1051. A Day in the Life: What's It Really Like to Be an Executive Leadership Consultant?

“During this pandemic people have been forced to slow down and get out of the so-called ‘rat race’ of working brutally long hours in too many cases, with very little time for reflection on seminal issues such as the work they do every day and how they feel about the work that they do. In our several decades of experience working with people of all ages in Fortune 500 companies in global industries, one key reason for the increasingly high rates of worker dissatisfaction and turnover is that individuals typically do not take the time to slow down and reflect on how their careers have a profound impact on their lives on many more dimensions of themselves than the skills they ostensibly get paid for. As the famous organizational consultant Chester Barnard said many decades ago, ‘We hire people for their skills, but the whole person shows up for work.’ Whether working with individual employees, the teams they are a part of, or the leadership of those teams, our priority is to ensure that as many people as possible are able to deploy not only their skills, but the many other dimensions of themselves that have for many decades been proven to directly impact their performance, collaboration and personal satisfaction. The positive impact on the company’s culture, employee and client satisfaction and profitability is profound and enduring.”

Dr. Thomas Tavantzis is an organizational and leadership psychologist who uses psychometric tools, like the Highland Ability Battery (HAB), to develop teams, leaders, and career options for individuals. For the past 35 years, Tom has worked with leaders and teams in the global pharmaceutical, energy, communication, and manufacturing industries. Tom has done extensive research in psychometric tools. Since 1993, he has specialized in the Highlands Ability Battery and is now one of the worldwide experts in the HAB. Tom has served as Professor and Director of Organizational Psychology and Leadership Program at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. He currently teaches in the Organizational Development and Leadership Graduate Program in Haub School of Management, Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA. Dr Tavantzis is the author of HardWired: Taking the Road to Delphi and Uncovering Your Talents, and co-editor of Don’t Waste Your Talent (3ed). He and his wife Martha are the Founders(1986) of Innovative Management Development (IMD), P.C.

Dr. John H. Wilson is an entrepreneur, intrapreneur (corporate entrepreneur), and scholar with more than twenty-five years of experience as a business leader in the software & services industries. He brings a multi-dimensional perspective on market dynamics and a lean, iterative approach to building thriving, profitable businesses. Currently, Dr. Wilson is a teaching professor on the faculty of Drexel University’s Charles D. Close School of Entrepreneurship. He has done extensive research and has published numerous studies, articles, and books on the topics of entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, organization design/leadership, employee empowerment, and emerging educational technologies. He is in demand as a public speaker, executive coach/trainer, and board advisor for companies actively seeking to infuse entrepreneurial practices into their organizations in order to be more agile and adaptive in an increasingly complex business environment. Prior to joining the Drexel faculty, Dr. Wilson served as Director, Global at Vertex, Inc. He is also the Founder of Strategic Collisions International, LLC.