Backstage Pass: Ep. 5 - Peter Sheahan: Owning & Accelerating Transformation

peter sheahan bio

After decades of standing in the fire with leaders of high-performing organizations, Peter Sheahan has come to believe that an organization will only go commercially where its leaders first go personally.

Having grown his own companies by accelerating the growth and transformation for clients that include: Apple; Chick-fil-A; DeBeers; and AT&T -- Peter will provoke you to get bigger, by getting better! When leaders are true to their purpose, they gravitate towards doing work that matters and solving higher-order problems. The journey to get there requires that they have the courage to tell themselves the truth, take intelligent risks, and assume ownership for driving the alignment necessary to build an organization which behaves in ways worthy of its leadership position.

In being true to his own ambitions and relentless pursuit of growth, Peter has published seven books, built three global companies and delivered more than 2,500 presentations in 40+ countries. Today he is focused exclusively on inspiring leaders to do the hard work required to accelerate growth and transformation.

show notes

Peter Sheahan is an entrepreneur, strategist, C-suite advisor, and in-demand speaker. After writing Generation Y, his first book, he quickly found himself in boardrooms speaking about understanding and connecting with the next generation. Since then, Peter has written several books and has headlined countless speaking events. During the episode, Peter shares the importance of owning change to accelerate transformation on teams.

Key topics in this episode include:

• Where Peter’s career started and the trajectory it took from there.

• Why Peter wanted to write about the value shifts of young people.

• How he ended up teaching about change and disruption globally.

• How he got the nickname “CEO whisperer,” and his method for pushing people.

• Peter’s process for preparing for a keynote speech and the interview he must have first.

• What it takes to be a great leader in today’s organizations.

• Why he decided to sell some of his businesses and what he’s focusing on instead.

• Peter’s ideal audience and who he loves speaking to the most.

• What happened when he crossed paths with Brené Brown and why he’s a big fan.

• What ImpactEleven is and how it uplifts the speakers of tomorrow.

• How speakers set expectations for their events and why some seem high maintenance.

• Why speakers are prone to depression (despite what it looks like on the outside).

• The advice Peter has for event planners when making speaker selections.