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
There is greatness inside of each and every one of us. You just need to know where to look.
The worriers, the envious, and the fearful hand us limitations, but you are made for invitations. Don't let your ambition be held back by other people's lack of imagination.
Overdelivering is the only option.
Doing great work is table stakes. Just because the bar is low doesn't mean we can slither under it and call it a day. It's why I send a summary after every talk, so the learning doesn't stop when I leave the stage. And don't be a jerk. It's not that hard.
There are a million billion miles between being loved and being truly seen. Dare to be seen.
I was put on this earth to really see you, and I believe you were put on this earth to really see me. Together, we are better.