"The odds of finding great talent can easily shift against you. Chaka Booker expertly tilts those odds back in your favor."

-REID HOFFMAN-
Co-founder, LinkedIn

About

ABOUT

For more than fifteen years, Chaka Booker has honed his expertise in leadership development, recruitment & selection, strategic planning, program & curriculum design, facilitation, feedback and performance management, diversity & inclusion, and culture building. He has interviewed nearly three thousand professionals from across the private, public, and social sectors. Chaka has experience working with organizations ranging from nonprofit start-ups to private sector corporations to ivy league institutions including Analysis Group, Wallace Foundation, Building Impact Partners, Gates Foundation, Lashon Academy, Yale University, Bard College, The University of Minnesota, and the J. Paul Getty Trust.

Chaka is currently the chief people officer for The Broad Foundation and Family Office. Founded by philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, the organization stewards groundbreaking institutions in education, science, workforce development, and the arts. Their flagship initiatives include The Broad Museum, BroadStage, Stem Cell Centers at UCLA, UCSF and USC, The Broad Center at Yale, and The Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard.

Prior to this role, he was managing director for The Broad Center, a national organization focused on leadership development that partnered with 40+ organizations annually. During his time at the center, Chaka led his team through a complex two-year process that resulted in accreditation with the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, allowing the organization to grant master’s degrees in Educational Leadership. Backed by a $100M philanthropic gift, he then led the transition of the center to its new home at the Yale School of Management. In collaboration with the university’s dean, leadership team, and faculty, they have ensured The Broad Center’s twenty-year body of work in the private sector/public education sector will continue in perpetuity at Yale.

He is a Pahara Fellow at The Aspen Institute, a Forbes contributor on entrepreneurship, and has written for the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Chaka is also the author of two books: The Empowered Candidate: The Power You Have to Land the Job You Deserve and Mastering The Hire: 12 Strategies to Improve Your Odds of Finding the Best Hire (HarperCollins). He is a SHRM Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP) and has degrees in economics and psychology from UCLA and an MBA from Stanford University.

People are often surprised to find out he is an introvert. So, when he isn't helping leaders navigate their toughest challenges, he’s figuring out how to leave a room without anyone noticing.

Consulting

CONSULTING

An array of factors—hybrid/remote work, technology, a multigenerational workforce, wellness/mental health, diversity & inclusion, an uncertain economy—have driven a rapid evolution of the workplace and have shifted people’s expectations about the workplace. More than ever, high performing organizations are managing the complexities of this evolution by focusing on talent, culture, and professional development as drivers of success.

Leadership & Inclusion

Workshops

Are you investing in the development of your leaders?

A defining characteristic of great organizations is the investment they make in their people. Recruiting strong talent only gets you so far. To stay competitive in an evolving landscape, organizations must continuously develop their team members. Whether hiring & onboarding, delegating, giving feedback, exploring values, and all in between—Chaka's approach to leadership development provides rapid skill building in the areas proven to be most impactful.

Do your organizational processes support inclusion and leverage practices that mitigate bias?

Creating work environments that tap into the power of diversity is both the right thing and the smart thing to do. Effectively implementing inclusive talent processes are key to creating workplaces where people feel valued, engaged, and productive. In these workshops, you’ll learn actionable research-based practices that drive inclusion, dramatically improve your hiring decisions, and can be applied immediately with proven results.

People & Culture

Consulting

Is your talent strategy aligned with your organizational goals?

Every stage of the employee life cycle—from the moment a candidate reads your job description and throughout their tenure—is an opportunity to differentiate and strengthen your organization. Each stage is an opportunity to increase employee engagement and drive performance. This collaborative engagement will assess your current talent processes, identify strengths and pain points, and provide specific strategies that maximize organizational and individual success.

Is your organization's culture a driver of success?

Your organization’s mission is either fueled or hindered by its culture. Culture is like a current—powerful and directional. Not always easy to see, but always felt. Odds are, it isn't felt the same by everyone. This can make identifying current strengths, gaps, and untapped potential difficult to undertake internally. Chaka helps solve this by engaging with leaders and teams to define the culture needed for the mission and delivering a "culture plan" that leverages everyone’s potential.

Facilitation &

Program Design

Do you have an event that needs facilitation? Are you seeking customized professional development for your team?

From facilitating town halls, panel discussions and leadership retreats to designing customized professional development programs, Chaka has deep experience with program/curriculum design and facilitation of group sessions, panels, fireside chats, debriefs, and retreats. Whether you know your need or are exploring an idea, partnering with him will provide the clarity, structure, engagement, and authenticity needed to catalyze the power of group interactions.

CLIENTS

MASTERING
THE HIRE
12 Strategies To Improve Your Odds Of Finding The Best Hire

Buy Now

Research shows you have a 50% chance of hiring the right employee… and a 50% chance of hiring the wrong one. It’s a toss up, but it doesn’t have to be.

Mis-hires siphon your energy and erode team culture. Replacing them is stressful and can cost over $40,000 per re-hire. With the right tools, all of that can be avoided, and you can consistently make great hires.

After years of scientific research and first-hand interview experience with thousands of candidates, HarperCollins author Chaka Booker has created a system that helps employers consistently make great

hires. Mastering the Hire provides 12 proven strategies that have been used to accurately identify the right talent 90% of the time. Whether hiring manager, business owner, CEO, search consultant, team manager, team member, novice or expert interviewer, this book is for anyone who wants to beat the hiring odds. In it, you will learn how to:

Manage your intuition: when to trust it and when to put it aside
Manage bias: tomorrow’s talent doesn’t fit yesterday’s mold and is often overlooked. Managing bias will give you a competitive advantage
Structuring questions so candidates are influenced to tell the truth
Identify key competencies: the four competencies you must always interview for and techniques to accurately assess them
Reimagine the hiring process: resume reviews, phone interviews, and in-person interviews get a much-needed revamp with innovative twists on each
...and much more

THE EMPOWERED CANDIDATE
The Power You Have To Land The Job You Deserve

Buy Now

“78 proven interview strategies—literally at your fingertips.”

Are you considering your next career move? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, six million other people are as well. So, what will set you apart? Where is the one place you can gain a clear advantage?

The answer is the interview. But are you ready to interview? Studies show that 50% of job candidates prepare incorrectly. So, odds are—you’re not ready.

From HarperCollins author Chaka Booker comes a book written specifically for you—the candidate—as you prepare to interview. The Empowered Candidate provides over 70 proven strategies that dramatically shift the odds of success in your favor.

Chaka has spent more than a decade identifying talent and interviewing thousands of candidates from across the country. He’s seen candidates succeed. He’s seen them fail. He’s analyzed the differences in what they do and has pinpointed practices that set the strongest candidates apart. Understanding how interviewers think and how decisions are made will reshape how you approach your next interview. In this book you’ll learn: