Today we’d like to introduce you to Winslow Swart.
Hi Winslow, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
On my website, it says, “from the dojo’s of Japan to the boardrooms of North America and Europe, Winslow is equally comfortable in the classroom and at the podium. Igniting people leaders, community builders, and teams around thought leading topics advancing individual and organizational trajectories.”
This might seem like a bit of an exaggeration, but it actually speaks to my origin story.
My journey took root as young sensei/sifu of Japanese and Chinese marital arts on the West Coast and really baked in from the mid-eighties in Japan and onward for the next four decades. As a solopreneur representing Japan in two disciplines, a frequent sensei-in-residence relationship with Japan, and having achieved the eight dan level, career-wise this should have been enough. The pull to bring the distinctions in mastery out of the dojo and into the world had become irresistible, and needed.
In the mid-nineties I found myself traveling internationally as a leadership development asset and almost completely reconfiguring my bundle of services. A few advanced degrees later in organizational psychology and organizational development later, the imposter syndrome had mostly faded and I finally had what I didn’t realized I had wished for: two full-time jobs/careers.
I identify as a “full-stack organizational and leadership development practitioner and facilitator” and find working with startups equally as gratifying as working with government agencies and larger enterprise.
In addition to strategic planning, leadership development, team building and working in the organizational culture and change space, I find myself helping people future proof their companies and careers by becoming more AI fluent.
My stake in the ground there is, to equip leaders to harness AI as a strategic advantage — not just to work faster, but to think deeper, ask better, and lead in ways machines cannot. Our purpose is to transform uncertainty into clarity, noise into leverage, and curiosity into capability. We do this by blending human insight with AI fluency, enabling organizations to reimagine processes, unlock new possibilities, and shape the market instead of chasing it.”
I also have a startup on the back burner ready to globalize sometime in the near future. That would be another story arc I think.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
There were more than one business post-mortems experienced during Covid from which we learned an lot and prepared us to lean into this new Gen AI economy. Even the consulting practice was on life-support for longer than I’d like to admit. This was an important teacher in the fine art of resilience
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Working with new clients, initially, is a mutual learning curve. In addition to their organizational development needs, right away, I learn about their culture and workflows as they learn how to best utilize my talents and toolkits. If we don’t have a solution already locked and loaded and ready to deploy, we’ll create something just for them that hasn’t existed previously, as we are in the innovation business above all else.
The website has a lot of it and there is a lot helpful additional content the speaks to areas of expertise on https://www.winslow-consulting.com/blog
How can people work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
I actually answer non-salesy DM’s on LinkedIn. If people need help with their strategic thinking and planning, igniting their teams, advancing their organizations, or accelerating their startups, we can usually come up with something epic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.winslow-consulting.com/
- Instagram: @winspiration1 @winslow-consult
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/winslow.swart
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leadershipguru/
- Twitter: @WinslowConsult
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/Y513smGtVNM?si=Cl3x0kK0caAj5r6O
- Other: https://www.ted.com/talks/winslow_swart_goals_suck_dreams_are_epic
