How Scott Doggett and the National Academy of Leadership Development are helping organizations transform culture by changing the way leaders see and treat people.
Only 31% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, according to Gallup. Organizations continue to invest in surveys, recognition platforms, leadership programs, wellness initiatives, and workplace perks, yet the engagement needle remains stubbornly low.
Scott Doggett believes the problem is not a shortage of programs. It is that programs cannot repair an unhealthy everyday leadership environment.
“People do not experience culture through a poster on the wall or an annual company event,” Doggett says. “They experience it through what happens when they offer an idea, make a mistake, ask to leave early for a child’s birthday, or simply pass their leader in the hallway.”
That conviction is at the heart of the Priceless Leadership Movement, a growing national effort led through the National Academy of Leadership Development (NALD) to rehumanize leadership and the workplace.
See People Differently. Lead People Better.
Doggett, NALD’s Founder and Chief Servant Leader, built the organization around one demanding belief: every person is priceless, and leadership should consistently prove it.
The idea grew from more than 30 years in executive leadership, learning and development, hospitality, and organizational culture. As Vice President of Learning and Development for Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Doggett built the company’s learning academy and led major initiatives in leadership development, succession planning, performance management, recognition, and onboarding.
Later, while serving as Head of Christian Leadership Development for World Vision USA, he experienced a deeply servant-led culture that reshaped his understanding of dignity, trust, engagement, and performance. While Doggett’s faith informs his personal approach to servant leadership, the Priceless Leadership Movement is not limited to faith-based organizations. Its principles and programs are designed for leaders across every industry, background, and belief system—from corporate and nonprofit organizations to education, healthcare, hospitality, construction, associations, and public service.
NALD begins leadership development not with a tool, but with perception.
Every person has a story. They have strengths and struggles, hopes and fears, goals and aspirations, and people who love them and depend on them. Once a leader truly knows someone’s story, it becomes harder to reduce that person to a label—and much easier to become their champion.
The labels leaders place on people matter. “Top performer,” “difficult employee,” “newbie,” “negative,” and “not leadership material” may seem like convenient descriptions, but labels influence expectations. Expectations influence behavior. Over time, they can even influence what people begin to believe about themselves.
The movement invites leaders to replace those labels with one: Priceless!
That does not mean ignoring performance, avoiding accountability, or treating everyone identically. It means seeing each individual’s inherent value first, then taking the time to understand how that person communicates, what motivates them, how they prefer to be recognized, where they want to grow, and what they need from their leader to succeed.
Culture Is Built in Moments
NALD calls the everyday interactions that communicate human value “Priceless Moments.”
A Priceless Moment may happen when a leader asks a question instead of making an assumption, listens without rushing to defend, gives credit publicly and feedback privately, or responds to a mistake with accountability and dignity at the same time.
These moments do not require another budget line. It costs nothing to look someone in the eye, learn their story, recognize their contribution, or show them respect. Yet these small interactions accumulate and become the environment people experience every day.
That environment matters because engagement cannot be forced. Leaders cannot demand discretionary effort, loyalty, creativity, or care. They create the conditions that make people want to offer those things.
Programs can help a culture grow, but only when the soil—the everyday leadership environment—is healthy. A recognition program, town hall, leadership course, company picnic, or pizza party can enhance a strong culture. It cannot substitute for one. People do not simply want another program; they want to be seen, valued, respected, challenged, and supported.
For customer-facing organizations, the connection is especially clear: a consistently excellent customer experience is difficult to sustain without a healthy employee experience. People who feel cared for are better positioned to care for customers.
The Human Advantage in the Age of AI
The movement’s message is becoming more urgent as artificial intelligence reshapes work. NALD is not anti-technology. It believes AI and human-centered leadership must advance together.
AI can analyze information, automate routine work, generate content, improve workflows, and give leaders back valuable time. The opportunity is not simply to do more work faster. It is to use that recovered time to do more of what only humans can do.
Employees navigating rapid change need communication, clarity, reassurance, psychological safety, meaningful growth, and leaders who make them feel valued. AI cannot restore someone’s confidence after failure, recognize the fear behind resistance, inspire a discouraged team, or build trust through a difficult conversation.
“People do not follow technology,” Doggett says. “They follow leaders they trust.”
As organizations enter what NALD describes as the Fifth Industrial Revolution, human capabilities such as empathy, trust-building, listening, courage, connection, and inspiration will become increasingly valuable. The defining question will no longer be only, “How can we use AI?” but also, “How can AI serve humanity and help us build more human workplaces?”
A National Academy for a National Movement
NALD translates the movement’s philosophy into practical experiences through full-day leadership workshops, keynote presentations, consulting, retreats, masterclasses, train-the-trainer opportunities, and the Priceless Workplace Survey.
Doggett’s book, Priceless! See People Differently. Lead People Better., serves as a foundation for the work. He also founded National Learning & Development Month, observed each October.
The Academy is supported by a growing national network of more than two dozen affiliate faculty, including accomplished leadership and organizational-development experts, authors, executive coaches, facilitators, and professional speakers, some of whom have appeared on TEDx stages.
NALD also partners with the Global Leadership Education & Training Institute in Omaha, Nebraska, to expand leadership education, collaboration, and impact.
Through conferences, podcasts, public workshops, and organizational engagements across the country, NALD is building awareness and bringing the full Priceless Leadership experience to leaders and organizations nationwide.
Leaders can also access weekly articles, thought papers, assessments, digital coaching tools, and other practical resources through the Academy’s website. Visitors can explore faculty biographies, learn about upcoming workshops, and discover ways to bring the movement into their organization.
A sampling of NALD’s faculty, top row from left: Dr. Joey-Lynn Bialkowski-Peterson and Duncan C. Brand; bottom row from left: Dr. Santarvis Brown and Dr. Andrew H. Campbell.
A More Human Future of Work
The Priceless Leadership Movement does not ask organizations to choose between people and performance, empathy and accountability, or humanity and progress. It challenges leaders to pursue a higher standard for all of them.
Results come through people. When leaders improve the environment people walk into each day, they strengthen the conditions for trust, retention, collaboration, customer service, adaptability, and sustainable performance.
At a time when work is becoming faster, smarter, and more automated, NALD is inviting leaders to make it more human.
Every conversation matters. Every interaction matters. Every person matters—because every person is priceless.
Organizations ready to create a more human, people-first culture can visit www.nationalald.com or contact Scott Doggett directly at sc***@*********ld.com to explore the Priceless Leadership Movement, bring a workshop or keynote to their leaders, learn about the Priceless Workplace Survey, meet the faculty, and access free leadership resources.
