Your Partner in Practical Growth

I'm Chris Heinz — founder of Meaningful Worklife, and before that, the Director of People & Associate Experience at Carter Myers Automotive, a top 100, 27-location automotive group. Before CMA, I spent 18 years as Chief People Officer (and for a stretch, Chief Marketing Officer) at EnergyCAP, a fast-growing SaaS company, where I learned firsthand what it takes to build a culture and a team that can scale. At the same time, I started serving organizations as a consultant, including as a Learning Partner for Penn State.

Along the way, I got certified in the tools I now use every day with clients: Gallup’s CliftonStrengths® and the Highlands Ability Battery. I also built something of my own — the Work Motivations framework — after years of watching talented people struggle in roles that didn't fit what actually drove them. Skill and effort aren't the problem for most people. Motivation is. Get that wrong and even great performers stall out; get it right and performance multiplies.

That's the thread running through everything I do now, whether I'm coaching an individual through a career decision, running a team workshop, or embedded inside an organization's people strategy: work should fit the person doing it. Not perfectly — but well enough that showing up feels less like a grind and more like a good use of a life.

I live in the Charlottesville, Virginia area, and when I'm not consulting, coaching, or speaking, I'm usually writing HeinzSight, my newsletter on leadership and meaningful work. I have a book coming out in 2027 on work motivations.

Credentials

  • Gallup-Certified CliftonStrengths® Coach

  • Highlands Ability Battery Certified Consultant

  • Creator of the Work Motivations framework

  • Engagement Practitioner, leading to double-digit growth through embedded programs

  • Certified Professional Coach

  • 18 years as Chief People Officer / Chief Marketing Officer, EnergyCAP

  • Former Director of People & Associate Experience, Carter Myers Automotive

Work with me
A smiling man with glasses, wearing a suit and white shirt, outdoors with trees and blurred buildings in the background.

  • "Chris brings a unique combination of technical mastery with a relational communication style, and he does a great job of synthesizing our scattered ideas into intentional and focused themes. Looking forward to working with Chris more in the future."

    Anthony Woodard, CEO, Woodard Properties

  • "Chris has led four leadership retreats for us, which has helped us understand each other better. His explanations of each of our talents were on point, non judgmental and he did a terrific job in handling all of us as a group while strengthening our team."

    Delphine Le Roux, Senior Director, RIVANNA Medical

  • "Chris Heinz's passion for helping people learn and leverage their core strengths is matched only by his excellence and enthusiasm as a facilitator and coach in the strengths arena. I recommend him highly!"

    Cheryl Kaplan, Former Director of Talent Management, Penn State University

  • "Chris has an exceptional ability to communicate clearly and passionately, and he excels at sharing his knowledge and expertise with others in an engaging manner. Chris's natural warmth and empathy enable him to express genuine care and concern for those he's working with, whether one-on-one or in a larger training setting."

    Kathy Goller, Teal Horizon Coaching

Ready to Move Forward? Let’s Talk

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