ve made it clear what you want and you’ve done the work to prove it.

If you haven’t taken the time to define your next move, no one’s coming to do it for you.

And if you haven’t told anyone what you actually want, don’t be shocked when the world stays quiet.

When you do speak it out loud, when you say “this is what I want, this is who I’m becoming,” the universe starts to rearrange itself around you.

So stop waiting for permission.

Own your path.

Your next chapter starts when you decide what you want.

I wish someone had told me that in my 20s.

So I’ll tell you:

Don’t outsource your trajectory. You own the asset, so start managing it that way.

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Every leader should be able to say:

"Here’s what I’m great at, and here's where I need help.”

Imagine if every team normalized that kind of honesty. 

No need to guess, just strengths out in the open and gaps named for what they are.

Success doesn’t come from trying to be great at everything. 

It comes from doubling down on what makes you exceptional and building systems that let others do the same.

It's common knowledge that the best athletes don’t play every sport. They find the one that amplifies their strengths, and they go all in.

The same goes for leaders. 

As technology evolves and AI expands, being more human is becoming a leadership advantage.

The future belongs to teams that know themselves deeply, celebrate their natural talents, and build around them.

Let’s start with transparency and build well-aligned teams.

AI layoffs are a cop-out.

Let’s stop pretending otherwise.

The economy’s rough right now.

So when I see companies announcing “AI-driven layoffs,” I can’t help but roll my eyes.

No one’s getting a commensurate productivity lift from AI in 2025 or 2026 for that matter. 

At least not yet.

What we are seeing is leaders using AI as the scapegoat to justify tough calls they don’t want to own.

“I’m sorry, it’s just automation.” No, it’s economics.

AI will absolutely reshape jobs and displace workers. It’s already changing how we work and what value humans bring.

But most of these cuts have nothing to do with true AI efficiency. They’re about maintaining needed profitability in a weak market.

And when leaders hide behind “AI transformation” instead of admitting that, they erode trust even faster.

Let’s be honest with our people.

Let’s say, “The market sucks right now, and we have to make hard choices to survive.”

Because the story of AI shouldn’t be about fear and headcount cuts.

It should be about how we redesign work to make humans more valuable than ever.

Everyone says the hardest part of layoffs is losing people.

No one talks about what it’s like to be the one who stays.

Some folks in my network shared what it’s like to “survive” multiple rounds. There’s the obvious: survivor’s guilt.

But then there’s the post-anxiety layoff that no one really talks about.

Because the truth is, no matter how loyal you are to the mission, surviving multiple RIFs changes you.

You might still want to help the company rebound, but once people start scanning for exits, the culture’s already cracked.

Culture doesn’t survive that kind of fear intact. In many cases, you have to rebuild from scratch.

And this is where most companies overcorrect.

They double down on wellness, celebrate using PTO, and hang posters that say “It’s okay to not be okay.”

The intention is good, but it becomes the new avoidance strategy. If everyone’s recovering, no one’s building.

Healthy organizations don’t glorify burnout, but they also don’t treat ambition like a bad habit.

Real balance means creating an environment where people want to give their best because they believe the effort still matters.

If you want your people to stop running scared, give them something they can't help but run toward.

I believe in meritocracy.

I just don’t believe most companies have one.

What most companies call “meritocracy” is really proximity bias. 

There is no system in place and no consistency. Managers often reward those whom they see and befriend, and often those who remind them of their less-experienced self. 

Real meritocracy means clearly defining what “great” looks like, and measuring everyone against it. 

You can’t have true meritocracy until you fix inequity. 

Until opportunity and access are more balanced, we’ll keep rewarding visibility over value.

And for the record: I’m not anti-capitalist.

Quite the opposite.

Capitalism is the best tool we have to increase the livelihood of the world. It should objectively reward performance.

But when the system for measuring it is broken, everyone loses. The overlooked performer, the biased leader, and ultimately, the business itself.

Meritocracy is worth fighting for.

But let’s stop confusing comfort for fairness and proximity for performance.

If we can design systems that measure what matters, and make space for everyone to win on merit, that’s good business.

A lot of companies are only adding AI to their title because it makes for a better headline.

And honestly, that’s not a bad thing. AI holds massive promise. 

And if you’re not actively adopting AI tools and building your company’s AI fluency, you’re falling behind. 

AI is a huge opportunity. The issue is that most companies are chasing “AI strategy decks” instead of asking better questions like:

- How can we use AI to optimize what already works?

- Where can it automate the repetitive stuff so our people can focus on higher-value work?

- How do we teach our teams to experiment and adapt as AI tech evolves?

That last one is key.

HR has a huge role to play here.

AI is an organizational change problem, and right now, HR is being asked to lead that charge, often without the tools, confidence, or seat at the table they deserve.

Now’s the time to use AI as the catalyst to build a culture of learning, agility, and human adaptability.

It’s the basic, day-to-day work of evolving how we work with AI that actually paves the way for the kind of strategic, differentiated applications everyone’s chasing.

Because the future of leadership is about using technology to help humans become more capable, creative, and resilient than ever.

Empathy became the new performance metric.

And now no one knows how to say the hard stuff.

Since COVID, we’ve seen a cultural overcorrection. And somewhere along the way, performance and clarity got left behind.

Caring for people doesn’t mean cushioning them from reality. 

We still operate in a capitalist system. Companies exist to grow, compete, and win. 

When your culture forgets that, it starts to drift.

You can feel it when a company faces tough calls, layoffs, restructures, and missed targets. 

Suddenly, people are shocked. Disillusioned. “Wait, how could this happen?”

Because no one said the hard stuff when it mattered.

Strong cultures don’t hide from reality. They help people understand the business, the risks, and the road ahead.

And it falls on leaders to do two things at once:

1) Build a humane culture that treats people like adults.
2) Stay ruthlessly focused on the strategic imperatives of the business.

Empathy matters. But empathy without clarity only creates confusion.

If your company vanished overnight and you had to rebuild it tomorrow…

Would your org chart look the same?

Now imagine applying that to your workforce strategy.

If you were starting your company today, in a world of AI agents, async collaboration, and 10x productivity per person, how would you design your org?

Would you still define “manager” the same way?

Most wouldn’t.

And that’s the point. 

We’ve built orgs layer by layer for decades,  adding roles, tools, and policies like barnacles on a ship, without ever scraping them off to see if the structure still floats.

A “zero-based” approach to human capital would force us to rethink how work actually gets done now.

If you’re not familiar, it’s when companies start their budgets from scratch every year.

No “last year plus 10%.”

It’s a thought experiment worth doing, especially for HR and people leaders trying to design the next era of work.

If you were rebuilding your org from zero today, what would you keep… and what would you leave behind?

Specialization is killing innovation in HR Tech.

For 15 years, HR leaders have been told to “find their niche.”

Hyper-specification was the smart move. Now, they’re paying for it.

Last week, a digital marketing partner told me,

“You call yourselves a full-service talent strategy agency, but no one else does that.”

Exactly.

Because the industry has spent a decade unbundling itself into a thousand micro-experts.

Now we’re entering the great rebundling.

Just like streaming: first came Netflix, then the flood, now everyone’s craving cable again.

HR is no different.

Leaders don’t want 10 vendors solving 10% of the problem.

What they really want is one partner who can help them with the whole system, not just a piece of it.

That’s why we built Lever Talent, Inc. as a full-service talent strategy agency.

Whether you need cultural transformation, org design, leadership training, fractional HR support, or HR software management, you can start small and scale with us.

Everyone loves to say HR is “slow to adopt AI.”

HR is the only team smart enough to ask what happens after the adoption.

This is the function responsible for compliance, documentation, process, and most importantly, people. 

Of course, they’re going to measure twice and cut once. That’s our responsibility.

AI is moving so fast that “measured” can start to look like “left behind” if leaders don’t stay curious.

Every HR leader I talk to should be getting fluent in the language of AI right now.

The HR leaders who figure out how to make AI work for people are the ones every CEO will want on their team.

We’re already seeing it in logistics, where people collaborate with software and robots every day. 

That’s just the beginning.

HR’s role in the AI era isn’t to keep up.

It’s to lead the integration responsibly, strategically, and humanely.

Stop saying “AI won’t replace you; someone who knows AI will.”

That’s not true.

If 15% of your workforce gets cut overnight, it’s not because every manager suddenly became a prompt engineer. 

It’s because the CFO did the math.

Tenure, pay bands, performance stack ranking… that’s the calculus, not who’s best at ChatGPT.

Yes, AI is replacing people. But not in the way LinkedIn gurus want to sell it.

It’s commoditizing everything except distinctly human ability.

So yes, AI will force displacement.

But what it’s really forcing is a reckoning with what makes us valuable in the first place.

You don’t survive this shift by becoming “AI fluent.”

You survive by becoming more human than ever.

If a candidate’s first touch is a faceless agent, you just told them exactly how much you value people: not much. 

Automation is efficient. But hiring isn’t a spreadsheet exercise.

Candidates want speed and someone accountable for decisions that shape their careers.

Tech is not strategy. People still are.

As someone obsessed with what AI and robotics mean for the employer–employee relationship, I’ll die on this hill: 

The more tech we adopt, the more our differentiator becomes distinctly human judgment, trust, context, and dignity.

If you’re racing toward “AI-run hiring by 2026,” start here:

1) Human decides, AI informs. 

Use models to structure, summarize, and surface signals. Final calls belong to accountable humans.

2) Radical transparency. 

Tell candidates where/when AI is used and how it influences outcomes. No black boxes. (Trust is the currency.)

3) Bias isn’t “fixed,” it’s governed. 

Treat bias as a system problem: data audits, adverse-impact monitoring, and escalation paths that real people own.

4) And most importantly: Train the humans. 

Most teams don’t know what “AI skills” even means. Make fluency part of manager enablement and recruiter craft.

I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-abdication.

You didn’t hire more people to slow things down...

But that’s exactly what happened.

Scaling should make things smoother, but it rarely does. The habits that helped you win early on don’t serve you later.

When companies start, they’re agile, experimental, and fueled by belief.

Then, they hit product-market fit. Now they’re in growth mode. 

That’s when process, discipline, and focus take over. Meetings multiply, and decisions slow.

The business becomes about precision: tightening systems, reducing errors, building consistency.

But when you over-optimize for process, you lose the agility that made you successful in the first place.

At a certain point, you need to redesign how your organization works.

At Lever Talent, Inc., we use the Competing Values Framework to help companies do exactly that.

If your team feels stuck in “slow motion growth,” this is your signal to recalibrate.

Because every stage requires a different kind of leadership, culture, and operating model.

CEO turnover is spiking in 2025, and it’s not because CEOs are failing. 

It’s because the job changed faster than they did.

New data shows high-performing companies are now almost just as likely to replace their CEO as underperformers. 

In the S&P 500, 2025 turnover in the top three performance quartiles hit 12%, nearly matching the bottom quartile at 14%.

Boards aren’t waiting for a downturn or a misstep. They’re finally acknowledging what many of us inside organizations have felt for years:

AI transformation is reshaping every role, and yesterday’s leadership profile doesn’t map to tomorrow’s demands.

The leadership equation has shifted: agility, digital fluency, and stakeholder orchestration now matter more than tenure.

That's why external CEO appointments nearly doubled this year. 

If the last few years taught us anything, it’s that strategy fails when leadership, structure, and decision-making can’t keep pace. 

The companies built for the future are the ones redesigning leadership for it, before the market forces them to.

And if your org isn’t building future-ready leaders, your board will go shopping for one.

🌍 Global Fintech Advisor | Scaling Businesses via Digital Transformation & M&A | $500M+ Deals Executed | Empowering CXOs to Drive 10x Growth | Architect of Hypergrowth Strategies

Transformative fintech executive with 20+ years of impact across global markets, steering digital growth, scaling business models, and enabling market leadership across 3 continents.

📈 $300M+ in revenue growth.
🌍 Product Launch & Expansion into 10+ countries.
🤝 $500M+ in strategic M&A.

I specialize in executive advisory, strategic planning, go-to-market strategy, digital transformation, and international expansion; helping organizations unlock scale, efficiency, and sustained competitive advantage.

From digital banks to embedded finance, I’ve led fintechs, NBFIs, banks, software firms, and telecoms through large-scale transformation and innovation. My approach blends boardroom strategy with hands-on execution, building scalable operating models, navigating regulatory complexity, and launching high-impact digital products.

I advise ambitious institutions and founders on how to:
✔️ Build and scale in high-growth markets
✔️ Design business & operating models that drive profit and resilience
✔️ Align vision with execution for long-term impact

If you're building the next wave of financial innovation or navigating inflection points in growth, I bring the clarity, playbook, and momentum to help you lead from the front and make it a success.

Nadir Ali

Anyone can announce change. 

Only a few can make it stick.

Because transformation isn’t about speed, it’s about sequence.

Most transformations fail not because of bad strategy,
but because leaders skip the human sequence of change.

Plans shift systems.

But people drive momentum.

After leading multi-market transformations, I’ve seen that sustainable change follows one clear rhythm, Kotter’s 8 steps, redefined for today’s execution reality 👇

1. Create a sense of urgency
↳ Change starts when people feel the cost of inaction.
↳ Lead with data and emotion not just memos.

2. Build a guiding coalition
↳ No leader changes an organization alone.
↳ Assemble believers with influence, not just titles.

3. Craft a clear vision & strategy
↳ A vague vision drains energy.
↳ Define a North Star that’s simple, compelling, and executable.

4. Communicate the vision
↳ Clarity dies in silence.
↳ Repeat the message until it becomes muscle memory.

5. Empower people to act
↳ Remove friction. Break silos.
↳ Equip teams with authority, tools, and trust.

6. Generate short-term wins
↳ Momentum feeds morale.
↳ Celebrate visible progress to build belief.

7. Consolidate and scale the gains
↳ Each win should unlock the next.
↳ Institutionalize learning and reinforce new habits.

8. Anchor change in the culture
↳ Culture isn’t what’s written, it’s what’s repeated.
↳ Embed new behaviors into how the organization lives and leads.

Transformation isn’t an event. It’s a sequence.

And those who master it don’t just adapt, they lead the next curve.

♻️ Repost to help more leaders build change that actually lasts.
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Stop telling people to ‘dream bigger’.

Start teaching them to ‘execute better’.

Big dreams don’t fail for lack of ambition.

They fail because execution never catches up.

Your teams don’t need more inspiration.

They need more iteration.

Here’s how high performers execute bigger 👇

1. Turn dreams into systems
↳ Goals inspire, but systems deliver.
↳ Define who, what, and when for every big idea.

2. Build execution rituals
↳ Daily standups. Weekly reviews. Monthly retros.
↳ Rhythm beats random effort every time.

3. Shrink the time to feedback
↳ Don’t wait 90 days to find out what’s not working.
↳ Shorten loops. Fail fast. Fix faster.

4. Reward iteration, not intention
↳ Celebrate what shipped, not what was discussed.
↳ Action creates culture.

5. Audit execution capacity
↳ Track how much time your team spends doing vs. discussing.
↳ You’ll find your growth leaks in the gap.

The best leaders don’t sell bigger dreams.

They build bigger executors.

Are you scaling ambition or execution?

♻️Repost if you believe execution is the real growth multiplier.
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Most leaders talk about results.

Few build the culture that produces them.

I’ve seen this across fintechs, banks, and transformation projects that performance doesn’t come from pressure.

It comes from clarity, trust, and consistency.

Here’s the 7-step playbook I use to build teams that perform even when I’m not in the room 👇

1. Define Success
↳ Show what “winning” actually looks like.
↳ When everyone sees the same finish line, alignment follows.

2. Anchor in Core Values
↳ Set 3–5 principles that guide every decision.
↳ In one turnaround, clear values rebuilt trust faster than any KPI reset.

3. Set Clear Goals
↳ Turn vision into measurable outcomes.
↳ Every goal must have a name next to it, not a department.

4. Create Role Clarity
↳ Accountability dies in the gray zone.
↳ Define who decides, who contributes, and who’s informed.

5. Build Trust Before Speed
↳ Teams that align first, move faster later.
↳ Candor beats politics every single time.

6. Make Accountability a Habit
↳ Track progress weekly, what’s measured gets done.
↳ This shift turned my remote teams from reactive to reliable.

7. Invest in Growth
↳ Growth isn’t a perk, it’s a performance system.
↳ When people evolve, the whole team compounds.

High performance isn’t built in sprints.
It’s built in systems.

The question is: 
Are you managing performance or designing the culture that sustains it?

♻️ Repost if you believe culture drives performance more than pressure.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

You can replace a position.

But not passion.

That’s the real currency of performance and the hardest one to manufacture.

Across every transformation I’ve led, one truth stands out:
➟ People don’t quit jobs. 
➟ They quit indifference.

Here’s how leaders keep passion alive inside high-performance teams 👇

1. Connect role to purpose
↳ Don’t let titles define contribution.
↳ Show how every task ladders up to impact that’s where ownership begins.

2. Recognize effort, not just output
↳ Reward the behaviors that drive progress.
↳ When people feel seen, they give more than what’s measured.

3. Build psychological safety
↳ Passion dies in fear-based cultures.
↳ Let ideas breathe, innovation thrives where judgment pauses.

4. Empower, don’t hover
↳ Micromanagement breeds compliance, not creativity.
↳ Trust is the oxygen for initiative.

5. Model the energy you expect
↳ Passion is contagious.
↳ If you’re not inspired, no one else will be.

Leadership isn’t about filling positions.

It’s about fueling purpose.

♻️ Repost if you believe passion outperforms process every time.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Dreams don’t build success. 

Action does.

Ideas, plans, and strategies mean nothing until they’re executed.

Because movement, not intention, is what separates achievers from dreamers.

Here’s how to turn ideas into impact 👇

1. Shrink the goal to a move
↳ Don’t wait for perfect timing.
↳ Start with one small, visible action that creates momentum.

2. Systemize your progress
↳ Build routines that make action automatic.
↳ Discipline outlasts motivation every single time.

3. Bias for execution, not approval
↳ Stop asking “Is this the right step?” and start testing.
↳ Data beats opinion. Every. Single. Time.

3. Track output, not activity
↳ Doing more isn’t progress. Creating results is.
↳ Measure what moves the needle, not what fills the day.

4. Build reflection into motion
↳ Review what’s working every week.
↳ Adjust fast, act faster.

Action turns potential into proof.

Without it, even brilliance is wasted potential.

Are you acting on your goals or just thinking about them?

♻️ Repost if you believe action is the real key to success.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Execution frameworks.

Success isn’t the goal. Integrity is.

Most people chase outcomes at any cost.

High performers do the opposite.
They protect the one thing that compounds forever: their values.

Here’s the real equation behind principled leadership 👇

1. A compromised win is a hidden loss
↳ If you sacrifice values to hit a target, you’re not winning.
↳ You’re trading long-term credibility for short-term approval.

2. A principled miss is strategic integrity
↳ Falling short while staying true isn’t failure.
↳ It’s proof your standards survive pressure.

3. Values matter most when they cost you
↳ The right choice is rarely the easy choice.
↳ Character is revealed when the stakes rise.

4. Principles compound like reputation capital
↳ Consistency builds trust faster than performance alone.
↳ People follow leaders whose values don’t fluctuate with outcomes.

Because at the end of every goal, one question always remains:
Did you win the right way or just win?

Choose the version of you you’ll respect in ten years.

♻️ Repost if you believe winning without integrity isn’t winning at all.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Mastery is multi-disciplinary.

The best leaders borrow from every profession.

Because peak performance isn’t about knowing more, it’s about thinking better.

Here’s the multi-disciplinary playbook behind better judgment and execution 👇

1. Speak like a Lawyer
↳ Articulate with precision.
↳ Win arguments through clarity, not volume.

2. Express like a Philosopher
↳ Simplify the complex.
↳ Ask better questions, not longer ones.

3. Analyze like a Psychologist
↳ Understand motives before making moves.
↳ Influence begins with empathy.

4. Observe like a Detective
↳ See patterns others overlook.
↳ The smallest clue often hides the biggest truth.

5. Decide like a Judge
↳ Separate fact from feeling.
↳ Wisdom is balanced reasoning under pressure.

6. Create like an Artist
↳ Connect dots, don’t copy them.
↳ Innovation is discipline in disguise.

7. Work like an Engineer
↳ Build systems that scale.
↳ Reliability beats brilliance every day.

8. Lead with the balance of them all
↳ Leadership is integration, not imitation.
↳ Mastering perspective is the ultimate leverage.

Great leaders don’t stay in one lane.
They borrow the best mindset from every lane.

♻️ Repost to remind your team: versatility is the new intelligence.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

92 % of people quit the race before crossing the finish line.

Because they never burned the boats.

Last week I found myself staring at my team’s whiteboard.
We had a bold outcome: launch a new revenue stream in 30 days.
32 ideas on the board. Two backup plans. One safety net.

That night I asked: “What if the net was cut?”

What if failure isn’t an option?
➟ Suddenly the language changes. 
➟ The energy changes. 
➟ The entire team shows up differently.

Because when “do or die” truly matters:

People stop saying “if” and start asking “how.”

Meetings shift from status updates to problem-solving sprints.

Guardrails vanish; only the path forward remains.

Here’s how I flipped the switch and you can too.

1. Declare your must-win metric publicly.
↳ Pick one number that matters. Announce it internally and externally.
↳ When it lives in the open, excuses shrink.

2. Cut the fallback routes.
↳ Remove Plan B. Lock in Plan A.
↳ Comfort is the enemy of urgency.

3. Build relentless accountability loops.
↳ 15-minute stand-ups, visible dashboards, live updates.
↳ When progress is public, commitment deepens.

4. Build micro-victories every week.
↳ Small wins fuel proof that you’re on the path.
↳ Share them. Celebrate them. Amplify belief.

5. Turn failures into data-points, not defeats.
↳ Missed a target? Log it. Analyse it. Reset the aim.
↳ No shame. Only insight. Only refine. Only move forward.

Success doesn’t reward the hopeful. It rewards the committed.

When you quit making choices and instead demand execution, the only question left is: “What’s next?”

♻️ Repost if you’re ready to burn the boats and make success inevitable.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Patience isn’t passive. 

It’s performance in slow motion.

Most leaders confuse urgency with impatience.
➟ The first drives momentum. 
➟ The second destroys it.

Across every transformation I’ve led, one pattern stands out,
Impatient teams burn out early.

Patient ones build systems that scale.

Here’s how to turn patience into your execution edge 👇

1. Detach speed from progress
↳ Moving fast is easy. Moving right takes discipline.
↳ Measure trajectory, not tempo.

2. Master the lag phase
↳ Every breakthrough looks like failure before it compounds.
↳ Stay steady when results are invisible.

3. Build process endurance
↳ Systems take time to stabilize.
↳ Don’t switch paths mid-learning curve.

4. Play for depth, not dopamine
↳ Quick wins feed ego. Long games build legacy.
↳ Choose substance over speed.

5. Reflect before reacting
↳ Reflection sharpens direction.
↳ Stillness is a multiplier of clarity.

Patience isn’t waiting.

It’s executing with composure when others chase noise.

♻️ Repost to remind your team: patience is strategy in disguise.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Execution insights.

Most people sit in the stands.

Only a few step into the arena.

The critic has opinions.

The doer has evidence.

In two decades leading transformations across 11 markets, I’ve seen this first hand.
➟ Progress doesn’t come from those who analyze risk.
➟ It comes from those who absorb it.

Here’s how to lead from the arena, not the balcony 👇

1. Build before you’re ready
↳ Action reveals clarity faster than analysis.
↳ Perfectionism is fear disguised as planning.

2. Measure scars, not applause
↳ Growth is a byproduct of failure, not comfort.
↳ Every stumble is tuition for mastery.

3. Play long games
↳ Visibility fades; credibility compounds.
↳ Stay the course when others chase novelty.

4. Choose courage over consensus
↳ Great work always looks wrong before it’s right.
↳ Innovation starts where approval ends.

5. Reflect, don’t retreat
↳ Learn the lesson, not the emotion.
↳ Iterate until momentum replaces motivation.

The world remembers builders, not commentators.

Because history favors the ones who dared to show up.

♻️ Repost to remind your team: progress belongs to those in the arena.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Execution insights.

Most leaders manage people.

The best ones develop leaders.

And from two decades working with top-performing CEOs, I’ve seen one pattern:
➟ They don’t just talk about culture.
➟ They model it daily.

Here’s what the best leaders consistently do 👇

1. Reflect
✅ Stay aware of how your emotions shape your leadership.
🚫 Don’t ignore your emotions or their impact on others.
Tip: End your week asking, “How did I show up as a leader today?”

2. Listen
✅ Validate others’ perspectives before responding.
🚫 Don’t dismiss concerns or feelings.
Tip: In meetings, speak last, you’ll learn more than you expect.

3. Empower
✅ Delegate outcomes, not just tasks.
🚫 Don’t micromanage or withhold trust.
Tip: Define what success looks like let your team decide how to get there.

4. Feedback
✅ Be specific, empathetic, and solution-focused.
🚫 Don’t give vague or harsh feedback.
Tip: Use this frame: “What worked → What to improve → How I can support.”

5. Integrity
✅ Own your actions even when it’s uncomfortable.
🚫 Don’t shift blame to protect yourself.
Tip: Admitting a mistake publicly builds more trust than a perfect track record.

6. Adaptability
✅ Adjust based on new insights and changing contexts.
🚫 Don’t cling to outdated plans or processes.
Tip: Ask your team quarterly: “What should we stop doing?”

7. Purpose
✅ Link daily work to bigger goals and values.
🚫 Don’t rely only on rewards for short-term motivation.
Tip: Start projects with why it matters, not what to do.

8. Composure
✅ Stay calm under pressure.
🚫 Don’t let panic ripple through your team.
Tip: When uncertainty hits, your tone sets everyone’s temperature.

9. Conflict
✅ Address tension early and openly.
🚫 Don’t avoid tough conversations.
Tip: Reframe conflict as problem-solving not personal friction.

10. Burnout
✅ Promote balance and spot fatigue early.
🚫 Don’t overlook your or your team’s limits.
Tip: Protect energy like capital, recovery drives results.

Leadership isn’t about control. 
It’s about creating systems where trust, clarity, and accountability do the work.

♻️ Repost to remind that leadership evolves when behavior outperforms position.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Your team loses 2.5 hours per day to distraction.

Over a year, that’s 5+ weeks of lost execution.

On your watch.

And the fix isn’t more hours.

It’s better systems.

In my career on several executives positions, these 9 time frameworks have helped me and my teams.
➟ Unlock focus.
➟ Reduce friction.
➟ Scale results.

The Time Management Cheat Sheet for Leaders

1. Timeboxing
↳ Block focused work like meetings. Treat it as non-negotiable.

2. Eat That Frog
↳ Start with the task you’re most likely to avoid.

3. Eisenhower Matrix
↳ Prioritize by urgency and importance then act accordingly.

4. 80/20 Rule
↳ Double down on the 20% of tasks that drive 80% of results.

5. 3–3–3 Method
↳ Design your day: 3 deep work, 3 urgent, 3 maintenance tasks.

6. MoSCoW Method
↳ Classify tasks into: Must, Should, Could, and Won’t.

7. Buffett’s 25/5 Rule
↳ Identify your top 5 goals. Ruthlessly ignore the other 20.

8. $10,000/hr Work
↳ Focus on strategic tasks that create leverage. Delegate the rest.

9. Goldratt's Theory of Constraints
↳ Find and fix the one bottleneck limiting your output.

You don’t need to master all 9.

Pick 2. Apply relentlessly.

You don’t scale by doing more. You scale by choosing better.

Which system do you need to start?

♻️ Repost if you believe time isn’t managed, it’s engineered.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for strategy, leadership & productivity insights.

They said he was too young. 

Too early. Not ready.

That’s what people say when they can’t see your pace.

Because most people confuse timing with readiness.

Here’s the truth 👇

1. Readiness is built in motion.
↳ Waiting to feel ready is disguised fear.
↳ You don’t earn confidence first, you earn it through doing.

2. Speed is useless without direction.
↳ Progress isn’t about moving fast; it’s about moving right.
↳ Discipline sets your lane, not emotion.

3. Belief compounds faster than talent.
↳ The mind crosses the finish line before the body does.
↳ Doubt slows execution long before fatigue does.

4. Critics measure by comfort. Winners measure by effort.
↳ Most people project their limits, not your potential.
↳ You don’t need approval; you need consistency.

Cole didn’t wait to be ready.
He became ready by running anyway.

Because performance isn’t about age, timing, or permission.
It’s about pace, purpose, and proof.

Execution reveals what validation never will.

♻️ Repost to remind your network that readiness is a decision, not a milestone.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

When a Fintech crosses $30M–$50M ARR, the problem shifts:
Execution isn’t the constraint, leadership systems are.

Every stalled scale-up I’ve advised in GCC or SEA showed the same five blind spots months before numbers flattened:

1. Fragmented Focus
↳ Multi-market bets too early.
↳ Diluted execution kills momentum.

2. Regulatory Neglect
↳ Compliance gaps destroy investor trust.
↳ Rebuilding confidence costs 3x more.

3. Leadership Lag
↳ The org scales faster than its leaders.
↳ Alignment cracks before execution does.

4. GTM Copy-Paste
↳ One-size-fits-all launches flop.
↳ Local nuance drives true adoption.

5. Cultural Blindness
↳ Ignoring local norms slows velocity.
↳ Behavior beats translation every time.

Before your next funding round or market expansion:
✅ Stress-test leadership capacity before capital capacity.
✅ Map compliance readiness like you map customer journeys.
✅ Localize GTM not just in language, but in decision behavior.

Structure creates speed.

Speed compounds into valuation.

♻️ Repost to raise the bar on how Fintech CEOs scale without stalling.
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You can’t scale judgment if you can’t regulate emotion.

In every transformation stall I’ve advised, 
From $40M fintechs in SEA to $300M industrials in GCC, the pattern is the same:
➟ Execution doesn’t break because of strategy.
➟ It breaks because composure collapses.

When markets turn volatile, EQ stops being a “soft skill.”

It becomes your execution discipline.

Here’s how high-EQ leaders create structural advantage 👇

1. Composed Under Pressure
↳ They anchor the room.
↳ Reaction time slows; decision quality rises.

2. Strategic Listener
↳ They decode before they decide.
↳ Listening becomes their competitive intelligence.

3. Emotionally Intelligent
↳ They sense tension before it becomes resistance.
↳ Alignment accelerates because empathy is operationalized.

4. Transparently Imperfect
↳ They own errors early.
↳ Trust velocity increases, politics decrease.

5. Optimistic Realist
↳ They balance hope with truth.
↳ Confidence becomes contagious, not careless.

6. Growth Multiplier
↳ They scale judgment through people, not process.
↳ Teams evolve faster than markets shift.

If you lead large teams or complex markets, 
your EQ isn’t a trait, it’s an asset class.

EQ sustains what strategy starts.
Control the emotion, and you control the execution.

♻️ Repost to raise the bar on how CEOs build EQ into execution.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

Most IT departments don’t fail because of weak tech.

They fail because they’re misaligned with the business.

When IT runs in isolation, innovation turns into noise, not value.
True transformation happens only when IT becomes a strategic partner, not a service provider.

Here’s the 6-level IT Alignment Model to benchmark and elevate your maturity 👇

1. Capability → Foundation of readiness
↳ Build innovation muscle and change adaptability.
↳ Cross-train teams so business and IT speak one language.

2. Architecture → Integration discipline
↳ Define clear standards for how systems connect and scale.
↳ Transparency in architecture prevents costly silos.

3. Partnerships → Shared accountability
↳ Move from vendor mindset to co-ownership of outcomes.
↳ Align goals, risks, and rewards across business and IT.

4. Governance → Strategic orchestration
↳ Build joint steering committees and integrated planning.
↳ Every major IT investment must tie back to business value.

5. Value Measurement → Proof of impact
↳ Track balanced metrics across service, cost, and growth.
↳ Benchmark continuously to sustain improvement.

6. Communication → Cultural alignment
↳ Ensure business understands IT capabilities and vice versa.
↳ Knowledge sharing fuels speed, trust, and collaboration.

IT alignment isn’t a project.

It’s a maturity journey that transforms IT from cost center to growth driver.

How aligned is your IT strategy with your business today?

♻️ Repost to help your team assess where they stand on the IT alignment curve.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Digital Transformation insights.

Champions aren’t fearless.

They’re resilient under fire.

Roger Federer said it best:
“You want to become a master at overcoming hard moments.”

That’s the real game not avoiding pressure, but performing through it.

Here’s how to build that skill 👇

1. Expect the hit
Turbulence means you’re stretching capacity, not failing.
↳ Pressure is proof you’re growing.

2. Control the noise
Self-doubt screams louder under stress.
↳ Breathe. Reset. Re-enter.

3. Detach from the outcome
You lost a point, not your potential.
↳ Analyze, don’t agonize.

4. Ritualize resilience
Small resets build big composure.
↳ Reflection, rest, rhythm. Every day.

5. Learn in motion
Pain teaches faster than comfort.
↳ Study the miss. Adjust the move.

Resilience isn’t a trait.
It’s a trained response under chaos.

♻️ Repost to remind your team: skill starts the game & resilience finishes it.
🔔 Follow Nadir Ali for Strategy, Leadership & Productivity insights.

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The Battle

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Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Drew Fortin's LinkedIn Performance

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