Today, it’s all about communication. That, and mountaineering – because these two things are so intertwined. Well, they will seem to be once you listen to my conversation with our guest Chuck Garcia. Chuck is an executive coach, professor at the Graduate School of Engineering at Columbia University, and a speaker. He worked for many years at Bloomberg – and started before it became the giant financial news and media company that it is today. He has worked very closely with its founder Michael Bloomberg.
Chuck is also an avid mountaineer and this conversation is primarily one around the parallels between mountain climbing and effective communication – and there are more than you realise. There are so many in fact, that Chuck has written a wonderful, best-selling book on the topic called A Climb to the Top: Communication and Leadership Tactics to Take Your Career to New Heights.
We get into that and much more including:
- How Chuck started his career and the early days at Bloomberg;
- Mountaineering and his expeditions;
- What makes a great leader;
- Some very difficult conversations he had following the 9/11 attacks which tragically claimed the lives of three of Chuck’s colleagues;
- Climbing expeditions to honour fallen colleagues
- The perils of knee-jerk reactions – both in climbing and communicating;
- Agility versus planning;
- Much more!
Show notes:
Chuck’s book: A Climb to the Top: Communication and Leadership Tactics to Take Your Career to New Heights;
Climb Leadership International
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Get your free audio book and 30 day free trial at Audible:
US listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
UK listeners: get your free trial and audio book at Audible
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Like what you heard?
Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on iTunes: http://apple.co/1PjLmK
Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast
Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo
Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings
Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com
We start this episode with an important announcement – that this is an episode brought to you by Audible. Listeners in the UK and US can get a free 30 day trial to Audible and a free audio book:
US listeners – get your free trial and audio book at Audible
UK listeners – get your free trial and audio book at Audible
As we are talking about books, I thought I’d share with you some recommended books that I have read and am currently reading, and some that I am about to read:
Red Card: FIFA and the Fall of the Most Powerful Men in Sports by Ken Bensinger
Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of Our World by Dan Davies
Signals: How Everyday Signals Can Help Us Navigate the World’s Turbulent Economy by Pippa Malmgren
An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance by David Epstein
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism and Progress by Steven Pinker
How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan
Endure: Mind, Body and the Curious Elastic Limits of Human Performance by Alex Hutchinson
Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb
The Cyclist Who Went Out in the Cold by Tim Moore
How to Not Die by Dr. Michael Greger and Gene Stone
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Like what you heard?
Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on iTunes: http://apple.co/1PjLmK
Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast
Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo
Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings
Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com
We have released this episode right in the middle of the 2018 World Cup in Russia. You might love football (and you may call it “soccer”). You might revel in Lionel Messi’s unbelievable skills or Cristiano Ronaldo’s athleticism (even though both are now gone from the tournament). Perhaps you play the game. Perhaps your children do. Maybe you support your local club side, one of the big European teams, or both. Your national team’s performance might have a lot of meaning for you.
Conversely, you might not care about the game at all. You might be appalled by the amount of money in it, or the fact that people spend far too much time obsessing over it. You might be all of the above.
Regardless, what is often called “the people’s game,” or “the beautiful game,” has a very dark side. It is a side that you should know about because it affects our world. That side is corruption, which we talk about in this episode.
My guest is Ken Bensinger. Ken is an award-winning investigative journalist. He has worked at the Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times and now at BuzzFeed News. He was a Pullizer Prize finalist. He has recently written Red Card: FIFA and the Fall of the Most Powerful Men in Sports.
Red Card is an enthralling account if the FBI’s investigation into FIFA, football’s global governing body, arguably the most powerful institution in all of sports. The book shows the greed, arrogance and self-interest of those who ran the sport for decades, and how a determined investigation brought this small cabal to justice. It is also a book that asks questions about the role of big money and politics in sport, including geopolitics.
We get into that and more, including:
- How the book came about;
- How FIFA’s structure facilitates corruption, including why that structure has similarities with organised crime syndicates;
- How the money flowed and how the corruption worked – and very plausibly, how it still might be working today;
- How the USA got involved in investigating FIFA;
- Whether or not FIFA is cleaner now;
- Things Ken is watching out for in Russia 2018;
- Parallels to the Russia/Trump investigation;
- Similarities to Russia’s athletics doping scandal;
- Risks to the sport;
- Whether or not it is “ok” to watch the World Cup;
- Plans for a movie;
- Much more!
Show notes:
Red Card: FIFA and the Fall of The Most Powerful Men in Sports – UK edition, US edition here
The 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids
Christopher Steele and the Trump Dossier
Brazil’s Odebrecht corruption scandal
The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
The Icarus Documentary about Russia’s systemic doping in sport
The Russian athletics doping scandal
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Like what you heard?
Subscribe and/or leave a rating and review on iTunes: http://apple.co/1PjLmKh
Subscribe on Stitcher: http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/all-things-risk/the-all-things-risk-podcast
Subscribe on Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/ben-cattaneo
Follow the podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiskThings
Drop us a note: allthingsrisk@gmail.com