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About this Episode:

In this episode of the Transformative Leader Podcast, I’m happy to bring you a conversation with CEO educator, Joel Trammell, about the various hats that CEO's must wear and the roles they must fulfill to be truly effective in their organizations. Joel shares a great deal of perspective from his book, The CEO Tightrope, including the five key responsibilities of an effective CEO, how the CEO role evolves as the organization grows, the ways in which CEOs can embrace continuous improvement. Whether you are a CEO or have aspirations to be one someday, or you are a leader at any level of the organization, including in your own business, I'm convinced you can apply these principles and see benefits in your career.

Joel Trammell is the founder and CEO of Khorus Systems, a business management system that empowers CEOs to lead high performance organizations, as well as the owner of Texas CEO Magazine, which reaches more than 10,000 CEOs across the state. A successful entrepreneur and CEO with 30 years of experience, Trammell is a pioneer in the field of CEO education.  

After decades as a CEO (a field in which the average shelf life is  only 5 years), Trammell identified a pervasive problem: many of his fellow business leaders seriously lacked the fundamental tools and education to make their companies truly great. He launched The American CEO to provide the support and guidance his peers were lacking, and he also wrote a book titled The CEO Tightrope, a comprehensive guide featuring proven techniques and approaches for overcoming the unique challenges of being a CEO.  

Trammell began his career as co-founder and CEO at NetQoS, a software company that  optimizes the performance of networks. Under his tenure, its acquisition generated more than 10 times the return on its capital. Trammell moved on to co-found another software company, CacheIQ, and then also served as CEO of the network services provider Black Box Corporation (NASDAQ:BBOX). He is also the co-founder and managing partner of Lone Rock Technology, a  private equity firm. 

As a leading CEO educator, Trammell regularly speaks at conferences and events nationwide. He is a regular contributor to Entrepreneur, Forbes and Inc.com, sharing his experienced-based insight on business leadership topics. He has served on the boards of public, private and non profit organizations, and he also teaches a yearly 9-week-long CEO training program for the Austin Chapter of Rice Alliance. 

Trammell holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Louisiana Tech University and is a former instructor at the US Navy’s Nuclear Power School. He currently lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and their three children.

Guest Links:

• Website: joeltrammell.com/, khorus.com/

• Book: The CEO Tightrope

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/joeltrammell, linkedin.com/company/khorus-software/

• Twitter: twitter.com/TheAmericanCEO, twitter.com/thekhorus

• Facebook: facebook.com/TheAmericanCEO

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