Eric Lauterbach on the Leadership Signal CEOs Can’t Find on a Resume
How I Hire
Eric Lauterbach is the former CEO of Peet’s Coffee. He joined Peet’s in 2010 after cultivating his career in CPG marketing and sales at Procter & Gamble, Clorox, and a few startups along the way. Today, he serves on the board of MPM Products and Ace Hardware. Eric shares how his experiences have shaped his hiring and leadership philosophies, reflects on valuable lessons from the last 30 years, and considers what’s on the horizon for emerging leaders.
Highlights from our conversation include:
- The formative experiences that set Eric up for a successful career in CPG (2:29)
- Balancing urgency and patience (4:00)
- Why CPG? (5:26)
- Leading across startups, large CPG companies, and PE-backed brands (6:23)
- Eric’s approach to mistakes (8:14)
- His talent philosophy (9:22)
- Cultivating effective self-awareness, empathy, and judgment (12:35)
- “The Big Eff Up” (16:17)
- What Eric looks for in leaders beyond the resume (19:05)
- Evaluating how someone will relate to the culture of an org (20:28)
- How Eric instills a shared sense of purpose in teams (23:10)
- Advice for emerging leaders (26:08)
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