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For nearly 30 years Jim Clemmer’s practical leadership approaches have been inspiring action and achieving results. His keynote presentations, workshops, management team retreats, seven best-selling books translated into a variety of languages, articles, blog, and newsletters have helped hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. Jim is a popular columnist and a regular guest on radio and television programs. He is listed in half a dozen Canadian, American, and international Who’s Who directories. Among his many achievements, he’s especially proud of tripling the size of his forehead!

The VIP Strategy: Leadership Skills for Exceptional Performance was Jim's first book. It became a Canadian bestseller and was published in Europe and Japan. His second book, Firing on All Cylinders: The Service/Quality System for High-Powered Performance, was both a Canadian and an American bestseller with over 100,000 copies sold. Jim's third book was Pathways to Performance: A Guide to Transforming Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization. His next book —  focused on personal growth/leadership —  was Growing the Distance: Timeless Principles for Personal, Career, and Family Success. Based on the popularity of the approach and leadership framework in Growing the Distance, Jim wrote a companion book entitled The Leader's Digest: Timeless Principles for Team and Organization Success. He followed this with “an edutaining case study” or work of leadership fiction entitled Moose on the Table: A Novel Approach to Communications @ Work. His latest book is Growing @ the Speed of Change: Your Inspir-actional How-To Guide For Leading Yourself and Others through Constant Change.

Jim has delivered over two thousand customized keynote presentations, workshops, and retreats, as well as consulted to and coached executive teams in hundreds of major companies, the public sector, universities, family businesses, and healthcare organizations. One of his goals, on his many business trips, is to have half as much fun as his family thinks he’s having!

Jim holds the Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation. This is the highest earned designation in Professional Speaking. Based on rigorous criteria and Client ratings, CSP is awarded by the International Federation for Professional Speakers to less than 3% of the estimated 15,000 speakers in the world. Jim is recognized as a Certified Training and Development Professional (CTDP) by the Canadian Society for Training and Development. Jim is also a Practitioner in Residence for the masters (MASc) and doctoral (PhD) students in the University of Waterloo’s Industrial/Organizational Psychology program. 

Jim writes and speaks from plenty of “hands-on” experience. Applying the improvement and effectiveness principles he teaches, Jim co-founded and led The Achieve Group to become Canada’s largest training and consulting company. Both were purchased by Times Mirror and merged with Zenger Miller, Learning International, and Kaset, to form AchieveGlobal. Prior to developing Achieve, Jim established a very successful performance record with an international water treatment company. Starting in sales, he quickly became sales manager, trainer, and the company’s youngest general manager.

Jim lives in Kitchener, Ontario with his wife, Heather. They have three adult children, Christopher, Jennifer, and Vanessa.

Presentations Include:

Lead, Follow or Wallow
A central theme in Clemmer’s decades of trying to understand, apply, and teach leadership skills is that leadership is an action, not a position. Leadership is what we do, not who we are. Who we become is determined by what we repeatedly think and do. We all need to be leaders - in our personal lives or taking a leading role in our family, communities, profession, relationships, or workplace.

Don't Let the Nattering Nabobs of Negativism Get You Down
"Nattering nabobs of negativism" was a phrase originally written by speechwriter William Safire for U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew to describe the media who opposed the Nixon administration's policies. It's an apt phrase for professional pessimists in the media - especially these days. What's considered "news" or reported as "reality" is overwhelmingly what's wrong, not what's right.

We Need Lots More Innovation
Like the weather, many people talk about innovation but few managers do much about it. Unlike the weather, there is a lot managers can and must do about innovation - especially in difficult times.

True Leadership Values Shine Clearest in Tough Times
During times of high stress and adversity a manager's true values shine through.  Clemmer teaches you how to stay "above the line" in navigating the tough environment many clearly face today.


Range of Reality: Choosing the Best or the Worst of Times
What's your reality? Where do you choose to spend most of your day on the Range of Reality? These are vital questions for your health, happiness, success, and well-being.

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