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Tyrese Manigault
Tyrese Manigault is Manager of Employee Engagement at NASCAR, based at the organization's headquarters in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he has led engagement strategy since 2022. He holds a degree in Communication and Public Relations from Valdosta State University and was honored with the 2024 Winning 10 Award from the Black Sports Business Symposium and the 2024 Twenty Under Forty Award from the Florida Black Expo.
Building Belonging by Being Honest About What Leadership Can't Fix
Tyrese's approach to engagement rests on genuinely closing the loop: NASCAR communicates its actions intentionally, showing employees exactly how each change is a direct response to engagement survey feedback, a discipline that helped the organization integrate two legacy cultures (Winston Cup-era teams and prior NASCAR entities) into one coherent employee experience. On DEI specifically, he champions what he calls radical honesty over having a perfect answer for every issue: leaders enter conversations with employees specifically to find common threads, and acknowledge upfront when there's a "monkey in the room," an outside pressure leadership genuinely can't change, rather than pretending every problem is solvable. He describes making an impact as what wakes him up in the morning, a value he traces back to his mother and to his experience serving as a chaplain.
Topics Tyrese speaks on
- Building belonging by being honest about what leadership can and can't fix
- Closing the loop between engagement survey data and visible action
- Creative, modern ways to engage new and long-tenured employees alike
- Peer recognition programs embedded in daily operations
- Bringing personal purpose and empathy into employee engagement work
Sessions with Achieve
Tyrese is a featured presenter on the Achieve Engagement webcast "Appreciation@work: Impact Accelerator #1 - From Nice-to-Have to Non-Negotiable Performance System" (November 12, 2025), alongside Margi Fox of Schlaupitz Madhavan and Dr. Jermaine King of the United States Air Force. The session covers what it takes to move a performance and recognition system from an optional program to a genuinely embedded part of how an organization operates.
Connect
Want more on what it takes to build genuine belonging by being honest, not just optimistic? Learn more about the Achieve Leadership Network.