Mette Norgaard, PhD, MBA, an expert on strategic leadership and learning, works with executives and their teams to design and deliver culture-specific learning solutions that advance their strategies. Clients have included Microsoft, Metro International, Campbell Soup Company, Pandora Jewelry, Finnish Broadcasting, and many others. She has also designed and participated in executive dialogues with thought leaders such as Stephen Covey, Jim Collins, Margaret Wheatley, and Ram Charan.
Client engagements have ranged from keynote presentations and multi-day workshops to two-year programs. Assignments have frequently involved developing high-potential leaders, increasing employee engagement and initiative, and strengthening executive team dynamics. Examples of the latter are the transition to a new president, the evolution from an entrepreneurial culture to a more professional one, and the merger of two leadership teams. Some solutions for executive teams were structured around quarterly huddles where the executives reflected on their behaviors over the previous three months and committed to improvements for the next quarter. Others have involved off-site sessions, each with a special focus. A few have been one-of-a-kind leadership experiences, such as a recent one-year leadership journey that took an executive team to Thailand for the reflective work, to South Africa for a leadership safari and the study of natural efficiencies, and to New York City for an exploration of the collision of cultures and ideas.
For individual leaders, Norgaard has also served as a sparring partner to develop their personal leadership models. This work was done in one-to-one coaching sessions, with New York City as their learning laboratory. Prior to starting her own practice, Norgaard worked with FranklinCovey Co. for ten years. As director of Principle-Centered Leadership Week, an executive retreat at Sundance, Utah, she taught executives from all over the world and from organizations such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson& Johnson, GE Capital, Estée Lauder, Harley-Davidson,Hard Rock Cafe, the U.S. Marine Corp, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Norgaard was also part of a small group of consultants who led large-scale change processes for Fortune 500 firms and the U.S. government. Norgaard is the author of the international best-seller The Ugly Duckling Goes to Work (Amacom, 2005), which has been translated into eight languages.
