At events and gatherings.

How can leaders be more trustworthy and foster meaning at work and vitality in the workplace? How do leaders need to change to generate commitment to organisational transformation? Why do some organisations keep people’s loyalty after they are gone, while others struggle to attract talent? How do you nurture a common culture while honouring the values of a diverse workforce? How can leaders show care in times of crisis and beyond? These are the challenges that Gianpiero’s insights and advice will help you tackle.

He speaks regularly at professional and management conferences, as well as at private corporate events. An energetic, thoughtful, and engaging speaker, Gianpiero builds interaction into every talk, regardless of duration and audience size. He combines cutting edge research with attentive pre-work to deliver deep insights and practical advice relevant to the challenges and aspirations of each audience.

Recent keynotes have focused on the topics of:

  • Transformation starts with you: humanising leadership to transform organisations
  • Leading with care
  • Competence is not enough: Leading and learning in the age of nomadic professionalism
  • What makes (you) a leader?
  • Learning for a living
  • Developing responsible leaders in the digital age
  • Authentic leadership: is there any other kind?
  • We will miss the office if it dies

For speaking inquiries please contact gianpiero.petriglieri@insead.edu

SAMPLE TALKS

Transformation starts with you: humanising leadership to transform organisations

Most people who aspire to lead are moved by the desire to change the world, and the lives of others, for the better. (Even if only a small part of the world and a few others). And most organisations strive to select leaders who will help them change for the better. For all the rhetoric of leadership and transformation, however, leading becomes most challenging precisely when change is involved. The ‘system’ often resists the very changes leaders were hired and asked to make. This interactive and practical keynote will give you an opportunity to learn why transformation is so desirable in principle and difficult in practice, and give you insights and tools to become better at leading it. Building on the assumption that it is impossible to change the world if we are not prepared to change our world, we will focus on the link between deep, personal change and broad organisational transformation. That is, on the changes you need to make within you–in your attitude, expressions, behaviours–to unlock change around you.

Competence is not enough: Leading and learning in the age of nomadic professionalism

We live in times of great turbulence in business and society at large. We blame bad or absent leadership for our afflictions, and invoke new or better leadership as our only hope. How should we select, develop, and exercise leadership in a world that longs for leaders and mistrusts them at the same time? To answer that question, we must rethink the meaning and practice of leading—and learning—for the contemporary workplace. And we must realise that our obsession with leaders’ competence and effectiveness is insufficient, if not detrimental, to foster trustworthy leadership and meaningful work in our companies and communities. In this interactive session, you will learn about the differences between the ages of corporate citizenship and nomadic professionalism; the sources of, and potential solutions to, the erosion of meaning and trust in the workplace; the history of successful, but no longer adequate, leadership images and development practices, and; the images and practices that foster the development of trustworthy leadership.

What makes (you) a leader?

This keynote will invite you to explore two related questions, a broader social  and a deeper, more personal one. The first one concerns the nature of leadership—what it is, and how one gets it and loses it. The question of who gets to lead—and who doesn’t—is never settled easily when people keep moving around. Despite copious investment in leadership development, organizations claim to suffer from a shortage of leaders. And those who lead often struggle to connect with potential followers, facing resistance and mistrust. We shall reach below superficial models and tales to address the questions—what makes a leader in our times, what does it mean to lead well, and what does it take for you, in your company, today? You will come out from this interactive session with a deeper understanding of leadership, of your own leadership, and of what you can do to make it most impactful and trustworthy.

Learning for a living

In an era of workforce mobility and relentless change, there are still leaders organisations that evoke deep commitment from their employees, sometimes even after they have moved elsewhere. What do those leaders and organisations do differently? In a nutshell, they make, and keep, the promise of learning. They help people develop in ways that make them better at their current jobs and more prepared for their future ones. In return, they get a more motivated and innovative workforce. Keeping the promise of learning, however, is not just a matter of setting up a few courses and workshops. It requires putting learning at the centre of everyone’s daily work, and challenging our current obsessions with performance and alignment. Drawing on research and expertise on leadership and learning, this interactive session elaborates on why learning is the new currency of loyalty in a mobile global economy and how if affects careers and corporations. It will then offers concrete steps that organisations can take to provide the ongoing development that will attract and retain top talent, and increase their capability for ongoing transformations.


Leadership is a kind of love: how to find, pick, groom, and become better leaders.

Learning for a (human) living. 

Humanising leadership. The essentials.

Leadership is an art. Literally.

On leadership, learning, and the nomadic life. 

Business does not need the humanities. People do. 

Leading in crisis.