Leaders
Jim Meehan is the principal global lead of strength development within Talent Plus as well as the lead analyst for The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company account.
Following a 23-year career in human resources within the international motor industry, Meehan’s interest in studying top performers brought him to the United States where, in 1991, he joined Talent Plus. He worked closely with Talent Plus co-founder Dr. William E. Hall, who acted as Meehan’s mentor and to whom he passed on his life’s work. Dr. Hall, professor of educational psychology and measurement at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln from 1945 to 1969, was a pioneer of positive psychology, strength development and structured interviews. Dr. Hall also emphasized the importance of good relationships in enabling people to achieve optimum growth and actualization of their potential.
In 1993, Meehan moved back to the United Kingdom and focused on international consulting before returning to Lincoln, Neb., in 1999, a year after Dr. Hall’s death. He is a member of the American Psychological Association and the American Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and is continuing to develop and build on the foundation laid by Dr. Hall.
Already a British Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Meehan is also a Chartered Fellow of the British Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (Chartered status is granted by the United Kingdom Privy Council to organizations in the U.K. recognized as being pre-eminent in their fields and to individual members who meet professional standards in terms of knowledge and expertise.) Meehan values Dr. Hall’s “holistic approach to psychology, studying the interdependence of thoughts, feeling and behaviors and their link to physical and mental energy systems.” For Meehan, Dr. Hall “turned psychology upside down by focusing more on people’s positive strengths and on the outer boundaries of their potential, rather than concentrating on identifying people’s limitations or weaknesses and trying to fix them.” His ongoing research and experience with Talent Plus has enabled him to learn and grow on a continual basis.
Meehan is also the author of two books of poetry, “Hearts Have Reasons” and “Reasons Have Hearts Too,” originally published in the U.K. for charity. Both are a partial timeline of his life and illustrate the interplay between reason and emotion. His fascination with the way thoughts and feelings are expressed in words is evident in these works.
Meehan and his wife, Maureen, have been married for 35 years and currently live in Lincoln, Neb. Their daughter lives in the United Kingdom.
