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Margaret H. Greenberg

 

Member profile details

First name
Margaret H.
Last name
Greenberg
 

My Story

The Change I Want to See in the World
Every society has influential institutions: education, religion, healthcare, and government. The workplace is another center of influence.

From the industrial revolution to the digital revolution, the workplace has been where we experience exponential change in the making: from personal computers on every desktop and the ability to work from anywhere in the world, to on-site daycare and flexible work hours. For businesses to compete, grow, and remain relevant for consumers, they must be able to solve problems.

The change I want to see in the world is to approach problems, including racism, with an asset lens.
Books That Greatly Influenced My Life
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S., The Warmth of Other Suns, and Motherless Daughters by Hope Edelman
Fun Facts About Me
I was inducted into the Happiness Hall of Fame in 2015.

I attended Charles and Diana's wedding in 1981 (not as an invited guest mind you)

When I was 22 I backpacked solo (at a time when there were no cell phones, Ubers, or Airbnbs) through 8 countries in 8 weeks.
 

Personal information

Bio
Margaret is a certified executive coach, international speaker, positive psychology pioneer, and co-author (with her dear friend Gina Greenlee) of THE BUSINESS OF RACE: How to Create and Sustain and Antiracist Workplace and Why It's Actually Good for Business (McGraw-Hill, August 2021). She is also the coauthor (with Senia Maymin, MAPP '06), of PROFIT FROM THE POSITIVE: Proven Leadership Strategies to Boost Productivity and Transform Your Business (McGraw-Hill, 2013). She also leads two webinar series based upon her two books.

Margaret is the owner of The Greenberg Group, an OD coaching and consulting firm she founded in 1997, after a fifteen year career in corporate HR. For over three decades now, Greenberg coaches executives (primarily in the financial services and technology sectors), and their teams using the science of positive psychology to create diverse, strengths-based, and purpose-driven workplaces.

Margaret loves to write. She is the "Positive Work" columnist for Live Happy magazine, a contributor to Positive Psychology News and the MAPP Magazine, and a positive workplace blogger on LinkedIn.

Her MAPP capstone, "Optimistic Managers and Their Influence on Productivity and Employee Engagement in a Technology Organization", has been downloaded over 20,000 times. She also teaches in the Masters of Positive Leadership at Universidad Tecmilenio in Monterrey, Mexico and Mexico City.

She and her husband live on a lake in central Maine with their pug Bear. They have two grown daughters and became grandparents in 2022.
Photo
 

Professional Information

Employer
The Greenberg Group, Profit from the Positive, LLC and Greenberg & Greenlee, LLC
Job title
Executive Coach and Founder
Logo
Primary Focus
Author & Speaker - applying the science of positive psychology to transform the workplace

Executive Coaching

Leadership and Team Development
Primary Focus Details
I love to translate the science of positive psychology into practical tools that organizations can use to create more positive and productive work environments. My hope is that positive psychology will be a part of every business school curriculum and every corporate leadership development program. I've spoken at conferences both in the U.S. and abroad, and at companies as diverse as Aetna/CVS Health, CFRA Research, Google, MITRE Corporation, MassMutual, Prudential, and VMware to name a few.
Professional Area
  • Business
Active Professional Interests
  • Business
  • Coaching
  • Consulting
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Human Resources
Professional Skills
  • Career Development
  • Consulting
  • Facilitating groups
  • HR specialist
  • Leadership development
  • Speaking
  • Teaching resilience
  • Writing
ICF Certification
PCC
Coach Training
  • 60+ Hours Coach Training
  • Professional Certification
Fluent in Languages
  • English
Certifications
Professional Certified Coach (PCC) trained in the co-active coaching methodology (CTI)

Shift Positive 360

Race & Cultural Diversity in American Life & History (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign/Coursera)

Hogan Leadership Forecast Series

Social & Emotional Intelligence Coach (SEIP)

Assessment International's Profilor 360

Management Research Group's Leadership Effectiveness Analysis 360

Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI)

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 

Education

Degrees Before MAPP
BA Sociology/Cultural Anthropology and AA Communications (University of Hartford)
 

Social Media

 

Speaking Experience

Interested in Speaking Referrals
Yes
Speaking Topics
Practical business applications of positive psychology to boost productivity, innovation and employee engagement.

Drawing upon the book I coauthored with my friend, Gina Greenlee (THE BUSINESS OF RACE, McGraw-Hill, 2021) we speak about bringing both a business and an asset lens to creating and sustaining a racially equitable workplace. As two OD (organizational development) professionals, one Black and one White, we bring a unique perspective on how to integrate racial equity into strategy, policies and practices. For example:

* Why the Workplace is the Perfect Place to Discuss the Undiscussables - Race and Racism

*The Business Case: Why Racial Diversity, Why Now?

*DEI - Like Any Other Strategic Priority

*Discovering Your "E" and Measuring Its Impact

*Consciously Competent: Insights into Your Own Race Journey

*Calling People In Rather Than Calling People Out

* Exploring Individual and Team Strengths: A Building Block for Effective Race Work


Drawing upon the best-selling book I co-authored with MAPP 1 classmate Senia Maymin, Ph.D.(PROFIT FROM THE POSITIVE, McGraw-Hill, 2013), we teach employees and leaders actionable tools such as:

* The Achoo! Effect

* Work Less, Accomplish More

* Capitalize on What's Going Well

* Know Your Strengths or No One Else Will

* Hire for What's Not on the Resume

* Give FRE

* PREview, Don't REview Performance

* Changing the Way We Think About Change
Experience speaking to large audiences
Yes
Video Clips and Recommendations
How THE BUSINESS of RACE Came to be Written: https://youtu.be/rgJ0o9khf0U

Authors at Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC_IieBnfFY

Mexico City Happiness Forum (3K live, 27K streaming live):

http://cienciasdelafelicidad.mx/recursos
 

Publications

Book 1 Cover
Book 1 Title
Profit from the Positive
Book 2 Cover
Book 2 Title
Character Strengths Matter
Book 3 Cover
Book 3 Title
The Business of Race: How to Create and Sustain an Antiracist Workplace and Why It's Actually Good for Business
Media: Radio, TV, or podcasts
Journal Articles
Peer reviewed journal: The International Coaching Psychology Review - Positive Psychology, Vol 2, No 1, March 2007 (editors Linley & Kauffman), "Optimistic managers and their influence on productivity and employee engagement in a technology organisation: Implications for coaching psychologists"
Capstone title and abstract
Optimistic Managers and Their Influence on Productivity and Employee Engagement in a Technology Organization (with Dana Arakawa)

The objective of this study is to investigate whether teams are more engaged and productive when led by an optimistic manager. Furthermore, we hypothesize that optimistic managers embody positive leadership—employing a strengths-based approach, maintaining a positive perspective, and frequently providing recognition and encouragement—which increases the engagement and productivity of their employees. In a cross-sectional study of 86 employees and 17 managers in an Information Technology (IT) organization, positive leadership correlated with employee optimism, engagement, and project performance. When we looked at a subset of this data prospectively, with 39 employees and 14 managers, manager optimism predicted project performance. Our data support the claim that positive leadership is correlated with employee engagement and performance, and further extends the importance of optimism in the workplace.

http://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/3/

The practical application of this research is now published in the book I co-authored, Profit from the Profit: Proven Leadership Strategies to Boost Productivity & Transform Your Business (McGraw-Hill, 2013).

The Gallup Management Journal (http://gmj.gallup.com) published two articles using the results of this study: "The Business Benefits of Positive Leadership: Finding the Connection Between Productivity & Positive Management Behavior" (May 10, 2007) and "It Pays to Be Optimistic: Exploring the Connections Between Optimism & Business Success" (August 9, 2007).
 

Contact data

Province/State
ME
Country
USA
MAPP Geography
  • USA - New England
 

MAPP Information

MAPP Graduation Year
2006
Committee Membership
DEI Committee
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