The Sweeney Agency

About Dr. John Izzo - Author and Speaker on Leadership, Change and Development:

John Izzo consults and advises some of the most admired companies in the world, teaches at major universities, conducts leading edge research on workplace values, and has spoken to more than one million people across the globe, from Brazil to Russia, from New York to London. He is a leading business strategy expert, a best-selling author, a community leader, and an avid conservationist. As a keynote speaker he focuses on coaching leaders and organizations to achieve sustainable success through integrating purposeful leadership with change management and business development practices.

John has devoted his life and career to helping leaders create workplaces that bring out the best in people, plus discover more purpose and fulfillment in life and work. For over twenty years, Izzo has pioneered employee engagement, helping organizations create great corporate cultures, and leading brands through corporate social responsibility.

His client organizations range from high tech to high touch, from hotels to hospitals, from government agencies to entrepreneurial start-ups.

John is the author of five books. In his first, Awakening Corporate Soul, John identifies four paths to more soul and engagement at work. In Values Shift: Recruiting, Retaining and Engaging the Multigenerational Workforce, he identifies six major shifts in work values and creates a blueprint for the 21st century workforce. He offers insight at how values are shifting and practical ideas on how to win over the new workforce. His latest book, The Five Secrets You Must Discover before You Die , was the basis for a five hour Biography and PBS Television series in which Izzo interviewed 250 people from the age of 60-106 asking them to reflect back on what they had learned about life. The book was named the best self-help book of 2008 by the Independent Book Publishers Association.

Prior to establishing his own firm, John was a senior organizational development consultant for Kaiser Permanente, and Vice President of The Einstein Consulting Group, an international customer service consultancy. He holds a Masters degree in psychology and a Ph.D. in organizational communication.

Leaders say that John Izzo brings the unique combination of practical ideas and high-level big picture thinking to their organizations. He will inspire your people to greater vision, challenge them with new insights, and leave them with practical strategies to create the organization of the future. He is a person capable of inspiring your audience to more authentic, purposeful lives. John challenges audiences to live a life that matters, an uncommon life, where lasting legacy is balanced with every day fulfillment.

What John Izzo Talks About:

Dr. John Izzo's dynamic presentations provide audiences with practical ideas and thoughtful insights from his work with more than 500 organizations. John works hard at getting to the real issues within an organization and tailors his message to each group. He is powerful and practical, offering memorable tools to help people and organizations achieve their goals. He delivers an inspiring address that will get your people thinking, laughing and taking positive action in the workplace.

Leading and Engaging Your People During Change
How do we keep people engaged and motivated during tough economic times? What are the keys to keeping people on side and leading them through change? This session will explore the keys to leading people during tough times and engaging them through change. The session will help leaders understand what people need in changing times and practical ways to engage people during such times. Filled with real life examples from working with over 600 companies, Dr. Izzo will help your leaders learn the secrets to companies that navigate tough times effectively. Among other things, leaders will learn: How to keep people focused on the long term? How to engage people in change so that they help you stay successful and don’t act like victims? How to keep a climate of recognition and success even when things are tough? What are the five things people need from leaders during times of change and how can leaders deliver it? How to become the employer of choice when things are tough?

The Buzz Factor: What Great Workplaces Teach Us & How to Become One
Some workplaces have a buzz, a definable, palpable energy that makes people want to commit and do their best. Buzz is hard to define but we all know it when we experience it. It is characterized by high commitment, passionate belief, deep trust, and a tremendous sense of pride.

We have heard about such workplaces, but what is their secret? Why do some companies and organizations have what some have called magic? In this keynote, Dr. Izzo shares a lifetime of learning from working with and researching many of these unique places where passionate commitment reigns as normal everyday reality. He will help leaders and colleagues understand the key factors that create buzz, gain practical ideas on how to create it, and be inspired to strive to become one of those truly engaging places to work.

Branding from the Inside-Out
You are wasting your money if you think a logo is all you need to brand your company. A brand is created by the daily interaction between your staff and your customers. Who you hire, how they are treated, whether they are engaged or not and whether they believe in the services and products they sell, has everything to do with how the world sees your brand! In this inspiring and practical program Dr. John Izzo will help your attendees understand how to create an engaged team who live the values of the brand every day.

Building Your Business Through Engaging Your People
The key to business success and growth is to have engaged people who will be great ambassadors for your business. In this program Dr. Izzo focuses on how business owners and leaders can build the business through highly engaged employees who are passionate about the business, who know what matters and deliver it to customers and clients on a consistent basis.

Values Shift: Engaging a Changed Workforce
Worker motivation and retention now rank evenly with customer service as the key to holding market edge. Never has it been so important to see the workplace through employees' eyes, and cater to their beliefs and needs. This represents nothing short of a sea of change from values of even ten years ago. This keynote focuses on six major value shifts in terms of what people expect from work and are looking for in a company. It offers practical ideas on what companies and leaders can do to win commitment and increase loyalty of employees companies, Dr. Izzo will help your people understand these shifting values and how they differ across generation and gender. Find out what successful companies are doing in response! Based on His book, VALUES SHIFT: The New Work Ethic & What it Means for Business.

Four Generations - One Workplace: How to Bridge the Gaps & Thrive in the Future Winning and keeping talented people has become one of the top concerns of today's managers and business owners who are determined to weather the turmoil and emerge with the strength to dominate their industry. How can organizations create high levels of commitment and engagement? With employees' values shifting, how must leaders shift their thinking and behavior? This program offers powerful and practical ideas on what managers can do to increase employee loyalty while responding to changing expectations.

Business & the Green Challenge: How Business Will Save The Planet
If you are tired of green talks that beat up on business, this talk is for you. Business is often blamed for damaging the environment but in this program Dr. John Izzo shows that business is and must lead the way to meet the challenge of sustainability. He shows how individuals cannot do enough alone and why government is important but unable to meet the challenge. Through inspiring examples, startling facts, personal stories and practical ideas, your audience will leave seeing the important role businesses and corporate leaders will play in meeting the sustainability challenge.

What are the keys to a purposeful, successful, and fulfilling life? What must we discover about life before it is too late? Dr. John Izzo interviewed over 200 people from the age of 60-106 and asked them to reflect back on their lives. What did they learn? What would they do differently? What brought the greatest happiness and meaning? What were the important crossroads and the decisions they made and what did they regret?

Creating the Passionate Workplace
Over the last several years, an increasing number of organizations and leaders have become interested in creating more spirited, soulful workplaces. Indeed, the deepest commitment comes from those who experience work as more than a way to make a living but as an expression of their values and desires to contribute. In this keynote, Dr. Izzo will explore four paths to finding more purpose and success and will help leaders at all levels discover practical ways to create more spirit for themselves and their teams. Based on his groundbreaking book Awakening Corporate Soul: Four Paths to Unleash the Power of People at Work.

Renewing the Heart of Healthcare
Health care is a unique business where a deep sense of mission is both the driver of passion and the best predictor of success. Yet many health care organizations and providers are experiencing a loss of soul and purpose, high levels of burnout, and an increasing need for productivity. In this powerful program, Dr. Izzo will help your group understand the keys to renewing the heart in health care, how leaders at all levels-from CEO's to the front line-can take responsibility for re-igniting passion and purpose at work, how each one of us can stay connected to our own sense of purpose and wellness, and how to create more collaborative and engaged teams.

Dr. John Izzo has worked with over 300 health care organizations across North America and Western Europe. His work in health care renewal has been featured by Nurse Week, the American Medical Journal, Health Care Finance and many other publications. His talks ARE both practical and inspiring, and will challenge your audience to take personal responsibility for putting heart back in health care.

Your Brain on Change: The Secrets to Changing Yourself and Others
The capacity to change is critical for both personal and organizational success. Organizations spend millions of dollars trying to get people to change and on learning activities aimed at helping people develop new habits. Yet many efforts to get people to change fail and training often fails to produce real behavioral change. In this talk, Dr. Izzo will explore emerging research on the brain that shows why it is so hard for us to change habits and the five keys to sustainable change in behavior. You will learn why our brains are hard-wired to change rather than resist change once we understand how habits are actually formed and changed. You will see why so many traditional change efforts fail and learn how to use this new science of the brain to lead others to change and also how to change yourself. Dr. Izzo will show how this new science of the brain influences everything from performance management to training, from large scale change efforts to how we make changes in our own life and work. This keynote will change how you lead change forever and lead to lasting changes in your own life and work.