Dr. Gye Johnson
Leadership failure doesn’t have to be the end of your story
I help struggling and burned-out leaders recover from breakdown and rebuild from the inside out. My work focuses on the inner transformation required to lead with clarity, courage, and humanity—because true leadership starts with healing, not performance.
Through the STRIVE to HEAL™ framework, I guide leaders through the real work behind the role: confronting ego, restoring trust, aligning values, and reclaiming purpose. This isn’t about perfection… it’s about growth.
When we empower leaders to face their pain, own their impact, and lead with empathy over ego, we don’t just fix culture, we transform it. From failure to flourishing, I help leaders rise.
Meet Gye
Dr. Gye Johnson, Founder and CEO of Gye Johnson Leadership Consulting Firm, LLC, has dedicated his career to transforming organizational cultures to enhance employee engagement and morale. His extensive experience in high-stakes federal service and organizational leadership has led him to identify a critical challenge faced by many emerging leaders in navigating the complexities of today’s fast-paced and emotionally charged workplace.
Drawing upon his practical insights, academic background, including a Master’s degree in Management and a Doctorate in Management with a specialization in Organizational Leadership, and his unwavering commitment to empowering individuals to lead with purpose, Dr. Johnson has become a sought-after speaker, author, and consultant. His captivating presentations challenge conventional leadership paradigms and provide actionable tools that empower leaders to cultivate empathy, humanity, and clarity. These insights resonate deeply with audiences, inspiring them to embrace transformative culture shifts and take proactive steps to achieve their goals.
Dr. Gye Johnson empowers leaders to recover from breakdown and lead with renewed purpose, humanity, and courage. His groundbreaking book, STRIVE to HEAL: How Leaders Recover From Breakdown to Breakthrough, introduces a transformational leadership model designed for today’s complex world. At its core, the STRIVE™ framework helps leaders reimagine the outer work of leadership—building cultures rooted in Strategic Vision, Trust, Resilience, Innovation, Valor, and Empathy. But transformation doesn’t stop there.
Through the HEAL™ methodology, Dr. Johnson guides leaders through the essential inner work of recovery: confronting hard truths, embracing emotional agility, aligning values with action, and leading from a place of wholeness. This dual focus—inner healing and outer leadership—has become the foundation of his consulting, coaching, and training programs across federal agencies, corporate teams, and nonprofit organizations.
Because in a world where leadership breakdowns are common, true impact begins with leaders who are willing to STRIVE… and ready to HEAL.
In his spare time, Dr. Johnson enjoys recreational activities such as golf, cycling, and culinary endeavors, demonstrating his versatility and enjoyment of diverse pursuits.
Gye's Talks
From Breakdown to Breakthrough: How Great Leaders Recover, Rebuild, and Rise
Leadership isn’t just tested in moments of triumph—it’s defined in moments of failure. In this powerful keynote, Dr. Gye Johnson introduces the STRIVE to HEAL™ framework, a transformative model designed to help leaders recover from setbacks and rise stronger. Drawing from real-world experience, research, and his own leadership journey, he reveals the inner work required to rebuild trust, restore purpose, and lead with renewed clarity. Audiences will walk away with practical tools to turn pain into power and failure into fuel. This isn’t just about leading others—it’s about learning how to lead yourself first.
The Culture Shift: How to Re-Engage Teams and Retain Talent
Disengagement silently drains organizations of their most valuable resource: people. In this talk, Dr. Gye Johnson elucidates why outdated leadership models fail to inspire today’s workforce and proposes alternative strategies for modern leaders. Attendees will gain insights into cultivating a culture where employees feel valued, heard, and motivated to contribute. This session is particularly beneficial for organizations seeking to retain top talent and revitalize team performance through values-driven leadership.
Empathy Over Ego: Rewriting the Rules of Leadership
Ego is the primary impediment to effective leadership. The remedy? Empathy. In this captivating session, Dr. Gye Johnson delves into the various pitfalls of unchecked ego, debunks misconceptions surrounding “soft skills” and redefines empathy as a leadership superpower. Attendees will explore the transformative power of emotional intelligence, examining how it unlocks performance, reduces burnout, and fosters healthier, high-performing teams. This presentation is specifically designed for organizational executives seeking to prevent their accomplishments from becoming their leadership downfall.
Executive Leadership Coaching
Dr. Gye Johnson offers executive coaching to senior leaders and emerging executives seeking to lead with authenticity, purpose, and a profound impact. His coaching methodology is tailored, strategic, and rooted in practical leadership experience. Through dedicated one-on-one sessions, clients acquire the necessary tools to effectively manage change, foster employee engagement, cultivate inclusive work environments, and lead with integrity.
Dr. Gye Johnson is an executive coach, certified facilitator, and organizational leadership expert. He holds a Professional Coaching Certification from George Mason’s Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, an Executive Certificate in Facilitation from Georgetown University, and a Doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership.
Dr. Johnson has honed his unique blend of leadership development, facilitation, and executive coaching. He believes that most people possess the raw talent to be a leader, with the differentiation between marginal leaders and transformational leaders boiling down to two factors: authenticity and integrity.
Dr. Johnson’s approach to executive coaching seeks to tap into these two key factors by analyzing the client's unique blend of strengths and abilities and discovering how these factors can lead to transformational leadership. He engages his clients with his straightforward competitive candor, the wisdom that comes from being a natural people leader, a business acumen led by his strengths, and his passion for creating an inclusive community. He partners with senior leaders, supporting their goal to maximize employee engagement, build inclusive cultures, and cultivate thought leaders.
Dr. Johnson has become a highly sought-after C-Suite executive coach and strategic partner that holds his clients accountable to their goals and strategy. He has utilized his extensive organizational facilitation experience to help leaders navigate organizational crises, large-scale institutional change, and the development and execution of strategic vision and planning. Understanding that there is no “one size fits all” approach to leadership, Dr. Johnson approaches each new engagement as a unique opportunity to develop a customized plan to achieve the client’s goals. He believes, “Every leader brings their own set of skills, knowledge, experience, achievements, challenges, and strategies to an engagement; it is my duty to support them in developing and executing their vision.”
