Geoff Colvin
Geoff is an award-winning thinker, author, broadcaster, and speaker on today’s most significant trends in business. As a longtime editor and columnist for FORTUNE, he has become one of America’s sharpest and most respected commentators on leadership, globalization, wealth creation, the infotech revolution, and related issues.
Geoff’s new book, just published, is Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know that Brilliant Machines Never Will. Amid rising anxiety over the rise of technology and its effects on human workers, the book identifies the skills of human interaction that will be key to success for people, businesses, and nations. The Washington Post raves that it’s “valuable for its insights into the enduring value of human performance and teamwork.” The Wall Street Journal calls it a “big idea business book [that] weaves original reporting and humor into an intelligent narrative.” His groundbreaking bestseller Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers From Everybody Else received the Harold A. Longman Award for Best Business Book of the year. Charlie Rose says it is “spectacular” and “fascinating.” Daniel H. Pink calls it “profoundly important.” These as well as his other books are described on the books pages.
As a speaker, Geoff has engaged hundreds of audiences on six continents. He is also a skilled on-stage interviewer whose subjects have included Ben Bernanke, Henry Kissinger, Richard Branson, the Prince of Wales, Bill Gates, Colin Powell, Jack Welch, Alan Greenspan, Ted Turner, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and many others. He is the regular lead moderator of the Fortune Global Forum. His extensive speaking and moderating activities are described on the speaking page.
Geoff is one of America’s preeminent business broadcasters. He is heard daily on the CBS Radio Network, where he has made over 10,000 broadcasts and reaches seven million listeners each week. He has appeared on Today, The O’Reilly Factor, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, ABC’s World News, CNN, CNBC, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, and dozens of other programs. His TV, radio, and video work is described on the media page.
Born and raised in Vermillion, South Dakota, Geoff is an honors graduate of Harvard with a degree in economics and has an M.B.A. from New York University.
572: Geoff Colvin, part 2: Are we losing humanity when we lose touch with nature?
Geoff’s story of his commitment to act on his childhood memories of playing along the Missouri River in South Dakota starts off interesting, then turns exciting, thrilling, and ultimately life-changing. One of the things we most fear happened to him and he loved it.
I think our conversation then grew more interesting. He’s a storyteller and educator. He learned from the experience beyond what reading a book or reading a graph on carbon levels could reveal. We explored what nature brings to us, and what its absence deprives us of.
Geoff is an experienced and brilliant thinker and speaker. He explores and shares the interplay between nature and humanity, its loss, and what that loss means to us.
This episode will make you think. I bet it will make you want to go outside too.
560: Geoff Colvin, part 1: How to Become an Expert
My first week’s assignment to my leadership classes at NYU for years has been to watch Geoff’s conversation with Charlie Rose. Geoff got his MBA at NYU, but somehow I took years to connect with him. He was delighted to be a guest.
I assign Geoff’s work because he communicates a message that you can become an expert and how to do it better than anyone. He speaks simply, eloquently, citing research, telling stories, and encouraging. In our conversation he explains and clarifies the meaning of deliberate practice. It’s exactly what I want my students to learn before my class since it shows what will help them learn to lead in practice (not just reading and writing).
In our conversation, Geoff shares his work, clarifying for me some parts I needed clarifying, motivating me more. He also sounded intrigued by the Spodek Method motivating sharing his environmental values and acting on them. You’ll hear two people who act and write on leadership discussing the method and how it works. I can’t wait to hear his results.