Curt Coffman Speaker Biography
A New York Times Bestselling author, researcher, business scientist, and consultant, Curt Coffman has been at the forefront of employee engagement for more than thirty years as an expert in the science of high performance cultures.
As the Global Practice Leader for employee and customer engagement at Gallup for twenty-two years, and now as Chief Science Officer at The Coffman Organization, Coffman has studied hundreds of organizations and millions of their employees and customers.
His work launched a new era in employee engagement and manager development. First, Break all the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers do Differently (coauthored with Marcus Buckingham), one of the bestselling management books of all time, dispelled conventional wisdom about management and shared the practices that define great managers in every industry. The books that followed, Follow This Path: How the World’s Greatest Organizations Drive Growth by Unleashing Human Potential, and Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch: The Secret of Extraordinary Results (coauthored with Dr. Kathie Sorensen), provide practical insight for individuals and organizations seeking to maximize their potential and build a productive culture.
An international leader in the world of management and engagement consulting, Mr. Coffman’s work has been translated into over 40 languages. His research and writings have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Business Week, Chief Executive Magazine, CIO Magazine, The Economist, Fast Company, Fortune, among other management journals. He has invested 30+ years in the science of high-performance cultures. His mission is to help organizations, their leaders, managers and associates to create more engaging and productive workplaces to secure the loyalty and growth of their customers and business.
An insightful and engaging speaker, Mr. Coffman has presented to thousands of groups on creating great cultures that impact individuals and their families, drive organizational growth, and create engaged customers.
Mr. Coffman has been married for over 30 years, to his talented wife, Tammy. They reside in Denver, CO and are the proud parents of daughters, Katie and Claire, a son, Clayton, son-in-law, Geoff, and grandparents to Eli, Ollie, Lucy, and Stella.
To book Curt Coffman call Executive Speakers Bureau at 901-754-9404.
Topic areas include great places to work, engagement (employees, customers, and enterprise), outstanding managers and leaders, culture, and building strengths-based organizations.
FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES, What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently
By Curt Coffman & Marcus Buckingham
Great managers break the rules of conventional management wisdom.
- Select people based upon talent not experience, skills and knowledge
- Focus people through clarity of desired outcomes, not steps or process
- Motivate people through the discovery of strengths versus fixing weaknesses
- Creating growth by finding the right "fit" between the person's talents and demands of the role
- Get really close to people and believe a relationship is what creates performance
- Play favorites and spend most of their time with the most productive people
These are just a few of the discoveries made from the study of over 250,000 managers/leaders and what distinguishes the best from the rest.
CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR LUNCH, creating culture as your competitive advantage
By Curt Coffman & Dr. Kathie Sorensen
There are three critical levels of great cultures:
- MacroCulture - leaders who are "more interested than interesting," always painting a compelling vision, set the right strategy with the right people and are the ambassadors of the future.
- MicroCulture - local team members who create the right outcomes and determine the success of key initiatives and strategy. Members feel a charge to "create positive and personal energy in one another," that is driven by quality relationships built on trust and pressure to achieve.
- BridgeCulture - the managers who are always "connecting people to a purpose," and creating a "line-of-sight" to how every person/role creates value through attracting and keeping customers (the only way organizations can build growth).
Top cultures from big to small (Google, Zappos, and Nordstrom to the local grocery store, restaurant or coffee shop) have some key characteristics in common.
Some are:
- Specific about the practices, rituals and even "weirdness’s" that distinguish their culture
- Have sticky values like "paranoid collaboration," "bad news fast," "fearless," etc.
- Examine and move from excellence, when you study average, you get average
- Know precisely their "religion" and their "science"
- Move decisions as close to the action as possible
- Everyone sees how what they do both attracts and keeps customers
CREATING A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE JUST CAN'T WAIT TO COME TO WORK EVERY DAY:
From the study of over 1 million employees and what attracts, keeps and energizes them…
Having a clear focus, great manager, right talent and quality relationships (good friends) are the keys to personal and professional success.
Individuals want to be part of a team that has high standards and expectations to achieve the success they never even thought possible. They are constantly raising the bar for themselves and others through tracking personal bests and encouraging pressure to perform from team members. Having best friends at work is a driver of accountability and work-life balance.
People leave managers not companies. Great managers are the foundation of great organizations. How we select, focus and recognize managers can be the best predictor of results. Great managers of people have strange practices like playing favorites of high performers, getting very close to the people that report to them, firing people faster than bad managers out of genuine respect for the person and customizing plans to fit the needs of each person.
Half-Day Programs:
FIRST BREAK ALL THE RULES, What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently:
Keynote followed by group breakout challenges around the selection, characteristics and accountability measures for today's managers.
CULTURE EATS STRATEGY FOR LUNCH, creating culture as your competitive advantage:
Keynote followed by group breakouts to define the strengths of their current culture and examine each of the three levels and specific charges of each. Identifying ownership of culture and desired outcomes of each. How can strategies achieve intended goals at a higher level than the current 14%?
CREATING A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE JUST CAN'T WAIT TO COME TO WORK EVERY DAY:
Keynote followed by group breakout challenges to address specific workplace issues and create a plan for building a fun, energizing and productive environment at every level.
