Full Bio
David Cottrell
Best-Selling Author, Award-Winning Leadership Expert, Professional Speaker
“Leadership is about influence. It exists throughout the organization –not just in executives, managers and supervisors.”
Leadership Expert
Speaker and author David Cottrell has created a legacy of leadership excellence. During his three decades of leadership experience in corporate America, David lived the obstacles, frustrations and issues today’s leaders face. The best-selling business author of more than 30 highly acclaimed books, David has been a featured expert on television and has shared his leadership philosophy and lessons with more than half a million managers and leaders worldwide. He is currently President & CEO of CornerStone Leadership Institute, one of the nation’s largest publishers of management and leadership resources.
Unprecedented Awards
David has walked in leaders’ shoes. David started his career as one of the youngest sales managers in the history of Xerox Corporation. After a decade with Xerox, David joined FedEx where he was elected multiple times to the President’s Club. To this day, David is the only person to have been chosen District Manager of the Year for two consecutive years. In sales and executive management positions with FedEx and Xerox and the successful turnaround of a Chapter 11 company, David created a legacy of leadership excellence. David’s tremendous leadership achievements were the result of his deep belief that he could expect the best from people by investing in them. His wisdom and sincerity come from one who has “been there.” David’s depth of knowledge and experience make for content-rich learning experiences that few other speakers can match.
Cornerstone Leadership Institute
David now puts his proven leadership skills into practice at CornerStone Leadership Institute. CornerStone’s mission is to provide affordable people-development tools to anyone aspiring to be a leader in their field. Their reach has extended globally to more than 15,000 businesses, associations, government agencies and educational institutions.
Professional Speaker, Trainer and Facilitator
A speaker, trainer and facilitator for many of today’s most successful organizations, the impact of David’s presentations is immediate and long-lasting. His leadership philosophy and lessons have become the guiding force for some of the top companies in existence today. Laced with energy, humor and audience engagement, his presentations provide practical tips that attendees can use in their everyday lives. Past clients include Walmart, Southwest Airlines, ExxonMobil, Macy’s, Yum! Brands, ClubCorp, Cigna Healthcare, Duke Energy, Land’s End, Aflac, Raytheon and the Social Security Administration. These groups will tell you that David changed not only their perspectives, their energy levels and their attitudes, but he changed their lives.
Best-Selling Author
With more than three million copies of his books in print, David is most well-known for authoring the ground-breaking, best-selling books Monday Morning Leadership, Monday Morning Mentoring, Tuesday Morning Coaching, and LeaderShift: Making Leadership Everyone’s Business. His books have been adopted by organizations in numerous countries as trusted leadership training tools. In addition to a wealth of information on leadership, his book and presentation topics include: success principles; coaching; accountability; communication; sales; customer service; presentation skills; and time management.