Barry Posner

Barry Posner's Biography

Expert in leadership, Dr Barry Posner is a speaker, facilitator and an award winning author. Described as warm, engaging and dynamic in his delivery of information as a conference speaker, Barry combines both practical applications with his own insight to drive results.

Barry Posner, Ph.D., is Professor of Leadership at the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University (located in the heart of Silicon Valley, CA), where he served for 12 years as Dean of the School. He, along with his co-author Jim Kouzes, received the American Society for Training and Development′s highest award for their “Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and Performance.” The International Management Council named them as the nation’s top management and leadership educators, and he was recently recognized as one of the Top 50 Leadership Coaches in America.

Dr. Posner is the co-author of the award-winning and best-selling leadership book The Leadership Challenge. Described as a ground-breaking research study, this book combines keen insights with practical applications and captures both why and how leadership is everyone′s business. With over 1.8 million copies in print, this book has been named one of The Top 100 Business Books of All Time, book-of-the-year by the American Council of Health Care Executives, received the Critic′s Choice Award from book review editors, and translated into over 20 foreign languages.

The Leadership Practices Inventory has been called “the most reliable, up-to-date leadership instrument available today,” and over 1.1 million people around the globe have completed the online version. Dr. Posner has also co-authored several other award-winning, inspiring and practical books on leadership: Credibility: How Leaders Gain and Lose It, Why People Demand It; Encouraging the Heart: A Leaders Guide to Recognizing and Rewarding Others; The Academic Administrator′s Guide to Exemplary Leadership; and A Leader′s Legacy.

Dr. Posner is an internationally renowned scholar who has published more than 85 research and practitioner-oriented articles, in such journals as the: Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Relations, Personnel Psychology, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, and the like. He is currently on the editorial review boards of the International Journal of Servant-Leadership, Leadership and Organizational Development, and Leadership Review. He serves on the Board of Directors for the San Jose Repertory Theatre and EMQ Family First.

Described as a warm, engaging and pragmatic conference speaker and dynamic workshop facilitator, Dr. Posner has worked with such organizations as: Alcoa, Applied Materials, Australian Institute of Management, Charles Schwab, Conference Board of Canada, Hewlett-Packard, Kaiser Permanente Health Care, L.L. Bean, Levi Strauss, Merck, Motorola, NetApp, Trader Joe′s, US Postal Service, and been involved with leadership development efforts at more than 35 college campuses. He has made presentations and conducted workshops across the U.S, Canada, Mexico, Europe, the Far East, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Barry Posner received an undergraduate degree in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, a master′s degree from the Ohio State University in public administration, and his Ph.D. in organizational behavior and administrative theory from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. At Santa Clara he has received the President′s Distinguished Faculty Award, the School’s Extraordinary Faculty Award, and several other outstanding teaching and leadership honors.

Speaking Topics Include

• The Leadership Challenge: The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership®
• Credibility: The Foundation of Leadership [Alternate title: The Legacy You Leave Is the Life You Lead]
• Encouraging the Heart: Rewarding and Recognizing Others [Alternate title: The Heart and Soul of Leadership]
• Leadership Development Is Self-Development
• It Takes Courage to Make a Life