Best Manager Ever15 Loka 2025

Best Manager Ever: Adam Fishman - The Right Way to Ask for Feedback

Adam Fishman is a product and growth advisor with 20+ years of experience building and leading startup teams. Adam was on the early team at Lyft, where he served as Head of Growth. He then went on to lead Product & Growth at Patreon and Imperfect Foods, before launching his portfolio career. Adam has been an advisor and fractional leader at ResortPass, Mozilla, HelpScout, Peerspace and more. He is also the creator of FishmanAF newsletter and the host of the Startup Dad podcast.

Adam’s direct reports praise him for his exceptional support, trust, and empowerment, as is recognized as a catalyst who brings people together across teams, fostering high trust and commitment. His team members appreciate his transparency, proactive communication, and the way he sets clear mutual expectations.

In this episode, show creator and Fort Light founder Annie Riley sits down with Adam, and they discuss:

How to build trust quickly as a new leader or fractional executive, and why starting from a place of trust matters.
How to get more honest feedback from your direct reports
The best way to manage defensiveness when receiving feedback– and how Adam learned it the hard way
Predictions for how AI will impact product leadership roles
Why distributing credit and advocating for your team’s growth leads to higher performance and engagement.

If you’re interested in sponsoring an episode of Best Manager Ever, reach out: sponsor@fortlight.com

Join us on Substack

Connect with Adam Fishman

Connect with Annie Riley

Check out Fort Light to level up your leadership skills

Connect with our show’s Producer, Alexis Ramdaou

Nominate your Best Manager Ever for the Podcast

This is a Production of Fort Light and Now it’s Hear

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(64)

Season 4 Wrap: What the Best Leaders Do Differently

After 50 episodes with some of the top leaders in startups and tech, Annie Riley takes a moment to reflect and share her top five leadership takeaways that surfaced again and again throughout the late...

24 Kesä 21min

Rethinking Executive Presence with Scott Lamb

The stereotype of the hard-charging executive is hurting performance. Scott Lamb moved to NYC to pursue journalism, but ended up joining Buzzfeed when it was just five people and has been on the start...

17 Kesä 54min

Self-Compassion Break for High Performers

The voice pushing you forward is also holding you back, and your inner critic is costing you more than you think. Annie Riley talks with clinical psychologist and self-compassion teacher Dr. Michael K...

10 Kesä 55min

Speed to Signal with JZ - Laurel CPO

JZ has built product teams at Airbnb, Webflow, Dropbox (and now Laurel), and in this episode she shares her honest leadership playbook and lessons learned. JZ covers why conviction is really about spe...

3 Kesä 48min

How "Temporary Permanent" Drives Progress

Don’t let perfectionist fantasies kill progress. Annie Riley sits down with Anna Randall, Director of Enterprise Sales at Curri and former VP of Sales at TigerEye, Autodesk, and PlanGrid, to explore t...

27 Touko 50min

Ex-Pinterest & Canva Exec: Curiosity As A Muscle

Work is not like school– there are no right answers, and if you’re looking to be “right” then you will always fall behind. Annie Riley sits down with Silvia Oviedo Lopez, Founder & CEO of Blomma AI an...

20 Touko 47min

Unblock Your Team with Powerful Questions

Better questions create better teams. Annie Riley sits down with Maayan Roth, Head of Engineering at Crux Climate, to unpack the skill most managers overlook: asking questions that actually move thing...

13 Touko 52min

Top CEO Coach On The Difficulty of Empathizing Up

Leadership is lonely. Most leaders don’t get enough support or positive feedback. And that includes our own boss too. Annie Riley and top executive coach Ed Batista break down why it’s so hard to empa...

6 Touko 49min