Chester Elton

Featured Speaker

Bestselling Business Author, Organizational Culture, Employee Engagement and Teamwork Expert

In-Person Fee Range
$20,001 to $50,000
(Inquire for virtual fee)

Travels From
New Jersey, United States

Bestselling Business Author, Organizational Culture,
Employee Engagement and Teamwork Expert

One of today’s most influential voices in workplace trends, Chester Elton has spent two decades helping clients engage their employees to execute on strategy, vision, and values. In his provocative, inspiring and always entertaining talks, #1 bestselling leadership author Chester Elton provides real solutions to leaders looking to manage change, drive innovation, and lead a multi-generational workforce. Elton’s work is supported by research with more than 850,000 working adults, revealing the proven secrets behind high-performance cultures and teams.

Books

He has been called “the apostle of appreciation͟” by Canada’s Globe and Mail, “creative and refreshing,” by the New York Times, and a “must read for modern managers͟” by CNN. Elton is co-author of the multiple award-winning New York Times and #1 USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling leadership book, All In, The Carrot Principle, and The Best Team Wins. His books have been translated in more than 30 languages and have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide. His latest book is Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done.

Media

Elton is often quoted in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Fast Company and the New York Times. He has appeared on NBC’s Today, CNN, ABC, MSNBC, National Public Radio and CBS’s 60 Minutes. In 2018 Global Gurus research organization ranked him as #13 in the world’s top leadership experts and #5 in the world’s top organizational culture experts; and he is a member of Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches pay it forward project.

The Culture Works

Elton is the co-founder of The Culture Works, a global training company and a board member of Camp Corral, a non-profit for the children of wounded and fallen military heroes. He serves as a leadership consultant to firms such as American Express, AT&T, Avis Budget Group and Procter & Gamble. He is most proud, however, to be the father of four exceptional children-more exceptional now they’ve grown up and left home.

The Best TEAM Wins: The 5 Disciplines of Today’s Most Effective Team Leaders - With Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton

The Dilemma: The vast majority of employees’ days are now spent working collaboratively, but still 96 percent of executives cite poor teamwork as the main source of workplace failures in their organizations. It might be the most-pressing question organizations must address: How can managers lead their teams to improved performance given the volatility and challenges we face today. The Research: Based on an 850,000-person study of the most profitable, innovative work teams, New York Times bestselling authors Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton introduce audiences to the new science of teamwork—helping leaders deal with the increased speed of change in business, global and remote employees, the rise of the Millennials, the need to work more cross-functionally across departments, and more. The Result: Gostick & Elton’s research has discovered a set of leadership disciplines that make the biggest difference in building today’s best teams. They help leaders: • Manage to the One—Identify the drivers of each team member for maximum engagement • Speed Productivity—Help new people and teams work faster & smarter • Challenge Everything—Inspire greater innovation through healthy debate • Focus on Customers—Build bridges across functions, cultures, and distance The Audience: Designed for senior leaders and managers (although often tailored to include all employees), Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton have presented The Best Team Wins to corporate audiences and association conferences worldwide.

ALL IN - HOW GREAT LEADERS DEVELOP A CULTURE OF BELIEF AND DELIVER BIG RESULTS

The Dilemma: While most leaders understand their most reliable competitive advantage comes from their people, few know how to get their teams “all in”—convincing employees to buy into the strategy they’ve put forward. If a culture is clear, positive, and strong, then people will believe what they do matters and that they can make a difference. If a culture is dysfunctional—chaotic, combative or indifferent—employees will spend more time thinking about why the people sitting next to them should be fired than getting fired up themselves. The Research: Teaming up with research giant Towers Watson, #1 bestselling author Chester Elton presents the findings of an unprecedented 300,000-person study conducted in the worst of the recession for his book All In. Based on this breakthrough research and his extensive consulting experience with a who’s-who of successful organizations, he presents a simple roadmap that all managers can follow to create a high-achieving culture in their own teams where employees are engaged, enabled and energized. The Result: Elton offers specific how-tos for each step, and tells fascinating stories of leaders in action that vividly depict just how these powerful methods can be implemented. Audiences will learn: - the 3 research-based characteristics of the world’s most profitable, productive organizational and team cultures; - the 7 steps today’s most successful leaders use to generate buy-in; - how managers at any level can build a productive workgroup culture of their own where employees commit to the culture and give an extra push of effort. The Audience: Designed for senior leaders and managers (although sometimes tailored to include all employees), Chester Elton has presented “All In” to corporate audiences and association conferences worldwide. The session is typically customized to an organization’s specific culture challenges.

The Engagement Effect
How the best managers are engaging employees to meet the needs of a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world

The Dilemma: Financial performance in high-engagement organizations is 44 percent higher than in low engagement organizations. Some 90 percent of senior leaders believe employee engagement is a key driver of business performance. But only 24 percent think their employees are engaged enough to move their businesses forward. The Research: New York Times bestselling author and leadership experts Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton present findings from 20 years of research, with a total of 850,000-people now surveyed, to illustrate the steps today’s most successful organizations use to generate superior levels of employee engagement to drive energy, focus and innovation. Their work shows exactly which leadership behaviors move engagement and which don’t. The Result: In this practical and thought-provoking keynote, Gostick & Elton introduce a practical guide for leaders, showing them exactly how to move the needle on employee engagement. The authors drill deep with case studies of real managers in action and practical examples of proven drivers of engagement such as 1) alignment with future vision, 2) enhanced trust and innovation, 3) transparent communication, 4) career development, and 5) strategic recognition of contributions. The Audience: Designed for senior leaders and managers, Gostick & Elton have presented “The Engagement Effect” to corporate audiences and associations worldwide. The session is typically customized to an organization’s specific engagement challenges.

Carrots 2.0 - How today’s managers use recognition to engage their people, retain talent, and accelerate performance

The Dilemma: Most managers want to create cultures where their teams achieve above-and-beyond results, but for a culture to really take off teammates must encourage each other on a daily basis. The answer is in rooting for each other: having each other’s backs, appreciating strengths, and recognizing strategic behaviors. The Research: Based on their #1 bestselling book The Carrot Principle, which unveiled a 10-year, 200,000- person survey, Gostick & Elton have become the preeminent authority on employee recognition. Now, they introduce us to Carrots 2.0—showing incontrovertible evidence that today’s employees respond best when they are recognized for things they are good at and for those actions where they had to stretch. The Result: Gostick & Elton introduce audiences to new generational and industry-specific data from their 2016 proprietary survey of 14,000 working adults—helping managers link recognition to what is most meaningful to their employees. They introduce practical concepts that help managers encourage excellence, including ideas such as appreciation vs. recognition, effort vs. achievement, and praise vs. rewards. The Audience: Designed for managers, Gostick & Elton have presented “Carrots 2.0” to corporate audiences and associations worldwide. The session is typically customized to an organization’s specific recognition needs and can also include the organization’s available R&R tools.

Be a Better Manager by Friday
Real skills for inspiring employees, leading a team, and winning in today’s transformative marketplace

The Dilemma: For leaders looking to drive innovation, diversity, and inclusion in their teams, many established management practices are doing more harm than good. Too many leaders are dampening their employees’ exuberance and refreshing diversity with old-school management approaches that are killing their cultures. The Research: Adrian Gostick & Chester Elton have been some of the most influential voices in leadership research and organizational consulting for more than two decades, but it’s their research over the last few years that’s garnering extra attention. After surveying more than 14,000 working adults in 2015-16 alone, they have found 5 principles of effective leadership that managers in the 21st Century can employ to great effect, and 5 principles that must be avoided. The Result: In a fresh, funny and challenging keynote presentation, Gostick & Elton debunk myths such as The Smartest Person in the Room, Treating Everyone the Same is Fair, Appreciation Comes in a Paycheck, and We’ll Let You Know if You Mess Up. They teach audiences how to lead in such a way that today’s employees will follow—including establishing a clear future vision, enhancing diversity, increasing trust levels, and providing opportunity and growth development paths. The Audience: Designed for senior leaders and managers, the authors have presented “Be a Better Manager by Friday” to corporate audiences and associations worldwide. The session is typically customized to an organization’s specific leadership challenges.

What Motivates Me? How to lead and retain generations in the workplace

The Dilemma: By 2024, 75 percent of the workforce will be Millennials and Gen Z. The best leaders are retaining more of their key, young talent by creating meaningful career discussions from day one, and are helping younger workers understand their impact on the greater purpose of the organization. The Research: Based on Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton’s bestselling book What Motivates Me with the findings of an 850,000-person research study, and introducing their Primary Research Study of thousands of millennials, the authors identify practical methods to inspire today’s young workers to increase levels of commitment, enhance feelings of inclusion, and speed the process of onboarding. The Result: In addition to learning how to help team members of all generations work together more effectively, leaders in this session will discover ways to reduce employee attrition by helping each employee understand their core motivators and sculpt the nature of their positions to better match those drivers. The truth is very few leaders know what is really motivating to their people or, even if they do, don’t know how to apply that information to day-to-day work. The Audience: Designed for senior leaders, managers, and employee groups, the authors have presented “What Motivates Me?” to corporate audiences and associations worldwide. Some groups have participants complete the online Motivators Assessment before the session.

All Chester Elton Books

Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done
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The Best Team Wins: The New Science of High Performance
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What Motivates Me: Put Your Passions to Work
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All In: How the Best Managers Create a Culture of Belief and Drive Big Results
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Carrot Principle : How the Best Managers Use Recognition to Engage Their People, Retain Talent, and Accelerate Performance
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The Invisible Employee : Realizing the Hidden Potential in Everyone
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The 24-Carrot Manager
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Chester Elton is one of the finest business speakers I have come across in my 15 year professional career around the world. I say that for three reasons- One- his messages are simple- he translates corporate mumbo jumbo into very simple, easy to understand behavioral attributes that are very easy to comprehend. Two- his techniques or tips are extremely easy to implement. We had Chester present to the top 120 leaders of Novartis General Medicines team in the US and three months later, they are still talking about the insights they gained from the presentation and are using everyday- it is creating a cultural shift in our organization that I have not seen any other two hour talk do! Three- the key reason why the messages stick is because Chester is both authentic and entertaining- he drives a really important message of great profundity in a manner that is incredibly engaging- be it the use of toy carrots, the singing that goes on, the quizzes that he throws in and just his energy is infectious. We used Chester for our top leadership team and since then, whenever we have felt the need to have someone talk to leaders around teamwork, around how we can approach problems in a collaborative manner, around engaging the workforce, around the need for recognition and appreciation on a regular basis- we have leaned on Chester, and he has never disappointed. Also, Chester is coachable, he takes feedback well and adjusts his talk to suit the needs of the audience. I would highly recommend him for any upcoming engagement.

- M. Misra | Head of Talent Management/OD/Staffing, US General Medicines, Novartis Pharmaceuticals


“99% of our senior executives rated Chester’s session excellent or good—which is amazing!”

- | Motorola

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Recent Books

Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done
Purchase Book
The Best Team Wins: The New Science of High Performance
Purchase Book

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