Dr. Steven Vanderbilt
Organizational psychologist / operations leader / consultant
I study why people and systems behave the way they do at work, and I've spent my career applying it in the field: on service routes, on the sales floor, and across multi-site territories. I help organizations fix the structure so the right behavior becomes the easy one.
- Degree
- Ph.D., Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- Now
- Area Field Manager, U-Haul, North Texas
- Consulting
- Organizational consulting, training, teambuilding
- Honors
- Eagle Scout, Tennessee Colonel
Research training, field experience
My working life started as a Mobile Service Tech and grew, over nearly two decades with GAS Holdings Corp., into regional operations leadership.
My doctorate in Industrial and Organizational Psychology gave me the language and the methods for what I'd already seen on the ground: most performance problems are structure problems. Today I manage a multi-location field territory for U-Haul across North Texas, and I take on consulting work in organizational design, workforce training, and teambuilding.
Field operations leadership
Multi-site territories, dealer networks, and location P&L. Getting consistent results from locations you can't stand in every day.
Organizational diagnosis
Finding where a policy, an incentive, or a reporting line is producing the behavior an organization says it doesn't want.
Training and teambuilding
Workforce training and teambuilding built for the people doing the work, delivered by a certified instructor.
How I run things
Build the infrastructure before the traffic.
Systems, roles, and reserves go in first. Growth that arrives before the structure is ready turns into firefighting.
If you can't build five of them, you can't build one.
A location, a process, or a team is only solved when it can be repeated without me in the room.
The books reconcile to zero.
Every exchange gets closed out, financial or otherwise. Nothing is left hanging between people, so trust doesn't erode quietly.
What I offer organizations
- Organizational consultingDiagnosis of performance, turnover, and policy problems, with a structural fix your managers can actually run.
- Workforce trainingInstructor-led training for frontline staff and new managers, built around the real job.
- TeambuildingSessions that address how a team actually works together, grounded in organizational psychology.
Credentials and honors
- Ph.D., Industrial and Organizational Psychology
- Eagle Scout
- Multiple instructor-level certifications
- Ambassador of Goodwill, State of TennesseeAppointed by Governor Bill Haslam, 2012
- Award of Merit, State of TennesseePresented by Governor Bill Haslam, 2013
- Tennessee Colonel, Aide de CampAppointed by Governor Bill Haslam, 2015
- Tennessee Jaycees Presidential Award of Excellence
Storytime with Steve
Stand-up and storytelling live on a separate site. Same guy, fewer citations.
Get in touch
Consulting inquiries, speaking, training engagements, and leadership opportunities.