Episode 62

When the Quietest Voice Saves the Company

Leadership isn’t always loud, and sometimes the quietest voice in the room is the one that steadies the ship.

Maartje van Krieken sits down with Greg Weinger, SVP of Product Management at SheerID and host of The Powerful Introvert Podcast, to rethink what leadership looks like when a company faces real pressure. Greg shares the story of an introverted CFO who stepped in during a crisis and rebuilt trust through calm, steady presence rather than charisma. Why do so many organizations still assume that the loudest voice is the most effective one? And how much strength gets overlooked when we discount quieter styles of leadership?

Greg points to the qualities that actually help businesses scale: adaptability, honesty paired with kindness, and the discipline to face reality as it is. He explains how great leaders design meetings and team structures that bring out every perspective, especially from introverts who contribute most when given the space to prepare. Could your team be missing its sharpest ideas simply because the setup doesn’t make room for them?

This conversation shows that resilience often comes from unexpected places, and that leadership worth following grows out of trust, clarity, and intention.


Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Extrovert vs. Introvert Leadership Styles  

02:55 Case Study: Introverted CFO Leading Through Crisis  

06:54 Key Ingredients for Scaling a Business  

08:07 Listening, Adaptability, and Avoiding Hubris  

12:11 Balancing Brutal Honesty with Kindness  

14:46 Creating Space for Every Team Member to Contribute  

17:01 Structuring Meetings for Inclusivity  

18:12 Why Mindfulness Matters for Leaders  


Connect with Greg Weinger:

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Subscribe to The Powerful Introvert Podcast

Greg Weinger has spent over 20 years proving that introverts and unconventional thinkers can thrive in leadership. A seasoned product and technology executive, he has helped scale startups 10X to $70M+ in revenue, leading teams that build market-leading digital products and drive business growth. A Stanford graduate, he studied English literature, creative writing, and software engineering—giving him a unique ability to blend technical expertise, storytelling, and strategic thinking to make complex ideas accessible and actionable.


Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

Connect with Maartje on LinkedIn

The Chaos Games Consulting

The Business Emergency Room

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Subscribe to Maartje’s Substack

Host Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist and decision-making expert who thrives in high-stakes business environments. Combining disaster management training, hands-on experience in global industries, and leadership skills honed as a seasoned sailor, she helps businesses navigate chaos with precision. Whether tackling transformation, scaling challenges, or leadership bottlenecks, Maartje delivers actionable insights to turn turbulence into traction. 



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Maartje van Krieken

Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist, executive consultant, and your at host of The Business Emergency Room podcast, where growing businesses go when things get messy. With a career that began in frontier oil and gas and spanned war zones, boardrooms, and billion-dollar pivots, Maartje has spent over two decades helping organizations steer through chaos and come out stronger.
Now through her consulting firm, The Chaos Games, Maartje works with medium-sized businesses, especially those scaling rapidly or navigating uncertainty, to diagnose breakdowns in leadership, collaboration, and decision-making before they become business emergencies. Her signature approach blends practical triage, people-first strategy, and blunt Dutch honesty to help teams realign fast.

​The Business Emergency Room delivers high-impact insights for business leaders, board members, and investors who are tired of the symptoms, disconnection, friction, paralysis, and want the tools to fix what’s really going wrong. Maartje’s episodes cut through fluff with stories, frameworks, and metaphors that turn even the most complex chaos into something leaders can act on.
Maartje is based in New Orleans and speaks regularly on navigating organizational storms, building business resilience, and turning reactive firefighting into proactive leadership. Whether you’re scaling a business, running a team, or dealing with dysfunction, The Business Emergency Room is the place to find straight talk and smarter tools.