A Conversation with Benjamin Castro, General Manager of Global Education at American Public University System
What does great leadership look like? My conversation with Ben explores his leadership philosophy, values, and approach to building a leadership strategy that fills the gaps. This post—full video interview included at the end—unfolds his leadership journey and the insights he has so generously shared to set other leaders up for success, exemplifying what great leadership looks like.
Having worked in thirty different countries and having lived in twelve, Ben feels lucky to have experienced many different industries, businesses, and cultures, learning from a wide range of leaders and having incredible mentors along the way. Born in Spain and growing up in the UK, Ben has spent the last fifteen years living in South America. He says it’s no longer clear where he’s from, but so long as he has a good croissant and a good cappuccino, he’s happy anywhere.
“As long as I have a good place with a good croissant and a good cappuccino, I’m kind of happy anywhere.”
As General Manager of Global Education, Ben currently helps American Public University System, one of the largest online universities in the US, expand their online programs globally across South America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, meeting the needs for low-cost, high-quality online education.
Ben began his career at the age of seventeen, working as a call center agent in Madrid to cover university expenses. Within two years, he became a team leader, managing a team of fifteen people providing laptop support for Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Microsoft, and has been leading teams ever since.
What Ben has learned is that there is no template for great leadership. “You have to create your own style. It has to be truthful. It has to be you.” He believes that leadership depends on the moment, the company, who you are, and what the team needs, and that understanding who you are is critical to filling the gaps. “If you know your weaknesses, if you know your biases, you will be a better leader, not because it makes you a better person. It doesn’t. It’s just because it will allow you to say OK this is where I have the gaps therefore this is the team that I need to have.”
“If you see yourself as who you are, you will become a better leader.”
This insight became clear during his time as CEO of UTEL Universidad, the largest online university in South America at that time. In that role, he struggled to understand why he was failing despite previous success. “I didn’t realize that the new place required a new skill set. What had made me very successful in my previous organization actually was a failure in the new one.”
He soon recognized that the team who had filled his gaps in the previous organization were no longer there, and that he needed to rebuild around that reality. “The people that were filling in my gaps were no longer there; I had to find that.”
When you see yourself clearly, you can pivot quickly.
Ben admits that identifying your gaps is difficult, requiring deep reflection and an honest look at who you truly are, not who you aspire to be. What do you really like? What do you not like? How do you feel about certain things?
He has found that most people don’t do this type of deep reflection because it’s complicated, because life is difficult, because it’s hard to accept the truth of where you lack strength, intelligence, or knowledge, but that it is this clarity that accelerates growth. “You make less mistakes because you have less gaps that you haven’t seen,” he continues, “you also make less mistakes because you don’t believe you’re superhuman.” Making the effort to truly know yourself, he says, makes leadership a whole lot easier.
Truly knowing yourself makes leadership
a whole lot easier.
Ben believes that knowing yourself and identifying the drivers that have led to previous successes are paramount to leading teams and scaling impact, saying that when you look closely, you’ll find that success is a combination of timing, luck, the market, and the people around you.
Ben’s personal values include honesty, clear communication, and being a noise barrier.
He distills honesty into four words, “Be clear, don’t lie.” He explains that honesty doesn’t mean being ruthless. It means communicating truthfully and simply, even when situations are difficult. While leaders don’t need to share everything, they do need to share the basic truth and reality with their teams. “Say the truth, say it in a way that is not aggressive, say it in a way that’s not dramatic, but tell the truth and if you do that in general people respect you.”
Ben believes it is a leader’s responsibility to communicate vision with extreme clarity. When entering a new organization or leading a new team, the leader must clearly define the minimum viable product (MVP) and ensure shared understanding. From there, the team can layer their ideas, expertise, or even completely rethink the approach to achieve the desired outcome. Even when leaders believe they’ve communicated clearly, he says it’s important to keep in mind that teams may not have the same context or experience and are left to make assumptions that often lead to rework.
He believes that leaders must act as a noise barrier within organizations. With pressure and information coming from every direction, good leaders filter noise so teams can focus on the two or three things that truly matter. “Their focus is making sure that whatever project you’re doing will have the best outcome so eliminating that noise,” Ben says, “is a huge asset for a leader.”
He adds that leaders also need to be conscious of the noise they generate themselves. He admits he hasn’t always been great at this because he is quite expressive, and that it can take some time to learn. He shares that this doesn’t mean you can’t be who you are, but you do need to understand the way you communicate, the expressions you use, and how you might come across at certain times, in certain spaces, and in certain moments so that you are not unintentionally generating more noise.
“Good leaders will eliminate the noise. They will just make it quiet. And that’s super valuable for the team.”
Ben has found that leadership qualities are consistent at every level. Whether leading a team of fifteen at nineteen years old or serving as CEO of a major university, the core leadership skills remain the same. While technical, financial, and legal knowledge increase with experience, the fundamentals of leadership do not change. This realization helped him overcome moments of self-doubt when entering new rooms or organizations.
“The things that you need to be a good leader actually do not change, which is a very good lesson because it eliminates a lot of the work people think they have to do,” he says. “You just have to build your style and be consistent and truthful to it.”
He encourages leaders not to be intimidated by new rooms, new levels, or new organizations, but to recognize that they do belong. Believing that if you understand your drivers of success, know your gaps, fill them with the right team, communicate clearly and honestly, and act as a noise barrier, you can be an incredible leader—whether in a call center, leading a sales team, a development team, or a large organization.