Oleg Konovalov
Leaders are asked to set direction in conditions that punish hesitation and reward false certainty in equal measure. Most vision statements are decorative. The organisational tension is the gap between an inspiring slide and a workforce that can act on it tomorrow morning, and the cost of that gap shows up in stalled strategy, drifting culture, and senior teams that cannot agree on what they are building.
Oleg Konovalov is a leadership author and executive coach who helps senior teams convert vision from a slogan into an operating discipline that the organisation can execute.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Oleg Konovalov
- He has codified vision as a working leadership skill in The Vision Code (Wiley, 2021), drawing on primary interviews with senior visionary leaders rather than abstracted theory.
- He was named #1 Global Leading Coach at the Marshall Goldsmith Thinkers50 Awards, a credible signal of standing among working executive coaches.
- His Visionary Leadership Framework gives boards and executive committees a shared vocabulary for diagnosing where a vision is failing, before it shows up in numbers.
- He works on the C-suite side of the desk: the brief is usually about getting senior teams aligned and credible to their own organisations, not motivational set pieces.
- His earlier books on organisational anatomy and corporate culture mean he can connect a vision conversation to the structural and cultural conditions that allow it to land.
Biography highlights
- Doctoral degree, Durham University Business School.
- Author of The Vision Code (Wiley, 2021), with foreword by Marshall Goldsmith.
- Author of LEADEROLOGY, Corporate Superpower, Organisational Anatomy, Hidden Russia, and The Fisherman’s Path to Leadership.
- Named #1 Global Leading Coach, Marshall Goldsmith Thinkers50 Awards.
- Shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Award in Leadership, 2021.
- Listed in Global Gurus Top 30 in Leadership; Forbes contributor.
Biography
Most corporate visions do not survive contact with the operating year. They sit on a wall, get quoted in townhalls, and quietly disconnect from the decisions executives actually make. Oleg Konovalov’s work begins from that disconnect, and treats vision as a measurable leadership skill rather than a communications artefact.
The Vision Code, published by Wiley in 2021 with a foreword by Marshall Goldsmith, set out his Visionary Leadership Framework. The book is built on primary interviews with senior leaders across industries, including Garry Ridge of WD-40 and the branding strategist Martin Lindstrom, and it argues that vision can be diagnosed, taught, and executed with the same rigour as any other senior capability.
His earlier books, including LEADEROLOGY, Organisational Anatomy, and Corporate Superpower, sit alongside that work and connect the vision conversation to organisational design and culture. He holds a doctorate from Durham University Business School and writes regularly for Forbes.
The recognition reflects working credibility with senior leaders rather than a media profile alone. He was named #1 Global Leading Coach at the Marshall Goldsmith Thinkers50 Awards, shortlisted for the Thinkers50 Distinguished Award in Leadership, and listed in the Global Gurus Top 30 in Leadership.
Key speaking topics
- Visionary leadership
- Vision execution and strategy alignment
- Corporate culture in the digital era
- Leadership in disruption
- Organisational diagnosis
- Executive coaching and C-suite development
Ideal for
- CEOs and executive committees setting or resetting strategic direction
- Board chairs and non-executive directors assessing senior leadership capability
- CHROs and chief learning officers designing senior leadership development
- Founders and scale-up leaders translating ambition into an operating vision
Audience outcomes
- A working definition of vision that can be tested against the organisation’s current direction
- A diagnostic for where a stated vision is failing inside the leadership team
- A clearer view of how culture, structure, and vision interact in execution
- Practical questions senior leaders can take into their next strategy or board conversation
Talks
A keynote on how senior leaders create and execute a vision the organisation can actually act on.
Key takeaways:
- The difference between a stated vision and an executable one
- Where vision typically breaks down inside the executive team
- What senior leaders need to do differently to close that gap
A leadership keynote on the executive behaviours that hold up under sustained disruption.
Key takeaways:
- How disruption exposes weaknesses in leadership models built for stable conditions
- The leadership skills that compound rather than erode under pressure
- How to build a senior team that can lead without waiting for clarity
A talk on culture as the connective tissue between vision and operating reality in digital-first organisations.
Key takeaways:
- Why culture quietly determines whether a vision is executed or quietly abandoned
- The cultural patterns that distinguish high-performing digital organisations
- Where executive teams typically lose grip on their own culture