Thank you!

by Jan 18, 202018 comments

A global survey of 22,000 corporate leaders just voted me the 4th ranked Leadership Coach in the world, and also the 21st ranked Leadership Authority and Speaker. It is a privilege to be counted among 30 brilliant peers and souls from across the globe.

While I accept the award with much gratitude, in fact I am accepting it on behalf of many courageous leaders in many great companies, and also on behalf of our Higher Ground Leadership® Coaches, and our Certified Teachers and Faculty, who pioneer our work around the world.

These are leaders who are looking for something beyond the bottom line alone. For them, while it is important to achieve the metrics, it is not the only purpose of the game. They’re looking for something bigger—an opportunity to make the thing we call “work”, and Corporate life in general, an inspiring experience, and to, as Steve Jobs put it, “…put a ding in the Universe”.

What is truly heartwarming is to see the leaders of great companies using our models and philosophy to help them transform their corporate cultures into environments that inspire. When that happens, inspired employees (our number one priority) will inspire customers (our number two priority) to deepen their relationship and therefore propel the company to greater heights. It’s no accident that the most successful airline in the world, Southwest Airlines, ranks its priorities in this order: employees, customers and shareholders.

We could all be doing much better – my research reveals 80% of employees would give up their day jobs if they had a free choice and according to Korn Ferry, 82% of employees will be looking for a new job in 2020. We can do better than that!

It takes courage to introduce and embrace concepts like “soul”, “love”, ‘intimacy” and “passion” into the workplace, and to understand the connection between these (often derisively referred to as “soft skills”, or “fluff”) and high performance. It takes courage to move positively to reverse the dreadful statistics above. The great leaders and their companies who have done so, and achieved remarkable breakthroughs as a result, deserve the credit. And so do our faculty and coaches who have the courage to bring this work to organizations – that’s why we call them “Pathfinders”.

So I accept the award on behalf of all of these courageous and innovative people, without whom there would be no award. I salute our clients and everyone on our team who made this happen.

How courageous are you? Take this one-minute survey to see how inspiring your organization is.