Category: Success
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Do you have Weekend Friends or Mid-week Friends?
David Brooks has career success, but in this TED talk he shares how he found himself empty. 5 years ago, his wife left, his kids had moved out… and he discovered he had nothing to do outside of work. He had mid-week friends, but he had no weekend friends. Success in career is not success…
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Why Business Leaders Hire Coaches
This list is Conor’s “Sunday afternoon in a coffee shop brain dump” of reasons why Business Leaders seek the support of an Executive Coach or Mentor either independently or through an organisation like Vistage. I’ve been working on leadership development for over a decade through my roles at IESE Business School, Entrepreneurs Organisation and Vistage. …
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Standing out from the Crowd: If you are going to be Different, Execution must be Excellent
This video is from Bilbao in front of the Guggenheim Museum. I was in Bilbao for the launch of Vistage in the region. In my courses I often have participants who hate following standard processes. Sometimes this is a good thing. When you decide to break the rules, you better do your homework and preparation…
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Freedom is difficult, but be careful of wishing for fences
Be careful what you wish for… In the Zoo, the animals are safe in their cages, they are fed 3 meals a day, the fence keeps out predators and competition (isn’t that what Trump promised?). We have to be careful what we wish for. Freedom comes with a price, and that price is called responsibility.…
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Good Enough is Not Enough
Do you have a Growth Mindset or a Fixed Mindset? This video is about the danger of being “good enough” in many things. As the world grows ever more connected, and ever more complex – those that accumulate a whole collection of “good enough” skills will suffer. Those that can choose to be bad in…
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Commitment and Success
I spoke with one of my mentors in Madrid this week. We spoke about success in business. What is business success? What price is worth paying? What are the ingredients of achieving success? Is Business Success due to Great Decisions, or is it due to Excellent Implementation? I share his answer in this video. PS…
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Fully Committed: Success comes from Putting 20x More behind your Opportunities
This video is about a strategy for focussing your life’s energy and resources into fewer but more strategic projects. (I tell a story that I have never told in class). How do you ensure that you are dedicating your efforts to what is really important in life, and not diluting your efforts, resources amongst hundreds…
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Finding Balance between Ambition and Peace of Mind, External vs Internal Success
“If someone followed your life and took 24 hours of film of everything you do for a day and they edited that into a one-hour documentary… the editor could decide to make you look like the worst villain ever or the greatest hero ever… it depends on which parts of your day he puts into…
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The Power of Perspective: The 4 Seasons of our Life
This video is about the 4 seasons of nature, and the 4 seasons of our life. Farmers understand the seasons – they don’t plant in autumn and try to reap a harvest in winter… they know that spring is for planting, summer is for nurturing and autumn is for reaping. In our own lives we…
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What makes a Great School? 100% Enthusiasm, 0% Cynicism… or lots of Music
I’d love you to leave a comment and tell me the answer to this question: Who is the most enthusiastic person that you know? Thanks, Conor Last night, I asked a retired inspector of schools: “What makes a great school?” His answer… “Music.” He said that infallibly he would find a thriving musical scene in every…