Greg McKeown

Leadership and Business Consultant, Social Innovator, Founder of THIS, Inc., Self-Improvement Podcast Host, Bestselling Author

Topics: Personal Development, Inspirational & Motivational, Leadership, Business Growth, Strategy, Media, Business Leadership, Innovation, Best Selling Author, Empowerment, Professional Development, Success, Corporate Culture

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Biography

Greg McKeown has dedicated his career to discovering why some people break through to the next level—and others don’t.

The definitive treatment of this issue is addressed in McKeown’s latest project: the instant New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. As well as frequently being the #1 Time Management book on Amazon, this book challenges core assumptions about achievement to get to the essence of what really drives success.

McKeown is the CEO of THIS Inc, a company whose clients include Airbnb, Apple, Google, Facebook, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Symantec, Twitter, VMware and Yahoo!.

His writing has appeared or been covered by Entrepreneur, Fast Company, Fortune, HuffPost, Politico, and Inc. Magazine. He is among the most popular bloggers for the Harvard Business Review and LinkedIn’s Influencers group: averaging a million views a month.

McKeown has been interviewed on numerous television and radio shows including NPR’s All Things Considered and NBC’s Press: Here. Entrepreneur Magazine voted his interview at Stanford University the #1 Must-See Video on Business, Creativity and Success.

McKeown is an accomplished public speaker. He has spoken to hundreds of audiences around the world including in Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, China, England, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan and Singapore.

Recent highlights include speaking at SXSW, interviewing Al Gore at the Annual Conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland and receiving a personal invitation from Haakon, Crown Prince of Norway, to speak to his Annual Innovation Conference.

McKeown challenges conventional wisdom in a unique and engaging style from the first moment to the last instant. As the event organizer at Greater Public said after McKeown addressed their 1,000-person conference, “I have been part of this event for 16 years and McKeown is the best speaker we have ever had!”

McKeown is an active Social Innovator. Serving as a Board Member for Washington D.C. policy group Resolve (KONY 2012) and as a mentor with 2 Seeds, a non-profit incubator for agricultural projects in Africa. He has also been a speaker at non-profit groups including The Kauffman Fellows, Net Impact and Stanford University: he recently gave back to Stanford University by co-creating a popular class called, Designing Life, Essentially.

He serves as a Young Global Leader for the World Economic Forum. He recently moderated a session at the “Summer Davos” in China called, “Unpacking Social Innovation Models for Maximum Impact,” served as a panelist at the “Sharpening Your Creative Edge” working session at the Forum.

Prior to this, McKeown collaborated in the research and writing of Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter and worked for Heidrick & Struggles’ Global Leadership Practice assessing senior executives.

Originally from London, England, McKeown now lives in Silicon Valley with his wife and their four children. He graduated with an MBA from Stanford University.

Videos

Speech TopicsExpand each topic to learn more

Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less

We all know it’s easy to be busy without being productive in our hyperconnected reality. This keynote offers a new mindset and skillset for discerning what is essential, eliminating what is not, and removing obstacles in order to make execution as effortless as possible.

Learning Objectives:

Learn the value proposition for Essentialism

Understand three practices for applying Essentialism:

Explore what’s essential

How to protect the asset (i.e. you)

Eliminate what’s nonessential

How to say no, gracefully

Execute what matters most as effortlessly as possible

ü Leave with a 21-Day Challenge with specific steps to put Essentialism into practice

Why Warm Clarity is the Key to High Performance Teams

We have all worked for leaders who are focused on results but care little about the overall growth and development of each team member: this is cold clarity. Warm clarity is different: it combines courage and compassion to create high performance teams.

Why Some Teams Break Through to the Next Level—And Others Don’t

This keynote shares five ways teams become dysfunctional and how leading as an Essentialist is the key to combating these and, instead, creating unified teams that produce amazing results.

Becoming Successful at Success

Becoming successful is one thing but it’s another thing altogether to become successful at success. This keynote teaches the essential mindset and skillset needed to go from being successful to very successful—the answers will surprise.

The Other Half of Innovation

The first half of innovation is fun and easy: it’s brainstorming, Post-It notes, exploration, iteration and ideation. The second half is rarer but it’s where the breakthrough value lies. This keynote teaches how to select only the most valuable ideas and how to execute them effortlessly.

Testimonials

Greg tenaciously pushed us to bring clarity to what's most important now to meet our customer needs in the face of the business demands ahead. Whether helping our Supply Chain leadership tackle their global challenges or inspiring our Store Manager to build great teams, Greg has taught us how the disciplined pursuit of less is better.

– Ann Taylor

I have been a part of this event for 16 years and McKeown is the best speaker we have ever had!

– Event Organizer for Greater Public

Absolutely fantastic. He really hit a home run with the audience.

– Fiserv

It is two months later and I am still having people stop me at meetings and gatherings to congratulate us on bringing Greg to our event. The response to his message was overwhelmingly positive and uplifting. He was absolutely incredible!

– Minneapolis Community Education Association

Greg did a phenomenal job! He was very dynamic and had great presentation style.

– NFP Securities

Wow! You delivered – you hit the ball out of the park! The feedback has been so positive and the energy and dialogue this evening around your message to us has been amazing. Thank you so much for your inspiring and motivating keynote! … I couldn't be happier with the outcome today.

– Northrop Grumman Information Systems

I don't think you could find a better speaker. Greg was an expert, persuasive, engaging, accommodating and compelling. Love, love, loved it! Already tweeting, facebooking, discussing, recommending...

– Symantec Inc.

You have NO IDEA how great that talk was. I have never been in a Tech Talk here where there wasn't a room full of open lap tops. Never. Not Obama's CIO Vivek Kundra, not the Executive Producer of House or Adam Savage from “MythBusters.” Not even Will.i.am. Twitter is a laptop open culture and you managed to pull off what I thought was an impossible feat!

– Twitter, Inc.

Greg delivered the most impactful leadership development training I've ever received. His approach is engaging but more importantly he moved me to action. He knew our business beforehand so he was prepared to discuss what mattered most- our ‘strategic intent'. I hope for the opportunity to work again with Greg very soon.

– VMware

You blew it out of the park – it was inspiring, thought provoking, and incredibly entertaining. You had participants on the edge of their seats for nearly two hours, which we all know is no small feat. We imagined a great event, but this far exceeded our expectations.

– VMware