"If you don't know your navigational heading, you can't build a culture" - Ben Banks of BNSF Logistics

In this episode of the Land and Lead Podcast, Dr. Josh Elmore speaks with Ben Banks, President and CEO of BNSF Logistics, about stepping into his first CEO role with a mandate to redefine and realign a sister company’s purpose. After nearly two decades inside BNSF Railway, Ben transitioned internally, yet into a distinct organization, charged with reconnecting BNSF Logistics to its original strategic intent.

Ben shares how he approached the role with humility, resisting the pressure to arrive with answers. Instead, he spent his first weeks listening deeply across the organization before convening his executive team offsite to define a clear “navigational heading.” Through structured dialogue and disciplined prioritization, the team clarified where the company could deliver premier, scalable value and what needed to be unwound.

The conversation explores board alignment, consensus building, healthy conflict, and the importance of over-communication during change. Ben also reflects candidly on managing change fatigue, reshaping his leadership team without creating fault lines, and launching new capabilities using lean, iterative learning principles.

His advice for leaders entering high-stakes roles is simple but powerful: go in humbly, become a “learn-it-all,” over-communicate, and build feedback loops that sustain trust. Leadership, Ben reminds us, is not about having all the answers, it’s about building the capacity to discover them together.