Better At Work with Cathal Quinlan

Cathal and Annette close out season four together in London, in person for once. The four ideas from 30+ episodes that actually changed how they work: Laura Gassner Otting's four Cs of a fulfilling career, Zach Mercurio on the mattering deficit, Colin Fisher (The Collective Edge) on teams and clarity, and the Smart Conflict five Rs from Louise van Haast and Alice Driscoll. Plus the first listener...

The final listener questions episode of Better at Work, Season 4. This week is Cathal and Annette closing out the season's questions before next week's wrap, with the stories that stuck with them and a look ahead to Season 5. Annette shares the story of Pauline Wald, a banking executive who walked 2,000 kilometres across France and Spain to find what her successful life had been missing. Cathal ge...

Roger Martin is the world's number one management thinker, former dean of the Rotman School of Management, and strategy advisor to the CEOs of P&G, Lego, Ford and American Express. He is our final guest of the year, and we have split the conversation in two. In part one, Roger takes apart what most people get wrong about strategy. We begin at his father's kitchen table, where an animal feed co...

Roger Martin is the world's number one management thinker, former dean of the Rotman School of Management, and strategy advisor to the CEOs of P&G, Lego, Ford and American Express. He is our final guest of the year, and we have split the conversation in two. In part one, Roger takes apart what most people get wrong about strategy. We begin at his father's kitchen table, where an animal feed co...

Annette is in London! She and Cathal are finally in the same studio for this listener questions episode. First up, Annette's three takeaways from Cathal's conversation with behavioural scientist Leidy Klotz, author of In a Good Place. The headline: every workspace has to meet three psychological needs. Agency, growth and connection. They get into why hot-desking quietly erodes all three, the simpl...

Most workplaces obsess over paint colours, open-plan vs closed offices, and how many days people should be back at their desks. They skip the only question that actually matters. This week Cathal sits down with Leidy Klotz, engineering professor and behavioural scientist at the University of Virginia. Leidy is the author of SUBTRACT (translated into eight languages) and his new book IN A GOOD PLAC...

Q&A episode: Annette synthesises Wendy Smith's both/and thinking, Cathal reflects on Bob Geldof's recent speech on empathy in leadership, and we answer Lou's question on preparing for her first competency-based interview. Following last week's conversation with Wendy Smith (Both/And Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems), Annette walks through the takeaways that...

Wendy Smith is a management professor at the University of Delaware and the co-author of Both/And Thinking, a book translating 25 years of research into practical tools leaders can apply immediately. In this conversation: - Why workplace tensions are a feature, not a bug - What most business schools are getting wrong about leadership - The difference between a dilemma (where you choose) and a para...

Annette's back with three takeaways from last week's Jennifer Moss episode that genuinely changed how we think about hope at work. Plus a listener question from Paul, an Australian who's been working in Dublin for 7-8 years and is now moving the family home to Melbourne while weighing a career change. In this Q&A: - The Admiral McRaven "make your bed" reminder - FOBO (fear of becoming obsolete...

Three years ago, Jennifer Moss came on Better at Work and gave us a line that stuck: we can't yoga our way out of a bad boss. She's back. New book. Sharper take. Jennifer is a burnout researcher and workplace culture strategist whose new book Why Are We Here? Creating a Work Culture Everybody Wants is her third on this space and one of the most useful Cathal has read this year. In this conversatio...

What if the colleague who drives you up the wall is the one your organisation can't afford to lose? Cathal and Annette are back for a listener-questions special, picking up where last week's conversation with David [surname TBC], former Head of Design at Tesla, left off. The idea that stuck: every team has Mad Hatters and White Rabbits. The Mad Hatters bring the wild, disruptive, sometimes maddeni...

For 14 years, David Imai was a Design Director at Tesla, helping shape every car the company put on the road. Before that, GM and Opel. Today he advises the startups building the future of transport and robotics, and he's obsessed with one question: why do the best ideas keep dying inside big organisations? His answer will surprise you. Every team has two types of people. The Mad Hatter, who throw...

In this week's listener questions episode, Cathal and Annette revisit three powerful ideas from their conversation with Marcus Collins. First, Emile Durkheim's sociological definition of culture, and why Marcus uses it: culture isn't something we create as individuals, it creates us as social beings. Second, Marcus's definition of brands as "vessels of meaning," identifiable signifiers that conjur...

Why Culture Is the Most Powerful Force at Work (And How to Actually Change It) | Marcus Collins What if the biggest thing shaping your experience at work isn't your manager, your workload, or your pay, but something most organisations can't even define? In this episode, Cathal sits down with Marcus Collins, marketing professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, fa...

Your team might be too big to do its best work. In this week's Q&A, Cathal and Annette unpack their takeaways from Colin Fisher's research on what makes great teams. The number that stuck: 4.5 people. That's the ideal team size for real collaboration. They dig into why most leadership meetings are too big to actually solve anything, the goal-setting mistake Colin calls "meet m...

Colin Fisher went from touring the world as a jazz trumpet player to becoming one of the leading researchers on group dynamics at UCL. His new book, The Collective Edge, reveals why the structure around your team matters more than the talent inside it. In this episode, Colin shares the surprising research behind why orchestra musicians are less satisfied than prison guards, introduces the "Ca...

She left her job for a direct competitor. Six months in, she wants out. This week's Q&A tackles a listener career dilemma that most of us have lived through — that sinking feeling when your new job isn't what you expected. Amy's dealing with a culture mismatch, missing processes, and tanking motivation. Cathal and Annette share practical, honest advice drawing from their own career...

Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez got fired for trying to bring project management to a top consulting firm. Today, he's the most published expert on project management in Harvard Business Review and a Thinkers 50 global authority. His new book "Powered by Projects" makes a bold claim: Every organization is project-driven, but the leaders don't know it. IN THIS EPISODE: The Origin Story: -...

Q&A episode answering a tough leadership question from Emer, plus Annette's takeaways from Laura Gassner-Otting. IN THIS EPISODE: Thank You Email Goes Viral: Cathal's email praising his daughter's teacher went around the whole school. Miss Smith said "You'd be surprised how little that happens." Why recognition matters more than we think. Annette's Laura Takeaways...

Laura Gassner-Otting (Wall Street Journal bestselling author) joins Cathal in the London studio to challenge everything we think we know about success. This is Laura's UK/Ireland podcast debut, recorded at Christmas after a mulled wine with incredible energy. IN THIS EPISODE: The Four Horsemen of Success (and why they drive Laura batty): 1. "I'll be happy when..." - Life is short...

Q&A episode with Annette's top takeaways from Russell Beck + critical advice for dealing with burnout at work. IN THIS EPISODE: Annette's 3 Takeaways from Russell Beck: 1. The Rise of Artist Engineers (STEM → STEAM) Why creativity and art matter more than ever in the future of work. Drawing as a tool for thinking. 2. One Size Fits One Managers need to understand how each person works b...

You won't lose your job to AI in 2026. You'll lose it to someone who knows how to use AI better. Russell Beck (author of "The World of Work to 2030" - Leadership Book of the Year) breaks down what's changing in the workplace and how to stay ahead. IN THIS EPISODE: - Why AI collaboration beats AI competition - How technology democratizes work by destroying skills, not jobs - T...

Our final episode of 2025! Cathal and Annette wrap up the year with takeaways from last week's Smart Conflict episode - plus Annette has a hilarious problem: she can't stop saying the word "problematic." In this Christmas special, we review key lessons from Alice Driscoll and Louise van Haast's brilliant conversation, thank our amazing community, and ask for your help with An...

Louise van Haast and Alice Driscoll, co-authors of Smart Conflict: How to Have Hard Conversations at Work, join Cathal in-studio for a masterclass in navigating workplace conflict. This is our first in-studio episode with 4-camera setup - and it looks stunning. If you've ever avoided a difficult conversation, taken feedback too personally, or struggled to speak up at work, this episode is for...

A listener on a graduate program asks: "I'm not learning what I expected. The role feels narrow. I want to be an entrepreneur. What should I do?" Cathal and Annette tackle this question with practical advice that applies to ANYONE feeling stuck in a narrow role, not just graduates. Plus: Cathal shares what it was like meeting Dermot Kennedy (and whether he lived up to expectations)....