Thomas Zweifel

Thomas Zweifel

For over 20 years Dr. Thomas Zweifel has coached and trained business leaders and public servants in organizations and companies to make their vision a reality. He co-founded the Swiss Consulting Group which now is a multinational firm with consultants and client around the globe.


Topics: Coaching/Mentoring / Communication / Globalization / International Affairs / Leadership / Negotiation / Peak Performance / Strategy
Fee Range: $5,001 to $10,000 Talent Travels From:NY

Thomas D. Zweifel, Ph.D. is a co-founder and senior consultant of Swiss Consulting Group. Since 1984, he has helped senior executives in numerous Fortune 500 companies, but also governments, the UN and the military, develop leadership and build high-performance teams in the action of meeting strategic and/or breakthrough objectives.

Having lived in Europe, India, Japan, and the United States, Dr. Zweifel serves as a source of power for leaders to cause desired outcomes while building the "3 Cs" (Co-leadership, Communication, Cross-cultural strategies) crucial to 21st-century managers.

Dr. Zweifel is an acclaimed author and internationally recognized expert in the field of global leadership development. Strategies based on his books are used by 30+ Fortune 500 companies, the U.S. State Department, the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and corporations and governments on four continents. Dr. Zweifel's tools help clients think differently, build trust, restore vision, act strategically, and turn breakdowns into breakthroughs.

Since 2000, Dr. Zweifel has taught leadership to over 700 students at Columbia University, St. Gallen Business School, and business schools in Australia, Israel, and Switzerland to prepare them for executive leadership positions in all sectors. He serves on the faculty of the Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) program that assists senior managers in their leadership research and development.

Dr. Zweifel often appears in the media, including ABC News, Bloomberg TV, and CNN. A speaker for International Speakers Bureau, Vistage International, Brooks International Speakers Bureau, and European Speakers Academy, his interdisciplinary and action-packed global leadership keynotes and workshops are sought-after by government and business leaders alike.

Dr. Zweifel is the author of five books on co-leadership: Communicate or Die: Getting Results Through Speaking and Listening (SelectBooks, 2003); Democratic Deficit? Institutions and Regulation in the European Union, Switzerland, and the United States (Lexington Books, 2002); International Organizations: Democracy, Accountability, Power (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2005); Culture Clash: Managing the Global High-Performance Team (SelectBooks, 2003); and The Rabbi and the CEO: The Ten Commandments for 21st Century Leaders (SelectBooks, 2008; with Aaron L. Raskin), a 2008 National Jewish Book Award finalist.

Born in Paris, Dr. Zweifel was educated in Switzerland, Germany and the United States, and is fluent in English, German, French, and Italian. He holds a master's degree in international affairs from Columbia University and 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 the "fastest CEO in the New York City Marathon." He is based in New York and Zurich, where he lives with his wife and two daughters.

Leadership for the 21st Century: from Breakdown to Breakthrough
An unprecedented crisis-along with globalization and democratization, flattening organizational hierarchies and the Internet, outsourcing and virtual teams-has transformed the landscape of leadership. The old leadership model is bankrupt. How do you lead effectively in this new environment? Integrating multiple disciplines, Dr. Zweifel suggests a new leadership model, the Global Leader Pyramid, and shows leaders in a highly interactive session how to co-lead, build trust and alignment, and be adaptive by harnessing breakdowns-the very stuff that stops everyone else-into breakthroughs. "I wish I had had access to Zweifel's tools 35 years ago when I was starting out." Werner Brandmayr, President and Managing Director, ConocoPhillips-Europe

Communicate or Die: Getting Results Through Speaking and Listening
The difference between a vision achieved and a fiasco is often great communication-speaking and listening. Often managers have a great vision, but fail to communicate their strategies and turn them into results. Just as often, an organization's staff has insight and information that never makes it to the top. Communication means not only broadcasting down the hierarchy, but listening up to get vital intelligence from the field into the boardroom. Through fascinating stories and interactive processes, Dr. Zweifel gives you access to tools for cutting out wasteful communication and learning how to listen effectively-perhaps the smartest investment in productivity. Avoid the Four Deadly Sins of Speaking, climb the Matterhorn of Masterful Listening, and become a skillful communicator who gets results. "I am a huge believer in Communicate or Die. When people speak-and listen-effectively, they get better information, better strategic intelligence, and better results." Steve Baird, Senior Management Advisor, UBS

Culture Clash: Managing the Global High-Performance Team
Like it or not, all of us are touched by globalization, and effective 21st-century leaders understand how others tick, see the world from their vantage point, and adapt their solutions to other cultures. But few leaders are prepared for working across borders, and the costs of cultural blindspots in mergers, virtual teams and outsourcing can be immense-from lawsuits to lost opportunities. Through case studies and interactive processes, Dr. Zweifel introduces you to the global and intercultural competencies and tools it takes to manage across cultures anywhere in the world: the Global Leader Pyramid, the Global Integrator, and high Cultural Intelligence (CQ)-being a global citizen who gets the job done across borders. "I have personally seen Dr. Zweifel in action? His greatest skill in my opinion is to help people with different agendas to find that precious common ground and build from there. He is a man who deserves a title that is all too often bestowed without merit, but in this case is truly deserved: miracle worker." David Searby, program officer, U.S. State Department

The Rabbi & the CEO: The 10 Commandments for 21st-Century Leaders
From business to government, from religious institutions to the UN, leaders seem to have lost their moral compass. In times of bad debt and financial meltdown, how do you lead, and how do you breed principled leaders? The answer comes from an improbable source: the 3,000-year-old tradition of Judaism. Torah, Talmud, and Kabbalah hold life-and-death leadership challenges, including stories of insurmountable odds, ethical dilemmas, lust and betrayal, and offer astonishingly practical lessons for 21st-century managers. In a unique synergy, Dr. Zweifel has teamed up with Rabbi Aaron L. Raskin, dynamic Jewish leader and author of Letters of Light, to blend the timeless wisdom of the Ten Commandments with a cutting-edge methodology based on twenty-five years of coaching leaders-a mix that provides innovative tools and techniques for lasting success. "The leadership wisdom contained here is timeless, powerful and actionable-just what you'd expect when you combine a Rabbi and a CEO!"Scott Snook, Professor of Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business School

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