A renowned leadership consultant, Barry Conchie is sought after by CEOs around the world to assist in aligning business and talent strategies that drive performance. An expert in executive assessment, team diagnostics, strategy, decision-making and succession planning, he brings objective measurement and insight to these important leadership areas.
Conchie is the coauthor of Strengths Based Leadership as well as a series of journal and magazine articles and white papers. The book encompasses research with more than 1 million work teams, in-depth interviews with more than 20,000 leaders, and further interviews with more than 10,000 followers around the world. Published in January 2009, the book immediately became a New York Times, Wall Street Journal and BusinessWeek bestseller. It is now one of the bestselling leadership books of all time and has released the leadership potential of thousands of individuals around the world.
Conchie was cited by Leadership Insight magazine as one of the world’s top leadership thinkers and practitioners. He consults with a select group of CEO’s and Boards of some of the leading companies and brands where his direct advice and objective guidance has created or accelerated growth that has impacted thousands of employees, leaders and shareholders and millions of customers. He is a frequently requested speaker at conferences and events where he brings his unique data insights to a global audience. He is currently researching decision science and heuristics – the impact of psychological bias on human behavior and performance – where his work brings him into contact with leading contributors in the fields of behavioral economics, cognitive neuroscience, social networking and psychology.
Conchie honed his own leadership skills as a highly successful public sector leader in the United Kingdom before joining The Gallup Organization in London. In 2002, he brought his extensive global experience to Gallup’s Washington, D.C., headquarters, where he led Gallup’s global executive leadership research and development consulting. He recently founded Conchie Associates in Boulder, CO and advised Gallup as a Senior Scientist.
When Conchie isn’t at work he is always thinking about work. He spends free time engaged in technical rock and ice climbing, mountaineering, mountain biking and ultra-mountain marathon running (where he has competed in international events). He is based in Boulder, Colorado.
Session length: 45 minutes
This session will focus on why objectivity in selection is important and how scientifically validated assessments reduce the error rate in hiring and drive better performance and outcomes.
We will introduce participants to current selection approaches and methodologies and describe the typical measurement error in these approaches. We will explore typical biases and errors in brain processing that predict typical errors in judgment that make objectivity in selection so difficult. We will also introduce researched approaches to improving selection accuracy as well as introduce the effectiveness of structured interviews as a means of correcting error and leading to better predictive outcomes.
1. Identify current failings and errors in selection methodology
2. Recognize typical selection biases and how to correct them
3. Understand the principles of structured interviews and how these reduce selection errors and drive more effective outcomes
Session length: 90 minutes
This session will focus almost entirely on improving approaches to executive hiring. We will explore two key elements.
First, we will introduce principles that will enable participants to develop and use more effective questioning during candidate interviews. We will cover basic psychometrics and help participants build approaches to candidate interviewing that will enable them to make effective decisions between candidates. This will go beyond standard job definitions and requirements to understanding how to identify and build rudimentary indicators of the talents critical to success in roles.
Second, we will provide an overview of what our research into effective C-suite leadership tells us about the characteristics of the very best leaders, how we measure this and how this drives performance. We will share some of our most significant findings from our global database of 57,000 global executives and also describe how effective leadership is dependent on a team comprised of individuals with significantly different thinking styles.
1. Understand how to identify critical skills, knowledge, experience and talent for key roles.
2. Develop better approaches to building interview questions that target the critical talents identified for specific roles.
3. Understand the talents critical to success at executive leadership levels.