Bill Gentry

Bill has served as a senior research scientist, manager of the post-doctoral program, keynote speaker for events, and trainer for 2 CCL open enrollment programs.

Since joining CCL in 2005, Bill has been a key researcher who has conference presentations and publications from major, global CCL projects including Careers in 21st Century Europe, Coaching Best Practices, Global Leader View, Key Lessons in Politics, Leadership Across Differences, and the World Leadership Survey.

Bill has more than 70 academic presentations and has published more than 40 articles in such journals as the  Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Personnel Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and The Leadership Quarterly. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Business & Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior and The Leadership Quarterly.

Bill has been a contributor to BusinessWeek.com on the nonverbal behaviors of candidates in the 2008 presidential and vice presidential debates. In addition, his research on first-time managers, leader character and integrity, political skill, and derailment in the workplace has been featured in more than 50 internet and newspaper outlets including Chief Learning Officer, ChiefExecutive.Net, TrainingIndustry.Com, Forbes.com, the Wall Street Journal online At Work, and CNN.com. Bill has also taught in the Leadership Studies doctoral program at North Carolina A&T State University and in the Business School at Wake Forest University.

Current Role

Bill formerly served as the Director of Leadership Insights and Analytics, a group within the global research and evaluation department in Research, Innovation, and Product Development. In his role as director, Bill managed a group that uses trend research, client-driven analytics and data-driven workshops to drive progress at CCL, in the field and in the practice of leadership worldwide. As a researcher, Bill used his quantitative and qualitative research skills to examine what leaders, particularly first-time managers, can do to be successful in their work and life, and to avoid derailment. As a trainer, he facilitated programs to help leaders be their best, particularly entry- and first-level managers on the frontlines who are leading for the first time in their lives. In particular, he trained CCL’s Maximizing Your Leadership Potential program and Assessment Certification Workshop. Most recently, Bill has used his passion for developing first-time managers as leaders to write the book Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For: A Guide for New Leaders (Berrett-Koehler publishers). Bill is also currently an adjunct assistant professor in the Psychology department at Guilford College and an associate member of the graduate faculty in the Organizational Sciences doctoral program at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte.

Educational Background

Bill graduated summa cum laude from Emory University in 2000, and received his M.S. in 2002 and his Ph.D. in 2005 in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of Georgia (UGA). In 2011, Bill was inducted into UGA’s inaugural 40 under 40 as one of the top 40 graduates of the University of Georgia under the age of 40. Bill was also a postdoctoral research fellow at CCL before joining CCL’s full-time faculty as a researcher and trainer.

Professional Affiliations

Bill is a member of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), and the Academy of Management (AoM).

Books:

• Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For

Articles:

• A Study of the Discrepancy between Self- and Observer-Ratings on Managerial Derailment Characteristics of European Managers

Presentations:

• Bill discusses how crucial it is for first time supervisors to “flip” from thinking about yourself to thinking about creating a partnership with your team.