Caroline Miller

Goals & Grit™ Expert - Caroline Adams Miller is one of the world's leading experts on the science behind successful goal setting and the use of 'good grit' to achieve hard things.

Expert on

  • Resilience
  • Goal Setting
  • Happiness
  • Women in Business
  • Motivation
  • Coaching

Fee Range

$20,000–$30,000

Travels from

DC, US

Biography

Caroline is one of the world’s leading positive psychology experts on Goals & Grit and the science behind successful goal setting and the use of ‘good grit’ to achieve hard things. She is passionate about helping people get more grit, achieve their goals, and find happiness. She’s spent more than 30 years helping individuals, leaders, and companies cultivate grit, one of the top indicators of success and flourishing. 

Caroline is the author of eight books, including global bestsellers Getting Grit (Sounds True 2017), Creating Your Best Life (Sterling 2009), and My Name is Caroline. Live Happy Magazine named Creating Your Best Life one of the top 10 goal-setting books ever published and Getting Grit one of the 10 books that would change your life in 2017. Lifehack ranked Creating Your Best Life as the #1 goal accomplishment book of all time in 2019. Her books have been translated into German, Korean, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian.

Angela Duckworth, winner of the 2013 MacArthur Genius grant for her research on grit, said of Caroline: “I don’t know anybody who has thought more than Caroline about how to apply the scientific research on grit and achievement to our own lives!” 

Caroline is a TEDx speaker. Her work has been featured in hundreds of magazines, newspapers, and other media around the world, including BBC World News, The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC, NPR, CNN, and more.

She has worked with clients around the world including Morgan Stanley, lululemon, The Wharton School/UPENN, RE/MAX, Booz Allen, Young Presidents’ Organization, Harvard Law School, American Bankers Association, Coldwell Banker, and Swisse Wellness.

Caroline has a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. 

Speaker Videos

BRIDGING GRIT, RESILIENCE & HAPPINESS: A REVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO GAME-CHANGING RESULTS

“I don’t know anybody who has thought more than Caroline Miller about how to apply the scientific research on grit and achievement to our own lives.” – Dr. Angela Duckworth, Author of GRIT

In these times of greater complexity, ever-increasing regulation, and stiff global competition, organizations need leaders who can successfully weather change. Old ways of measurement and motivation need to be replaced by cutting-edge and scientific approaches. While goal setting is a basic business fundamental, the timeline for reaching those goals has changed drastically, and time is no longer a luxury.

Resilient leaders know how to combine passion, persistence, and purpose to embody authentic grit. Authentic (AWE-thentic) grit awes and inspires others to become better people and imagine greater possibilities and, in turn, happiness for themselves. It’s “the secret to success” because it is a necessary ingredient to accomplish long-term goals. Effectively setting goals can leapfrog you ahead of your competitors and arm you with a critical superpower that will spell the difference between success and failure.

Building on her revolutionary BRIDGE method (brainstorming, relationships, investments, decisions, grit, and excellence), Caroline shares her research on gender differences, resilience and grit, the impact of character strengths, goal-setting theory, and cultural differences. Implementing these principles empowers teams to have clear expectations, accurately measure progress, and provide the resources to accomplish successful outcomes.

What makes the keynote particularly compelling is Caroline’s personal and timely stories that audiences can’t help but relate to in very thought-compelling and intimate ways, which result in every individual thinking about the best way they can bridge their grit, resilience and ultimate happiness.

Key Takeaways include:

· Understanding various ways grit can be used professionally and personally to increase resilience, create success, and lead with happiness.

· Developing practical strategies that support grit, such as defining purpose, developing “harmonious” passion, creating intrinsic motivation, and fostering a “growth” mindset

· Cultivating authentic grit to stay resilient in the face of change and challenges

· Establishing accountability and building a culture of positive energizers who encourage people to put forth their best efforts in a way that inspires others to do the same.

WHEN WOMEN WIN: WINNING LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES THAT FOSTER A WORLD OF GRIT-FUELED WOMEN

Can you relate to the “SHEcession” we hear so much about in the news lately? The pandemic has shined a spotlight on the fact that women leaders are busier than ever, meeting everyone else’s expectations and juggling multiple roles while their personal and professional goals have been left behind.

In one of her most popular presentations, Caroline inspires women leaders to become their most authentic, ideal selves. She provides proven techniques to help them flourish and cultivate the persistence, humility, and courage to achieve their toughest goals. She provides clever guidance on creating resilience and authentic “good” grit while avoiding the three types of “bad” grit that can destroy the office culture, especially for women.

Another life hack explored is how to cultivate a “believe and achieve” mindset to women’s “tend and befriend” behavior so women can learn to exult in each other’s successes and amplify each other’s ideas and efforts. The goal? Create a team of positive energizers, including men, who support women’s leadership and unique contributions to the workplace.

Key Takeaways include:

  • Identifying and using their character strengths in positive ways to accomplish goals, thrive, and support others in doing the same.
  • Creating resilience and authentic grit – or “good grit” – while avoiding the three types of “bad grit” that can destroy the office culture.
  • Adding a “believe and achieve” mindset to women’s “tend and befriend” behavior so that women can learn to exult in each other’s successes and amplify each other’s ideas and efforts.
  • Using the new science-based approach and BRIDGE methodology to set the right goals for themselves, their organizations, and their teams for optimal outcomes.

THE SCIENCE OF GOAL SETTING

Although every company sets goals for annual growth, employee performance, and productivity, very few do it with the actual science behind goal setting, as defined by Locke & Latham’s goal setting theory (1990) – the #1 evidence-based approach to goal setting that has been replicated in thousands of studies in organizations all over the world.

In a post-covid world, organizations are being tasked with creating “role clarity” so that every employee has the opportunity to be coached towards success with measurable goals. When they are set properly as either performance or learning goals, people have more engagement, greater productivity, and clearer opportunities to work in groups. This type of goal setting also gives managers the right data for accurate performance reviews, which is especially valuable in a hybrid and distributed workforce.

In this workshop, Caroline Miller will explain the best practices of a flourishing organization when it comes to goal setting from the top of an organization down to each employee.

Participants will learn:

  • Goal setting theory by Locke & Latham
  • How to correctly identify and set a learning goal and a performance goal
  • Hear examples of “goals gone wild” like NASA’s ill-fated Challenger launch and Boeing’s deadly 737 MCAS disaster to illustrate the dangers of mixing up performance and learning goals
  • Learn Caroline Miller’s BRIDGE™ method that fixes the “how” question of attaining KPIs from OKRs (decision-making, brainstorming, investments, etc.)
  • Understand why overusing grit to accomplish hard goals can backfire into behavior like “stupid grit” or “selfie grit” and take down a team or organization
  • Give every participant an opportunity to break down a sample job description into correctly-set      goals

All participants will receive handouts to supplement the teaching.