Summary

(2:40) Kingsley’s early years

• Early connections

• His year off playing rugby in France

• How French rugby is different from Irish rugby

• The top players on his team

(5:15) Moving to Sydney, Australia

• Starting an Irish business network: The Lansdowne Road Club/Lansdowne Club

• The importance of networking when moving to a new country

• The Irish influence in Australia

• ‘Kings in Grass Castles’ by Mary Durack

(9:10) Founding the Australia Ireland Funds and the Ireland Funds of New Zealand

• Connecting with Tony O’Reilly, head of Heinz

• Creating the conditions for ‘funnels of serendipity’ through which random chance can change your life

(11:30) How to make tall asks

• ‘You just never know’: taking it one small step at a time

• Remembering that every large organization started small

(13:20) The American Ireland Fund

• Taking inspiration from the UJA’s model

• Tapping into Ireland’s global resource, their ‘diaspora capital’

• Their projects: Offering support to Northern Ireland and establishing integrated schools

• Collaborating with Chuck Feeney on sending Northern Irish leaders to meet Nelson Mandela in South Africa

(18:47) Fundraising and philanthropy

• Current donation tendencies at different income and age levels

• The importance of building relationships with potential donors

• Kingsley’s techniques when asking for money

(25:52) The Irish diaspora

• Why Ireland has invested so much in this area

• Looking to the diaspora for help after the 2008 financial crisis

• Ireland’s ‘soft’ cultural power

• How Ireland has become a leader in the diaspora space

• Ireland’s connection to Africa

(31:00) Emigration and immigration

• Emigration caused by the 1846 famine

• Why the strongest diasporas are victim diasporas

• Making sure your networks reflect the diversity of the population

• The negative connotations of the word ‘migration’ and the positive ones of the word ‘diaspora’

• Examples of large corporations founded by immigrants

• The obstacles faced by Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai when going to study in the US

• Kingsley’s work with the International Organization for Migration

(36:52) FDI and the diaspora

• The ‘nudge factors’: how small things can make a huge difference when it comes to FDI funding

(39:00) Kingsley’s return to Ireland

• Why he decided to come back

(40:04) Networking

• The Networking Institute and the Diaspora Institute

• The negative associations we have with networking

• Carla Harris’s advice on who you need to advance in your career: advisors, mentors, sponsors

• The importance of having people who will defend you in your absence

• Empowering Yourself: The Organizational Game Revealed’ by Harvey Coleman

• Why how well you do your job only contributes 10% to your career progress, and exposure contributes 60%

• How COVID will force people back into networking

• Tom Peters and the idea of ‘Me, Inc.’

• Taking responsibility for your own success and building your own personal brand

(48:10) Exposure

• Exposure considerations: How can I overdeliver? How can I make other people look good?

• Becoming ‘known’

• The importance of asking yourself: ‘What value can I add to other people?’

(49:40) Mentorship

• How to find and select a mentor

• Kingsley’s younger ‘reverse’ mentors

(52:25) Building a network

• Building a network with small steps taken over time

• Suggestions for those who ‘hate networking’

• Why introverts can be the best at networking

• The power of good listening skills

• ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie

• How technology reduces face-to-face interactions

• ‘Alone Together’ by Sherry Turkle

• The characteristics of good networkers

• The lack of soft skills in new graduates

• The Centre for Future-ready Graduates at the National University of Singapore

• Building ‘social capital’

• Networking within organizations

• Companies who create alumni networks: the McKinsey example

(1:02:25) Networking strategies

• What Kingsley teaches and asks in his training sessions

• Getting comfortable talking to strangers

• ‘’and Death Came Third!’ by Andy Lopata

• In Ireland: ‘We’re great talkers and poor speakers’

• The challenge of public speaking

(1:07:25) Weak connections

• The limitations of homophily (only spending time with people similar to us)

• Why your next job will come from your weak connections

• ‘Dunbar’s number’: the limited number of people we can have in our life

• Gender differences in networking

(1:10:20) Relational vs transactional mindset

• Networking as an antidote to loneliness

• The Kaizen philosophy

• Examples of networking programs in various organizations and why networking should be integrated in the culture of a company

• Examples of small gestures that bring small gains

(1:16:49) Habits

• Making networking part of your daily life

• Kingsley’s daily swimming and walking routines

(1:19:40) Stand-up comedy

• Why humour is a great addition to public speaking