Top Business Moguls Share Best Advice: Branson, Barra, Welch

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Top Business Moguls Share Best Advice by Amy Chen via LinkedIn Pulse

This morning LinkedIn Pulse launched their “Best Advice” package where top executives and business moguls share the best advice they have received in their careers. They have quite the lineup of Influencers participating from Jack Welch and GM CEO Mary Barra to Virgin founder Richard Branson and NCTA President Michael Powell (sharing the advice he received from his father, former Secretary of State Colin Powell).

See below for some highlights.

Best Advice – Highlights:

Richard Branson

“In the past two years, I have shared some of the best advice I ever received from my mum and my business mentor, Sir Freddie Laker. This year, I thought I would share a simple tip from another person who had an enormous impact upon my life – my dad. When I grew up our house was always a hive of activity, with Mum dreaming up new entrepreneurial schemes left, right and centre, and me and my sisters running wild. You were as likely to find me helping Mum with a new project as outside climbing a tree. Amidst all the fun and chaos, Dad was always a supportive, calming influence on us all. He wasn’t quiet, but he was not often as talkative as the rest of us. It made for a wonderful balance, and we always knew we could rely on him no matter what. Within this discreet support lay one of his best and most simple pieces of advice for me: listen more than you talk. Nobody learned anything by hearing themselves speak. Wherever I go, I try to spend as much time as possible listening to the people I meet. I am fortunate to travel widely and come across fascinating characters from all walks of life. While I am always happy to share my own experiences with them, it would be foolish if I didn’t listen back.

Jack and Suzy Welch

Do tough bosses really get more out of their people? Of course they get short-term results, but do they really help a company win in the long run? We’d say yes and yes. But how tough a boss seems may well depend on your own performance. There can be little debate about the fact that top performers with great results tend to worry and complain a lot less about tough bosses than those struggling to meet expectations. That may sound tough itself, but it’s reality.

Mary Barra

The best advice I ever received came from my parents, who encouraged me to work hard and pursue my early love of math. This was great advice for two reasons.First, it led me to do something I really loved. In my experience, in work and in life, there are lots of smart, talented people out there. But talent alone is never enough. One of the things that distinguishes those who truly make a difference is passion and hard work. There is truth in the expression that hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard. And the passion that drives hard work comes from doing something you really love.

Michael Powell

Refuse to play in the baby pool. When your father happens to be a highly-decorated general, you probably sit up a little straighter whenever he offers a piece of advice. Michael Powell recounts how his father, Colin Powell, always told him: “I do not worry about my race. I make race the other guy’s problem. I have no interest in playing on the minor league field. I want to play on center court. If you are going to win, you are going to have to beat me there.“

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