Chester Elton

Chester Elton has spent more than two decades building the research case for what most people already suspect is true: that gratitude, recognition, and psychological safety do not just feel good — they are the operating system of every high-performing culture. Called the Apostle of Appreciation by Canada’s Globe and Mail and ‘creative and refreshing’ by the New York Times, Elton speaks on employee engagement, organizational culture, leadership, and building teams where people believe their work matters. His books have been translated into more than 30 languages and have collectively sold more than 1.6 million copies.

Bestselling Author and Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach
Elton co-authored four award-winning, number-one New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: All In, The Carrot Principle, Leading with Gratitude, and Anxiety at Work. His research base includes surveys of more than one million working adults. He has been ranked in the Global Gurus Top 30 Leadership and Organizational Culture Experts every year since 2017, received the Thinkers 50 Coaching Award, and was named a Marshall Goldsmith 100 Coach. He is co-founder of The Culture Works, a global leadership consultancy.

From the Today Show to the C-Suite
Elton has appeared on NBC’s Today Show and CBS 60 Minutes, and serves as a leadership consultant and executive coach to American Express, AT&T, Procter and Gamble, and the World Bank.

Chester Elton delivers keynotes on employee engagement, organizational culture, leadership, and building high-performance teams through recognition and gratitude.

What does Chester Elton speak about?

Chester Elton speaks on gratitude, culture, and employee engagement, making the case that recognition is one of the most underused levers leaders have for performance. His keynotes give organizations a practical playbook for building a culture of appreciation.

What is Chester Elton’s background?

Elton is the co-author of The Carrot Principle and is known in the industry as the Apostle of Appreciation for his work on culture and engagement.

Who books Chester Elton to speak?

Meeting planners book Chester Elton for leadership conferences, HR and culture events, and corporate audiences focused on building engagement through recognition.

All In: Creating a Culture of Buy-In and Belief

How the best managers create a CULTURE of belief and drive real results

The authors of the New York Times bestsellers The Carrot Principle and The Orange Revolution present groundbreaking new findings — today’s high-performance organizations have a distinctive kind of culture that leads to astonishing results.

Teaming up with research giant Towers Watson, authors Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton present an unprecedented 300,000-person study conducted in the worst of the recession. Based on this breakthrough research and their extensive consulting experience with a who’s-who of successful companies, they present a simple seven-step roadmap that all managers can follow to create a high-achieving culture in their own teams.

With the most current data available on culture, the authors offer specific how-tos for each step, and tell fascinating stories of leaders in action that vividly depict just how these powerful methods can be implemented. Audiences will learn:

The 3 research-based characteristics of the world’s most profitable, productive organizational and team cultures

The 7 steps today’s most successful managers use to generate buy-in

How managers at any level can build a productive workgroup culture of their own where employees commit to the culture and give that extra push of effort

The Carrot Principle: Engaging Employees through Recognition

A New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller, The Carrot Principle has become the preeminent source on employee engagement and recognition.

Based on his runaway bestseller, The Carrot Principle keynote reveals the ground-breaking results of one of the most in-depth management studies ever undertaken, showing definitively that the central characteristic of the most successful managers is that they provide their employees with frequent and effective recognition. This breakthrough study of 200,000 people over ten years found dramatically greater business results when managers offered constructive praise and meaningful rewards in ways that powerfully motivated employees to excel.

Drawing on case studies from leading companies including Disney, KPMG and the Pepsi Bottling Company, the bestselling author shows how the transformative power of purpose-based recognition produces astonishing increases in operating results. Chester shows how great managers lead with carrots, not sticks and in doing so achieve higher:

Productivity

Engagement

Retention

Customer Satisfaction

This exceptional presentation introduces the simple steps to becoming a Carrot Principle manager and to building a recognition culture in your organization; it offers a wealth of specific examples, drawn from real-life cases, of ways to do recognition right. Following these simple steps will make you a high-performance leader and take your team to a new level of achievement.

The Orange Revolution: How One Great Team Can Change an Organization

New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling authors Chester Elton and Adrian Gostick have once again transformed the corporate playing field with The Orange Revolution, recognized worldwide as the premiere book on how breakthrough teams and teamwork revolutionize a company, a community, and the world.

The Orange Revolution Keynote highlights the key traits found inside the world’s most stellar teams. Chester illustrates the steps these teams took to conquer barriers, exceed expectations, and overcome mediocrity through brilliant collaboration. This presentation reveals the synergy that exists among teams in the world’s most respected and innovative organizations— and how to tap into that power within any group of individuals.

Drawing on startling research and case studies from leading teams at Zappos, Pepsi Bottling Company, The Blue Angels, Texas Roadhouse,

Apple, and numerous others, the Orange Revolution Keynote shows how true teamwork produces results that change the world and can immediately increase:

Productivity

Engagement

Loyalty

Innovation

Bottom-line Results

This must-see presentation introduces the simple steps to inspiring an Orange Revolution in your organization— through easy, prescriptive, outcome-based applications that can be implemented today.