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Ace Hardware Corporation, President & CEO, John Venhuizen

John Venhuizen is President and Chief Executive Officer of Ace Hardware Corporation. Venhuizen, 47, is a 25-year veteran of Ace. Hear about his career journey and leadership insights on this episode of the oGoInsider Leadership Podcast with host David Novak.

Download this Action Journal



This great resource will help you along the way, during or after you listen to the podcast. Not only will you get to know our guest, you will be asked tough questions to really spearhead your journey to becoming a better leader! And look below for more insights and clips!!

Shareable Insights

From Podcast Action Journal
John says it’s all about finding a balance in your leadership style. You don’t want to be too big of a cheerleader and have no one’s respect, or be a criticizing slave-driver that no one wants to follow.
There will be times when you need to give slack on the rope, and times when you need to pull the rope taut.
(31:37-33:21)

What kind of leader do you consider yourself, one who gives too much slack or pulls too tightly?
What can you do differently to have more balance in your leadership style?

John says the cardinal sin in leadership happens when a leader overestimates his own abilities and vilifies someone else to justify it. This has a negative impact when it happens in a team, and is the worst for employee engagement.
(43:37-44:25)

Have you ever seen a leader commit the cardinal sin? How did it affect you?
What should a leader do to keep himself from overestimating his abilities?

By David Novak

David’s passion is to make the world a better place by developing leaders at all ages through David Novak Leadership, his family’s Lift-a-Life Foundation, Lead4Change, Global Game Changers and The Novak Leadership Institute at the University of Missouri.

Novak has been recognized as “2012 CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine, one of the world’s “30 Best CEOs” by Barron’s, one of the “Top People in Business” by FORTUNE and one of the “100 Best-Performing CEOs in the World” by Harvard Business Review…