In an April 2013 TED Talk, Bill Gates (*) & Eric Schmidt (**) give the advice: “Everybody needs a coach”. When major CEOs, like Bill Gates, who have accomplished so much in their professional careers positively recommend mentoring & coaching for “everyone” – don’t you think that is something you should listen to? Invest in your future; see what Executive Coaching can do for you.
Sometimes we can be our own worst enemies: creating our own stressful situations; ignoring problems hoping they will go away; putting off critical tasks – like developing & enhancing our own careers – because we are too busy to listen. Avoiding the “too-busy” problem can be as easy as just listening.
Watch the TED Talk Video: “Everybody Needs a Coach” (Bill Gates & Eric Schmidt)
(April 2013; Bill Gates & Eric Schmidt) – TRANSCRIPT of Video:
Bill Gates: “Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast, or a bridge player. My bridge coach, Sharon Osberg, says there are more pictures of the back of her head than anyone else’s in the world. Sorry Sharon. There you go. We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
Eric Schmidt: “Leaders, I’ve received so many different kinds of advice. I don’t know where to start. one that comes to mind is to have a coach. Our board member in 2002, John Door, said you need a coach. And I said, well, I don’t need a coach I’m an established CEO; why would I need a coach is something wrong? He said, no, no, you need a coach; everybody needs a coach.
So, Bill Campbell became my coach, and it served Google very well. Every famous athlete, every famous performer, has somebody who’s a coach; somebody who can watch what they’re doing and say, is that what you really meant? Did you really do that? They can give them perspective. But one thing people are never good at is seeing themselves as others see them. A coach really, really helps.
* Bill Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, author, and philanthropist. In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft, which became the world’s largest PC software company. During Bill Gates’ career at Microsoft, he held the positions of chairman, CEO and chief software architect, and was the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.
Since 1987, Bill Gates has been included in the Forbes list of the world’s billionaires. From 1995 to 2017, Bill Gates held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world every year except in 2008 and from 2010 to 2013. In October 2017, Bill Gates was surpassed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Bill Gates’s net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time.
In the Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans in 2023, Bill Gates was ranked sixth with a wealth of $115.0 billion. As of March 2024, Bill Gates has an estimated net worth of US$151 billion, making Bill Gates the fifth-richest person in the world according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. [source: Wikipedia]
** Eric Emerson Schmidt is an American software engineer, a businessman, and the Executive Chairman of Alphabet, Inc. In 2016, Forbes ranked Schmidt as the 100th-richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of US$11.6 billion.
Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and former software engineer who served as the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company’s executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also served as the executive chairman of parent company Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017, and Technical Advisor at Alphabet from 2017 to 2020. In April 2022, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth to be US$25.1 billion.
As an intern at Bell Labs, Schmidt in 1975 was co-author of Lex, a software program to generate lexical analysers for the Unix computer operating system. From 1997 to 2001, he was chief executive officer (CEO) of Novell.[10] Schmidt has served on various other boards in academia and industry, including the boards of trustees for Carnegie Mellon University, Apple, Princeton University, and the Mayo Clinic. He also owns a minority stake in the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL).
In 2008, during his tenure as Google’s chairman, Schmidt campaigned for Barack Obama, and subsequently became a member of Obama’s President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, with Eric Lander. Lander later became Joe Biden’s science advisor. In the meantime, Schmidt had left Google, and founded philanthropic venture Schmidt Futures, in 2017. Under Schmidt’s tenure, Schmidt Futures provided the compensation for two science-office employees in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. In October 2021, Schmidt founded the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) and has since served as its chairman.
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About RJ Winston Consulting: Reginald Winston, CEO and founder of RJ Winston Consulting, Inc. has 25+ years’ experience in Organizational Development with a focus on Executive Coaching & Training, Team Building, Group Facilitation, Conflict Management, and Professional Life Coaching. Before consulting, Mr. Winston held positions in numerous large organizations including Ameritech, SBC, Motorola, Advocate Health Care, Corning Consumer Products and the Federal Reserve. In addition, Mr. Winston’s service in the US Marine Corps and assignments with the United States Department of State gives him a unique insight in the challenges management teams & leaders face in the expanding global world market.
Mr. Winston has extensive experience in working with Hospital Administrators and Senior Medical staff (doctors, nurses and executive-level hospital administrators) in a wide variety of hospital settings and departments. His experience also extends to the public & private sector, as well as industrial, manufacturing and corporate environments where he has provided coaching services to C-Level Executives, Mid-Level Directors & Managers and teams. Mr. Winston holds a Master of Science Degree in Organization Development (MSOD) from Loyola University, in Chicago, Illinois.
If you decide to take advantage of the Executive Coaching process, what should you expect? The RJ Winston Consulting Executive Coaching is an 8-Step process that begins with an in depth, one-on-one consultation with you to assess if we are the “right” fit for you. If, after our consultation, it is determined that RJ Winston is not the best coach for you, we will refer you to another Executive Coach from our professional network.
How long will the coaching process take? Because we tailor each of our coaching programs to our client’s unique needs & goals, there is not a specific time frame for coaching. However, for most clients the Executive Coaching process typically takes a minimum of 1 year. We meet once a week for an hour for the first 6 months, then every other week for the second half of the year.
To learn more about RJ Winston Consulting’s Executive Coaching services; download our Infographs: Benefits of an Executive Career Coach; Why Coaching Works
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