503: The key to happiness and success (with Alex Bäcker)

Welcome to an interview with a leadership coaching legend, David Noble. Most leaders experience a lack of motivation to continue the things they once had a passion for. So, how do you rekindle the fire of motivation when it starts to die? The key is to know your "why" and assess if your reason is strong enough to continue the journey. In this episode, David shares the role he plays in reframing things and bringing the best out of leaders, executives, and CEOs. David shares a powerful new framework called MOVE that characterizes great and extraordinary leaders. Most of us dislike having only one strategy to win. In David's framework, he discusses the four simple yet powerful options that will take you to the same goal: lean in, lean back, lean with, and don't lean. David Noble has more than twenty years of global experience advising CEOs, their teams, and major investors on leadership and strategy, and an additional fifteen years as a top executive. He was named by Thinkers50 as one of the world's top coaches. Noble has served as a senior adviser to Egon Zehnder and Oliver Wyman. Get David's book here: Real-Time Leadership: Find Your Winning Moves When the Stakes Are High. David Noble and Carol Kauffman. Enjoying this episode? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

19 Dec 202247min

Welcome to an episode with a renowned digital entrepreneur and founder of ENTRE institute, Jeff Lerner. Get Jeff's book here. In this episode, Jeff discussed how he was able to build a multi-million dollar company from scratch and the key elements behind his success. At the age of 18, Jeff started his first business after dropping out of high school and becoming a musician. After the first one failed, Jeff continued starting more businesses and failed at them too. Despite years of trying and numerous unsuccessful businesses, one of which had left him $500,000 in dept, he chose to keep going and eventually built multiple successful businesses. Instead of retiring early, Jeff chose to spend his time inspiring and helping others build their businesses. After becoming an authority in startups, he established ENTRE institute, an online education company dedicated to helping entrepreneurs how they could start their own businesses. To date, ENTRE Institute has taught over 150,000 across the world. Get Jeff's book here: Unlock Your Potential: The Ultimate Guide for Creating Your Dream Life in the Modern World Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episode here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

14 Dec 20221h 9min

Welcome to an episode with a practicing emergency physician at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Richard Winters. Get Dr. Richard's book here. As a physician, Dr. Richard shares how he managed, adapted, and remained calm during times of covid. He discussed some of the best practices that can be adapted from the medical field into the space of business. We speak about leadership, administration, and leveraging your expertise to be effective in your career. In this episode, we also discussed one of the traps that most leaders face today where they strive to become successful in their career, and groom and develop new leaders while taking into account the fear of being replaced. As director of Leadership Development for the Mayo Clinic Care Network, Dr. Winters facilitates retreats and delivers programs that train leaders at healthcare organizations worldwide. Dr. Winters graduated from the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in 1994. He is board certified and residency trained in Emergency Medicine from the University of California, San Francisco at Fresno. He graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas Executive and Professional Coaching Program and is a professional certified coach through the International Coaching Federation. He completed a Healthcare Management Executive MBA from the University of Texas at Dallas and UT Southwestern Medical Center. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Prior to his work at Mayo Clinic, Dr. Winters served as managing partner of a democratic physician group, chair of emergency medicine, president of an 800-physician medical staff, and CEO/founder of a managed care startup. He lives in Rochester, Minnesota with his family. Get Dr. Richard's book here: You're the Leader. Now What? : Leadership Lessons from Mayo Clinic. Dr. Richard Winters Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episode here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

12 Dec 202249min

Welcome to an episode with Cassie Holmes, a professor at UCLA's Anderson School of Management and an award-winning teacher and researcher of time and happiness. In society today, we generally equate productivity with the number of activities we do, regardless of the value it brings us and how it contributes to our well-being and happiness. We often feel "time-poor" for having too much to do and not having enough time to do it. As a result, we feel less happy and less fulfilled. On the contrary, people with too much free time feel unproductive and lack a sense of purpose. So how should we think about time and happiness? In this episode, Cassie discusses how we can recreate our approach to time and transform every moment into a happier hour. She shares how we can spend time optimally, create moments of gratitude and fulfillment, and live life with no regrets. Cassie earned her PhD at Stanford's Graduate School of Business and her BA at Columbia as a psychology major. Cassie's research has been widely published in lead academic journals and featured in such outlets as NPR, The Economist, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The Washington Post. Happier Hour is her first book. Get Cassie's book here: Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most. Cassie Holmes Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

7 Dec 20221h 5min

Welcome to an episode with Bill George, former chairman and CEO of Medtronic and currently a professor at Harvard Business School. He has written two of the most enduring leadership classics of all time: Authentic Leadership and True North. Now, Bill has written a new book aimed at the next generation of leaders, the Emerging Leaders Edition of True North, coauthored with millennial entrepreneur Zach Clayton. Get Bill's new book here. This book is a clarion call to emerging leaders to step up to lead their organizations with their hearts, not just their heads, as authentic leaders who lead with purpose by inspiring and coaching their teammates. It heralds the end of the baby boomer era of Jack Welch, when too many leaders focused on maximizing shareholder value and taking shortcuts rather than building sustainable enterprises to serve all of their stakeholders. Our best hope for a better world is to empower the next generation of emerging leaders – not just those on top – to follow their True North to make this world better for everyone. The stories in this book, which came from 220 interviews with exceptional leaders, illustrate that most authentic leaders first discovered their True North through their life stories and crucibles, developed self-awareness, and then found their North Star – the purpose of their leadership. Wisdom learned from leaders like Satya Nadella, Mary Barra, Ken Frazier, Indra Nooyi, Ursula Burns, and Hubert Joly will guide emerging leaders at all levels in their development. Bill joined Medtronic in 1989 as president and chief operating officer, was chief executive officer from 1991-2001, and board chair from 1996-2002. He is currently a senior fellow at Harvard Business School, where he has taught leadership since 2004. He is the author of Discover Your True North and The Discover Your True North Field Book, Authentic Leadership, Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis, Finding Your True North, and True North Groups. He has served on the boards of Goldman Sachs, ExxonMobil, Novartis, Target, and Mayo Clinic. He received his BSIE with high honors from Georgia Tech, his MBA with high distinction from Harvard University, where he was a Baker Scholar, and honorary PhDs from Georgia Tech, Mayo Medical School, University of St. Thomas, Augsburg College, and Bryant University. True North: Leading Authentically in Today's Workplace, Emerging Leader Edition. Bill George & Zach Clayton. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

5 Dec 202256min

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we discuss religion, politics, culture, etc. When interviewing with a partner or associate from a different culture, it is very easy to say something which can offend a person. Our very own clients have said seemly innocent things only to have it blow up in their face much later, and sometimes in the interview. We have a strict rule of never discussing religion, politics, culture and ethnicity with clients. This avoids topics which can offend people if the wrong things are said. The issue is not about who right, since this is an issue of personal faith and rationality does not always work. It is best to avoid these topics. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

30 Nov 202215min

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril. The reality is that McKinsey will rarely ask this question directly. They will ask a simple question, not referring to leadership, but expect you to always draw out leadership, analytic, teamwork and "can-do" attributes. Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

28 Nov 20229min

For this episode, let's revisit a Case Interview & Management Consulting classic where we look at each of the typical McKinsey/BCG FIT/PEI questions and provide a typical answer. Note, that while replicating this approach and standard will help you, we caution you that the main test of fit is in handling the cross-examination of your answer. Most candidates tend to be unprepared for that and we urge you to be very aware this will happen and to practice this interrogation style. You can never memorize your way out of these interrogations questions, since you cannot predict the actual question and, therefore, prepare for them. At least 20% of clients ignore this advice at their peril.  Enjoying our podcast? Get access to sample advanced training episodes here: www.firmsconsulting.com/promo

23 Nov 202221min