James Brooks, PhD
Consultant
Dr. Brooks is a seasoned assessor and executive coach who consults with companies and executives to maximize business results. During his career he has worked as both an external consultant and a Human Resources executive leading a broad array of leadership development initiatives and working directly with executive leaders on their development.
Prior to his current role, James was an executive at Cisco Systems, where he held a succession of Talent Management and HR Generalist executive roles and co-founded Cisco’s Leadership Development and Employee Engagement Centers of Excellence. His accomplishments include creating Cisco’s first global succession planning process, leading a best-in-class Executive Coaching program and developing high-impact leadership training programs. He also led Cisco’s global career development efforts, annual engagement survey, and flexible work strategies initiative. His team completed sophisticated research into employee productivity, engagement and attrition drivers, and he consulted on compensation, benefits and work environment strategies. He combined these broad-scale efforts with individual executive coaching engagements for a large number of senior executives.
Based in part on leading edge practices he developed, Cisco has been perennially rated as a “Best Place to Work” by Fortune Magazine, and was designated as a “Best Companies for Leaders” by CEO Magazine numerous times. His efforts have been noted in numerous publications, including Fortune magazine and the Wall Street Journal.
Prior to Cisco, James was a consultant at Personnel Decisions International, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies in the areas of executive assessment, development and coaching, competency modeling, 360 feedback, and training design and delivery. He also has deep experience in building selection systems and in strategic planning efforts, and has worked or consulted with companies and non-profits of all sizes.
James has a PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Psychology and studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France.
He is a member of several professional associations including the Human Resource Planning Society, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, the American Psychological Association and presents at major conferences each year.
