Hey, I'm LGO.
I'm a researcher, a former executive recruiter, and a Wall Street Journal bestselling author. My work names the patterns that predict potential, in ourselves, in our teams, and in the people who matter to us most.
For thirty years I've advised leaders from the corner office to the Oval Office. For twenty of them I ran a retained executive search firm, which meant I was paid to read what past performance was hiding and to see it before anyone else did. I was good at it. I could never explain how. That question is what I study now. (Currently working on my doctorate, finding out whether the instinct I spent two decades trusting holds up under actual scrutiny.)
You may also know me from Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, and NBC News, from Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and HR Magazine, or from my talk on why success doesn't feel the way it should, which has more than three million views on TED.com.
How I Got Here.
My career started when I dropped out of law school to join an unknown southern governor's presidential campaign. (First day of law school, I looked around the room and thought, I've made a huge mistake.) I ended up as a Presidential Appointee in Bill Clinton's White House, where I helped create AmeriCorps.
I became the youngest vice president ever of a nationally respected search firm, then left soon after when I realized I could change the way executive search was delivered to the entire nonprofit sector. So I built my own firm and did exactly that. In 2015, I sold that firm to the team that helped me build it, because I was hungry for the next chapter.
I Walk My Talk.
I don't just study what drives people to exceed expectations. I've spent my life putting those ideas into practice.
I've helped build a school, co-founded a women's philanthropic initiative, and supported the growth of a citizen-leadership program. I became a marathon runner at 40, completed all six original World Marathon Majors and two additional Majors, and earned an international indoor rowing title.
I believe in challenging what we think is possible because I've made a practice of doing it myself.
I'm a sucker for The Big Idea and that larger-than-life goal you just can't seem to shake.
My favorite thing is seeing the greatness in someone and reflecting it back to them, so they can see it too (sometimes for the first time) and finally have the confidence to act on it.
I'm an instigator and a provocateur, and I've never met a revolution I didn't like.
Just ask my enduringly patient husband and our two troublesome pups, with whom I empty-nest in Boston. All of us cry ourselves to sleep each night missing our college-aged sons.
What I Believe
Potential is everywhere. Recognizing it takes intention.
After 20 years in executive search, I've learned that the most capable person isn't always the most obvious one. Talent is often overlooked because we're looking for familiar credentials, experiences, and definitions of success. Great leaders know how to look beyond what's immediately visible, recognize potential in unexpected places, and create the conditions for it to grow.
Customization isn't a finishing touch. It's how the work begins.
I don't believe in delivering the same keynote with a different company name on the slides. Every talk is co-created with my clients. Together, we identify the challenges their people are facing, then hand-select the research, stories, and insights that will make the greatest impact. No two audiences are identical. Their keynote shouldn't be either.
If people are going to act on what I say, the research has to hold up.
People make real decisions about their careers, their teams, and their lives based on what they hear from stage. I take that responsibility seriously. Every keynote is grounded in research, informed by decades of experience, and designed to give audiences practical insights they can put to work long after the event ends.