ANDREW BRYANT, CSP

Andrew Bryant is a Wiley author, Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), and executive coach who has spent 25+ years researching and applying the science of self-leadership with leaders in more than 40 countries.

His academic text, Self Leadership (Bryant & Kazan, McGraw-Hill, 2012), is referenced in 200+ academic publications and research sources; it is one of the most-referenced practitioner works in the field.

His most recent book, POTENTIAL-IZE: How Leaders Unlock Human Potential in the Age of AI (Wiley, 2026), introduces the IGNITE Framework for building the capabilities AI can't replace.

English by birth, Australian by passport, and now based in Sintra, Portugal, after 17 years in Asia, Andrew brings clinical precision, cross-cultural fluency, and business acumen to every stage and boardroom he enters.

Most leadership speakers have read extensively about human performance. Andrew Bryant spent a decade inside it before he ever picked up the topic professionally.

He trained as a physiotherapist at West Middlesex University Hospital in London, then qualified in acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine, working with elite athletes across two hemispheres. That clinical background still shapes how he works today: prescription without diagnosis is malpractice, in medicine and in organizations alike. A leadership program that skips the diagnosis is just as reckless as a treatment plan that skips the exam.

He studied for an MBA at the University of Western Australia (1998-99), which gave him the fluency to sit credibly in the C-suite. Coaching executives from Fortune 500 companies and Silicon Valley startups across Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas gave him something no curriculum teaches: a calibrated read on what separates leaders who sustain high performance from those who burn out, plateau, or derail.

In 1999, Andrew founded Self Leadership International. In the 25 years since, he has spoken in 40+ countries, authored five books, and built self-leadership programs for organizations including Microsoft, Singapore Airlines, and Airbus.

Key credentials at a glance:

• Founder, Self Leadership International (1999)
• Co-author, Self Leadership (Bryant & Kazan, McGraw-Hill, 2012)
• Andrew Bryant is the practitioner behind the definition of self-leadership in Self Leadership (McGraw-Hill, 2012), a definition cited in peer-reviewed research and used in learning resources published by Penn State and NHS Education for Scotland.
• Wiley author, POTENTIAL-IZE (2026)
• Faculty Associate, Singapore Management University, Guest Lecturer, MIT
• Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), 2009
• Professional Certified Coach (ICF, 2004)
• Physiotherapist and Acupuncturist (1982, 1985), worked with elite athletes
• Studied for an MBA at the University of Western Australia (1998-99)
• Twice recognized by Singapore's President for community leadership

The IGNITE Framework

POTENTIAL-IZE is not a restatement of the Three Drivers Model. It's the next layer: the applied methodology for building the capabilities that stay valuable as AI takes over more cognitive work. Inspire, Guide, Nurture, Integrate, Transform, Evaluate.

While the Three Drivers (self-awareness, self-regulation, self-learning) describe what individual self-leadership looks like, IGNITE is the sequence Andrew uses to deliberately build it in a coaching relationship, a workshop, or an organization-wide program.

Andrew Bryant in the Media

As a thought leader on self-leadership and human potential, Andrew is a regular podcast guest and is often quoted in management, leadership, and human resources articles. Here is just a sample:

Self Leadership Books by Andrew Bryant

Five books spanning from the original academic definition to the newest thinking on leadership in the AI era.

Andrew's first book started out as a manuscript about communication skills, but after input from the publisher, it became Flirting 101: How to Charm Your Way to Love, Friendship, and Success ( St Martin's Griffin, 2005, ISBN978-0312615406).

 This is proof that self-leadership principles apply everywhere.

The ability to connect authentically, read the room, and influence without authority turns out to be as relevant in a boardroom as anywhere else in life.

The Certified Speaking Professional designation is held by fewer than 12% of professional speakers worldwide. It is the speaking profession's highest earned credential, awarded only after sustained demonstration of speaking experience, client impact, and professional excellence.

Andrew earned his CSP in 2009 and has since served in elected leadership roles within the global speaking community: as President of Asia Professional Speakers Singapore (2015-16) and President of the Professional Speakers Association Spain (2021-23).

For meeting professionals and event organizers, the CSP is a reliable indicator of what they can expect: a speaker who arrives prepared, delivers consistently, and leaves audiences with frameworks they can apply — not just a feeling.

Andrew Bryant began coaching athletes in the 1980s, which taught him something that most coaching methodologies skip: performance is never just a mindset issue. The body, the context, the system, and the culture all matter, and treating only one of them is why so much leadership coaching does not stick.

He holds two professional coaching credentials: Certified Meta Coach (International Society of NeuroSemantics, 2002) and Professional Certified Coach (International Coaching Federation, 2004).

Today, he works primarily with C-Suite executives and senior leadership teams navigating complexity, succession, and organizational transformation.

Beyond his coaching practice, Andrew holds faculty associations with MIT and Singapore Management University, bringing his self-leadership frameworks into academic and executive education contexts. He has been recognized twice by Singapore's President for his contributions to community leadership: first for his coaching work with disadvantaged teenagers, and more recently for mentoring women leaders. Since relocating to Portugal, he continues that work as a mentor with the Women's Leaders Circle.

Self-leadership is not a professional methodology for Andrew; it is the practice he has lived through business disruption, personal adversity, cross-cultural relocation, and reinvention at multiple stages of life.

English by birth, Australian by passport, Brazilian by marriage, and now rooted in Sintra, Portugal, Andrew has built his life with the same intentionality he teaches. His values framework,  Respect, Ownership, Impact, is not a slide on a deck. It is how he shows up.

He regularly gives keynote speeches, travels widely, and believes that physical vitality and intellectual curiosity are disciplines, not defaults.

When he is not on stage or in a coaching room, you will find him on the Atlantic coast, processing the ideas that eventually become frameworks.