About the Founder | JOAnn R. Corley

JoAnn Corley is a seasoned executive advisor, leadership development specialist, speaker, author, and founder of Leadership, Lived—a transformational leadership development brand born from her decision not to retire, but to begin a powerful third chapter of impact.

Recognized among the Top 30 Global HR Influencers and Top 50 Global Thought Leaders, JoAnn brings more than 27 years of experience helping organizations increase profits and operate optimally by successfully integrating the human dimension of their enterprise. She offers business advisory, management consulting, and executive leadership development services that develop high-performing leader-managers and management teams while strengthening organizational performance from the inside out.

At the heart of her work is JoAnn’s pioneering philosophy of the Human Quotient—the integration of people acumen with practical business and organizational acumen. She often refers to this as developing “the complete leader.” Her overriding belief is simple yet profound: “When we are our best human selves, we will have our best businesses.”

She views organizations as living ecosystems of relationships and talent/ She approaches leadership and business building holistically—aligning human maturity, emotional intelligence, relational capacity, and decision quality with measurable performance outcomes.

After decades of working across industries and organizational levels—from the shop floor to the C-suite—JoAnn reached a defining moment. Rather than stepping back, she chose to step forward with greater clarity, purpose, and conviction. Leadership, Lived emerged as both a culmination of her life’s work and a bold evolution of her thinking: leadership is not something you learn once—it is something you live, daily, across the full life cycle of your career.

Unlike traditional leadership training that relies on sporadic workshops, static content, or one-off interventions, Leadership, Lived is an experience-based development system designed for real-time application, reflection, and growth. It integrates neuroscience, behavioral science, performance psychology, and decades of field-tested coaching into a structured, measurable, and human-centered approach to leadership development.

At the core of Leadership, Lived is JoAnn’s proven proprietary framework incorporating the Human Quotient philosophy, operationalized through six core leadership dimensions that reflect how leadership is actually lived: authentic personal power, relationship building, leading individuals, leading teams, results and process management, and growth and talent development.

What makes Leadership, Lived uniquely powerful is its life-cycle design. Rather than treating leadership development as a single phase or program, JoAnn’s methodology adapts to the evolving needs of leaders—from early managers to seasoned executives—offering long-term developmental value rather than short-term learning events. 

Leaders engage in 90-day growth cycles, micro-milestones, behavioral feedback loops, and applied coaching experiences that create measurable shifts in performance, confidence, and impact.

JoAnn is also a passionate and inspiring business speaker and author. She has shared her insights with thousands throughout North America, speaking in every major U.S. city and state—a rare distinction—on themes including creative and critical thinking, team synergy, emotional intelligence, holistic organizational leadership, and talent management.

Globally, her impact extends through her partnership with LinkedIn Learning, where her acclaimed courses on leadership and talent management have been viewed by over 500,000 participants worldwide, earning her recognition as a highly regarded LinkedIn course author, including honors around Global Teacher’s Day.

Her influence and thought leadership have been consistently recognized year after year. Most recently, she was named among the Top 50 Global Thought Leaders in 2025.

JoAnn’s insights have been quoted and featured in leading media outlets including NBC News, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, Monster.com, ATD, SHRM National, HR Magazine, Management Business Daily, and the Daily Telegraph (UK). She has also appeared on multiple radio programs across the United States, further amplifying her message on the future of leadership and human-centered performance.

Today, through Leadership, Lived, JoAnn is on a mission to democratize leadership development—making high-quality, experience-based, human-centered leadership growth accessible to managers, supervisors, and executives alike, while also offering premium advisory services for senior leaders and organizations seeking deep, systemic transformation.

Her work is guided by a simple but powerful truth: leadership success is not built in theory—it is built in lived experience.

JoAnn Corley continues to redefine what leadership development can be when it honors the full human dimension of performance, maturity, and growth— turning human insight into measurable impact  and results.

She is author of several books including; Brain on Fire: Unleashing Your Creative Superpowers, The Human Quotient: The Most Potent Force for Your Business Success and Show Me The Money! Solving the Mystery of ROI to Unlock Profits & Increase Company Value.  Amazon Author Page | Read Her Back Story

Around the Web - Relevant Links

https://twitter.com/joanncorley | www.linkedin.com/in/joanncorley | Leadership development platform | Youtube

Her micro-podcast - Leadership, Lived - can be found on Spotify, iTunes, Amazon, Podbean, Audible

Companies & Universities whose employees have experienced her content include: NASA, Johns Hopkins, Microsoft, City of Chicago, University of GA, Duke Energy, The Conference Board, Penn State to name a few.

Download the complete executive summary for Leadership, Lived