Geoff Smart Headshot
Report a problem with this profile
[email protected]

Geoff Smart  

CEO & Chairman of ghSMART; Bestselling Author of "Power Score"

Geoff Smart is the chairman & founder of ghSMART, a global leadership advisory, education, and analytics firm.

Founded in 1995, ghSMART helps Fortune 500 CEOs & boards, entrepreneurs, and heads of state to achieve their goals through hiring, developing, and leading talented teams.

ghSMART’s Credo begins, “We exist to help leaders amplify their positive impact on the world.”

The firm is known for offering extraordinarily talented, diverse, and goodhearted professionals the opportunity to work in a culture characterized by the freedom to choose, the chance to be a part of an exclusive yet inclusive team, and the opportunity to do meaningful work every day. ghSMART is ranked #1 on Glassdoor among top firms in consulting, finance, and tech, with a 4.7/5.0 overall rating. It is also ranked #1 on the Great Place to Work index among top professional services firms. In 2023, Vault named ghSMART the #1 consulting firm in its industry (ranked above McKinsey, Bain, and BCG) in the categories of overall colleague satisfaction, compensation, selectivity, challenge, client interaction, work-life balance, (few) hours in an office, best boutique, business outlook, and overall diversity.

ghSMART shares its knowledge about leadership with the world. The firm has published three bestselling books. Who: The A Method for Hiring (Smart & Street) is a New York Times bestseller that is currently ranked #1 on Amazon.com on the topic of hiring talented teams. Power Score: Your Formula for Leadership Success (Smart, Street, and Foster) is a Wall Street Journal bestseller, and appeared on an international newspaper’s list of “The 10 Best Business Books of 2015.” The CEO Next Door (Botelho & Powell) is a critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller. In addition, Dr. Smart published Leadocracy: Hiring More Great Leaders (Like You) into Government, a New York Times bestseller which won the IPPY Award and the Axiom Book Award for #1 Best Business Book of the Year. He earned a B.A. in Economics with honors from Northwestern University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Psychology from Claremont Graduate University, where he was a student of management thought leader Peter F. Drucker.

ghSMART makes an impact in the broader community. Dr. Smart founded a not-for-profit leadership development organization which became the Colorado Governors Fellowship Program, and he currently serves on the Board of Trustees of CiviCo. ghSMART colleagues donate hundreds of hours per year to advising leaders who make the world a better place.

Speech Topics


Leading Teams - Based on his forthcoming book Power Score:  Your Formula for Leadership Success

“Are we running at full power?”  Only 10% of teams run at full power. Based on the largest database of its kind, Geoff shares insights into the three things that matter most.  

Audience members calculate their team’s power score, hear from successes and failures of others, and gain valuable insights into how to improve their team’s results.   

  1. PRIORITIES:  Do we have the right priorities?
  2. WHO:  Do we have the right people who are on the team?
  3. RELATIONSHIPS:  Do we have the right relationships?

Government - Based on his New York Times Bestseller LEADOCRACY:  Hiring More Great Leaders (Like You) into Government

Geoff offers a solution to society’s #1 problem (broken government), while giving business leaders an out-of-the-box idea to maximize their happiness in their next career.  Audience members enjoy hearing behind-the-scenes stories from Geoff’s time as leadership advisor to a governor, and get to participate in question-and-answer debates about provocative topics such as:

  1. Why do great leaders avoid government?
  2. How do the “3 As of Leading” help us identify, hire, and become better leaders?
  3. How the adrenaline rush of “flow” can offer leaders from the private sector the adventure of a lifetime.

Business leaders are at risk of stagnating in their careers, leading to feelings of purposelessness, lack of meaning, and boredom.  Governments need the skill?set that business leaders have.  “Leadocracy,” or government by society’s greatest leaders, provides a win-win solution for leaders who want more meaning and fulfillment in their career, and for society that so desperately needs their talent in government.  

Hiring - Based on his New York Times Bestseller Who: The A Method for Hiring

Geoff solves every manager’s #1 problem: making hiring mistakes.   The stories and advice in Geoff’s speeches draw from some of the most extensive research, interviews, and stories ever assembled on the topic of hiring talent.

  1. What are the costs of making hiring mistakes?
  2. Why are most people bad at hiring?   
  3. SCORECARD:  How to create a blueprint of who to hire?
  4. SOURCE:  How to generate a flow of the best candidates?   
  5. SELECT:  What to look for to pick the right one?   
  6. SELL:  How to sell the ideal person on accepting a job at your company?    The session includes a significant amount of audience interaction including live demonstrations of the interview techniques, audience realtime Q&A, and simple “takeaway tools and templates” to help attendees maximize their company’s financial performance and their own career success.

Related Speakers View all


More like Geoff