Aidan McCullen, Consultant, Board Advisor, Executive Coach, Author and Host, Innovation Show and Edge Behaviour
Aidan is the host and founder of the Innovation Show, broadcast globally and on RTE and the only English speaking show on Finland's Business FM.
The show was recently voted in the top five shows on Innovation by Forbes.
Aidan is the author of the book "Undisruptable: A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organizations and Life" with a foreword by Visa founder Dee Hock.
Aidan is a Change Consultant and Corporate Coach, where he works with organizations to improve how they engage and innovate. He is a champion for change and has reinvented his own career after rugby. Aidan worked in transformation for digital, innovation and now culture and leadership.
Aidan has over 100 caps for Leinster, Toulouse and London Irish and is a full Ireland Rugby International. He developed the digital eco-system for Communicorp Radio Group, served as Head of Innovation for RTE (Ireland's National broadcaster), worked as an innovation consultant for Global company Katawave and sits on the board of National Broadband Ireland.
He developed and delivered a module on Emerging Technology Trends in Trinity College Business School, ranked 1st in Ireland and in the top 100 globally.
What is your favourite social media platform, and why?
Linkedin, I focussed here rather than disperse my efforts. It also is a great way to share value with people.
Tell us about you and your current role or area of interest.
Working with teams and leaders to create more innovative cultures and with leaders to work on their personal and organizational purpose.
What do you like about your career or area of focus?
The red thread between all my work is to distil knowledge and help people make more informed decisions.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Don't care what others think about you, do what makes you feel alive.
What inspires you, motivates you, or helps you to move forward?
I like the concept of the sculptor; as Michelangelo said, "Every block of stone has a statue inside it, and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." I see life as such a journey of discovery, to remove the layers of socialization and programming to discover who we are meant to be.
Dee Hock, who is the founder of Visa, wrote the foreword to my book, "Undisruptable". He taught me the difference between an Odyssey and a Journey in our many conversations. A Journey has a destination, while an Odyssey is about the joy of the journey. I see life as an Odyssey.
What are you proud of in your life so far?
Waking up to realize there is no joy in competing with one another, keeping up with the Joneses, driving the latest car or going to that hot holiday destination only to spend your time sharing images on social media. I like the concept of spaceship earth, where there are no passengers, only crew on the planet. When we help each other, everyone wins.
What is your preferred way to meet new people/network?
Before Covid, I would meet someone new every week for breakfast. I also connect with people on Linkedin.
What skills or qualities do you feel have helped you?
Discipline is by far the most valuable arrow in my quiver; the beauty of discipline is that it is a focus that can be applied to anything. When I released my book, many people asked how was the process. My answer is genuine, "It is like going to the gym". You develop the practice, use discipline to show up every day, and soon see the results.
What do you wish you had known when you started out?
As a professional rugby player, I wish I knew more about the mind in my life. Then, I would have been kinder to myself, and I would have understood setbacks are part of the odyssey. I would have also used visualization as a regular tool.
Who do you most admire in business, academic or creative circles and why?
One of the recent guests I had on the Innovation Show was Hubert Joly. In one of the most stunning turnarounds of the last decade, Joly took Best Buy from a flailing retailer that was losing money, with disengaged, frustrated employees and a brand bordering on being irrelevant, to a thriving organization.
He and his team drove five consecutive years of sales growth, a 263% increase in shareholder return, and doubled online sales, among many other achievements. He did it by focussing on purpose and people first. He is an extremely humble man, very authentic, and entirely purpose-driven; I admire these characteristics.
His book, "The Heart of Business - Leadership Principles for the Next Era of Capitalism.
Outside of your professional/work area, what hobbies or interests do you have or what other areas of your life are of real importance to you?
I work hard on my physical conditioning. I asked myself a question recently. What would my 100-year-old self turn to me and thank me for doing today that would make his life more enjoyable in the future? The answer? Look after your body, eat foods that will not cause inflammation, eat brain foods, undertake intermittent fasting, do mobility exercises. So, I guess that is a hobby. The Innovation Show I host started out as a hobby but has progressed into an integral part of my job.
Has the pandemic had a positive or a negative effect on you and/or your business, and how have you managed it?
It has been an accelerant for my business. Edge behaviour is about the trends and changes on the edges of society that will soon become the norm. The pandemic accelerated some of these behaviours, such as remote work, digital competencies, the importance of purpose.
In addition, I have been lucky because, as I talk about in my book. I have been building capability before I needed it. One such capability is the virtual delivery of keynotes and workshops. I had been doing this with the Innovation Show for years, and that capability paid off handsomely during Covid.
Do you have a mentor, or have you ever mentored anyone?
Yes, I am a huge advocate of mentorship. My mentor is a fantastic business person and entrepreneur. He is the man who brought the franchises Snap Printing and Home Instead into Ireland. He was also the manager for the Ireland Rugby Team for years, and his name is Mick Kearney. He has been a magnificent help during the transitions and reinventions I have pursued.
What advice would you have for someone looking to get into the same area of work or interests?
Things will not always work out as you planned. Rather than see them as failures, look for the capabilities you have developed from the attempt. I call this asset in the ashes. Our attempts are full of learning, but we have to be deliberate about looking for the learning.
What do you feel is the most common reason people fail or give up?
There is a book by Bronnie Ware, who worked for many years as a palliative nurse. Her patients were those who had gone home to die, and she was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives. Bronnie captures her stories in her internationally bestselling memoir, "The Top Five Regrets of the Dying." The number one regret people shared was, "I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me."
I quote David Bowie in my book, and he once said, "If you feel safe in the area you're working in, you're not working in the right area. So, always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in. Go a little out of your depth, and when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting." I love this quote because it pushes me to ask myself the question often, am I being too safe? Am I in shallow waters? There is no learning there.
Is there a phrase, quote or a saying that you really like?
"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." ― Leonard Cohen. Why? Because we should see everything we do, even the failed attempts, as success. The real failure is when we don't try.
What companies, brands, or institutions do you like or do you think are getting it right?
I think companies are starting to wake up to the importance of purpose to inspire the people who work there. I mentioned earlier Hubert Joly, he and his team at Best Buy got it right. It is very hard to tell because many organizations espouse to be purpose-driven, but it is very hard to know without actually working there. I do like the direction Microsoft's Satya Nadella has taken, and the complete change in culture Microsoft is enjoying.
How do you define success, and what lessons have you learned so far that you could share with our audience/readership?
I have two young boys. I have trained them to answer the question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" the only way this question should be answered is. "I want to be happy." Feeling happy, fulfilled, feeling you have made a difference, given it your best shot no matter what "it" is. That is a success.