In this 6‑questions‑in‑7‑minutes interview, Professor Pete Alexander talks with Csaba Toth, founder of ICQ Global and author of The Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times. Csaba shares his personal journey from a small Hungarian village to building the UK’s largest restaurant‑listing platform, which he later lost after relying on “common sense” and qualifications alone. This failure led him to develop ICQ Global, a coaching firm focused on mindset, psychological safety, and eliminating self‑sabotage. He argues that common‑sense advice (e.g., “treat others as you wish to be treated”) is naïve because people think and behave differently, creating costly mindset gaps. Csaba highlights that most corporate problems stem from interpersonal friction—clashes of values, personalities, and poor leadership—rooted in a lack of understanding of differing mental models. He stresses the importance of aligning intention with impact, fostering synergy, and developing self‑awareness before managing others. He cites data (e.g., 80% of CEOs rate customer service excellent vs. 8% of customers agreeing) to illustrate perception gaps. Csaba recommends focusing on mindset work, psychological safety, and cognitive flexibility. He acknowledges Skip Bowman of Global Mindset for his research on growth mindset and psychological safety, and he recounts his early jobs cleaning hotels, serving tables, and working as a nightclub security officer, which shaped his perspective. The episode concludes with contact information: LinkedIn and the website icq.global.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are, and what you do.
Hi, my name is Csaba and I'm the founder of ICQ Global and the author of The Uncommon Sense in Unusual Times, which is a book about the last 15 years of research successes and failures, pretty much. I grew up in Hungary in a small village and I came to the UK 16 years ago. I'm still here. And this is where I started my company. I built it from scratch. I made it national, the biggest restaurant listing in the UK. And then I lost it because I thought that relying on common sense and good intention and having lots of qualifications would be enough to become successful. And it turned out that I was wrong. So I wanted to find a solution. And now ICG Global is based on that.
Hmm. Csaba, it is so great to have you on the show. Question number 2, what's the best thing about working in your industry?
I find it really fulfilling because coaching is not about fixing the past, but about creating a better future. And we are in the business in saving clients years of failures and pain and hassle by helping them dissolve their problems. We cannot give them anything that, you know, they have, but we can help them get rid of the things that might hold them back— limiting beliefs, outdated and incomplete ideas. And it's about breaking down the barriers within and between people, and that is really fulfilling.
And I can hear that passion in your voice. I love it. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Well, first I would ask for it. I would love to read it. But if I can choose, then probably the one about mindset and uncommon sense, because nowadays it's so popular to demand common sense from other people, but it's kind of naive and selfish. That was one of the most expensive pieces of advice I got from my parents. Treat people the way you want to be treated. Sounds good, but it doesn't work. People are really different. And I think that's the good news. So relying on common sense can backfire. So I would focus on that definitely. Otherwise it creates a massive mindset gap between people.
And the stress that would come with that, I would imagine.
Yeah.
Question number 4: Other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I think the most important part is to focus on themselves because it's so easy to get passionate about learning how to manage other people. We are looking for the hacks and the shortcuts, but the foundation is the mindset. It doesn't matter in what kind of industry we are. We have to focus on that. And bridging the gap between intention and impact is important. Because for example, if you look at Salesforce, the world's biggest CRM system, then according to them, 80% of CEOs believe that their customer service is excellent, and only 8% of customers agree with them. That is really costly. If you look at personal and cultural differences, They are just clashes of common senses. And if that's how you look at this topic, then you can remove the illusion of separation, the illusion of superiority, and you can replace it with the power of synergy. And that's how we can create synergy between people and within ourselves as well. And I think facing our own demon is really difficult. Personal development doesn't feel good. It's like a slap in the face. But that's the foundation. That's not something we can outsource. So I think the more we understand ourselves and the more we understand other people, the more successful we become, the less conflicts we have, the less we drain ourselves. So if you look at this topic, most of the opportunities, time and energy are lost for two reasons. One is friction with people who think and behave differently. And the other one is friction with ourselves, self-sabotage. It's really, really draining. And if you look at a corporate environment, 60 to 80% of all problems in a company stem from strained relationships between employees. It's not because they are not good enough, it's because they clash. And the top 3 reasons are clash of values, clash of personalities, and poor leadership. And all 3 of them stem from the same source. The lack of understanding of why people think and behave differently. So it makes sense to focus on that and get it right, because often the highest level of growth is when we stop wasting our potential. You know, just like in, in Germany, the highest level of praise is when they don't criticize you. So it's not about learning new techniques and strategies, it's about unlocking that potential we have inside. And between people. And that's the goal.
That is so insightful. And it's interesting that, as you said, those top 3 reasons why there's difficulties within companies, it can all be solved with understanding yourself and how you can interact with others effectively.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Very good. Because distance between 2 people is misunderstanding. We are not designed to see the same situation from different perspectives. It's not natural, but it's something we can learn so we can make a better decision. And then step 2, we can learn to respond instead of just reacting. So it's all about cognitive and behavioral flexibility, getting out of our comfort zone.
I love it. Great, great insight. Thank you. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Probably that will be Skip Bowman, who is the founder of Global Mindset in Denmark, because he did a lot of really interesting research about growth mindset and psychological safety, how they affect performance, how you can bring out the best in individuals and in teams. There's no point in employing smart people if they clash. 90% of business is interaction between people who think and behave differently. So diversity is just the potential for success or disaster. It depends on how much we understand ourselves and others and how much psychological safety we have.
Well, he's, he sounds like a great one for the show. I appreciate the referral. I'll reach out to him. And question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
My first job wasn't too exciting. I started like a typical Eastern European immigrant in the UK. I started with cleaning hotels and serving tables. And after that, I had to use what I had. So I was working in nightclubs, protecting people. I called myself security officer, but here you would call them bouncers. So I did nightlife for quite a few years, and it's definitely an interesting place. You can learn a lot, you see and do a lot of things that other people can just experiencing movies.
I'm sure you have a lot of stories about being a bouncer.
Yep. Beautiful ones.
So Csaba, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Thank you so much for having me. The best option would be LinkedIn. I'm more than happy to connect with everyone who is passionate about the topic or the website, which is icq.global.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
