Dr. Michelle K. Johnston is a passionate champion of connection-driven leadership. Recently featured on NBC News with Kate Snow, she is a best-selling author, top ten executive coach, podcast host, keynote speaker, and distinguished professor whose groundbreaking work is reshaping how leaders connect, communicate, and collaborate.
Widely regarded as being at the forefront of the connection movement, Michelle has spent her career showing leaders how authentic relationships drive both engagement and results. She is the bestselling author of The Seismic Shift in You: Seven Necessary Shifts to Create Connection and Drive Results, her newest book coauthored with Dr. Marshall Goldsmith. This powerful guide offers a transformative roadmap for leaders to reevaluate their perspective, priorities, meetings, and calendar to drive more meaningful results.
Her first bestselling book, The Seismic Shift in Leadership: How to Thrive in a New Era of Connection—featured by Forbes four times—spotlights real-world leaders who embraced this shift and are seeing stronger teams and better outcomes because of it.
Michelle serves as a distinguished professor of leadership at Loyola University New Orleans, holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Louisiana State University, and brings decades of insight to her coaching and keynotes. She also hosts The Seismic Shift podcast, ranked in the Top 10% of all podcasts globally, where she engages executives, authors, and thought leaders on the seismic shifts shaking up the way we work and the way we live.
