Melissa Swift

How can we all be more effective at work? 

Melissa Swift has spent her career answering this question. As a respected leader in people consulting, she’s helped large and complex organizations wrestle down difficult challenges. In her role today founder and CEO of leadership and organizational advisory firm Anthrome Insight, she works with leaders, organizations, and teams to understand what powers their best work – and to help them battle the forces that challenge their success. Through original research and groundbreaking client work, Swift has developed a strong point of view and well-honed strategies for such tasks as fighting chaos, harnessing emotion at work, and creating a spirit of empowerment in the age of AI.  

Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, her speaking work draws from her experiences assisting household-name organizations with questions like “What do we do if no one wants to work for us anymore?,” “Why can’t IT move faster?,” and “We’re getting outcompeted by tiny start-ups, have we really set our people up for success?” She uses humor, a dash of history, and unexpected statistics to challenge audiences’ beliefs about the world of work – and to illuminate practical strategies to actually change the future, not just repeat the past. Swift might cite labor market data or reference the movie Office Space – but it will always be with a pragmatic, actionable end in mind. In her consulting career, Swift led people transformation practices for Capgemini, Mercer, and Korn Ferry, leading large teams across industries for work that spanned the globe. 

Swift is the best-selling author of the book Effective: How to Do Great Work in a Fast-Changing World, which explores both what makes us terrific at work and what stops us from doing the work we know we’re capable of. Her first book, Work Here Now: Think Like a Human and Build a Powerhouse Workplace explores practical strategies to get to a more human future of work. The book was recognized in the 2023 Porchlight Business Book Awards in the “Management & Workplace Culture” category, garnered her recognition in the Thinkers50 Radar class of 2023, and was named to McKinsey’s recommended reading list for 2024. 

She writes a quarterly and widely read column on leadership and culture for MIT Sloan Management Review, highlighting such topics as how the work of leadership has gotten harder, and how leaders can better navigate a hyper-transparent world. Her research has been published in Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal, and her insights have been quoted in Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Economist, Axios, and more. 

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