Jessica was the highest-rated speaker at our annual conference. She rocked the house!
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Dr. Jessica Kriegel
CEO Advisor and Doctor of Leadership
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Dr. Jessica Kriegel
Biography
Jessica Kriegel is a workplace culture expert, keynote speaker, and researcher. As Chief Strategy Officer at Culture Partners, she leads research that challenges outdated ideas about control, power, and performance—offering bold new frameworks that drive real business results. She’s the host of the CEO Daily Brief and Culture Leaders podcasts, and a frequent guest on CNN, Fox Business, CNBC, and Bloomberg. Jessica holds an MBA and a doctorate in leadership with a specialization in Human Resources Development. She is currently pursuing a Master of Divinity and is also a trained death doula, a role that deepens her presence and perspective as a leader. Her first book, Unfairly Labeled, breaks down generational myths in the workplace. Her upcoming book, Surrender to Lead, launches in January 2026. When she’s not doing all that, she’s cruising around Sacramento, California in a motorcycle sidecar with her eight-year-old daughter.
Dr. Jessica Kriegel
Featured Videos
Current: Jessica Kriegel Surrender to Lead
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Dr. Jessica Kriegel
Featured Keynote Programs
Surrender to Lead
The New Leadership Paradigm for an Unpredictable World
The old leadership model of controlling more, pushing harder, and knowing all the answers has reached its limits. In a world shaped by volatility, AI disruption, and cultural fragmentation, the leaders who thrive aren’t the ones gripping tighter. They’re the ones who surrender—not in weakness, but in wisdom.
Based on Dr. Jessica Kriegel’s groundbreaking book Surrender to Lead, this keynote introduces a transformative, counter-intuitive leadership framework for unlocking adaptability, clarity, and resilience. Through powerful storytelling, research-backed insights, and a practical roadmap for application, Jessica shows how surrender is not giving up—it’s giving way to better leadership.
Participants learn how to stop fighting reality, break out of fear-based decision loops, shift their mindset from control to clarity, and take aligned action that propels teams forward. This keynote is emotional, energizing, and deeply practical. It is perfect for organizations facing uncertainty, disruption, or rapid change.
Takeaways:
- Why Surrender is the most underestimated leadership skill of the next decade
- The SHIFT™ framework: a five-step method for leading with clarity, alignment, and accountability
- How surrender unlocks accountability across all levels of teams
- A new model for leadership effectiveness that aligns purpose, strategy and culture
Results-Based Leadership
The Framework for Turning Strategy Into Real Results
In today’s fast-moving environment, vision isn’t enough. Leaders must deliver outcomes. This keynote introduces Jessica’s results-driven methodology rooted in the Results Pyramid™ and the Four Steps to Accountability—a proven framework used by organizations globally to strengthen clarity, alignment, and ownership.
With humor, research, and powerful case studies, Jessica explains how beliefs drive actions, actions drive results, and leaders must intentionally shape each layer to create the culture their strategy requires. This keynote equips leaders at every level with a practical toolkit for transforming accountability from a buzzword into a lived reality.
Takeaways:
- A clear, actionable framework to connect employees to business results
- How to create clarity around expectations at every level of the organization
- The four steps to accountability—and how to hardwire them into daily habits
- Tools to align beliefs, behaviors, and systems to drive consistent performance
Leading Change
The Change Activation Equation
A Practical, Science-Backed Formula for Transforming Your Organization
Change is hard when it’s approached emotionally, but change becomes predictable when done right. Backed by original Stanford research, the Change Activation Equation reveals three quantifiable variables that predict whether change will succeed or stall.
Through data science, unforgettable stories, and a simple four-step process, Jessica shows organizations how to build alignment across teams, accelerate transformation, and eliminate the cultural friction that slows progress. This keynote is perfect for organizations undergoing reorganization, digital transformation, AI integration, strategic shifts, or rapid scaling.
Takeaways:
- The three variables that determine whether transformation takes root
- A four-step model to lead change from any seat in the organization
- How to avoid the cultural traps that derail even well-designed strategies
- A roadmap for becoming a champion of Change Activation
Ignite a Culture of Accountability
How to Get People to Give a Sh*t—Without Fear, Force, or Micromanagement
Accountability isn’t about consequences, it’s about ownership. This energizing keynote, inspired by Jessica’s viral TEDx Talk, reveals the counterintuitive truth about what actually makes people care. Hint: it’s not pressure, policies, or perks.
Jessica breaks down the psychology of ownership and teaches leaders how to inspire, not enforce, accountability. Attendees learn how to apply empathy, clarity, and shared purpose to transform disengagement into dedication. Whether you want to motivate teams, increase follow-through, or strengthen collaboration, this keynote delivers a powerful, practical blueprint.
Takeaways:
- Why traditional accountability systems fail, and what actually works
- A two-part strategy for building ownership and strengthening culture
- Practical tools for igniting passion, engagement, and follow-through
- The Four Steps to Accountability—applied to real organizational challenges
Dr. Jessica Kriegel
Featured Books
Proving the Value of Soft Skills: Measuring Impact and Calculating Roi
by Dr. Jessica Kriegel
A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing the Value of Soft Skill ProgramsAs organizations rise to meet the challenges of technological innovation, globalization, changing customer needs and perspectives, demographic shifts, and new work arrangements, their mastery of soft skills will likely be the defining difference between thriving and merely surviving. Yet few executives champion the expenditure of resources to develop these critical skills. Why is that and what can be done to change this thinking?For years, managers convinced executives that soft skills could not be measured and that the value of these programs should be taken on faith. Executives no longer buy that argument but demand the same financial impact and accountability from these functions as they do from all other areas of the organization.In Proving the Value of Soft Skills, measurement and evaluation experts Patti Phillips, Jack Phillips, and Rebecca Ray contend that efforts can and should be made to demonstrate the effect of soft skills. They also claim that a proven methodology exists to help practitioners articulate those effects so that stakeholders' hearts and minds are shifted toward securing support for future efforts.This book reveals how to use the ROI Methodology to clearly show the impact and ROI of soft skills programs. The authors guide readers through an easy-to-apply process that includes: -business alignment-design evaluation -data collection -isolation of the program effects -cost capture-ROI calculations-results communication. Use this book to align your programs with organizational strategy, justify or enhance budgets, and build productive business partnerships. Included are job aids, sample plans, and detailed case studies.
Unfairly Labeled
by Dr. Jessica Kriegel
A blueprint for managing people, not generations
Unfairly Labeled challenges the very concept of generational differences as an unfair generalization, and offers a roadmap to intergenerational understanding. While acknowledging that generational stereotypes exist, author Jessica Kriegel argues that they are wrong--and that it's unreasonable to assume that the millions of people born in the same 20-year time span are motivated by the same things, attracted to the same things, and should be dealt with in the same way. Kriegel's experience as Organizational Developer at Oracle puts her squarely in the talent strategy realm, where she works to optimize leadership development, team effectiveness, and organizational design. Drawing upon her experiences with workers of all ages and types, she shows how behaviors know no generational boundaries and how to work with people based on their talents, strengths, and weaknesses rather than simply slapping on a generational label and fitting them into an arbitrary slot.
There are 80 million Millenials in America, yet there are myriad books on managing Millenials and working with Millenials and the problem with Millenials. This book shows that whether you're working with Millenials, Generation X, or Baby Boomers, age is not the issue--it's the interpersonal dynamics that matter most.
- Examine the concept of generational issues
- Explore the disparate reality of each 20-year generational span
- Learn to understand and work effectively with other generations
- Facilitate intergenerational understanding sessions
The human mind craves categorization, so the tendency to lump people together is natural. It may, however, be holding your organization back. The members of each generation have only one thing in common--their age--and even that varies by two whole decades. Why assume that they should all be managed the same way? Unfairly Labeled shows you a better way, and provides a roadmap to a more effective organizational strategy.
Dr. Jessica Kriegel
Featured Reviews
Dr. Jessica Kriegel
Featured Articles & Resources
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Trust Over Surveillance: A Lesson from Dropbox’s CEO on Remote Work
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