CEO of your life

For the next 5 minutes, let’s elevate your career.

In today’s email:

It’s a new year and it’s our job to inspire ourselves at work. Useful questions to ask:

We are inspired at work when we use our strengths, collaborate with colleagues, and learn.

These are career features that we enjoy and like. It’s worthwhile seeking more of them.

We want our voice to be heard at work — metaphorically and physically. Many people do not speak loudly enough. Here are two simple, physical changes to try:

1. Open your mouth wider

People who speak with their lips too close together have voices that can sound thin and strained with a tone that is similar to when we complain. It can also be hard to hear and understand us. Opening our mouths wider means our voices are louder and deeper.

2. Straighten-up

When we slouch or are hunched over in our chairs, it is difficult to push sufficient air across our vocal cords. Sit straight at a meeting table. Emphasise diaphragm-up, not shoulders back, to provide a natural posture to project your voice. Standing while we speak on the telephone provides us a louder and deeper voice than if we are sitting. This is especially useful when we are selling or negotiating.

Last year went too quickly for me. I still feel restless to advance several projects. One is our Triple Intelligence Leadership book that we will soon share with you.

Restlessness, urgency, and impatience can serve us well. These are best directed at our actions rather than the results. We control our process goals much more than our outcome goals.

There is no better time to be impatient with acting than at the start of a new year.

It’s your life. Be strategic with what you want to do. What do you want to advance this year outside of work?

Sundar Pichai (1972 — ) was born in Chennai, India, and grew up in a modest household. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology with a degree in metallurgical engineering. Pichai moved to the United States and completed a master’s degree in materials science and engineering at Stanford. He later earned an MBA from Wharton and joined Google in 2004.

At Google, Pichai led the development and launch of Google Chrome. The product became the world’s most widely used web browser. He later took responsibility for Android, Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Drive. In 2015, Pichai was appointed CEO of Google. In 2019, he became CEO of Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent, and has focused on artificial intelligence.

Some of Pichai’s career wisdom: