Better At Work with Cathal Quinlan

Hosted by Cathal Quinlan

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Aug 2026

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About the show

The Better At Work podcast is your new best friend at work. It’s packed with honest, practical advice and science-backed techniques from a diverse range of guests to help you achieve betterness in your work, and life. Better At Work is for everyone striving to be better and feel better. Whether you’re ready to take your career to new heights, or battling with the daily grind, your host Cathal Quinlan is here to help. By drawing on insights from leading psychologists, neuroscientists and performance experts, and Cathal sharing his own successes and mistakes as a leader, the podcast delivers proven strategies, tools and science-backed techniques to help you achieve betterness in your working life, one day at a time, because when work is better, life is better. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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August 13, 20266 min

Hope Is a Strategy? | Better Moments #5 | Jennifer Moss

Hope at work is not optimism. It is a goal worth reaching, more than one credible route forward and enough agency to move. In this seven-minute Better Moment, burnout researcher and workplace culture strategist Jennifer Moss draws on Charles Snyder's hope theory to explain why hope is a practical leadership strategy. Jennifer looks at the growing hope gap among younger workers, why small completed goals build momentum and what micromanagement takes away: accomplishment, autonomy and intrinsic motivation. Her warning is blunt. Leaders cannot ask people to invest in the future while telling them they may not have a place in it. Listen to the full conversation: https://shows.acast.com/betteratworkpodcast/episodes/we-cant-yoga-our-way-out-of-bad-culture-the-newest-burnout-r Jennifer Moss is the author of *Why Are We Here? Creating a Work Culture Everybody Wants*. Follow Better at Work so season five lands in your feed when we return in September. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

August 6, 20265 min

The Four Things That Make Work Worth Doing | Better Moments #4 | Laura Gassner Otting

A good job is not the same for everyone. Laura Gassner Otting gives us four dials for working out whether a role actually fits: calling, connection, contribution and control. Calling is the force that pulls you forward. Connection is whether your work matters. Contribution is what the work gives your life. Control is the agency you have over your time, decisions and environment. The practical question is not whether all four are high. It is whether the mix matches what matters to you now. Laura is a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, researcher and former executive recruiter. She is the author of * Limitless * and * Wonderhell *. Watch the full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8Z0nuapNLI Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 30, 202610 min

AI Doesn't Destroy Jobs. It Destroys Skills | Better Moments #3 | Russell Beck

The loudest predictions about AI count the jobs it might destroy. Russell Beck says that is the wrong unit of analysis. Technology is very good at removing the scarce skill inside a job. Russell's example is a naval shipyard worker wearing an exoskeleton. The job remains. The work becomes safer. The employer gains a wider talent pool. Physical strength stops being the thing that makes one person uniquely qualified. In this eight-minute Better Moment, Russell explains where the advantage moves next: creativity, self-efficacy and leadership. Russell Beck is the author of *The World of Work to 2030*. He has worked in 25 countries and was European Head of Talent at Yahoo. Follow Better at Work so season five lands in your feed when we return in September. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 23, 202613 min

Why most companies don’t actually have a strategy | Better Moments #2 | Roger Martin

Most companies can show you a plan. Far fewer can explain the choices underneath it. In this Better Moment, Roger Martin strips strategy back to what it actually is: what you do, not what you say. He explains why a list of initiatives is not a strategy, how the question “What would have to be true?” can get a divided room moving, and why AI is much better at finding the average answer than a distinctive one. Thirteen minutes on the choices that make a strategy real. Listen to Roger’s full Better at Work conversations: Part 1: https://shows.acast.com/betteratworkpodcast/episodes/the-worlds-1-strategy-thinker-on-why-planning-isnt-strategy Part 2: https://shows.acast.com/betteratworkpodcast/episodes/part-2-the-worlds-1-strategy-thinker-on-why-planning-isnt-st Book: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works , by Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley. Follow Better at Work so season five lands in your feed when we return in September. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 16, 202611 min

What it takes to build a career you LOVE | Better Moments #1 | Helen Tupper (AmazingIf)

Welcome to Better Moments! Small but mighty snippets from our best episodes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 9, 202636 min

The Best Workplace Advice From 30 Episodes | Better at Work Season 4 Finale

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 question they've ever half disagreed on, the corporate jargon they'd ban, Annette's rabbit story, and a look ahead to season five. We're taking a short summer break, with best-of episodes in the feed while we're away. Season five lands in September. Got a question or topic for season five? Send it here: https://betteratwork.net/ Follow the show so season five lands in your feed the moment we're back. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

July 2, 202625 min

The Strategy Framework That Took Sephora to 16 Billion | Listener Questions | Better@Work S4 Ep 34

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 gets honest about a habit a lot of us share, starting the day with the easy task instead of the hard one, and the idea from this season that made him rethink it. We also revisit the biggest ideas from our recent conversation with Roger Martin, ranked the number 1 management thinker in the world, and the questions you have already sent us for next season. What we cover: • The banker who walked 2,000km to find what success had left out • Why successful people do the hardest task first • What you want us to cover in Season 5 • The Roger Martin strategy ideas that stuck, including: what would have to be true? • How a former Sephora CEO scaled with the same framework Got a career dilemma for Season 5? Send it to us at betteratwork.net. Next week: our Season 4 wrap, recorded in person in London. Follow Better at Work so you never miss an episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 25, 202647 min

PART 2 | The World's #1 Strategy Thinker on Why Planning Isn't Strategy | Roger Martin

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 company and one unbreakable rule taught him more about business than Harvard did. From there he lays out the idea at the heart of his book Playing to Win: strategy is not a long planning document, it is a set of interrelated choices that compels a customer to act. He explains why only 10 to 15% of big companies actually have a strategy, why the rest end up with a laundry list of initiatives, and how the strongest leaders set a clear outcome and then trust their people to find the way there. Along the way: the Strategy Choice Cascade, why strategy has to be made at every level of an organisation, and the difference between micromanaging and what the military calls commander's intent. Book: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley. New episodes every Thursday at 7am. More at betteratwork.net. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 18, 202647 min

The World's #1 Strategy Thinker on Why Planning Isn't Strategy | Roger Martin | PART 1

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 company and one unbreakable rule taught him more about business than Harvard did. From there he lays out the idea at the heart of his book Playing to Win: strategy is not a long planning document, it is a set of interrelated choices that compels a customer to act. He explains why only 10 to 15% of big companies actually have a strategy, why the rest end up with a laundry list of initiatives, and how the strongest leaders set a clear outcome and then trust their people to find the way there. Along the way: the Strategy Choice Cascade, why strategy has to be made at every level of an organisation, and the difference between micromanaging and what the military calls commander's intent. Part two is coming soon. Book: Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works, by Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley. New episodes every Thursday at 7am. More at betteratwork.net. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

June 11, 202630 min

Listener Questions: Why Your Office Feels Wrong + Helping a Partner Who Can't Stop Working

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 simplest confidence trick going (visit the room before a high-stakes meeting), and how to improve a workspace when no renovation budget is coming. Then a question from listener Helen, whose husband is working around the clock. She can feel them losing connection, and he keeps telling her the same thing: you don't understand, I don't have a choice. Cathal and Annette have both been close to this one, and they share practical ways to help without trying to fix. Plus: Annette's Camino de Santiago walk, two black toes and all. Next week: Roger Martin, author of Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works. Got a work dilemma for a future episode? Get in touch at betteratwork.net Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.