For nearly two decades I've been immersed in understanding leaders: as a teacherr at West Point, as the architect of a high-potential leader development program at the world's largest company, and even while teaching in a medium security prison.
I tell stories -- as a young lieutenant, I almost fired a tank round into the middle of a light infantry company. I later got my tank stuck in a swamp. And in my third year teaching at West Point a cadet asked me plainly: "Sir, why don't you love your daughter?" At amazon, I learned amazing lessons about organizational culture -- and share those stories with deep reflection. I then attempt to wrap that personal touch in the context of research, a Stanford Business School background, and the wisdom of other leaders.
My keynotes have resonated with leaders from Microsoft's Bing team (even though I kept getting heckled for using "google as a verb), at a national conference of education administrators, and at an airline industry academy in China.
If you've made it this far, then here's the official bio...
Doug Crandall brings a depth and breadth of leadership development experience rivaled by few others -- with the added credibility of being a leader in his own right. A graduate of the United States Military Academy and the Stanford Graduate School of Business, he served for five years on the West Point faculty, earning the first-ever Excellence in Teaching Award from the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. He conceived of and created an advanced version of West Point’s core leadership course. He also built from scratch West Point’s renowned Black and Gold Leadership Forum, and then finished his tenure at West Point by helping drive the first major revision of West Point’s core leadership course in over twenty years. From 2010-2016, he spent much of his time in Bentonville, Arkansas, creating and teaching Walmart’s premier leadership program for high-potentials and mentoring over one thousand executives from every division of the world’s largest company. Woven between his work with Walmart was an eclectic mix of leadership development engagements including international work in China and France, development and execution of leadership programs for J.P. Morgan and Wirtz Beverage, keynote addresses for McKinsey and Company, USAA, Gap, Riot Games, and many others, and three years mentoring over two hundred leaders at Mission Support Alliance on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.
Mr. Crandall’s experience also includes substantial writing, having co-authored and edited Leadership Lessons from West Point, Permission to Speak Freely, and penning – with Major (Ret.) Scotty Smiley – Hope Unseen; he’s also written leadership case studies for Stanford and Harvard and authored multiple leadership articles.
