Transform your organization with Zach Mercurio’s science-backed insights on purposeful leadership, mattering at work, and meaningful performance.
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Top rated!5 of 5
“Zach is masterful. He makes the important topic of purpose approachable, fun and inspiring.”
Think2Perform
Dr. Zach Mercurio is a leading expert in purposeful leadership and meaningful work. Author of The Power of Mattering (Harvard Business Review Press), he empowers organizations like Delta and Marriott to build cultures where people feel valued, engaged, and driven, transforming purpose into measurable performance and lasting success.
Keynote Speaker Zach Mercurio, Ph.D., is one of the world’s leading voices on purposeful leadership, mattering at work, and the science of meaningful performance. As a researcher, leadership facilitator, and trusted advisor to global organizations, Zach helps companies build cultures where every person feels valued, motivated, and essential to success. His powerful keynotes bridge research and real-world leadership challenges, offering audiences practical tools to create workplaces that inspire commitment, innovation, and well-being.
Zach is the author of The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance (Harvard Business Review Press, 2025) and The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose. He has advised top organizations including Delta Airlines, Marriott International, the U.S. Army, and the Government of Canada, helping leaders transform purpose from a vision statement into a measurable business advantage.
His expertise has been featured in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Psychology Today, and his research has been recognized by the Academy of Management and the Association for Talent Development. When you book Zach Mercurio for your event, you invite a thought leader who not only inspires but equips your organization with science-backed strategies to foster meaning, engagement, and long-term performance.
In a time when employees seek more than just work, they seek purpose, Zach Mercurio delivers the insights leaders need to make every person, and every role, truly matter.
5 of 5
“Zach is masterful. He makes the important topic of purpose approachable, fun and inspiring.”
Think2Perform
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“Zach really dialed in on what makes us tick and how to sustain our true purpose. His sincerity and skill helped us think through the exercises; months later, the results still motivate and refresh us.”
University of Colorado Health Systems
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“I can now coach my team every day on why we do what we do; wonderful reminder that we all truly have a purpose in all that we do.”
Veterinary Medical Association
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“We’ve gotten so much positive praise for Zach’s session.”
Colorado State University
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“We are so impressed and wowed by you, your passion, your vision, your style – truly in awe and so grateful that you shared the time with us!
Vistage Worldwide
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“Zach’s energy is contagious, and all of our attendees were hanging on every word. He provided exactly the type of actionable leadership advice our community needs and craves.”
Crankset Group
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“One of the best trainings we’ve ever had. Zach was engaging, relatable and his teachings on purpose are so applicable to strengthening our everyday work experience and connecting our purpose to our mission. This is a training everyone should take.”
The National Park Service
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“Such an energizing session and totally on target. It got me extremely fired up!”
Moving Worlds Institute
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“Thank you for helping us find our purpose.”
Crocs
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“Zach was exceptional. I cannot thank him enough for delivering an impactful keynote, full of easy and applicable tips to help our leaders focus on the concept of mattering. I filled my entire page with notes with the tiniest of handwriting. It was packed full of brilliance.”
HCA Healthcare
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“Hands-down the best briefing we’ve ever received.”
U.S. Army
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
“One of the most impactful leadership development sessions I’ve ever attended.”
Leader JP Morgan Chase
Zach Mercurio
5 of 5
Finally, practical tools we can use tomorrow.
Ace Hardware
Zach Mercurio
Keynote by Zach Mercurio:
My in-person and virtual programs blend science, powerful stories, and practical tools to compel your people to action. All of my topics are customized for your group’s industry and context. Formats for the below programs range from a 45-minute keynote to an immersive, multi-hour applied leadership workshop. If you scroll down, I’ve detailed my most requested topics.
Example topics include:
Keynote by Zach Mercurio:
What if you could incite motivation, improve well-being, and address the disengagement and disconnection crises in your next interaction? You can, by meeting people’s most fundamental need: to matter.
Based on the captivating science of mattering and hands-on work with hundreds of organizations, you’ll discover why the most effective leaders prioritize showing people their significance and learn the essential skills to ensure they feel truly seen, heard, valued, and needed.
In this interactive keynote experience that’s been featured by author Simon Sinek, included in The Harvard Business Review, and presented to clients such as the U.S. Army, you will learn:
Keynote by Zach Mercurio:
Research finds that people who work with or for a Purposeful Leader are more resilient and higher-performing. Why? When people are connected to purpose, they are four times more likely to be engaged, are more motivated, learn faster and are more fulfilled.
Yet, while 79 percent of leaders rightly think that staying aligned with a central, human-centered reason for being (purpose) is critical to success, just 34 percent say that they enact purpose regularly when making decisions and in their everyday practices when working with their teams.
In this mind-shifting program that redefines leadership, I provide clarity about what purpose is, show how purpose scientifically works to compel people and organizations, and introduce the key research-backed practices of Purposeful Leadership to cultivate fulfilled and resilient lives, teams and organizations.
The Power and Practice of Purposeful Leadership program has been presented to thousands of people around the world including Fortune 500 executives, front-line workers, healthcare providers, education administrators, governments, entrepreneurs and students.
IN THIS KEYNOTE EXPERIENCE, YOU’LL LEARN…
Keynote by Zach Mercurio:
Eighty-three percent of people in diverse occupations identify that finding meaning in work is a daily top priority, and more than 50 percent of people across numerous occupations and industries indicate they would take a lower paying job for more meaning.
At the same time, compelling research finds that people can actively craft their work as meaningful and connected to a bigger purpose – even in routine tasks.
In the Activate Purpose in Work session, I empower and compel people at the individual, team and leadership level to begin crafting all work as meaningful for themselves and others to feel more fulfilled, engaged and to increase performance.
Activate Purpose in Work is ideal for all-organization meetings and events and is applicable and empowering for any employee type from frontline worker to executive.
IN THIS PROGRAM, YOU’LL LEARN…
Keynote by Zach Mercurio:
Many initiatives to improve employee engagement fail because they tend to overlook the predictors of engagement – the strongest of which is the experience of meaningfulness. With employee engagement rates remaining strikingly low for nearly a decade, I provide a new way to think about engagement by focusing on cultivating a culture of meaning.
People experience meaningfulness when they (1) feel they are significant, (2) can see how their work fits into a bigger whole, (3) are able to fully utilize their strengths and skills, (4) develop meaningful relationships that add value to their whole lives, and (5) are able to participate in a fearless organizational culture.
In Design a Meaningful Employee Experience, I provide key research-backed strategies for intentionally designing and maintaining an employee experience that elicits a sense of meaningfulness to drive motivation and fulfillment, which can result in retention and low turnover.
The Design a Meaningful Employee Experience is ideal for both organizational and team leaders who are the architects of the core processes that impact the daily life of people in the workplace.
IN THIS PROGRAM, YOU’LL LEARN…
Watch Zach Mercurio in action!
