About 20 years ago, just before I started Work Smarter: Live Better, my beautiful wife TK asked me a simple question. She said, “Cyril, who is your most important client?” I thought about it for a moment and replied, “It’s Westpac, this large bank in Australia that we are doing quite a lot of business with.”
She shook her head and said, “No, Cyril, who’s your most important client?” I paused, thought a bit harder, and said, “No, you’re right, TK. It’s not Westpac, it’s Richard, my boss. He’s my most important client.”
She looked straight at me and said, “Wrong again. It’s me.”
In this video, I want to share why I’ve been so passionate over the last 20 years about what I do, and how I can help you implement these principles in your own life.
For the last two decades, some of the world’s largest companies—organizations like Boston Consulting Group, Microsoft, American Express, ING, and BHP—have hired me to teach their busiest executives how to get more done. I’ve been fortunate to work with exceptional leaders around the globe. Yet so many of them are devoted partners and parents who carry a deep sense of guilt about the trade-offs and sacrifices they feel forced to make for their work.
I still remember a meeting I had in Sydney with the CFO of a major Australian bank. He shared how he had recently missed his daughter’s graduation because his CEO called a last-minute Friday evening emergency meeting, forcing him to spend all day Saturday in the office. You could feel the genuine pain and guilt in his voice over missing such a milestone for something that easily could have waited.
So many leaders believe it’s an either-or choice: you can either be a top performer in business, OR a great parent, partner, and friend. But over 20 years of coaching busy executives, I’ve proven that it’s not an either-or. It’s an and. You can be a top achiever AND have a fulfilling personal life at home.
Everything these global companies have hired me to teach their leaders, I have poured into my new book, Less Achieves More.
Because I want to ensure you actually put these insights into practice rather than letting the book collect dust on a shelf, I’m doing something special. If you purchase the book before October 13, I am inviting you to join a series of live, interactive implementation workshops for free. We will work together live to put these principles into action. Simply click the link in this video post to join me.
https://wslb.com/the-books/less-achieves-more/
This is this week’s Work Smarter: Live Better tip. I really hope to see you in our implementation workshops.
You have a lovely day.
À bientôt,
Cyril
