Thomas D. Zweifel
AUTHOR

Thomas D. Zweifel

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It was a perfectly clear day in September 2001, an Indian-summer morning when the sky was deep blue. Thomas was sitting on the Brooklyn Promenade--alone except for a few runners and dog walkers--and reading Michel Houellebecq's Les Particules Élémentaires (this is not an endorsement of that book) when he looked up at 8:46 a.m. and saw something he had never seen before: A plane hit the World Trade Center. Smoke and millions of tiny metallic glitters were in the air; a light wind swept them toward him. The glitters turned out to be countless papers, documents flying across the East River. One of them was a page from a civil law book, blackened on all four sides. Another was a FedEx envelope with a contract that someone had just signed a few minutes earlier.

That moment changed Thomas' world, and his life, forever. He set out on a journey to himself. And he started to worry about what kind of legacy to leave. One answer: to write books that help leaders of all stripes build successful companies and/or lives.

Dr. Thomas D. Zweifel is is a board member, strategy and performance expert, TED speaker and award-winning author of ten books, among them
- "Communicate or Die: Getting Results Through Speaking and Listening" (SelectBooks, 2003);
- "Culture Clash: Managing the Global High-Performance Team" (SelectBooks, 2003);
- "Gorilla in the Cockpit: Breaking the Hidden Patterns of Project Failure and the System for Success" (iHorizon, 2022, with Vip Vyas);
- "iCoach: The Simple Little Formula for Freeing Yourself, Boosting People Power, and Changing the World" (iHorizon 2019);
- "Leadership in 100 Days: Your Systematic Self-Coaching Roadmap to Power and Impact - and Your Future" (iHorizon 2019;
- "Strategy-In-Action: Marrying Planning, People and Performance (iHorizon, 2014, with Edward J. Borey), a Readers' Favorite silver award winner in Business & Finance; and
"The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders" (SelectBooks, 2008; with Aaron L. Raskin), a National Jewish Book Award and Foreword Book of the Year Award finalist.

Since 1984, living in Europe, India, Japan, and the United States, Thomas has helped clients align on strategy, boost leadership, and build high-performance teams in the action of meeting strategic and/or breakthrough objectives.

From 1997 to 2011, Thomas was the CEO of Swiss Consulting Group, named a "Fast Company" by Fast Company magazine and awarded "Best of Business in New York for Management Consulting" by SBCA.

Strategies based on his books are used by 30+ Fortune 500 companies, the UN Development Programme, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the U.S. Air Force Academy, to help their teams meet strategic imperatives.

Since 2001, Thomas has taught leadership to 1,500+ students at Columbia University and St. Gallen University to prepare them for executive leadership positions.

He often appears in the media, including ABC News, Bloomberg TV, and CNN. A speaker for ten speaker bureaus, his interdisciplinary and action-packed keynotes inspire business leaders.

Born in Paris, Thomas was educated in Switzerland, Germany and the United States, and holds a Ph.D. in International Political Economy from New York University.

In 1996 he realized his dream of breaking three hours in the New York City Marathon, and in 1997 was recognized as "fastest CEO in the New York City Marathon." He lives in Zurich with his wife and their two daughters (and a dog called Motek, the only other man in the house).

Q: How can someone named Zweifel (German for "Doubt") lead leaders?

The physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once observed that "if we did not have doubt... we would not have any new ideas." Feynman wanted to "teach that doubt is not to be feared, but that it is to be welcomed as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations." Or as the French philosopher Voltaire wrote centuries ago, "Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." If more leaders had exercised some healthy skepticism, they would not find themselves in a crisis. Neither would we.

Q: What was your proudest achievement?

Coaching the leaders of a global energy company with 80 million customers to produce $1 more per customer in shops while spreading a culture of leadership and coaching in the organization. They achieved $73 million additional revenue in one year. I coached the President in leadership, delegation and succession strategy while expanding results. I coached the Managing Director to become a competent communicator, cut out wasteful talk and actions, and produce $7 million from bringing new products to market, while re-branding himself internally as a global marketing expert.

Q: What was your worst job ever?

Once I consulted an organization in which nobody listened. It was almost physically painful to be there. Listening is one of the most important and underrated attributes of strategy and leadership. When organizations don't institutionalize effective listening, they miss out on vital intelligence and come up with bad strategy. By contrast, effective listening is a low-cost, high-leverage investment in enhancing organizational performance.

Q: What was your toughest time ever?

When I lived and worked in India in 1987, I almost died of a double infection - bacterial and amoebic. The doctor came and said: "You must go to the hospital." I said: "No, I have no time for this. I got work to do." He simply slapped me in the face and took me to Bombay Hospital. I was in a room with eight others of various religious persuasions--Hindus and Buddhists, Catholics and Muslims. There was wailing and praying night and day. A nurse sat next to my bed for nine days and nights. Along with losing most of the water in my body, I hope I lost some arrogance and gained some humility.

Q: What is your greatest concern about the future?

Blind-spots. When leaders don't check their own cherished beliefs, they come up with bad intelligence, self-centered visions, misguided strategies, and unintended results. The current global crisis is only the latest fiasco that stems from too many leaders who lack a foundation of self-awareness.

Connect to Thomas at https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasdzweifel/
Freedom + Power + Peace of Mind: get free tools & strategies at https://www.leaders-academy.online
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