Sydney Finkelstein
Global leadership expert Sydney Finkelstein helps organizations unlock talent pipelines and build “superboss” cultures for lasting success.
Why you should book Sydney Finkelstein for your next event
- Acclaimed Dartmouth professor and global keynote speaker, his award-winning research equips businesses with transformative leadership insights.
- Ranked #23 on Thinkers50, he is internationally recognized as one of the most influential management thinkers of our time.
- Trusted advisor to Fortune 500 companies including GE, Boeing, and JP Morgan, bringing proven results to the world’s top organizations.
Non-binding request for Sydney Finkelstein
The Playbook for Developing Extraordinary Leaders at Every Level
Ranked among the world’s top 25 management thinkers, bestselling author and Dartmouth professor Sydney Finkelstein empowers organizations to avoid failure, accelerate growth, and build superboss leaders. With 26 books, award-winning research, and decades advising global corporations, his keynotes deliver powerful, actionable insights on leadership, strategy, and talent development that inspire executives to transform challenges into opportunities for sustainable success.
Keynote Speaker Sydney Finkelstein is one of the world’s leading authorities on leadership, strategy, and talent development. As the Steven Roth Professor of Management at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business and a bestselling author of 26 books, including Why Smart Executives Fail and Superbosses, he has spent decades uncovering what makes organizations thrive.
His groundbreaking research, featured in global media and translated into 12 languages, has helped leaders across industries transform challenges into opportunities for growth.
When you book Sydney Finkelstein for your event, you bring proven insights that resonate with executives and decision-makers. His keynotes reveal how to spot early warning signals of failure, avoid costly mistakes, and build “superboss” cultures that unlock extraordinary talent. Ranked #23 on the prestigious Thinkers50 list of management thinkers, and trusted by Fortune 500 companies such as Boeing, JP Morgan, and Deloitte, Sydney Finkelstein brings unmatched credibility and actionable strategies to the stage.
More than theory, his sessions deliver practical tools leaders can apply immediately to strengthen their organizations, outsmart disruption, and inspire long-term success. With engaging stories, data-driven insights, and a clear roadmap for leadership excellence, he captivates audiences and empowers them to act.
Book Sydney Finkelstein for your event and give your organization the competitive advantage of learning directly from one of the most influential thought leaders in modern management.
Keynotes
Keynote by Sydney Finkelstein:
Why Smart Executives Fail – and What to do About It
One of the most remarkable findings from Why Smart Executives Fail is that the underlying reasons for failure in many business breakdowns. In this speech, Sydney identifies four destructive syndromes, and outlines a series of steps companies can take to avoid them.
Keynote by Sydney Finkelstein:
Irrational Strategies and How to Fix Them
Irrational strategies exist when key decision makers know exactly what is happening in their industries, among competitors, or in customer circles, yet they fail to respond. Instead, they often continue with the strategies of the past, or adopt even more inappropriate policies to address the challenges they faced. What are the different types of organization mindset failures that serve as guideposts for disaster? How can executives ensure that they don’t fall into the same traps?
This speech brings together a wealth of research evidence, and literally dozens of real-world examples, to demonstrate how irrational strategies emerge and how to fix them.
Keynote by Sydney Finkelstein:
The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful People
Is it possible to pinpoint just what makes smart, previously successful people, go wrong? The answer is yes! Again and again, whether CEOs, senior executives, or mid-level managers, the same bad habits keep appearing in failing companies.
In this speech, Sydney demonstrates how such apparently beneficial habits are actually destructive when left unchecked, and offers an alternative view of leadership that has applicability up and down the management hierarchy.
Keynote by Sydney Finkelstein:
SUPERBOSSES: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent
Larry Ellison. Lorne Michaels. Ralph Lauren. Robert Noyce. George Lucas. Miles Davis. And a dozen others. Business leaders and creative icons with tremendous track records who all have something else in common: they helped develop the best talent in their industries, who in turn helped them become the legendary successes they are today.
Based on ten years of research and hundreds of interviews, Superbosses describes what these exceptional leaders did, and how they did it. In his keynote, Sydney will describe the “superboss playbook”, the key management practices that separate the best bosses from the merely good ones, and the pathway to becoming a better leader yourself. LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls it “a leadership guide for the Networked Age”.
Superbosses by speaker Sidney Finkelstein at Talks at Google
Watch speaker Sydney Finkelstein in action!
