Marcia Zaruba O’Connor is the CEO and founder of The O’Connor Group (TOC), a leading provider of talent acquisition and human resources consulting for life science, healthcare, professional service, information technology, and manufacturing. Prior to founding TOC, Marcia held various senior-level positions at Arthur Andersen and Andersen Consulting. She also served as the Director of Human Capital Practice for Resources Global Professionals. Passionate about supporting women entrepreneurs, Marcia founded the non-profit initiative, ShadowHer.org, in March 2023. She has also started other groups including the annual HR Person of the Year Award, the Women’s CEO Breakfast Club, and the Executive Women Networking Series. Marcia holds a Master’s in Human Organization Development from Villanova and a Bachelor’s in Accounting from Widener University, and is a graduate of Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Business Program.

Marcia joins me today to discuss leadership, influencing others, and listening. She explains what talent strategy means and how talent strategists help people make pivotal changes in their careers and lives. She reveals how Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist inspired her to found The O’Connor Group and describes how she grew her company to be the award-winning organization it is today. She shares her thoughts on coaching and developing the people of your organization. Marcia also reveals the secrets behind sales and underscores why recruitment, just like everything else, is sales.

“Your entire team ticks differently—it’s not one size fits all. You have to figure out what their pros and cons are and what buttons trigger them to do what they thought they couldn’t.” - Marcia O'Connor

This week on The Rising Leader Podcast:

●     What it means to be a talent strategist

●     Helping people overcome their fear of making a change in their careers and lives

●     Marcia’s journey as a leader

●     How the skills you need to be an effective leader will change according to the size of your team

●     Letting go of old responsibilities as you climb the ranks of an organization

●     Coaching and developing people in your team

●     Becoming a boss with humanity and compassion while holding others accountable to a standard

●     The three foundational questions to ask for impactful sales

Resources Mentioned:

●     Book: The Alchemist: A Fable About Following Your Dream by Paulo Coelho

●     Book: The Warrior of the Light: A Manual by Paulo Coelho

●     Book: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

●     Book: Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara

●     Book: Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy by Patrick Bet-David

●     Book: The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control over Their Lives by Ned Johnson and William Stixrud PhD

●     Book: The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

Related Episode:

●     Stress and Trauma in Adults and Adopted Children with Bryan Post

Connect with Marcia O'Connor:

●     The O’Connor Group

●     Podcast: Top 3

●     The O'Connor Group on LinkedIn

●     The O'Connor Group on Instagram

●     The O'Connor Group on Facebook

●     The O'Connor Group on Twitter

●     Marcia O'Connor on LinkedIn

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Leader, It’s Time to Rise!

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