Robert Whipple is CEO of Leadergrow Incorporated, an organization dedicated to development of leaders. He has spoken on leadership topics and the development of trust in numerous venues across the country. He also teaches leadership and business classes at several universities. As a leadership coach and business consultant, he works with individual clients as well as large organizations such as government agencies, corporations, and The Rochester Business Alliance. A highly successful leader at Eastman Kodak Company for over 30 years, Mr. Whipple accomplished revolutionary change while leading a division of over 2000 people through the application of outstanding “people” skills.
Mr. Whipple is a student of the leadership process and has developed unique approaches to achieving excellent results through full engagement of people.
He is author of three leadership books:
- The Trust Factor: Advanced Leadership for Professionals,
- Understanding E-Body Language: Building Trust Online, and
- Leading with Trust is Like Sailing Downwind
His ability to communicate pragmatic approaches to building Trust in an entertaining and motivational format has won him top ranking wherever he speaks. Audiences relate to his material enthusiastically because it is simple, yet profound. His work has earned him the popular title of “The TRUST Ambassador”
Mr. Whipple has been published in several Leadership and Training journals including “Leadership Excellence Magazine” and “T+D Training + Development Journal.” He is a frequent contributor to The Rochester Business Journal. In 2008 he was named one of the top 100 thought leaders in the country on the topic of leadership development by Leadership Excellence Magazine. His articles and other information about Leadergrow can be downloaded from the corporate website, www.leadergrow.com .
Mr. Whipple holds a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Union College, a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from Syracuse University, and a Masters of Business Administration from The Simon School at The University of Rochester. He is a Management Quality “Blackbelt” from Eastman Kodak and a Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) from the American Society for Training and Development.
He is the past Chair of the National Leadership Development Team of the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). He is past president of the local chapter of ASTD and serves on the National Advisors for Chapters Team for ASTD. He is also a member of the Rochester Professional Consultants Network (RPCN), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and has done volunteer work through SCORE and the United Way. He is also a member of the New York Chapter of the National Speaker’s Bureau.
Bob lives with his wife, Kay in Hilton, New York, a small town outside of Rochester where he has a “gentleman’s farm.” He enjoys doing yard work, stained glass art, and woodworking.
Favorite quote: “The highest calling for any leader is to grow other leaders.”
I would love to subscribe to the regular scheduled email/newsletter if one does exist. Great columns!
Thanks,
Becky
Hi Becky. Thanks very much for the compliment. So far I have not spent a lot of energy on newsletters. I am a big believer in the Golden Rule, and I do not like to have my mailbox stuffed with newsletters that I have no time to read.
Actually, I am a neophyte in the social networking world. I only started this summer, but I do have a lot of leadership content that has been helpful to budding leaders for several years.
Thus far, my habit is to put out chunks of content on my BLOG and create a link to them on LinkedIn. Perhaps someday I will get involved in a formal newsletter.
Anyway, I am glad my material has some value for you. Perhaps we should be linkedIn to share our networks.
Understanding that you’re a relative neophyte to social media, a great forum for your content would be Twitter which can be technically linked to your LinkedIn profile.
Hello, Bob,
I’m the webmaster for the Human Resource Management Association of Rhode Island, an affiliate chapter of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). I routinely post information to the HRM-RI web site about meetings and events in the RI area which might be of interest to HR professionals. I recently heard about your presentation at the 10/29 meeting of the Bay Colonies chapter of ASTD and I’ve put that on the HRM-RI events calendar. I hope that some of our members will attend.
I was checking out your blog and it seems to me that many of the postings/articles on it would be relevant an helpful to our HRM-RI members. We have a white papers page on our web site where I periodically publish short summaries of such articles with links to the full article. May I have your permission to add some of your recent articles to the HRM-RI white papers page?
There would be full attribution, of course, and hence a little bit of free PR for you and your books — plus the link from our site to yours would be beneficial in terms of search engine rankings, as we enjoy pretty good rankings on a variety of HR-related keywords (as long as you also put RI or Rhode Island in the search phrase).
Please let me know if it’s all right for me to feature some of your articles on the HRM-RI white papers page? If there are specific articles which you feel would be especially relevant to HR professionals, please tell me the titles of those. Otherwise, may I pick using my own judgement?
Thanks!
Teresa Ritter, Webmaster for HRM-RI
Former SPHR, PHR
Sure Teresa. Feel free to share my information as you see fit. The reason for putting things out on my BLOG and LinkedIn is to share my content freely. There is a copyright on each of my white papers in order to simply prevent people from selling my material, but I am happy to have the concepts in circulation. I will provide you with a current bio with photo in case you want to paraphrase some of it. Also, I will attach a jpeg of the cover for my new book.
Robert Whipple MBA, CPLP CEO Leadergrow, Inc. “The TRUST Ambassador” 585-392-7763 E-mail bwhipple@leadergrow.com BLOG http://www.thetrustambassador.com Website http://www.leadergrow.com
Hi Teresa. Here is a typical recent article on my BLOG with a link to a White Paper. Let me know if this is the kind of thing you are looking for. http://thetrustambassador.com/2009/10/16/exploring-dimentions-of-trust/
Robert Whipple MBA, CPLP CEO Leadergrow, Inc. “The TRUST Ambassador” 585-392-7763 E-mail bwhipple@leadergrow.com BLOG http://www.thetrustambassador.com Website http://www.leadergrow.com
Hi! I have been a long time reader, but am having trouble viewing your site in Opera today. Did you change something?
Hi Piedad. I am not sure if this problem is on my end or on yours. Can you get in today?
I’m learning so much. This is great
Great information as usual Robert!
Thank you!
Valerie
Robert,a meaningful article on trust, your link is being sent to my clients and members from our South Texas Chair group. Well done and thanks for the opportunity to jot you a note and say thank you.
Hi Ed, Thanks for the kind words on my recent article.
Robert Whipple: MBA, CPLP CEO Leadergrow Inc. http://www.leadergrow.com 585-392-7763 bwhipple@leadergrow.com
Thanks Bob,
Your focus on workplace bullying is essential reading for professionals at all career phases, especially those about to begin or change jobs. I’ve known screamers, “my way of the highway” types, manipulators, incompetent and jealous “messiahs” and many more. Your column should be posted on the walls of every MBA program. One major challenge is identifying the presence of bullies before joining an organization. Often it’s all polite, encouraging chit-chat during the recruiting and interview phases. Raising questions focusing on leadership attitudes and approaches is essential–if the potential boss is offended or suspicious, you’ve got your answer! I taught more than 6,000 students at Old Dominion University and Vanderbilt and trained thousands of professionals, and heard so many stories about workplace bullying from grads and training contacts that I wrote a humor book in 2003 targeting bullies and other bad bosses. It’s called JJ’s Business Bullets. One former student being savaged by a mocking, belittling bully boss said it saved her life–that’s the power of humor.
Thanks also for focusing on trust. In 1998 we did research that revealed most Americans were going to withdraw most of their bank deposits just before the year 2000 date change–Y2K. Worked with more than 800 banks and helped them turn customer fear into–you guessed it–sustained, focused trust. Yes, trust was the foundation of the entire program. And it worked.
So glad I just joined the Professional Presenters, Speakers & Trainers group on Linkedin.
Again, thank you for this remarkable and essential column. And thanks to all contributors for such interesting, focused and helpful postings.
Fred Talbott
Naples, FL
cell: 615.364.4804
fredtalbott@comcast.net
Hello Frederick. I am glad you liked my article on bully behavior. It did get a lot of action on LinkedIn.
[...] Robert Whipple told me of the experience of being lied to, to his face, with full eye contact. That degree of trust destruction is strong enough to take effect instantly. Let’s examine why. [...]