Gary Lear

Engaging. Entertaining. Thought-Provoking.

These are the things that people say about Gary when they hear him speak. Storytelling has long been a cornerstone for Cherokee and other American Indian cultures. Gary combines stories, both traditional and modern, with vital information from current business research to give you what you and your attendees, employees, or executives need in order to increase performance in their organization.

Whether you need a speaker for a business meeting, a presenter for sessions for your conference, or a keynote speaker, Gary has a presentation that can meet your needs.

Gary is an early 21st Century theorist on the dynamics of high performing organizations. His extensive research has opened new doors and new ways of looking at the concepts of organizational culture, leadership, and employee engagement. Begun in 2002, the early research revealed the Seven Elements of High Performance™, the core model in, and what was to become the basis for, the Theory of Organizational Performance Dynamics™.

The Seven Elements of High Performance™ was adopted early on by such organizations as the US Navy's Center for Naval Leadership, the Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Canada, and AFOA Canada. His books and whitepapers are being used as resources in many college and university business programs, introducing his theories to a wide range of students around the world.

Taking the approach from his Cherokee heritage, Gary often mixes in stories to bring the research to life for others to understand and apply that learning to real life situations.  His approach is to help leaders learn how to Create Cultures of Engaged Performance™ by making the connections that unlock the hidden potential of the people they employ.

With over 25 years of experience working with culture change and leadership development, Gary has worked with thousands of managers across a broad spectrum of industries.  Challenging, yet practical, Gary takes a different approach to help his clients get the results they want because he understands that the best organizations don't just do things differently; they do different things.  

After 3 years of research on what drives performance in organizations, he developed the Seven Elements of High Performance™ model, a comprehensive, yet simple model to help explain the different things that the best organizations do to create high levels of performance.  In 2006 this model was adopted by the US Navy's Center for Naval Leadership and incorporated into all of their leadership development training programs.  

Gary is the author of the bestselling book Leadership Lessons from the Medicine Wheel: The Seven Elements of High Performance.  He is also a contributing author to 180 Ways to Walk the Customer Service Talk, and has authored numerous other articles and white papers including The Dynamics of High Performing Organizations, Getting a Seat at the Table: New Perspectives for HR; Training's Role in Achieving High Performance; and The Cost of Being Good Enough: The Real Impact of Mediocre Employee Engagement on Organizational Performance, DISC and Whole Person Dynamics, and Maximizing Your Human Capital Investment: Research Based Strategies for Increasing Organizational Performance.  

He is working on his next book, Rising Above Mediocrity: The Path to Performance, which will share the learning from over 14 years of ongoing research on the application of the Seven Elements Of High Performance™ and how the individual elements combine to create a workplace that gets everyone involved.  

Gary earned his BS in Psychology from Stetson University and did his master's work in Industrial Psychology at the University of Central Florida.  He has served on the Board of Regents for the Institute of Certified Professional Managers at James Madison University, and as an adjunct faculty member of the U.S. Department of Justice's National Institute of Corrections Academy, specializing in the areas of strategy and strategic thinking, as well as serving as adjunct faculty for several community colleges.   

Gary is a former General Manager of Educational Testing Service's Literacy Services Division, creating this for-profit division for ETS.  He is also a former training manager for the largest state agency in Florida, helping install a major culture change initiative in an organization of 35,000 employees.   

Since founding RDS, Gary has worked with a variety of organizations, from small businesses to Fortune 50 companies, and non-profits, for profits, and governmental agencies all around the world, helping them to implement the Seven Elements of High Performance™ in their organizations to make a difference in their performance.