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Over the course of my employee engagement work, I’ve come across various employee engagement thought leaders. Below, in alphabetical order, are the individuals that I admire. Select one of these thought leaders to read their bios and learn of other information. I hope this post will serve as a reference guide for my fellow “Agents”.
Employee Engagement Thought Leaders
Josh Bersin
Meghan M. Biro
George Bradt
Rick Conlow
Marshall Goldsmith
Jim Harter, PhD
Bob Kelleher
Kevin Kruse
Bob Rosen
Liz Ryan
Simon Sinek
David Zinger
Josh Bersin
“Josh Bersin founded Bersin in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on corporate learning. He is responsible for Bersin by Deloitte’s long term strategy and market eminence. Josh is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been quoted on talent management topics in key media, including Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, on BBC Radio, CBS Radio and National Public Radio. He is a popular blogger for Forbes.com and has been a columnist since 2007 for Chief Learning Officer magazine. Josh spent 25 years in product development, product management, marketing and sales of e-learning and other enterprise technologies at companies including DigitalThink (now Convergys), Arista Knowledge Systems, Sybase, and IBM. Josh’s education includes a B.S. in Engineering from Cornell University, an M.S. in Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.”1
Website: http://home.bersin.com/
Blog: http://www.bersin.com/Blog/Default.aspx?id=5c8b5f01-386d-4b83-896e-7aa98628fa1a
Meghan M. Biro
“Meghan M. Biro is a globally-recognized leader, talent management and career strategist, and social community catalyst. As founder and CEO of TalentCulture Consulting Group, she has worked with hundreds of companies, from early-stage ventures to global brands like Microsoft, IBM and Google, helping them recruit and empower stellar talent.
Meghan believes that, for companies to succeed in the 21st century world of work, they must build dynamic cultures that are hardwired to social media. This creates ongoing real-time communities, not only within an organization, but also with its partners and customers, both current and potential. As an ever-evolving, cross-pollinating, idea-sparking culture takes hold – leadership, unity, morale, flexibility and performance improve.
Meghan began her recruiting career while working on a research team at Yale University and then moved into software technology business markets. She is a leader with a passion for sharing ideas – and creating thriving communities that serve both organizations and people. As a humanist, for Meghan it all comes down to people – social media is at heart a human tool. It connects us and takes collaboration to a whole new level.
Meghan lives what she preaches about social communities. With vision and passion for the human dynamics that drive business success, she founded TalentCulture, and has grown the community and its flagship #TChat Twitter presence to unparalled popularity. She also co-hosts a weekly #TChat Radio program with TalentCulture co-founder, Kevin W. Grossman, and serves as an advisor to other Twitter interest groups, such as #HRTechChat.
Along the way, Meghan’s living metaphors for today’s networked organizations have become standards for best practices in social community engagement and development. She writes about these strategies and principles as a regular contributor at Forbes.com. Her ideas have also been featured in other innovative blogging communities such as CBS MoneyWatch, Dice, SHRM, Monster, Mashable and Glassdoor. While Meghan has her finger on the world’s digital pulse, she also embraces traditional media. She has been a guest on numerous radio and television shows, has been a featured speaker at global leadership conferences and forums.
Meghan has been voted one of the Top 100 Social Media Power Influencers in 2015 by StatSocial and Forbes, Top 50 Most Valuable Social Media Influencers by General Sentiment, Top 100 on Twitter Business, Leadership, and Tech by Huffington Post, and Top 25 HR Trendsetters by HR Examiner.”2
Website: http://www.talentculture.com/
Articles: See Forbes, Entrepreneur, and The Huffington Post
George Bradt
“George Bradt, PrimeGenesis Managing Director, has a unique perspective on helping executives accelerate transitions based on his combined senior line management and consulting experience.
Prior to founding PrimeGenesis, George served as chief executive of J.D. Power’s Power Information Network spin off and in general management, marketing and sales at Coca-Cola in Europe and Asia, Procter & Gamble and Unilever and is a principal of CEO Connection.
George contributes a weekly column to Forbes.com, The New Leader’s Playbook. AB Harvard; MBA Wharton.[email protected]”3
Website: http://www.primegenesis.com/blog/
Blog: http://www.primegenesis.com/blog/blog/
Rick Conlow
“Rick Conlow, CEO / Senior Partner WCW.
There aren’t many who’d argue the fact that Rick is one enthusiastic guy. Even the titles of his seminars and speaking training programs reflect his drive and positive energy. A quick glance at his professional resume leaves you with a strong impression that effort and optimism are a winning combination. Case in point: With Rick by their side, clients achieved double-digit and triple-digit improvement in their sales performance, quality, customer loyalty and service results over the past 20-plus years and earned more than 30 quality and service awards.
In a day and age where optimism and going the extra mile can sound trite, Rick has made them a differentiator. His clients include organizations that are leaders in their industries, as well as others that are less recognizable. Regardless, their goals are his goals.
Rick’s life perspective and extensive background in sales and leadership – as a General Manager, Vice President, Training Director, Program Director, National Sales Trainer and Consultant – are the foundation to his coaching, training and consulting services. Participants in Rick’s experiential, “Live Action” programs walk away with insights, inspiration and skills they can immediately put to use.
These programs include “BEST Selling!”, “Moments of Magic!”, “Excellence in Management!”, “SuperSTAR Service and Selling!”, “The Greatest Secrets of all Time!”, and “The SuperSTAR Leadership Model: Good Boss, Bad Boss – Which One Are You?”
Rick has also authored Excellence in Management, Excellence in Supervision, Returning to Learning andMoments of Magic.
When he’s not engaging an audience or engrossed in a coaching discussion, this proud husband and father is most likely astride a weight bench or motorcycle, taking on the back roads and highways of Minnesota.”4
Website: http://wcwpartners.com/
Blog: http://blog.wcwpartners.com/
Marshall Goldsmith
“Dr. Marshall Goldsmith is a world authority in helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting change in behavior: for themselves, their people and their teams.
He is the million-selling author or editor of 31 books, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There – a WSJ #1 business book and winner of the Harold Longman Award for Business Book of the Year. His books have been translated into 28 languages and become bestsellers in eight countries.
Recently, Dr. Goldsmith was recently recognized as one of the fifteen most influential business thinkers in the world in the global bi-annual study sponsored by The (London) Times and Forbes. His other professional acknowledgments include: Institute for Management Studies – Lifetime Achievement Award (one of only two ever awarded by the IMS), American Management Association – 50 great thinkers and leaders who have influenced the field of management over the past 80 years, BusinessWeek – 50 great leaders in America, Wall Street Journal – top ten executive educators, Forbes – five most-respected executive coaches, Leadership Excellence – top five thinkers on leadership, Economic Times (India) – top CEO coaches of America, Economist (UK) – most credible executive advisors in the new era of business, National Academy of Human Resources – Fellow of the Academy (America’s top HR award), Fast Company – America’s preeminent executive coach and Leader to Leader Institute – 2010 Leader of the Future Award. His work has been recognized by almost every professional organization in his field.
Dr. Goldsmith’s Ph.D. is from UCLA’s Anderson School of Management where (in 2010) he was recognized as one of 100 distinguished graduates in the 75 year history of the School. He teaches executive education at Dartmouth’s Tuck School and frequently speaks at leading business schools. He is one of a select few advisors who have been asked to work with over 120 major CEOs and their management teams. He served on the Board of the Peter Drucker Foundation for ten years. He has been a volunteer teacher for US Army Generals, Navy Admirals, Girl Scout executives, International and American Red Cross leaders – where he was a National Volunteer of the Year.
Marshall’s books include: Succession: Are You Ready? – a WSJ bestseller, The Leader of the Future – a BusinessWeek bestseller, The Organization of the Future 2 and The Leadership Investment – Choice Award winners (academic business books of the year). Over three hundred of his articles, interviews, columns and videos are available online at www.MarshallGoldsmithLibrary.com for viewing and sharing. Visitors to this site have come from 195 countries and have viewed, read, listened to, downloaded or shared resources over 5.2 million times. He has regular blogs at www.BNET.com, www.BusinessWeek.com and www.HuffingtonPost.com.” 5
Website: http://www.marshallgoldsmithgroup.com/index.html
Library: http://www.marshallgoldsmithlibrary.com/
Jim Harter, Ph.D.
“Jim Harter, Ph.D., is Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and Well-Being for Gallup’s workplace management practice. He is coauthor of the New York Times bestseller 12: The Elements of Great Managing, an exploration of the 12 crucial elements for creating and harnessing employee engagement. Harter’s latest book, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements, is based on a global study of what differentiates people who are thriving from those who are not.
Harter is the primary researcher and author of the first large-scale, multi-organization study to investigate the relationships between work-unit employee engagement and business results. Updated periodically, this study currently covers 49,000 business units in 49 industries and 34 countries. His work has been published in many business publications, including Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, and TIME Magazine, and in academic articles and book chapters.
Since joining Gallup in 1985, Harter has authored or coauthored more than 1,000 research studies for organizations on employee engagement and talent and on topics in applied psychology and well-being. His specialties include psychological measurement and estimating the economic impact of management initiatives.
Harter received his doctorate in psychological and cultural studies in quantitative and qualitative methods from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska, with his wife, RaLinda, and their two sons.”6
Website: http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx
Bob Kelleher
“Bob Kelleher is an award winning author (Louder Than Words, 10 Practical Employee Engagement Steps…that Drive Results! and the just released Creativeship, A Novel for Evolving Leaders), thought leader, keynote speaker and consultant, and travels the globe sharing his insights on employee engagement, leadership, and workforce trends. Bob’s best practices are culled from his years of researching and consulting with “best-in-class” companies, along with his experience working in the “C-Suite” for a Fortune 500 global professional services firm as Chief Human Resources Officer, and during his years as Chief Operating Officer and EVP of Organizational Development for an international consulting firm. As CEO of The Employee Engagement Group (www.EmployeeEngagement.com), Bob also helps leadership teams better engage their employees and drive profitable growth.
Bob can be seen or heard on national media (most recently on CNBC, NBC News, CBS, Business Week, Forbes, Training Magazine, Yahoo, and Fortune), and is a frequent guest writer and contributing editor on many national publications.
Having been an internal practitioner for many years, Bob’s practical approach and willingness to share best practices, coupled with his enthusiastic and passionate delivery, humor, and creative use of multi-media have proven to be a winning formula for audiences throughout the world. Bob recently spoke to audiences in Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Warsaw, Belfast, Paris, and Mexico.
Bob has also presented to the leadership teams of many of the world’s top companies, including Shell, Unocal, TJX, Prudential, Abbott Labs, Fidelity, Balfour Beatty, Wurth, Millipore, amongst others, and is a frequent conference presenter, including those hosted by the SHRM, Conference Board, Linkage, Human Capital Institute, Aberdeen, and Melcrum.
He holds a BS in Education and an MBA, and resides in Danvers MA with his wife and three children.”7
Website: http://bobkelleher.com/
Kevin Kruse
“In pursuit of the American Dream, Kevin Kruse started his first company when he was just 22 years old. He worked around the clock, literally living out of his one-room office and showering each day at the YMCA, before giving up a year later deeply in debt.
But after discovering the power of Wholehearted Leadership and Employee Engagement Kevin went on to build and sell several, multimillion dollar technology companies, winning both Inc 500 and Best Place to Work awards along the way.
Kevin is also the author of several books including the NY Times bestseller, We: How to Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement, which was named one of the top leadership books in 2011 by 800-CEO-Read. He is a Forbes Leadership columnist and was named to the Top 100 Business Thought Leaders list by Trust Across America.
His book, Employee Engagement 2.0, provides a detailed action plan that turns “task-managers” into “people-leaders” and Employee Engagement for Everyone guides individuals to greater happiness at work.
Kevin’s mission is to convince everyone that wholehearted leadership for employee engagement is the key to unlocking both dramatic business results and to better health and relationships for individuals.
Kevin has traveled the globe as a keynote speaker on leadership, human capital and entrepreneurship. He is consistently rated among the top keynote speakers at events he attends.
Kevin lives with his three children in Bucks County, Pennsylvania”8
Website: http://kevinkruse.com/
Articles: Forbes
Bob Rosen
“Bob Rosen–trusted global CEO advisor, organizational psychologist, and bestselling author–has long been on a mission to transform the world of business, one leader at a time.
He founded Healthy Companies International over 20 years ago with the singular goal of helping top executives achieve their leadership potential and build healthy high performing and sustainable companies. Shortly before launching the company, he was awarded a multi-year grant from the MacArthur Foundation for an in-depth study of leadership. Since then, Bob has personally interviewed over 400 CEOs—in 50 countries—in organizations as diverse as Ford, Motorola, Johnson & Johnson, Singapore Airlines, Brinks, Northrop Grumman, Toyota, Lego, Booz Allen Hamilton, Citigroup, PepsiCo, ING, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. He has become an advisor to many of these companies.
Bob has distilled his most critical findings into the Healthy Leadership Model, which shows leaders at every level how to further develop six specific dimensions of themselves for greater impact. The Healthy Leader Model is also the basis for his firm’s ongoing work. Clients include Global 2000 corporations, government and non-governmental organizations, and selected associations around the world.
Bob is a frequent media commentator who has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, Financial Times, Time, Chief Executive Magazine, and more. Bob is a bestselling author including The Healthy Company, Leading People, Just Enough Anxiety, Global Literacies, The Catalyst and his latest, New York Times Bestseller Grounded. He is also in demand as a global keynote speaker with a special focus on personal leadership.
Bob graduated from the University of Virginia. He subsequently earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Bob teaches in executive education programs around the world, and has been a longtime faculty member in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at George Washington University’s School of Medicine.”9
Website: http://bobrosen.com/
Blog: http://bobrosen.com/blog/
Liz Ryan
“Liz Ryan is the CEO and Founder of Human Workplace and the voice of the new-millennium workplace. Liz is a former Fortune 500 HR SVP and the world’s most widely-read and well-respected workplace visionary and thought leader. The genesis of the Human Workplace mission to reinvent work for people is Liz’s frame-shaking model and blueprints for a human-powered workplace, evolving from her deep background in business leadership. As a vc-backed startup co-founder, mid-market leader and Fortune 500 senior executive, Liz Ryan has lived and now shares a leading-edge, practical and Mojofied™ approach to workplace challenges from recruiting new grads to corporate governance.
Liz Ryan’s columns on leadership, job search, personal branding, recruiting, HR practices and life in the new-millennium workplace reach 30 million readers a month on Businessweek.com, Forbes.com, Kiplinger’s Finance, Yahoo!, the Huffington Post, the Denver Post, TIME.com and the HarvardBusinessReview.com.
Liz is the leader of the 200,000-member Human Workplace online community and a sought-after international keynote speaker. She is a commentator for CNN, FOX Business, HuffPost Live, NPR and BBC Radio.
Liz graduated from Loyola University of Chicago (Mundelein College, BA Marketing) and Northwestern University (MS, Communication Studies). Liz is an operatic soprano. She and her husband Michael live in Boulder, Colorado with their five kids ages ten to nineteen, two dogs (Mojo and Magic) and two cats (Coco and Truffle).”10
Website: http://humanworkplace.com/
Blog: http://humanworkplace.com/blog-2/reinventing-work-for-people/
Articles: Businessweek, Forbes, the Huffington Post, TIME, and the Harvard Business Review and others.
Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek is an unshakable optimist. He believes in a bright future and our ability to build it together.
Described as “a visionary thinker with a rare intellect,” Sinek teaches leaders and organizations how to inspire people. With a bold goal to help build a world in which the vast majority of people go home everyday feeling fulfilled by their work, Sinek is leading a movement to inspire people to do the things that inspire them.
A trained ethnographer, he is the author of two books: the global best seller, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action and his newest book, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal best seller, Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t.
Fascinated by the leaders and companies that make the greatest impact in their organizations and in the world, those with the capacity to inspire, he has discovered some remarkable patterns about how they think, act and communicate and the environments in which people operate at their natural best. He has devoted his life to sharing his thinking in order to help other leaders and organizations inspire action.
He is best known for popularizing the concept of Why and for the talk he gave on the subject that became the second most watched talk of all time on TED.com.
Sinek’s unconventional and innovative views on business and leadership have attracted international attention and have earned him invitations to meet with an array of leaders and organizations, including: 3M, Costco, Deckers, Ernst & Young, HSM, jetBlue, KPMG, Pfizer, NBC/Universal, the military, government agencies and entrepreneurs. Sinek has also had the honor of sharing his ideas at the United Nations, the United States Congress and with the senior leadership of the United States Air Force, United States Marine Corps, and United States Army.
Sinek shares his optimism with all who will listen. He speaks around the globe and has commented for local and national press, including The New York Times, Inc. Magazine, NPR, BusinessWeek. Sinek is active on Twitter and writes his own blog, simonsinek.com.
Sinek is an adjunct staff member of the RAND Corporation, one of the most highly regarded think tanks in the world. He is also active in the arts and not-for-profit world, working with charity: water, an organization devoted to helping bring clean water to the over 700 million people around the world who don’t yet have it. He also serves on the board of the Tami Stronach Dance Company. He lives in New York.
Website: https://www.startwithwhy.com/Home.aspx
Blog: http://blog.startwithwhy.com/
TED Talks: https://www.ted.com/speakers/simon_sinek
David Zinger
“Six things to know about David Zinger:
David Zinger connects the strength of one with the power of many as an engagement speaker, coach, and consultant. He founded and hosts the global 6100 member Employee Engagement Network. David fuses a down-to-earth prairie upbringing with a global reach. He has worked on engagement in Canada, United States, Poland, Wales, Germany, England, India, Spain, and South Africa.
David is a prolific author. He wrote Assorted Zingers: Poems and Cartoons to Take a Bite Out of Work and Zengage: How to Get More Into Your Work to Get More Out of Your Work (see the covers below). He has written over 2500 blog posts on work, engagement, management, and leadership. He has also co-created 10 exceptional free employee engagement e-Books in conjunction with the Employee Engagement Network.
David knows work and organizations from the inside out. He worked 15 years as the employee assistance counselor and career development coach at Seagram, Ltd. This plant site was the global home of Crown Royal and David was instrumental in fostering personal and career engagement for this organization.
David is an educator. He taught Educational Psychology and Counseling Psychology at the University of Manitoba for 25 years. David’s specialties were work, humor, career development, wellbeing, engagement, management and leadership.
David created the popular Ten block pyramid of employee engagement to help clients focus on practical and tactical engagement. David believes that small is the new significant and that small, simple, strong, significant and sustainable actions within the context of good work will make the biggest difference in engagement for the benefit of all.
David is innovative and experimental. He worked for 3 summers making connections between engagement, honeybees, work, and community. David believes honeybees provide an insightful and living model of the social elements of work and the importance of thinking differently inside our hives (organizations). To receive a free copy and learn more about his finding click on the title of David’s eBook, Waggle: 39 Ways to Improve Human Organizations, Work, and Engagement.”12
Website: http://www.davidzinger.com/
Employee Engagement Network: http://employeeengagement.ning.com/
Which employee engagement thought leaders have I missed? Who are the thought leaders you admire most?
1 “Executive Team.” Executive Team. Bersin by Deloitte, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://www.bersin.com/about/content.aspx?id=96>.
2 “Meet Meghan M. Biro – Founder & CEO – TalentCulture.” TalentCulture. TalentCulture, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://www.talentculture.com/meghan-m-biro-talentculture-founder/>.
3 “Our Team.” PrimeGenesis. PrimeGenesis, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://www.primegenesis.com/blog/our-executive-onboarding-team/#georgebradt>.
4 “Meet Rick Conlow.” Expert Author Rick Conlow Leadership Consultant Business Performance Improvement Trainer. Rick Conlow, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://rickconlow.com/>.
5 “Marshall Goldsmith Bio.” The Marshall Goldsmith Group. Marshall Goldsmith Inc. Web. 21 July 2015. <http://www.marshallgoldsmithgroup.com/team/marshall_goldsmith.html>.
6 Harter, James. “Summary.” LinkedIn. LinkedIn Corporation. Web. 21 July 2015. <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkharter>.
7 “About Bob Kelleher.” Bob Kellher. Bob Kelleher, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://bobkelleher.com/about-bob-kelleher/>.
8 “About.” Kevin Kruse Blog About Comments. Kevin Kruse, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://kevinkruse.com/about-kevin-kruse/>.
9 “Meet Bob Rosen.” Bob Rosen, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://bobrosen.com/biography/>.
10 “Who’s “We”.” . Human Workplace, n.d. Web. 30 July 2014. <http://humanworkplace.com/whos-we/>.
11 “About.” Start With Why. Simon Sinek Inc. Web. 21 July 2015. <https://www.startwithwhy.com/About.aspx>.
12 “About.” David Zinger Employee Engagement Speaker. 26 Aug. 2007. Web. 21 July 2015. <http://www.davidzinger.com/about/>.
Let’s Engage!
I’m Agent in Engagement Simpson…Gregory F Simpson.
Employee engagement is a critical mission. I hope I can count on your help! Subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive the latest intelligence/insights and/or register to make entries in the comments log.
You can follow me @agtinengagement.
Email me at g…@a…t.com.
Connect via LinkedIn at LinkedIn.com/in/GregoryFSimpson.
Learn more about me at gregoryfsimpson.com.
P.S. First contact? Welcome to the Agent In Engagement community. Explore and join fellow employee engagement operatives in targeting a known thief – alias: Disengagement. Together we can bring this thief to justice and make the world a better place for all companies and their employees.
Other recent Agent in Engagement data/reports by Agent Gregory F Simpson:
- Employee Engagement Intelligence Briefing: 2015.07.13 – 2015.07.17
- Veteran Employee Engagement Operative Insights: 07.06 – 2015.07.10
- 2015 Agent In Engagement Top 10 Books on Employee Engagement
- The Fixation on Digital Communication over Direct Communication
- 2015 Workforce Live! NYC – Recap Part II
- 2015 Workforce Live! NYC – Recap Part I
- How do Companies Demonstrate Employee Engagement
