Andrew W Sykes
Andrew Sykes helps people and organizations close the Knowing-Doing Gap: the distance between what we know we should do and what we actually do and the results we produce through his work as an entrepreneur, researcher, Kellogg faculty member, speaker, author, executive coach and performance poet.
Andrew is the founder and CEO of Habits at Work, helping companies turn values into skills, skills into habits and habits into results. Its Power Habits Programs and consulting span trustworthiness, accountability, storytelling, AI fluency, innovation, promise selling and culture transformation. Clients include leading technology, AI, healthcare, financial services and entertainment companies, along with nonprofits, government entities and education institutions.
He founded the Behavioral Research Applied Technology Laboratory (BRATLAB.com) to study which habits make the biggest difference in life, leadership and work. From that research came the Four Powers Model and Context Design, a new science of habit creation that builds habits at scale, transforms culture at pace and tackles the behavioral challenges that hold back business results.
Andrew joined the Kellogg School of Management in 2018 as a faculty member in the Kellogg Sales Institute. He now teaches Entrepreneurial Selling, Leadership, Management, Storytelling, Change Management, Nonprofit Fundraising, Trustworthiness and more. His classes are consistently noted for going beyond knowledge and skill building into experiences that reshape students' and executives’ identity, mindsets and sense of what is possible. He has taught at business schools and corporations in more than 100 cities and holds visiting professorships at several other universities around the world.
On stages around the world, Andrew is known for his energetic delivery, the occasional purple suit and stories drawn from his life, research and network of world-class leaders. A frequent Best Speaker award recipient, he gives keynotes that touch hearts, change minds and inspire action.
His book Your Trust Advantage: Build the Ultimate Superpower in Leadership and Life, distills a decade of research into how to become the most trustworthy leader, human and organization, and why that goal is worth pursuing. His previous book The 11th Habit captures BRATLAB's research as a guide for CEOs building organizations that thrive by investing in the health, happiness and financial security of their people. His poetry collection, WOOOOOOOOF, explores philosophy, adventure, synesthesia, peace and love, and has been described as "not for the faint of heart, the frail of mind or those lacking a very robust sense of humor."
As lead facilitator for Cerené.life, an executive experience company, he helps people reinvent who they are and who they are becoming by blending philosophy, skill development and a proprietary recipe for personal reinvention. As an executive coach, he helps CEOs and senior leaders see past their blind spots and step into their full potential.
Originally from South Africa, Andrew qualified as the country's youngest actuary at the time and went on to found NMG Consultants and Actuaries. It grew into one of South Africa's largest actuarial, employee benefits, HR, culture, investment advisory and wealth management firms and became the flagship of the NMG group globally. He has since lived, worked and run businesses on six continents. His work has included helping Spain's largest insurer enter the Brazilian market, where he designed the country's first wellness-linked health plans; shaping bancassurance and retention strategy for one of Argentina's largest banks; and designing the first consumer-driven HMO for Colorado school districts, which is still running and highly successful after 20 years. In Chicago, he led Destiny Health's transformation into The Vitality Group as Chief Wellbeing Officer. He has also served on the board of POLMED, South African health plan, and on several other boards.
- How to create trust in sales teams
- and leadership teams. How to create high impact habits at scale and change company culture as a result. A habits approach to DE&I. Fund raising as a sales skills for Not for Profit leaders. The art of human transformation: How to become unrecognizable to yourself in 108 days
- in all the best ways!To sell is to lead: the similarities and common skills that salespeople and leaders need to excel.
- All aspects of building
- maintaining and restoring trustEntrepreneurial selling and sales skills
- habits and disciplines more generally. Leadership habits and communication skills.Fund raising and team leadership in not for profit organizations. The art of human transformation: How to become unrecognizable to yourself in 108 days
- in all the best ways!To sell is to lead: the similarities and common skills that salespeople and leaders need to excel.
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Health Insurance Associate, 1994, Health insurance design and pricing, AHIP
Managed Healthcare Professional MHP, 1994, Managed care and health insurance design, NA, AHIP
Fellow of the Faculty of the Actuaries in Scotland, 1992, Actuarial Science, Faculty and institute of actuaries
Bachelors, 1990, Actuarial Science and Mathematical Statistics, Witwatersrand University, Cum Laude -
Professional speaker and performance poet, andrewsykes.com, 2005-present
Lead Facilitator, Cerené.life, 2021-present
Founder, Behavioral Research and Applied Technology Laboratory, 2005-present
Founder and CEO, Habits at Work, 2008-present
Chief Wellness Officer, Vitality Health, 2007-present
Founder and CEO, Health at Work, 2005-2007
CEO and Chief Actuary, NMG Consultants and Actuaries, 1992-2004
Health and Life Product Development, Swiss Reinsurance Company, 1991-1992
Energizing People for Performance
Participants in this highly interactive program, master the processes and tools required to unleash the potential in individuals, energize their teams, and empower people to achieve consistently higher levels of performance and deliver better bottom-line results.
Selling Yourself and Your Ideas
Kellogg Executive Education and the Kellogg Sales Institute’s Selling Yourself and Your Ideas program will force you out of your comfort zone, helping you develop the knowledge, skills and discipline needed to show up, stand out and break through in every room you’re in.
Dive into a dynamic learning experience that pushes you beyond your comfort zone – enhancing your ability to connect, persuade, and inspire across all facets of your professional and personal life.
Mastering Nonprofit Development: From Strategy to Stewardship
This program provides a comprehensive and practical approach to achieving fundraising success, offering a mix of stewardship techniques that are essential for any nonprofit organization looking to improve its donor engagement and fundraising strategies.Maximizing Team Effectiveness: Building & Leading High Impact Teams
Designed to equip senior nonprofit leaders with the skills and insights necessary to drive talent development and enhance team performance within their organizations, this program covers key areas essential for fostering high-performing teams.
Selling Yourself and Your Ideas (LDEVX-477-0)
It’s been said that humans are “meaning making machines.†More than 70,000 years ago, near the outset of the Cognitive Revolution, we created language to help protect and organizeourselves.1Over the ensuing millennia, we have developed myriad ways to communicate with each other. Present day, our communications take many forms, and so we find ourselves in conversations, meetings, presentations, and even as producers on social media. As business leaders, we move through these many forms of communication in the course of a week, and indeed we can even traverse each of them within one day. At no time in history have interpersonal communication skills been as important as they are today. In the Agrarian Age, a farmer who ploughed the field a little better than their neighbors could not acquire significantly more wealth. In the Industrial Age, a factory worker who assembled widgets a little faster than the person next to them could not acquire significantly more wealth. Today, anyone, anywhere in the world, who is a little better at expressing their ideas can see a sudden, massive increase in wealth that is unprecedented in human history. In the 21st-century knowledge economy, you are only as valuable as your ideas. Says Gallo, “The ability to convince others that your ideas matter is the single greatest skill that will give you a competitive edge at a time when the combined forces of globalization, automation, and artificial intelligence trigger a wave of anxiety across every profession in every country. In the next decade, your ideas-and the ability to articulate those ideas successfully-will count more than ever. Persuaders are irreplaceable." Selling Yourself & Your Ideas is a course that will force you out of your comfort zone to help you develop the knowledge, skills, and disciplines you need to be a powerful and influential communicator, no matter the situation in which you find yourself.
Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) (INTLX-473-0)
All FT GIM classes will hold a final, mandatory class session. Please refer to each class's syllabi for the date and time.
Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) is an international experiential learning course designed to provide students with an introduction to the unique business opportunities, management practices and market dynamics of a specific region or global industry. The course combines in-class lectures, reading discussions and case studies during the winter quarter with ten days of international field research over spring break. Immersed in the culture and language of their host countries, students will have the opportunity to meet with local business and government leaders, conduct interviews and collect data for their group research projects, and experience some of the unique social and cultural facets of the region. Final presentations and written research reports are due in spring quarter after completion of the overseas portion of the class. Each class section is taught by a faculty member with deep knowledge of the region or industry and supported by an advisor from the Kellogg staff who assists students in planning the field experience. Students are financially responsible for their travel costs, and financial aid is available to those who qualify.
Entrepreneurial Selling (ENTRX-454-0)
"Selling is a life skill. Revenue is a daily pursuit. Do you currently have what it takes to succeed in selling and revenue-generation? Are you willing to embrace the role as ""Owner of Your Business"" no matter what that means in your current context? This course is designed as an adventure of discovery. You will be pushed out of your comfort zone as we move through a series of discussions and practice that will leave no room for guessing regarding your potential for impact. Whether or not you are directly tied in to the sales function of your business, you will be taught the daily expert moves that lead to magnetic sales interactions and will leave the course with a path forward for mastering these moves and bringing them to your company. Whether you manage a multi-national company or are venturing out on your own, you can’t afford to waste time guessing at foundational habits. Starting at the individual level, you will begin activating high-performance habits that allow for immediate implementation and impact. The transformation will continue as you learn what it takes to widen the scope, and shift your mindset, to embed new practices within every client and team-member interaction – driving to objectively positive results. The work we do in Entrepreneurial Selling: Own Your Business will serve you, your clients, and your team. Andrew Sykes and Craig Wortmann built this course specifically with you in mind and they can’t wait to get started and see what you do once you take it beyond the classroom. Who should be taking the course: Revenue-responsible leaders, Managers of Sales Operations and Teams, Managers responsible for Growth, Entrepreneurs, Prospective Entrepreneurs"
Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) (INTL-473-0)
All FT GIM classes will hold a final, mandatory class session. Please refer to each class's syllabi for the date and time.
Global Initiatives in Management (GIM) is an international experiential learning course designed to provide students with an introduction to the unique business opportunities, management practices and market dynamics of a specific region or global industry. The course combines in-class lectures, reading discussions and case studies during the winter quarter with ten days of international field research over spring break. Immersed in the culture and language of their host countries, students will have the opportunity to meet with local business and government leaders, conduct interviews and collect data for their group research projects, and experience some of the unique social and cultural facets of the region. Final presentations and written research reports are due in spring quarter after completion of the overseas portion of the class. Each class section is taught by a faculty member with deep knowledge of the region or industry and supported by an advisor from the Kellogg staff who assists students in planning the field experience. Students are financially responsible for their travel costs, and financial aid is available to those who qualify.
Entrepreneurial Selling (ENTR-454-0)
Selling is a life skill. This course is designed as an adventure of discovery. You will be tested, taught and transformed through a series of lectures, discussions and exercises that are designed to push you up and out of your comfort zone. The biggest challenge to growing a successful entrepreneurial venture is selling. Entrepreneurs must build a strong sales pipeline to ensure profitable growth as they tackle other pressing issues like product development, staffing, infrastructure, and financing. In the Entrepreneurial Selling course, you will learn how to acquire and delight customers, use selling skills in different contexts, manage the entrepreneurial selling process, measure your success and use the key tools required for success in building a company. My goal with this course is to make you as efficient and effective in selling as possible, so that when you are spending time selling, not a moment is wasted. Why? Because as an entrepreneur (and a human), the way you spend your time determines success and failure. Period.
