Most leadership development helps leaders do more. Ryan Gottfredson, PhD, helps leaders become more.
Through powerful keynote experiences, Ryan Gottfredson, PhD, helps leaders upgrade their Being—the internal operating system that shapes how they lead, perform, and create impact.
All of Ryan’s keynotes transform the trajectories of attendees by helping them awaken to and upgrade their “Being” (i.e., their internal operating system).
The Leadership Operating System Upgrade for a Complex World
Leadership today demands more than most leaders’ current operating mode can sustain. Most leaders try to meet rising complexity, pressure, and expectations by driving harder in 5th Gear—using more urgency, more control, and more force to create results. But while 5th Gear can produce speed, it often does so at a cost: friction, burnout, decision churn, bottlenecks, and short-term wins that undermine long-term performance.
In this keynote, Ryan Gottfredson introduces 6th Gear Leadership—the leadership operating system upgrade that allows leaders to go even faster, but at lower RPMs. Through this powerful framework, audiences discover how the best leaders create clarity instead of chaos, trust instead of tension, and scalable performance instead of organizational drag. This keynote helps leaders see that the path forward is not to push harder. It is to upgrade how they lead. The result: higher speed, lower RPMs.
Audience:
Best for executive teams, senior leaders, manager audiences, leadership conferences,
and HR/L&D events.
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.
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.
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.
Why Leadership Growth Starts with Seeing Ourselves More Clearly
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.
All of Ryan’s keynotes transform the trajectories of attendees by helping them awaken to and upgrade their “Being” (i.e., their internal operating system).
Our mindsets shape how you think, learn, lead, and live. Yet, very few people know the actual quality of their mindsets. Determine the quality of your mindsets relative to the 50,000+ other people who have taken this assessment
Doing Side/Being Side – We have two different sides of ourselves:
Most development focuses on the Doing Side, but it is the Being Side where transformation occurs.
Mindsets – Ryan has developed the most comprehensive and research-backed mindset framework available and leverages it to help individuals and groups awaken to and elevate their mindsets – The most foundational aspect of how we think, learn, and behave.
Vertical Development – Developmental psychologists have identified that leaders/people operate from one of three levels of sophistication (Mind 1.0, Mind 2.0, Mind 3.0). Ryan helps attendees awaken to and upgrade the level they operate from.
Additional Topics Commonly Interwoven into Workshops:
For many speaking engagements, Ryan leverages at least one of these assessments to help personalize the concepts to attendees. With this information, Ryan can produce collective reports to provide valuable information and foster deep discussions. Here is an example from a Collective Mindset Report:
Personal Mindset Assessment
Individual Stagnation Assessment
Vertical Development Assessment
Team Stagnation Assessment
When organizations, groups, or teams take the assessment, the results can be aggregated up to the collective level to show the Collective Mindsets of the organization, group, or team. This provides the team to get a quick and clear snapshot of the current culture of the group and what mindsets and related fears are holding the group back from moving forward more effectively
“The training and content was fantastic and applicable. Ryan was great with his delivery that resulted in meaningful personal and professional reflection and discussions. I look forward to future sessions.”
“Great seminar that truly helps change the perspective on leadership behavior. The simplicity of the material makes it easy to understand how improvement is possible for everyone.”
“This was an eye-opener for me and I’m glad I got to learn these 4 mindsets. I will definitely revisit these mindsets and begin to apply them in my everyday life, not only in my leadership positions.”
“Ryan has been engaged over the past two years to work with our leadership team and has made outstanding contributions, resulting brilliant outcomes. His input has been important, as we crossed through a critical cultural change, aiming to open mindsets and to define necessary improvements for the team and business. Ryan guided our leadership team through this period with enthusiasm and confidence. I have a lot of respect for his work and dedication.”
“Career openings at Sequel Insurance d olor posuere at vehicula magnis cursus. Tristique in arcu sed justo. Fermentum ultricies neque ullamcorper feugiat lobortis. Sagittis ut porta pretium pellentesque in at. Risus eu mi aenean laoreet lectus.”
Michael Foutz, MD
Advanced Family Medicine
Jon Gordon
Author for Be Your Future Self Now
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