Speakers

THE TOP TEN MISTAKES LEADERS MAKE -- AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
This keynote is truly my signature presentation—always a pleasure to deliver. A fun engaging look at the mistakes leaders too often make and more importantly, how we can avoid them and sidestep these common pitfalls. Filled with stories and examples, it has application to everyone in the room. Whether you are in charge of others or just lead yourself, we examine and discuss leadership from giving feedback to vision to emotional intelligence and mentoring.

FOLLOW ME! WHAT THE BEST LEADERS DO TO GET PEOPLE TO FOLLOW

Perhaps we’ve been lucky enough to have been lead by them--those great leaders who inspire us to excel and be our best. A lesson in the best leadership, this engaging presentation focuses on what the great leaders do to reach others--- to get others to follow them willingly. We examine the qualities of the best leaders--- from past to present. From our character to our outlook, we examine how we can employ these riveting attributes in our everyday leadership lives.

THE 5 KEYS OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS -- PROJECTING THE PROFESSIONAL YOU 
Professionalism is the foundation of your leadership success and this presentation is the lesson I open with when discussing leadership and new leaders. The 5 things we must do--we examine competency, accountability, loyalty, communication and image/character/conduct as it applies to building our leadership foundation. From the apprentice to CEO, we all must have these attributes to be successful—it starts here.

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF COMMUNICATION
A closer look at communication-- from listening to one's non-verbals to feedback to delivering tough messages-- we cover 10 of the most essential elements of good, effective communication. Good application at home and the workplace.

PARK, NEUTRAL, OR FORWARD -- WHAT'S THE DIRECTION OF YOUR WORKFORCE MOTIVATION
This is a practical look at motivation and what truly motivates our team members. Are they motivated extrinsically, intrinsically or both? We know people own their own motivation but as leaders there are things we can do to get the most from them and maximize their performance—from feedback to challenge to purposeful work and recognition.

LEADING AND DEFINING HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS
A hard look at teams! We discuss and look at what defines and high-performing team and how the teams act and behave. We look at our own teams while examining the building blocks of high performing teams (trust, conflict, commitment, accountability & results). This class includes a team assessment for self-reflection of our own team.

IMPLEMENTING SUCCESS CHANGE -- WHEN THE ELEPHANTS DANCE
An old Navy saying is, “When the elephants dance, the grass must pay.” Too often change is something that people on the frontlines must bear. What can we do as leaders to change this mindset? This is a frequently requested topic since so many organizations experience organizational change. We look at why people too often resist change and the 11 steps to effective change management to facilitate a smooth transition no matter the size of the organizational change.

THREE CONVERSATIONS YOU NEED TO HAVE - FROM EASY TO HARD
A comprehensive look at the role of feedback and performance management. We break down these crucial conversations into 3 categories-- Easy (appreciation), neither hard nor easy (performance reviews, expectations), Hard (dealing with negative performance, conflict) Tactics and important considerations for each. This presentation is filled with tools and real examples.

LEADING GENERATIONS: WHAT'S DIFFERENT - WHAT'S THE SAME
A recently developed topic where examine the differences in the generations as it applies to how each generation views work, leadership, feedback, challenge, authority, technology, communication. With this information, we can have an appreciation as to how each generation operates and thinks. And despite these generational differences, leadership is leadership. We discuss what we need to do as leaders to lead our people--no matter the generation.

TEACHERS AS LEADERS
Good leaders are good teachers but not all teachers realize their role in the classroom as leaders. From our discussion of, “It’s your classroom” to your influence and expectations and the love for your students, we examine the attributes and characteristics of excellent, effective teachers.

WHAT YOU'RE DOING TO ME WON'T WORK ON ME
This is a presentation on classroom management as well as diffusing difficult situations. With content from George Thompson’s Verbal Judo, we discuss tactics for handling potentially combustible situations with just our words, body language, and voice.

THE FOUR PILLARS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE 
This presentation is a fun practical look at customer service. Filled with stories and examples, we examine the 4 pillars of exceptional customer service—the experience, relationships, reputation, and problem solving/solutions. In addition, we examine 10 basic customer service behaviors—from our attitude to how we are with each other (the internal customer). Thought provoking and frequently requested, we can put this customer service knowledge to work for us today.

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT CUSTOMERS
We all get them and we all have to be able to deal with them—without losing our customer service attitudes. In this presentation, we examine the difficult customer-- who that customer may be and just how difficult are they? We discuss why customers resort to anger and what forms it can take and outline the steps to deal, handle and turn that customer—from someone who’s upset to a loyal, valued advocate of our organization. We often refer to George Thompson’s Verbal Judo.

STAYING IN THE GAME - 10 WAYS TO STAY MOTIVATED IN YOUR FITNESS & HEALTH
Motivation in our fitness can wane but there’s ways we overcome our daily obstacles. A fitness instructor and personal trainer, Ted discusses the fundamentals of staying in the game in your fitness and health. In addition we’ll examining what holds us back and real and tangible ways to reach our fitness goals. Fun and practical, these are health and fitness tactics we can use today.

PRODUCT YOU
We don’t often think of it as we go about our day-to-day tasks but we ourselves are a product--- a product that we are selling and showing others all the time. Key ingredients go into our “product”—from our competency, work ethic, attitude to our desire to strive and achieve. And from those ingredients, our product delivers value, benefit, relationships and most of all--- an experience. In this thought-provoking presentation, we think about the product we are delivering, how to keep that product “fresh and viable” as well as prevent our product from suffering.

THE LEADERSHIP TOOLBOX
What’s in your toolbox? In this engaging presentation, we fill the toolbox one-by-one with our “leadership tools” we should be using every day. From leading ourselves to keeping our sense of humor, this is a great presentation to help leaders, in particularly senior leaders, to inventory their leadership toolbox. What tools should they use more often? Which tools need to be put into use immediately? Geared for the seasoned, experienced leader.

10 THINGS I WISH I HAD KNOWN STARTING SCHOOL
Designed for the incoming (or returning) college student, this presentation sets the stage for a successful academic journey. We start the year right as we get our students to think about owning their learning and challenging themselves academically. From leading oneself to joining student organizations, students need to stand out and distinguish themselves while completing--- and enjoying-- the "marathon" called college.

YOUR PERSONAL TRAINER
It’s all mental, you know. Working out and taking the time to exercise our bodies is all in our heads. The hardest muscle you will work out is in between your ears. In this look at fitness, we delve into the “mental side” of being physical as we discuss and dissect the questions of the personal trainer designing your workout plan. From our life schedule to motivation and passion, we examine our brains and the fitness thoughts that help us or hold us back in our day-to-day pursuit of a fit lifestyle.

TOP TEN MISTAKES NEW LEADERS MAKE AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
Nearly 60% of new leaders start their roles without any formal leadership training--- and then we wonder why they’re struggling. In this informative and insightful presentation, we discuss and outline the essential steps and behaviors of the new leader from “breaking up” with their co-workers to letting go of your old responsibilities and duties. When you take that new leadership role is no longer about you--- and that’s a big lesson to learn.

MANAGING TIME THROUGH LEADING YOU
There is no silver bullet as it applies to managing our time. Personally or professionally, we will make time for the things that are important to us. In reality, it isn’t really a function of managing time but rather a function of managing ourselves! In this presentation, we will discuss the concept of leading ourselves, mastering workflow, procrastination (and why we do it) as well as our 4 pools of energy.

YOUR SUCCESSFUL LIFE
What defines success in one’s life can vary but we do, as individuals, have a say as to the direction of our lives. In this fun and engaging presentation designed for young people, we climb the “ladder of our success” one rung at a time--- from who we are and our character to challenging ourselves and saying, “Yes!” to life to taking responsibility for our actions and decisions. Some deep messages delivered in a fun way, this is a presentation created to get young people to think about who they are and where they are going.