ABOUT | Libby Wagner
THE ENTREPRENEUR, MENTOR, AND LEADERSHIP GURU
Using her unique approach, Libby helps executives create dramatic, memorable impacts, so they confidently lead their organizations toward innovative horizons.
She is the president of influencingOptions®, a business consulting and training firm that creates high trust-high performance teams and coaches leaders to hone their skills in courageous conversations to impact the quality of their working relationships. Influencing Options training provides practical, immediately useable skills and dramatic results for performance improvement.
She is a founding faculty member of the Institute of Conversational Leadership and Invitas with poet David Whyte, and works with inspired leaders across the globe to bring the soulful work of Conversational Leadership into practice.
Libby co-founded The Studio, a change consultancy that utilizes the principles of artistry to foster innovation and build highly-engaged organizations with artist-entrepreneurs Steven Morris and Owen Ó Súilleabháin. The antidote to “business as usual,” The Studio is a place of practice where leaders can experiment with and deepen their own unique version of leadership through artistry.
Libby leads inspiring events and retreats for organizations and individuals, either on-site or in Ireland each year.
THE POET, AUTHOR, SPEAKER, AND COLLABORATOR
Libby is the author of Amazon Best-Seller, The Influencing Option: The Art of Building a Profit Culture in Business (2010), What Will You Do With Your 90,000 Hours? The Boardroom Poet’s Thoughts on Work (2016) and three collections of poems, including Like This, Like That (2002), Somehow (2012), and Dancing on the Summer Lawn (NP). She collaborates with Irish musician and composer Owen Ó Súilleabháin in live performances and audio recordings. Together they created Harvest (2015), an audio collection of poems and original music, and the genre-breaking Now Just This (2017), an embodied experience of spoken word poetry. Libby’s popular column, “The Culture Coach,” was featured for over ten years in Retail Observer, and offers practical, inspiring advice for leaders. She has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review.
Libby Wagner works with organizations large and small and leaders across the globe to bring beautiful cultures to work. Libby’s work has shaped many organizational cultures, including Diageo, Philips, The Boeing Company, ST Microelectronics, Oak Ridge National Science Lab, Nike, SAP, Keurig Dr. Pepper, and Costco. Her long-standing work with non-profit leaders spans the important work of health care, education, social justice, and international peace efforts.
Libby Wagner is one of the only former poetry professors warmly invited into the boardroom as a trusted advisor for presidents, CEOs, and executive directors around the world.
Working with Libby includes diving into the extraordinary: she has the uncanny ability to help you select exactly the language you need to communicate in ways you’ve never done before.
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OWN YOUR VOICE (Video) | LIBBY WAGNER | TEDx Talk, July 2015.
Libby Wagner is one of the only former poetry professors warmly invited into the boardroom as a trusted advisor for presidents, CEOs, and executives of numerous Fortune 500 companies.
Working with Libby includes diving into the extraordinary: she has the uncanny ability to help you select exactly the language you need to communicate in ways you’ve never done before.
Somehow
. . . Which is why I rise early
in the pre-dawn
before anyone, or anything
can tell me otherwise,
I send this wish out
over the rooftops,
the mountains in the distance,
pink with hope and honor.
Let me be able for this.
Let me say yes, or say no,
but let me say it now:
whatever comes in, light or dark,
I give myself up
to the joy
of every tiny thing.
— Libby Wagner (excerpt)
WHAT CLIENTS ARE SAYING . . .
"Libby's been a tremendous influence on my life. I've been touched by her personal feedback and encouragement and her assistance in building my network. I regularly share her teachings while mentoring and coaching colleagues and her methods helped me secure a coveted new role within Phillips. As a small business owner, she is an inspiration for women considering breaking free from corporate America. She emulates how taking a risk to follow your heart can never be wrong. How working hard to grow and build, to evolve to meet market needs and being genuine can really pay off."
— Tami Lambet, Sr. Operations Manager, Philips North America
“The changes came at us rapidly and frequently. What we knew yesterday was different today. Planning went from months and years to a daily process so that adaptation was possible. Typically, this pace of change creates strife amongst members of the team. Fear and anguish affect people’s ability to think clearly and maintain a calm persona. I have to say with your help our team is more cohesive today than at any other point in time since I joined SCH.”
"Libby delivers a unique brand of management consulting services that enhance a leadership team's skills by encouraging more creativity in communication and thought patterns. By firmly merging artistic impulses with management techniques, and inspiring managers to view the world around through the lens of a poet as she does, Libby encourages more warmth and humanity in the increasingly detached relationship between managers and workers in American businesses. She is a unique figure in a highly competitive field, and she is equally effective working with Fortune 500 companies as she is in helping the small business owner bring focus and new life to his entrepreneurial dreams."
"Working with Libby for the last six months has been the most transformative experience of my career. Libby has supported me through launching my business and has catapulted my success. I learn from every conversation, story, and experience with Libby. She has given me the gift of finding my true voice and taught me the powerful impact of language in both business and personal life. Anyone who has the privilege to work with Libby will look back and wonder what they did without her!"
Awards, Certifications, and Memberships
Curriculum Vitae
Libby holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and History. She honed her teaching skills as a full-time, tenured professor teaching English, composition, literature, creative writing, women's studies, hiking, and educational leadership from 1984-2004..