Christine Porath Named Top Leadership Speaker

On January 11, Inc. named Christine Porath, associate professor of management at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business, to its list of The Top 100 Leadership Speakers for 2018. The list was compiled based on the uniqueness of the speakers’ ideas and their ability to present their ideas in a compelling manner – two qualities that Porath integrates in her influential work on incivility in the workplace.

As someone who has experienced workplace incivility herself, Porath is acutely aware of how “the actions of a narcissistic, dictatorial boss trickle down through the ranks,” causing employees to feel disconnected and disengaged. Sometimes, she recounted of a job she held early in her career, employees would intentionally sabotage the organization, stealing supplies and padding their time cards. Many talented people, she said, left to join competing businesses.

Porath has since conducted research on work environments on six continents, in businesses that range from startups to Fortune 500 giants, and found that the most effective business models center around kindness, consideration, and respect. In Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace, Porath advises leaders, managers, and employees in building influential and effective workplaces based on civility. For those who are a target of incivility, she discusses opportunities for improving workplace relationships.

Porath frequently speaks to and consults with companies around the world. When asked about her speaking style, she explained that while she pulls from her writing and research, she considers how to best customize the information to the audience: “What are they looking for? How am I going to hook them and motivate them to care about this topic? What do I want them doing differently?”