Matt PaulsonFounder and CEO of MarketBeat

2 Ways to Build a Leadership Team

20 Oct 2026 · 1 min

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In this interview segment, Matt Paulson explains his approach to building a leadership team. He distinguishes two pathways: hiring individuals who already exhibit leadership qualities, and promoting employees who grow into leadership roles through demonstrated performance. Paulson outlines the practical signals he looks for—ability to manage others’ drama, keep a team focused, deliver personal results, and consistently bring solutions rather than problems. He also describes how responsibilities expand as a person proves themselves, eventually leading to managing multiple direct reports.

Chapters

How do you spot or develop leaders on your team, or do you hire them as leaders right away?
The leaders on my team, some of them have been hired for that job because they are leaders. Others have worked their way into a leadership job over time by doing good, and then like, you're really busy, you probably need a helper. Let's go hire you somebody to do what you do, and then you can tell them what to do. And then eventually somebody will have 5 people reporting to them. So it's You have to demonstrate it, whether you've demonstrated it somewhere else or you demonstrated it at MarketBeat. But it's, can you deal with other people's drama? Can you manage a team, tell them what to do, keep them focused on the right things? Can you do a good job yourself? Are you bringing me more solutions than you are problems? Kind of stuff like that.