Thomas A. Kolditz
Brigadier General (Ret.), Leadership Thought Leader, Author, and Founding Executive Director of the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University, Global Gurus Top 30 StartUp Coach 2024, chosen as a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach
Tom Kolditz is a social psychologist who develops leaders. He is currently the Managing Member of Saxon Castle LLC, a coaching and leader development consultancy. He founded the Ann and John Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University and led it for 7 years. Prior to Rice, he taught as a Professor in the Practice of Leadership and Management and founded the Leadership Development Program at the Yale School of Management.
A retired Brigadier General, Tom led the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point for 12 years, and was titled Professor Emeritus after retirement. He served for 2 years as a leadership and human resources policy analyst in the Pentagon, and a year as a concept developer in the Center for Army Leadership. General Kolditz is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the Army’s highest award for service. In 2017, he was honored with the prestigious Warren Bennis Award for Excellence in Leadership—an honor also bestowed on Doris Kearns Goodwin, Howard Schultz, Tom Peters, and Benazir Bhutto. From 2018 to 2023, he globally ranked in various coaching categories by Global Gurus, an independent research and professional ranking organization, most recently, #12 in Start-up Coaching in 2023. In 2019, he was selected by Thinkers50 MG100 as the #1 University Coach in the world in London in November 2019.
Dr. Kolditz has published more than 75 books, book chapters, and articles across a diverse array of academic and leadership trade journals, and served on the editorial and advisory boards of several psychology journals. He developed the concept of in extremis leadership — an original crisis leadership model — while serving in Iraq. His subsequent book on that topic, In Extremis Leadership: Leading as if Your Life Depended On It, currently helps train leaders in more than 8 service academies in the US, the United Kingdom, China, Israel, and Japan.
His second book, Leadership Reckoning: Can Higher Education Develop the Leaders We Need, launched a national movement to improve the quality and quantity of leader development across higher education. Understanding the power of scale, Tom partnered with the American Council on Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to design and administer a Carnegie Elective Classification titled “Leadership for Public Purpose,” as a challenge to 5200+ colleges and universities to examine and improve the professional development of students, and is a member of the Leadership for Public Purpose National Advisory Committee.
In 2022, he worked with the largest employer in Ukraine, DTEK, and the International Coaching Federation, to pilot and administer a grand scale coaching strategy in business and government to assist and accelerate the resistance and recovery of Ukraine.
He is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and a founding member of the Board of Advisors for the Department of Psychology at the University of Missouri. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and Sociology from Vanderbilt University, three Master’s degrees, and PhD in Psychology from the University of Missouri.
Credentialed by the International Coaching Federation, Tom was also awarded an honorary Doctorate of Professional Practice by the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.
IN EXTREMIS LEADERSHIP: LEADING AS IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT
Operating environments for both government and business are characterized by volatility, complexity, and uncertainty—perfect conditions for crises to emerge.
FAILURE: WHY YOU CAN SURVIVE BIG MISTAKES
Fear of failure holds companies back. General Kolditz shows anxious employees, particularly young people, that failures, even big ones, do not necessarily end one’s career IF handled properly.
MEASURE WHAT MATTERS: INNOVATE WITH OKRS (OBJECTIVES AND KEY RESULTS)
If you can’t measure it, how do you know it’s working?
HOPE IS NOT A METHOD: 40 YEARS OF LEADERSHIP TAKEAWAYS
Too often, leaders hope for success without using specific techniques for leading effectively.
LEADERS DEVELOPING LEADERS
One of a leader’s most powerful legacies is developing the leaders who follow them. Leadership development programs in business are often focused on talent managers and HR directors.
DODGING BULLETS: HOW TO PREPARE YOUR ORGANIZATION FOR THE NEXT CRISIS
Few people want to be put into a position of being crisis managers. So how can leaders prepare organizations to avoid crises before they occur? In this engaging talk, Brigadier Gen.
LEADING BY SERVING: THE PRINCIPLES OF SERVANT LEADERSHIP
While traditional leadership generally involves the accumulation and exercise of power by one at the top of the pyramid, “servant leadership” is different.
I attended a seminar taught by Tom at Yale that had a stunning effect on my ability to lead my teams while avoiding micromanagement. The concept of Leader’s Intent, while already familiar to me, was something I could never fully operationalize. That is until attending Tom’s seminar. I was amazed at how easily he was able to describe this concept in a way that I understood and now use every day. As a result I am a better leader – both to those I lead and those that lead me.
Dan Rosanova - Sr Program Mgr at Microsoft
General Thomas Kolditz was a 10 out of 10! The responses from our key executives and leaders were extremely positive. Having a third party expert on leadership with a unique perspective not often seen in the business community was refreshing, informative and inspiring! We were extremely satisfied with Thomas and BigSpeak.
