Inspiring Conversations with Omar L. Harris of Intent Consulting

Today we’d like to introduce you to Omar L. Harris.

Hi Omar, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for sharing your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers.
Born to a chemical engineer father and a social worker mother in the working-class town of Pittsburgh, PA, I learned the value of connecting processes to outcomes and the importance of serving others early. Being the youngest of four boys in a family of 5 children, I endured a lot of hope and pressure to succeed where others had failed to uplift and support my family. Moving from Pittsburgh to Charleston, WV, to Lake Charles, LA, throughout my childhood and adolescence engendered in me the ability to adapt to constant change, which has been my status quo as an adult living all over the US and spending considerable time living and working in the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America.

As a young professional in the pharmaceutical industry, I was exposed to Gallup’s StrengthsFinder tool in 2002, which informed my philosophy of focusing on what was right with people versus what was not. According to the StrengthsFinder assessment, I am naturally gifted with the ability to forge connections between seemingly unrelated items, influence transformation from good to great, quickly generate options, inspire confidence in others, and confront and overcome obstacles. By honing my natural talents into reliable strengths, I successfully enrolled through Pfizer. I ultimately found a corporate home at Schering-Plough as a fast-track management associate, where I worked for one of the most successful marketing teams in the pharmaceutical industry. I became the youngest and senior marketing director in the company’s history before Merck acquired Schering-Plough. My 8 years of experience working on this high-performing team became the seed that would germinate and ultimately grow into my book Leader Board: The DNA of High-Performance Teams. I began leading teams in 2006 and started implementing principles I’d learned by reading books by John C. Maxwell, Tom Rath, Patrick Lencioni, Stephen Covey, and Jim Collins, to name a few. Over time, I found significant gaps between the brilliant theories of these leadership giants and their exact application in the day-to-day minutiae of leading a team in the real world. So, I set out to synthesize and adapt these concepts into a suite of Team Performance Acceleration Principles and Servant Leadership principles that I’ve used with teams of different sizes and scopes worldwide to drive results. We make our luck by knowing our strengths, building our networks, and preparing for the opportunities ahead!

It wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Every struggle I’ve encountered has only made me stronger. The most significant and most challenging moment for me came in 2020 when, almost simultaneously, my mother succumbed to cancer. I relocated from São Paulo, Brazil, to North Carolina and transitioned out of my twenty-plus-year pharmaceutical career. While all this was happening, I published my 2nd leadership book – The Servant Leader’s Manifesto, launched my management consulting company, Intent Consulting, and started working on my 3rd leadership book. My response to struggle has always been to buckle in and lean into my self-assurance and belief.

We’ve been impressed with Intent Consulting, but for folks who might need to be more familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart?
I am the Founder and Managing Partner of Intent Consulting. This human-centered management consulting firm helps companies align their Why with How they make their intentions live for employees, customers, communities, the environment, and shareholders. I am also a Gallup Certified Coach and a J.E.D.I. Leadership Expert with over 20 years of experience building high-performance organizations on four continents. I am the management consultant, executive coach, and speaker of choice for Servant Leaders who want to create and sustain high-performance cultures faster than ever!

What matters most to you?
My passion and purpose are to uplift, empower, and enable people through servant leadership, high-performance team leadership, change leadership, and J.E.D.I. leadership. I train, facilitate, coach, speak, and consult on eliminating ego from people leadership, embracing inverted hierarchies and strengths-based leadership, eradicating injustices, eliminating inequities, expanding diversity, and enhancing inclusion.

Pricing:

• Management consulting services: $350/hr
• Executive coaching: $30,000 per year
• Speaking: $10,000 per hour
• Training/Facilitation: $20,000 per day
• J.E.D.I. Services: please contact

Contact Info:

• Website: https://omarlharris.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/omarl.harris
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/omarlharris
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/omarlharris
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/strengthsleader
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Omar_L_Harris
• Other: https://jedileader.com