Sense & Signal: Leading Through Sensemaking

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) is going to jail and his cryptocurrency exchange - the largest in the world - is paying 4 billion dollars in fines to the US Justice Department. I’m this episode of the Sense & Signal leadership and sensemaking podcast, Dan explores what leadership lessons we can learn from Changpeng Zhao’s Icarus like fall. Dan reviews the charges against Changpeng Zhao and Binance, assesses Changpeng Zhao’s personality through a dark quadrad lens, and reviews some of the leadership approaches Changpeng Zhao shared on various Binance blog posts. Some of the Binance founders recommendations include keeping meetings short, publicly criticizing employees, shuffling teams at work, not praising employees, and acting ethically - and the irony of the last one isn’t lost. Dan also reviews some of the criminal activities Changpeng Zhao and other Binance management knew was taking place on the Binance exchange including money laundering for criminal and terrorist organizations, dark web transactions, transferring profits from ransomware attacks, and letting individuals and states under US sanctions transfer money. Ultimately, we find ourselves facing a complicated leader in Changpeng Zhao or CZ. Some of his leadership principles were effective in growing the Binance platform into the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. But Changpeng Zhao clearly should have listened to his own leadership advice on ethics.