# Linus Murphy

> Linus Murphy is an elite executive coach. He coaches global CEOs, C-suite teams and elite athletes, drawing on 45% annual growth in businesses he led.

Linus Murphy is an elite executive coach based in Marbella, Spain, working with clients worldwide. He coaches CEOs, C-suite teams and senior leaders, and former elite athletes moving into leadership. Before coaching he spent 25 years as a multi-country CEO, and he won the Irish National Cycling Championship.

His coaching follows a seven-step Impactful Leadership process (Vision, Awareness, Challenges, Influence, Improvement, Impact, Results) and the Executive Coaching Methodology: thirty focus areas in five clusters, set out in the Leadership Guide. Book a 30-minute call at https://calendly.com/linusmurphy-coaching/30min or email coaching@linusmurphy.com.

Every page on this site has a markdown copy at the same path plus index.md, for example https://linusmurphy.com/about/index.md. The links below point to those copies.

## About Linus Murphy

- [Elite Coaching for Winning Individuals and Businesses](https://linusmurphy.com/index.md): Linus Murphy is an elite executive coach. He coaches global CEOs, C-suite teams and elite athletes, drawing on 45% annual growth in businesses he led.
- [About me](https://linusmurphy.com/about/index.md): Elite executive coach · Former high-growth CEO · Irish National Champion cyclist
- [Let's explore how coaching can help you and your business](https://linusmurphy.com/contact/index.md): Explore how coaching can help you and your business. Book a 30-minute discovery session with Linus Murphy.

## Coaching

- [Coaching tracks](https://linusmurphy.com/services/index.md): Executive coaching, executive team coaching, business coaching, personal development coaching, and coaching for former elite athletes with Linus Murphy.
- [Business Coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/services/business-coaching/index.md): Scale smarter, profit faster, lead with clarity.
- [Elite Executive Coaching that Transforms Leaders and Cultures](https://linusmurphy.com/services/elite-executive-coaching-that-transforms-leaders-and-cultures/index.md): Become the leader you want to follow — and build a culture that follows you back.
- [Executive Coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/services/executive-coaching/index.md): Turn High-Pressure Leadership into High-Performance Results
- [Executive Team Coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/services/executive-team-coaching/index.md): Why coach the team—not just the individual?
- [From elite sport to the boardroom](https://linusmurphy.com/services/from-elite-sport-to-the-boardroom/index.md): Coaching former elite athletes who now lead as chief executives, and athletes moving into business. Junior national champion, then CEO, now the translation.
- [Impactful Leadership: 7-Step Executive Coaching Process](https://linusmurphy.com/services/impactful-leadership-7-step-executive-coaching-process/index.md): A proven, step-by-step coaching framework that turns board-room vision into measurable business results.
- [Personal Development Coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/services/personal-development-coaching/index.md): Elevate your mindset, energy and everyday impact.
- [Why These 30 Focus Areas Matter to Senior Leaders](https://linusmurphy.com/services/why-these-30-focus-areas-matter-to-senior-leaders/index.md): The thirty focus areas that capture the leverage points Linus has seen matter most for founders, CEOs and executive teams.

## Leadership Guide and Executive Coaching Methodology

- [The Leadership Guide](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/index.md): The Executive Coaching Methodology Linus uses with CEOs, C-suite teams and elite athletes when the week is already full.
- [Leadership from the inside out: character, awareness and daily influence](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-from-the-inside-out/index.md): Character, self-awareness and the daily habits that turn influence into something your team can feel.
- [Leadership blind spots: define them, spot them, remove them](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-blind-spots/index.md): What a leadership blind spot is, the patterns that show up most often, and how to take them off the road.
- [From vision to execution: transferring vision, the four pillars and goals that stick](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/vision-to-execution/index.md): How to transfer a vision people can repeat, lead through four pillars, and set goals that survive contact with Monday.
- [Why successful leaders stall: temptations, fatal flaws and pitfalls](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/why-successful-leaders-stall/index.md): The comfort that follows a win, the flaws that derail careers, and the pitfalls that tax culture after the applause.
- [The price tag of leadership: self-discipline, resilience and your development plan](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/the-price-tag-of-leadership/index.md): What the seat costs, how to move through discouragement, and a personal development plan you will actually keep.
- [Leading change: momentum, a roadmap and handling resistance](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leading-change/index.md): What builds and breaks momentum, a practical change roadmap, and how to meet resistance without theatre.
- [Getting good people around you: talent, players vs pretenders and loyalty](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/getting-good-people-around-you/index.md): How to attract people who raise the standard, tell players from pretenders, and build loyalty that is earned.
- [Building winning teams: core values, attitude and morale under pressure](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/building-winning-teams/index.md): Values that cost something, what attitude can and cannot do, and how high-performing teams hold morale when it is tight.
- [Trust under pressure: earning trust, tough conversations and tough decisions](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/trust-under-pressure/index.md): How trust is earned, how to lean into the conversation you have been postponing, and how to make the hard call.
- [Feedback that lands and leading difficult personalities](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/feedback-and-difficult-personalities/index.md): Praise and feedback that change behaviour, why feedback fails, and how to lead personalities that drain the room.

## The 30-part series

- [Transfer vision effectively: the real test happens two levels below you](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/vision-to-execution/transfer-vision-effectively/index.md): A vision has transferred when people two levels down can use it to settle a trade-off without you. How to build that transfer, and how to test it.
- [Self and team awareness: clean data on how you actually land](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-from-the-inside-out/self-and-team-awareness/index.md): Awareness is a measurement habit, not a trait. How a CEO and a leadership team build a regular, honest read on their impact, and use it in the working week.
- [Define leadership blind spots: find the point where a strength tips over](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-blind-spots/define-leadership-blind-spots/index.md): Most blind spots are strengths past their edge. How to locate the tipping point, write it as one sentence, and set a cue that keeps you in the sweet spot.
- [Common leadership blind spots: selective listening, silo loyalty and hero syndrome](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-blind-spots/common-leadership-blind-spots/index.md): Three blind spots I see most in senior seats, the tell-tale sign of each, and a counter-routine you can run this week before it costs you the quarter.
- [Remove leadership blind spots: a weekly loop, a small test and a scoreboard](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-blind-spots/remove-leadership-blind-spots/index.md): Awareness without action is trivia. How a weekly feedback loop, small if–then behaviour tests and a visible scoreboard take a blind spot off the road.
- [Leadership from the inside out: write the rules you already live by](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-from-the-inside-out/inside-out-leadership/index.md): Strategy sticks when it echoes the leader’s core. How to write your personal operating rules and test them against the organisation’s next horizon.
- [Winning is an inside job: rehearse the room before you walk into it](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leadership-from-the-inside-out/winning-is-an-inside-job/index.md): Mental rehearsal is prep work, not positive thinking. Three drills senior leaders can use before high-stakes rooms: rehearsal, reframing and pressure tests.
- [Temptations of successful leaders: audit the win before it audits you](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/why-successful-leaders-stall/temptations-of-successful-leaders/index.md): Success removes the reason to ask why. How post-win audits, rotating dissent and reverse indicators keep a winning leader curious.
- [Fatal flaws of leaders: ego, shortcuts and exhaustion, caught early](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/why-successful-leaders-stall/fatal-flaws-of-leaders/index.md): Ego, shortcuts and exhaustion end more careers than lack of talent. Early-warning sensors for each, and the disciplines that keep you grounded.
- [The leadership landscape: four pillars, and the one you are not paying for](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/vision-to-execution/the-leadership-landscape/index.md): Leadership is four jobs held at once: Choices, Create, Convince and Cause. Most execution problems trace back to the one pillar a leader quietly neglects.
- [The price tag of leadership: agree the price before the seat sends the invoice](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/the-price-tag-of-leadership/counting-the-cost-of-leadership/index.md): Influence costs privacy, energy and visibility. How to set a price you will pay, the non-negotiables you will not, and the renewal rhythm that funds both.
- [Goal setting successfully: hard goals, short horizons and the side effects nobody mentions](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/vision-to-execution/goal-setting-successfully/index.md): Specific, hard goals work when they are few, owned, tied to a leading indicator and reviewed weekly. How to set them and guard against their side effects.
- [Momentum breakers vs. makers: audit the rituals, not the mood](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leading-change/momentum-breakers-and-makers/index.md): Momentum lives in the routines you repeat every day, week and quarter. How to catalogue them, keep the makers and kill the breakers.
- [Get good people around you: a scorecard, a real interview and a 30-day sprint](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/getting-good-people-around-you/get-good-people-around-you/index.md): Good senior hires are designed, not found. A written scorecard, interviews that test the work, and an onboarding sprint that adds value in month one.
- [Players vs. pretenders: make ownership visible, and the performance fades](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/getting-good-people-around-you/players-vs-pretenders/index.md): Pretending is a behaviour a system teaches, not a type of person. How to spotlight ownership, reward it in public and exit with respect when nothing moves.
- [Core values of winning teams: a value only counts once it has cost you something](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/building-winning-teams/core-values-of-winning-teams/index.md): Why most value statements do no work, and how a senior team turns three to five values into behaviours, promotion rules and budget calls.
- [Attitude: what difference does it make? Less than the posters claim, more than the cynics think](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/building-winning-teams/attitude-what-difference-does-it-make/index.md): What the research on explanatory style and growth mindset actually supports, where it is weak, and how a senior team practises a useful attitude.
- [Creating change: a roadmap that lines up head, heart and habit](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leading-change/creating-change-a-roadmap/index.md): Change sticks when reason, emotion and action line up. A roadmap that layers data, story and pilots, and spreads from early champions to everyone else.
- [Handle resistance: treat pushback as unpaid design work](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/leading-change/handle-resistance/index.md): Pushback usually hides insight. How to surface concerns, co-design the fix and turn former sceptics into the change’s most credible sponsors.
- [Deal with discouragement: a 24-hour reset so a setback does not become a spiral](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/the-price-tag-of-leadership/deal-with-discouragement/index.md): Setbacks are inevitable; spirals are not. A 24-hour reset of body, story and next step, and why the company copies how you recover.
- [Earning trust: the three proofs people check before they back you under stress](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/trust-under-pressure/earning-trust/index.md): Trust is compound interest. How senior leaders earn it through capability, consistency and care, and how to find the proof you wobble on.
- [Have tough conversations: hard truth, delivered well, deepens respect](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/trust-under-pressure/have-tough-conversations/index.md): Why senior leaders postpone hard conversations, what delay really costs, and three tests that land the message, keep dignity and lead to action.
- [Lead difficult personalities: contract the behaviour, not the person](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/feedback-and-difficult-personalities/lead-difficult-personalities/index.md): Lead high performers with sharp edges through a written success contract of expectations, autonomy and consequences, not by hoping they mellow.
- [Give and receive praise and feedback: one card for good news and bad](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/feedback-and-difficult-personalities/give-and-receive-praise-and-feedback/index.md): Praise and correction are one skill: name the behaviour, the impact and the next stretch. Then receive feedback with the same precision you expect to give.
- [Build high-performance teams: safety and clarity, run as a weekly rhythm](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/building-winning-teams/build-high-performance-teams/index.md): High performance is an operating rhythm, not a talent mix. How senior teams combine safety and clarity with feedback, a shared scorecard and visible progress.
- [Leadership pitfalls: isolation, signal overload and short-term tunnel vision](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/why-successful-leaders-stall/leadership-pitfalls/index.md): Isolation, signal overload and short-termism are built into the top job. Spot the early tremors and install course-correctors before the cracks widen.
- [Your personal development plan: run it like the R&D budget for your leadership](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/the-price-tag-of-leadership/your-personal-development-plan/index.md): A development plan that survives the calendar: one quarterly theme, daily reps inside real work, and a weekly review that lets your growth compound.
- [Why feedback may fail: it usually breaks before you open your mouth](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/feedback-and-difficult-personalities/why-feedback-may-fail/index.md): Feedback fizzles without permission, precision or follow-up. Most of that failure is set up before the conversation starts, and it can be fixed there.
- [Create loyalty in your organisation: a path, a thank-you and a share](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/getting-good-people-around-you/create-loyalty-in-your-organisation/index.md): Loyalty is not bought with a retention bonus. Transparent career paths, specific peer recognition and shared upside help people act like owners, not renters.
- [Make tough decisions: sort the door before you walk through it](https://linusmurphy.com/guide/trust-under-pressure/make-tough-decisions/index.md): Speed and quality are not a trade-off when you sort reversible from irreversible calls, run a pre-mortem on the big ones and communicate every decision.

## Articles

- [All articles](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/index.md): Essays by Linus Murphy for CEOs and senior teams on leadership, culture and performance.
- [Spot Executive Burnout Before the Board Does](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/spot-executive-burnout-before-the-board-does/index.md): Executive burnout risk shows in decisions and culture before it shows in a speech. Early signals leaders can act on—without pretending coaching replaces care.
- [What Elite Sport Taught Me About Boardroom Performance](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/what-elite-sport-taught-me-about-boardroom-performance/index.md): National champion discipline meets the chief executive role. Five performance transfers from elite cycling—and the sport myths leaders should stop copying.
- [Difficult Conversations CEOs Keep Postponing](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/difficult-conversations-ceos-keep-postponing/index.md): Postponed conversations become culture. A CEO coach’s five-move structure for the talks senior leaders keep delaying—and how to close them cleanly.
- [Why Executive Energy Is a Leadership System](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-executive-energy-is-a-leadership-system/index.md): For CEOs, energy is strategy. A former high-growth CEO and national champion cyclist on designing load and recovery that protect judgement—not slogans.
- [Build an Accountability Culture That Scales](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/build-an-accountability-culture-that-scales/index.md): Accountability is clarity plus consequence—not blame. How scaling companies install a culture that holds standards as headcount and geography grow.
- [The Founder-to-CEO Transition Nobody Briefs You For](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/founder-to-ceo-transition-nobody-briefs-you-for/index.md): Title changes fast; the operating system does not. A former start-up-to-scale CEO maps the founder-to-CEO shift boards rarely brief.
- [How CEOs Decide Better Under Pressure](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/how-ceos-decide-better-under-pressure/index.md): Pressure reveals judgement; it does not create it. A former multi-country CEO shares a four-gate protocol for decisions when data is late and stakes are high.
- [Psychological Safety at the Executive Table](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/psychological-safety-at-the-executive-table/index.md): Psychological safety among executives is a performance system—not a vibe. How CEOs make dissent usable at the table without creating chaos.
- [Why Coach the Executive Team, Not Just the CEO](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-coach-the-executive-team-not-just-the-ceo/index.md): Coaching only the CEO leaves the system untouched. When—and why—executive team coaching becomes the higher-leverage move.
- [Lonely at the Top: Designing Support for CEOs](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/lonely-at-the-top-designing-support-for-ceos/index.md): Lonely at the top is a design problem, not a personality flaw. How CEOs build confidential support that protects judgement—without theatre.
- [Executive Presence Is a Decision Discipline, Not a Costume](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/executive-presence-is-a-decision-discipline/index.md): Executive presence is how your judgement lands under scrutiny—not a costume. A CEO-coach’s field guide to presence that survives the boardroom.
- [Why CEO Coaching Beats Generic Leadership Training](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-ceo-coaching-beats-generic-leadership-training/index.md): CEO coaching is not a longer leadership course. A former multi-country CEO explains when coaching beats training—and how to brief it without theatre.
- [Why defining blind-spots is mission-critical](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-defining-blind-spots-is-mission-critical/index.md): High-growth companies rarely stumble because of a weak market or a slow product team—they stumble because leaders fail to see the thing everyone else can.
- [Why Self & Team Awareness Pays Board-Level Dividends](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-self-team-awareness-pays-board-level-dividends/index.md): High-growth organisations move only as fast as their leaders’ self-awareness—and as honestly as their teams are willing to see themselves.
- [Why transferring vision is the CEO’s job-one](https://linusmurphy.com/articles/why-transferring-vision-is-the-ceos-job-one/index.md): A crystal-clear, repeat-until-it-echoes vision is the cheapest growth lever in your toolkit.

## News

- [News](https://linusmurphy.com/news/index.md): News from Linus Murphy: what a new study means for CEOs and senior teams, read the way I would as a chief executive.
- [Recognition and Retention: What Gallup's Research Tells CEOs](https://linusmurphy.com/news/recognition-and-employee-retention-gallup/index.md): Gallup and Workhuman tracked nearly 3,500 employees: the well recognised were 45% less likely to leave. What the study shows and how a CEO should act on it.
- [Employees Are Losing Patience with Change: What the Gartner Research Shows](https://linusmurphy.com/news/employees-losing-patience-with-change/index.md): Gartner researchers found willingness to support change fell from 74% to 43% in six years. How leaders can rebuild their teams' patience for change.
- [Two growth mindset meta-analyses disagree. Here is why](https://linusmurphy.com/news/growth-mindset-meta-analyses-disagree/index.md): Two 2023 Psychological Bulletin meta-analyses reached different verdicts on growth mindset. The gap comes from what they counted and how they counted it.
- [Growth mindset interventions: for whom they work, and why](https://linusmurphy.com/news/growth-mindset-interventions-for-whom-and-why/index.md): A 2023 meta-analysis of 53 randomised samples found small, variable growth mindset effects, larger for targeted groups. What that means for leaders.
- [The Transformation Deficit: What Gartner Found About Change Fatigue](https://linusmurphy.com/news/the-transformation-deficit-gartner-research/index.md): Gartner found employees faced five times more planned change in 2022 than in 2016, while willingness to support it halved. What it means for a CEO.

## Peloton to Boardroom

- [From the peloton to the boardroom](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/index.md): Ten riders who raced at a serious level and later built or led companies. Lessons for chief executives, not folklore.
- [Alberto Contador: grand tours, then a team and a bike brand with Ivan Basso](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/alberto-contador/index.md): Seven grand tours, a 2012 CAS ban, then a foundation team that won at the Giro and Aurum bikes with Ivan Basso. What a slow-built pipeline teaches a board.
- [Tom Boonen: from the cobbles to a supercar dealership](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/tom-boonen/index.md): The 2005 world champion co-owns Iconiccars, Belgium's Donkervoort dealer. How he partnered with car people, then rebuilt the business around what he believed.
- [Pat McQuaid: Irish champion, race organiser, then the UCI](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/pat-mcquaid/index.md): Irish road champion and twice Tour of Ireland winner who ran races, the Irish federation and the UCI from 2005 to 2013.
- [Sean Kelly: from the classics to an academy, a team and kit](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/sean-kelly/index.md): Sean Kelly’s second career: a Flanders academy, Ireland’s first UCI Continental team (2006–2017) and a clothing range. What a CEO can take from it.
- [Jonathan Vaughters: from the peloton to the company that runs the team](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/jonathan-vaughters/index.md): Vaughters won on Mont Ventoux, admitted doping, then built Slipstream Sports from $50,000 into a WorldTour team EF bought in 2017. What a board can learn.
- [Fabian Cancellara: from the time trial to owning a professional team](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/fabian-cancellara/index.md): Double Olympic champion, events founder, then owner of Tudor Pro Cycling. How Cancellara chose the owner's chair and left daily running to his CEO.
- [Sir Chris Hoy: six golds, then a bike with his name on the downtube](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/chris-hoy/index.md): Six Olympic golds, then HOY Bikes with Evans Cycles. Why Hoy called it a project, not a product, and what that teaches a board about launches.
- [Chris Boardman: Olympic gold, a British bike brand, then national policy](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/chris-boardman/index.md): Olympic pursuit gold, British Cycling R&D, Boardman Bikes and the Halfords sale, then Sport England and Active Travel England. A method that scaled.
- [Eddy Merckx: after the Cannibal, a factory](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/eddy-merckx/index.md): Merckx retired in 1978 and opened Eddy Merckx Cycles on 28 March 1980. What his teacher, his sale and four owners teach a board about life after the peak.
- [Greg LeMond: three Tours, a licensed bike brand, then carbon](https://linusmurphy.com/peloton-to-boardroom/greg-lemond/index.md): Three Tours, a Trek licence that ended in court, then LeMond Composites. What a rider-founder teaches boards about owning the system behind a name.

## Optional

- [Editorial standards](https://linusmurphy.com/editorial-standards/index.md): How I write, source, date and review the Leadership Guide, the 30-part series and the articles on this site.
- [Executive & Leadership Coaching](https://linusmurphy.com/executive-leadership-coaching/index.md): Topic index. Articles on transferring vision, executive coaching and leadership performance.
- [Frequently asked questions](https://linusmurphy.com/faqs/index.md): Answers about executive coaching, team coaching, engagement length, confidentiality and how to book a conversation with Linus Murphy.
- [Personal Mastery & Well-being](https://linusmurphy.com/personal-mastery-well-being/index.md): Topic index. Articles on blind-spots, self-awareness and personal mastery for senior leaders.
- [Team & Culture Performance](https://linusmurphy.com/team-culture-performance/index.md): Topic index. Articles on self and team awareness, culture and board-level performance.
- [Linus Murphy – 30 key focus areas (PDF, 16 pages)](https://linusmurphy.com/downloads/linus-murphy-30-key-focus-areas.pdf): The thirty focus areas behind the Leadership Guide and the 30-part series, as a 16-page PDF.
- [Linus Murphy — Elite Executive Coaching (PDF, 12 pages)](https://linusmurphy.com/downloads/linus-murphy-elite-executive-coaching.pdf): A 12-page PDF brochure on how Linus Murphy coaches CEOs and senior teams, and how engagements run.