Michael Feiner's career as a corporate executive, management consultant, professor and author has changed the way companies understand the link between people, leadership, and business results. With the overarching philosophy that a company must grow its organization capacity before it can grow its business, Mike believes that leaders must muscle-build their businesses by growing leaders and managers that can run the company they want to create, not the one they have.

Since founding Michael C. Feiner Consulting, Inc. in 1996, Mike has worked with both small and large companies in a broad range of industries, comprising financial services, consumer products, and industrial services. His clients include such companies as American Express, Avon, and Honeywell where he consults on business-driven human capital strategy, organization development, and leadership effectiveness. Mike also serves as a strategic advisor to Boards and C-suite executives.

Prior to founding his own consulting firm, Mike was Senior Vice President & Chief People Officer for Pepsi-Cola's beverage operations worldwide. He is recognized as one of the key architects of Pepsi's distinctive culture where he built and led an organization of 400 human resource professionals that gained a reputation as one of the most innovative and highly regarded in the world. In his 20 years at Pepsi, Mike was sometimes referred to as its "in-house leadership guru" and is credited with upgrading the company's performance standards and organizational excellence. Mike's next role was based in London as Chief People Officer for PepsiCo Europe where he was responsible for building the management and organizational capability of all of PepsiCo's businesses across continental Europe.

After leaving Pepsi, Mike began teaching at Columbia Business School. As Professor of Management and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Ethics Fellow, Mike's High Performance Leadership class is consistently ranked by students as one of the school's best courses. He is also winner of the Singhvi Prize, voted by students as "Best Teacher" for his dedication to teaching and ability to communicate knowledge and encourage students.

Mike holds a B.S. degree from Boston University and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. His book, "The Feiner Points of Leadership: The 50 Basic Laws That Will Make People Want to Perform Better For You", was published by Warner Books in June, 2004. The Toronto Globe and Mail selected it as the "Best Business Book of 2004". Mike's passion for developing great leaders makes him widely sought after by audiences who find him to be an exciting and engaging speaker.

Values-Based Leadership (90 Minutes):
We've all read in the past few years about ethical lapses at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Parmalat, HealthSouth, Skandia and AIG, to name just a few organizations where leaders have slid down a slippery slope. One lesson we can take from these examples is that acting on our values in the workplace requires skill as well as conviction, insight as well as courage, regardless of what level we are within the organization. This session challenges you to discover effective ways of dealing with moral dilemmas in the workplace, and explores questions including: How do you interact with others when you feel your personal values are threatened? What personal conflicts arise in situations that deal with ethical issues? How important is personal strategy and style to dealing with values-based situations?

Leading and Managing (1/2 day):
Leadership can be a daunting proposition. On the one hand, leaders need to communicate, motivate and inspire. On the other, leaders must navigate through the endless activities involving meetings, budgeting, customers, and operational performance. In this session Mike Feiner discusses these two very different sets of activities, clarifies the difference between leading and managing, and offers specifics on how to lead and motivate people to excel.

Secrets of High Performance Leadership (90 minutes):
Mike Feiner explains what accounts for the success of great leaders, using historical examples that prove dramatic and insightful. Yet he moves beyond the WHATs of successful leadership and provides pragmatic and hands-on solutions for HOW to lead and motivate people to achieve great results.

The Laws of Leadership (60 minutes):
There's no mistaking WHAT a great leader does. The real challenge is knowing HOW it's done. In a hands-on, plain-speaking, pragmatic style, Mike Feiner offers insightful laws covering everything from managing tough bosses and difficult subordinates, to leading uncooperative colleagues, to galvanizing fractious teams.

The Challenge of Leadership (60 minutes):
Getting an organization to operate at peak effectiveness is a huge leadership challenge. Mike Feiner explains why effective leadership is so difficult, and offers real hands-on, practical solutions on how to muscle-build a leadership culture that achieves extraordinary results.

Leading Change (60 minutes):
Leadership is all about producing change, so that an organization is adaptive to new competitors, new products, new customers, new markets, and new regulation. Yet impassioned speeches don't get employees to accept change. Leading change requires attention to lots of details, including those parts of the organization which are likely to be the most resistant. Mike Feiner explains how to go about planning and implementing a change effort that produces the desired results.

What HR is Really All About (60 minutes):
As Chief People Officer at Pepsi-Cola for 15 years, Mike Feiner built an HR organization that was heralded as one of the most influential, impactful and respected HR organizations in corporate America. In this session he explains what accounted for his organization's credibility, and describes what he believes is HR's overarching role.