Brian Souza is the author of New York Times best-selling The Weekly Coaching Conversation: A Business Fable about Taking Your Game and Your Team to the Next Level, which is profoundly changing the way business leaders think of their role as it relates to getting the most out of the team. Souza’s background as a business expert, researcher, and motivational speaker make him one of the most sought after speakers on the circuit today, and he is passionate about sharing his unique perspective and framework on leadership development, organizational productivity, and sales with thousands of people around the world each year. Expressive and energetic, his ability to blend foundational research and actionable advice into an inspiring, highly-interactive presentation creates a memorable experience for all participants, and his thought-provoking, content-rich keynotes deliver results.

A Weekly Coaching Conversation. Over the past decade, Souza studied high-performance individuals and organizations, sitting down with dozens of world-class leaders and looking under the hood of a number of first-rate companies. He discovered that the fundamental differentiating factor of successful and high-performing managers was not necessarily their IQ, strategic vision, operational prowess, or even charismatic persona—though these are obviously important ingredients. The difference primarily came down to one thing: their approach. They didn’t act like a manager; they acted like a coach.

In The Weekly Coaching Conversation, Souza discusses how world-class leaders, like coaches, understand that the only way to systematically improve individual performance is by giving constructive coaching and developmental feedback. In fact, countless studies have proven that there’s a direct correlation between the quantity and the quality of coaching an individual receives and his or her level of performance improvement. It is an ongoing process that should be inextricably tied to everything managers do. Learning how to facilitate a weekly coaching conversation is the single most important skill leaders must master in order to improve teams’ performance and organizations’ productivity.