Bio:

Ryan Gottfredson, Ph.D. is a leadership transformation expert, researcher, keynote speaker, and consultant who helps leaders become more future-ready in a world defined by complexity, pressure, and constant change. As the Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of Success Mindsets, The Elevated Leader, and Becoming Better, Ryan has become a trusted voice on vertical development, mindsets, and the internal operating systems that shape leadership effectiveness.

Ryan has worked with leadership teams at organizations such as CVS Health, Deutsche Telekom, and Experian, helping them elevate how they think, lead, and perform. Backed by dozens of published journal articles and practitioner pieces in outlets such as Leadership Quarterly, Journal of Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business Review, CEOWorld, and TD Magazine, Ryan brings a rare blend of rigorous research, practical frameworks, and engaging delivery.

His keynote on 6th Gear Leadership equips audiences to understand why many leaders become bottlenecks under pressure and what it takes to shift into a more effective, agile,

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Speaking Topics:

Getting to 6th Gear: The Leadership Operating System Upgrade for a Complex World

Most leaders respond to complexity by driving harder in 5th gear—adding urgency, control, and pressure. It works for a while, but eventually friction builds: decision churn increases, burnout rises, and leaders become bottlenecks instead of multipliers. Ryan Gottfredson’s Getting to 6th Gear keynote helps leaders understand why “driving harder” stops working in a complex world and what it takes to make the shift to a more effective, future-ready way of leading. In this keynote, audiences learn how 6th Gear Leadership enables leaders to operate with greater clarity, trust, and long-term capacity so they can move faster with less friction. Participants will learn how to recognize their 5th-gear patterns, understand what 6th gear looks and feels like, and begin the developmental shift needed to lead with greater capacity, traction, agility, and vitality.

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Becoming Better: The Groundbreaking Science of Personal Transformation

Most organizations invest heavily in helping people gain more knowledge, build more skills, and improve performance. But while those efforts can make people better, they rarely help people become truly great. Why? Because the deepest driver of leadership, collaboration, and impact is not found in what people do, but in who they are being. Even talented leaders and employees can hit a ceiling when they have not elevated the internal operating system that shapes how they think, respond under pressure, work with others, and lead.

In this powerful keynote, Ryan Gottfredson introduces a transformative framework that helps audiences understand the difference between the Doing Side and the Being Side—and why lasting growth depends on elevating their Being Side. When people do, they do not just gain insight; they unlock a higher level of leadership, effectiveness, emotional intelligence, and influence. Audiences leave with a practical and memorable framework they can immediately apply to elevate how they lead, work with others, navigate pressure, strengthen culture, and drive greater impact throughout their organization.

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The Elevated Leader: Becoming the Kind of Leader Others Trust, Follow, and Grow Under

Too many leaders rely on control, oversight, and positional authority to get results. But the leaders who create the greatest impact do something very different: they build trust, empower others, and elevate the people around them. The difference is not primarily in what they do, but in who they are and how they operate internally.

In this eye-opening keynote, Ryan Gottfredson reveals what separates elevated leaders from leaders who bottleneck performance, stifle growth, or create unhealthy dependence. He helps audiences understand how leader maturity, self-awareness, and internal elevation shape a leader’s ability to trust others, empower teams, and positively influence culture. Audiences leave with a practical and memorable framework they can use to become stronger multipliers of people and performance—leaders who build trust, develop others, strengthen teams, and create a more empowered, high-performing culture.

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Success Mindsets: The Mindset Framework for Greater Agility, Growth, and Impact

If leaders and employees want to operate at their very best and create their greatest possible impact, they must start with the most foundational aspect of who they are: their mindsets. More than any skill, behavior, or strategy, mindsets shape how people respond to challenges, work with others, grow, innovate, and perform. In this energizing keynote, Ryan Gottfredson introduces what may be the most comprehensive and research-backed mindset framework to date—helping audiences understand the four success mindsets that drive greater agility, collaboration, leadership, and performance.

What makes this keynote especially powerful is that it can be customized through Ryan’s Personal Mindset Assessment, giving participants direct insight into the mindset patterns shaping their effectiveness. Ryan can also provide a collective mindset report that reveals the shared mindset strengths and barriers within the group, allowing the keynote to speak directly to the audience’s real-world dynamics. Audiences leave with a practical and actionable framework for upgrading their mindsets so they can adapt faster, collaborate better, create more value, and perform at a higher level.

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Most Leaders Think They Have a Growth Mindset. 60% Don’t.

Most leaders believe they have a growth mindset. But Ryan Gottfredson’s research has found that, on average, 60% of leaders actually operate with a fixed mindset. That is a serious challenge for organizations because fixed-mindset leaders are more likely to cling to what has worked in the past, resist new ideas, avoid discomfort, and limit the learning and adaptability needed for long-term success. Over time, this can quietly constrain innovation, hold back teams, and reduce an organization’s ability to grow and thrive in a changing environment.

In this eye-opening keynote, Ryan Gottfredson helps audiences understand what a growth mindset really is, why it matters more than ever, and how to develop it more fully. Audiences leave with practical tools to identify fixed-mindset tendencies, become more open to feedback and change, strengthen learning agility, and create the kind of culture that helps people, teams, and organizations keep growing.

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Built to Thrive: Upgrading Our Capacity to Navigate Stress, Pressure, and Complexity

Stress, pressure, and complexity are not going down. For leaders and employees today, they are a permanent part of the job. Yet most people have never been shown how to build the capacity needed to navigate these demands effectively. Instead, they push harder, work longer, or rely on short-term coping strategies that may provide temporary relief but do little to create lasting resilience, effectiveness, or well-being.

In this energizing keynote, Ryan Gottfredson introduces a different path—one that helps people move beyond coping and begin building the internal capacity needed to thrive in a demanding world. By upgrading their internal operating system, leaders and employees can become more grounded, resilient, adaptable, and effective under pressure. Audiences leave with a practical and actionable framework for building the resilience and internal capacity needed to stay grounded under pressure, navigate complexity more effectively, and sustain stronger performance and well-being over time.