PROFILE

Richard E. Boyatzis, Ph.D., is a distinguished university professor at Case Western. He was troubled by how little managers helped their direct reports when he was an aerospace research scientist in the mid 1960s. He continued to be puzzled by the lack of dramatic change by focusing on teachers in K-12, therapists treating addicts, and trainers in industry in the 1970s. Beginning in the late 1980s at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, with other faculty and doctoral students, he focused on how we can help 25-65 year olds grow. Not satisfied with the 39 longitudinal studies of improving emotional and social intelligence competencies, he initiated a series of hormonal studies and fMRI studies to understand the internal mechanisms of coaching with compassion. He applies the decades of research and training with his friends and colleagues Melvin Smith and Ellen Van Oosten in their book, Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth (Harvard Business Review Press).