Adam Kingl

Adam Kingl – “Next Generation Leadership” expert, speaker, author, and advisor

With a career spanning an impressive range of industries including entertainment, consulting, and education, Adam Kingl has spent decades working in innovation, strategy, culture and leadership.

Adam is an adjunct faculty member at Ashridge-Hult International Business School.  Previously, Adam was the Regional Managing Director for Duke Corporate Education in London, leading the organisation’s business in Europe, and advising clients on issues of adaptability, performance, creativity, and purpose. Adam was also the Executive Director of Thought Leadership and Learning Solutions for London Business School (LBS) for a decade. He has been an associate of Saatchi & Saatchi and the Management Innovation eXchange in research, writing and development.

Adam Kingl is passionate about leadership for what’s next and has authored a book on this topic, “Next Generation Leadership,” (Harper Collins; February 2020).

Adam’s keynote presentations are an illuminating conversation that not only inspire strategic innovation but also unleash creativity and unlock issues within organisational culture. He speaks with warmth and compassion on generational paradigms of work and leadership encouraging organisations to have different and better conversations, creating a simple and approachable path to transforming business success.

He contributes as a writer and expert interviewee to: The Financial Times, Sunday Times, Forbes, Fortune, The Guardian and Fast Company, among many others.

Adam Kingl holds degrees from London Business School, UCLA, and Yale. He is accredited by the British Psychological Society in personality and competency assessment.  Adam was raised in Silicon Valley, California and now lives in Surrey, UK. He is a dual British-American citizen.

Adams most recent book “Sparking Success” was published in 2023.

SPEAKING TOPICS

Adam Kingl speaking topics include –

SPARKING SUCCESS – Creativity is a driving factor for success in order to adapt to fast moving trends and disruptions in the modern business landscape. After researching the habits of highly successful leaders in the creative arts, Adam has identified the behaviours required to foster an environment where creativity can thrive.

NAVIGATING THE GREAT RESIGNATION – The Great Resignation is a crisis that disrupts business continuity and learning economies, and could cost the average sized company £750k to £3 million per year.  Adam Kingl has been predicting this crisis since 2010, and over that time has conducted research, developed frameworks and lessons to mitigate attrition and engage your workforce.  While Covid has accelerated attrition and forced many to re-examine what they want to achieve in their careers and lives, there is still cause for optimism that the world of work can be a force that makes life more meaningful.

YOUNGEST GENERATION PARADIGMS OF WORK & LEADERSHIP – There has been plenty of literature and discussion on ‘how to manage the youngest generations’. If their paradigms of work and ‘how to be led’ are indeed very different to those of their managers of earlier generations, then surely leadership in the near future will look and feel new. Therefore, the nature of work is about to change in fundamental ways.

MANAGEMENT INNOVATION – Are Your Management Principles Fit For The 21st Century? Over the last century, business has modernised it almost every way except for how it organises, leads, coordinates and motivates its people. Yes, those organisations who have innovated their act of management are celebrated as pioneers and leaders in their respective industries. It is possible for every business to develop a formal method for reinventing its management, just as it has done for products and processes for decades. Management breakthroughs can deliver incredibly powerful competitive advantages that are more sustainable and of a larger scale than any other creative act.

A RETURN TO HUMAN-CENTRIC LEADERSHIP – In company life, we are returning, on a several-hundred year cycle, to the pre-eminence of humanity at the centre of what it means to lead. ‘Focusing on humanity’ implies recalling what followers notice first in their leaders – their behaviours. Then, we have to ask if those behaviours provide clarity, inspiration, engagement, coherence and enable creativity. The Renaissance was a flowering not only of the arts but of commerce, and the interdependency of those two forces. Are we in the midst of a new Renaissance of leadership that is asking us what it means to be human?

THE EVOLUTION OF CAPITALISM – From Shareholders to Stakeholders: In August 2019, Chief Executives from the Business Roundtable, including those from Apple and JPMorgan Chase, argued that companies should no longer advance only the interests of shareholders. The shift comes at a moment of increasing distress in the corporate world amidst global discontent over income inequality, sustainability and substandard quality of work-life. Business as usual is no longer acceptable. Though this shift seems unique, history shows us that capitalism has evolved numerous times over the centuries. At this inflection point, what can businesses do to survive and thrive, and who are the bellwethers to listen to within our organisations?