Tommy Spaulding is the President of Spaulding Companies Corporation, an international leadership development, training and executive coaching organization. Spaulding is the author of It’s Not Just Who You Know, which hit #2 on the New York Times bestseller list. His latest book, The Heart-Led Leader is a New York Times and #1 Wall Street Journal bestseller and was named as a Top 100 Business Books of 2015 by INC.com. A world-renowned inspirational speaker on leadership, Spaulding speaks to hundreds of corporations, associations and organizations around the globe.
In 2005, Spaulding rose to become the youngest president and CEO of the world-renowned global leadership organization, Up with People. Previously Spaulding was the Business Partner Sales Manager for IBM/Lotus and a member of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) program.
In 2000, Tommy Spaulding founded the Spaulding Leadership Institute, which runs the National Leadership Academy – a national youth leadership development organization. He also is the founder of the Global Youth Leadership Academy.
Tommy was named by Meetings & Conventions Magazine as one of the BEST KEYNOTE SPEAKERS in the nation. Author of the One-Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard, says “Tommy Spaulding is one of the most talented speakers in the county. I can’t recommend anyone more highly for your organization.”
Videos and Materials
This Speaker's Keynotes
Return on Relationships (ROR)
Return on Relationships Keynote
Based on New York Times, Wall Street Journal & USA Today best-selling book, It’s Not Just Who You Know
Tommy Spaulding inspires audiences and teaches them how to achieve unprecedented professional and personal success by forming deeper, more authentic relationships with customers, employees, clients, and other key stake-holders.
Tommy’s career has been built on valuable and authentic relationships. More than a networking expert, Tommy has led international organizations and forged bonds with leaders that are far more than “business card” deep.
While tough economists talk only of return on investment (ROI). Tommy contends that “return on relationships,” or ROR, is the currency we should focus on rather than solely ROI. By focusing on building meaningful relationships, bottom line goals can be achieved. Spaulding demonstrates how investing unselfishly in the lives of others is the most important thing we can do for ourselves and our organizations
As a leading entrepreneur, Spaulding has the keen ability to relate each of his experiences and teaching topics to meeting and event participants. Tommy teaches your audience how to break the transactional nature of business and build an organizational culture that’s based on authentic relationships.
The Heart-Led Leader
The Heart-Led Leader Keynote
Based on New York Times, Wall Street Journal & Amazon best-selling book, The Heart-Led Leader
18 Inches is the distance from your head to your heart. Such a short distance, yet most leaders never take the journey. Leaders and organizations that lead with their hearts are more successful and achieve better results than those that don’t. In Tommy’s keynote he shows that love and results are not opposites, they are two sides of the same coin. It is not love or results – it is love driven results. If you love what you do, if you love the people you do it with, if you love your culture, if you love your mission, if you love your team, if you love your customers- you will achieve better results.
Heart-led leadership transcends numbers and spreadsheets. It is more sustainable and more rewarding. During this keynote, Tommy teaches that defining your leadership philosophy is one of the most important steps you can take as a leader and as an organization and for your life. Being a Heart-Led leader will change your life and your organization. New York Times best-selling author Tommy Spaulding, one of America’s greatest story tellers, will share stories and leadership lessons of heart-led leaders that inspire audiences to live and lead differently.
Return on Relationships Training
“I believe any organization that isn’t marked with relational competence is marked for extinction.”
– Tommy Spaulding
Based on the book “It’s Not Just Who You Know” by Tommy Spaulding, this training will help your unit, team, division or company learn strategies and skills to achieve professional and personal success through deeper, more authentic relationships with customers, clients, employees and peers.
The training can be done at your workplace or an off-site location of your choosing. It will be stimulating and geared for active participation by your staff. Participants will come away with materials filled with relationship wisdom, the motivation to develop “fifth floor” relationships, and the confidence to put all the pieces together for personal and professional success.
“Relationships are the cornerstone of success for any organization and Tommy’s message of focusing on the ROR – Return on Relationships – perfectly captured and reinforced the environment we are striving to create here… Tommy’s message resonated with everyone in the room to the point that we are still talking about it.”
– Wayne Berson – Chief Executive Officer, BDO
Heart Led Leader Training
“I hope you’ll choose to become a heart-led leader, or what I call a Who Leader. I want this for you because it will change your life, your organization and the lives of everyone you touch.”
– Tommy Spaulding
Based on the book “The Heart-Led Leader” by Tommy Spaulding, this training will help you define your leadership philosophy, which is the most important decision you can make as a leader. Learn the 18 essential Leadership Traits and build your awareness and skill at implementing them in your work. It’s an 18-inch journey that will help you become a game-changing leader…for life!
The training can be done at your workplace or an off-site location. It is stimulating and geared for active participation by your staff. Participants will be challenged as they learn more about the 18 leaders featured in the book, whose game-changing stories help illustrate the way of the Heart-Led Leader. Participants will not only be inspired, but leave with hearts filled with love and heads packed with the practical knowledge to put this into action on a daily basis.
“The Heart-Led Leader is full of heart – and full of stories about real leaders whose courageous examples will inspire you. If you put the principles in this book into practice, it will not only change your life and your organization, but also make the world a better place.”
– Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell is Human
