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| Thomas D. Zweifel, Ph.D. |
| About Us | Thomas D. Zweifel, CEO | Team Bios |
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 Thomas D. Zweifel, Ph.D.
Senior Consultant
New York / Zurich
Tel: +1 212-288-4858
tdz@swissconsultinggroup.com |
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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.
Q: How can someone named Zweifel (German for “Doubt”) lead leaders?
The physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman once observed that “if we did not have doubt… we would not have any new ideas.” Feynman wanted to “teach that doubt is not to be feared, but that it is to be welcomed as the possibility of a new potential for human beings. If you know that you are not sure, you have a chance to improve the situation. I want to demand this freedom for future generations.” Or as the French philosopher Voltaire wrote centuries ago, “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” If more leaders had exercised some healthy skepticism, they would not find themselves in a crisis. Neither would we.
Q: What was your proudest achievement?
Coaching the leaders of a global energy company with 80 million customers to produce $1 more per customer in shops while spreading a culture of leadership and coaching in the organization. They achieved $73 million additional revenue in one year. I coached the President in leadership, delegation and succession strategy while expanding results. I coached the Managing Director to become a competent communicator, cut out wasteful talk and actions, and produce $7 million from bringing new products to market, while re-branding himself internally as a global marketing expert.
Q: What was your worst job ever?
Once I consulted an organization in which nobody listened. It was almost physically painful to be there. Listening is one of the most important and underrated attributes of strategy and leadership. When organizations don’t institutionalize effective listening, they miss out on vital intelligence and come up with bad strategy. By contrast, effective listening is a low-cost, high-leverage investment in enhancing organizational performance.
Q: What was your toughest time ever?
When I lived and worked in India in 1987, I almost died of a double infection – bacterial and amoebic. The doctor came and said: “You must go to the hospital.” I said: “No, I have no time for this. I got work to do.” He simply slapped me in the face and took me to Bombay Hospital. I was in a room with eight others of various religious persuasions—Hindus and Buddhists, Catholics and Muslims. There was wailing and praying night and day. A nurse sat next to my bed for nine days and nights. Along with losing most of the water in my body, I hope I lost some arrogance and gained some humility.
Q: What is your greatest concern about the future?
Blind-spots. When leaders don’t check their own cherished beliefs, they come up with bad intelligence, self-centered visions, misguided strategies, and unintended results. The current global crisis is only the latest fiasco that stems from too many leaders who lack a foundation of self-awareness.
For more, go to: Thomas Zweifel.com
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