Category Archives: Employee Morale

Speaker Cheryl Cran on Reverse Mentoring

CHERYL CRAN
On Reverse Mentoring: The Untapped Resource for Innovation and Business Growth

Reverse mentoring is a concept that was first introduced in the 90’s by Jack Welch, then CEO of GM, who insisted that all senior leaders be paired up with young tech whizzes. Since then, companies such as Hewlett Packard and Cisco Systems are benefiting from the creation of reverse mentoring programs.

So, what does reverse mentoring look like?

Reverse mentoring is the pairing Gen Y’s or Millennials with Senior Leaders, who meet in a neutral environment with the focus of the meet-up on how the Gen Y or Millennial can provide ideas, support, or tools for the Senior Leader to increase knowledge on technology and social media. Often, the Senior Leader will share his or her knowledge on business with the Gen Y or Millennial, which provides the young mentors with added value.

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Michelle Ray – Leadership Expert

Michelle Ray - Workplace Relationships ExpertMICHELLE RAY
What Meeting Planners Expect From Professional Speakers


Leadership expert Michelle Ray helps people and organizations to take the lead, get out of their comfort zones, and develop the willingness to risk. Delivering her powerful message on self-leadership with insight, humour, and passion, Michelle’s engaging, interactive, presentations resonate with a diverse clientele who are seeking to inspire their teams and take personal responsibility for creating their own reality at work, in business and in life. Based on her observations from years of professional speaking, Michelle shares her ideas on what meeting planners need from the professional speakers they hire:

While preparing my presentation set-up for a keynote at a recent conference, the meeting planner ran toward me in a panic, apologizing for being pulled in ten different directions, simultaneously.  She explained that there were several items demanding her immediate attention. Her committee were in a time crunch, trying to locate the whereabouts of one of the panelists due to appear in a morning breakout session. In addition, tensions were building amongst attendees as the registration software was inexplicably malfunctioning, resulting in lengthy line-ups and delays at the welcome booths. Boxes containing sponsors’ promotional materials were missing and presumed lost en route, as the conference facility’s shipping and receiving department and the planner frenetically exchanged text messages. Meanwhile, the banquet manager was waiting for her at the back of the room, needing approval to add seating for the luncheon, in order to accommodate a number of special guests who confirmed their attendance that morning.

As I reflect on the experience, it reminded me of several important factors that contribute to the success of a conference, from the perspective of a meeting planner.  First and foremost, although speakers have the privilege of the performing on the main stage, we are not at the centre of the meeting planner’s universe.  It behooves us to be mindful of their immediate priorities and ultimate objectives.

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Dr. Lance Secretan – Leadership Expert & Creating Inspiring Organizations

DR. LANCE SECRETAN
Strengths-based Leadership Theory Revisited


In my 1989 book, “The Way of the Tiger: Gentle Wisdom for Turbulent Times” (still going strong!) I introduced the concept of leading with strengths, since popularized by Gallup, among others, as “strengths-based leadership”. In the 25 years since I helped to found this movement, I have begun to rethink about the “strengths-emphasis” more.

Focusing only on our strengths and ignoring our weaknesses is like taking a Pollyanna approach to who we are, because, in truth, we are both our strengths and our weaknesses. The strengths-based movement also encourages stereotypical leadership: strong, powerful, charismatic and heroic. It would be nice if this was who we are all the time but, in reality, most of us aren’t.

If strengths, or being strong, is at one end of the continuum, then vulnerability (not weakness) is that the other. So this raises another opportunity: Could we be more effective as leaders if we became stronger with our strengths and more transparent with our vulnerabilities?

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Amanda Gore – Leadership, Communications & Connections Expert

AMANDA GORE
Successful Leaders Do These 3 Things


Being a leader means working with humans (in the most part!), and humans operate on the fuel of feelings. A leader with a high EQ (emotional intelligence), will foster a workplace where people can feel good about themselves and therefore be more engaged with their work. In a nutshell, people who feel good about themselves will do a better job! Take a look at this quote below:

“The data indicate that workplaces with engaged employees, on average, do a better job of keeping employees, satisfying customers, and being financially productive and profitable. Workplace well-being and performance are not independent. Rather, they are complimentary and dependent components of a financially and psychologically healthy workplace.”  Well-being in the Workplace and it’s Relationship to Business Outcomes – Gallup

So how do you become a great leader? A successful leaders job is to these three things:

1. Help people change behavior
2. Create and environment where people can be the best they can be
3. Help people believe in themselves

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Michael Kerr – The Workplace Energizer

Michael Kerr - The Workplace Energizer - www.kmprod.com/michael-kerrMICHAEL KERR
10 Reasons Why Humour Is A Key To Success At Work


Forbes.com cites the reasons “Workplace Energizer” Michael Kerr believes humour is a fundamental element for achieving success in the workplace:

Michael Kerr - The Workplace Energergizer - www.kmprod.com/michael-kerr

Tasteful humor is a key to success at work, but there’s a good chance your co-workers aren’t cracking jokes or packaging information with wit on a regular basis–and your office could probably stand to have a little more fun.

“Humor, by its nature, tends to have an edge to it, so people typically tone it down at work,” says Laura Vanderkam, author of What the Most Successful People Do at Work (Portfolio, 2013), and What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast (Portfolio, 2012). “It’s hard to do well and easy to do badly. Plus, we all have a tendency to take ourselves way too seriously.”

Michael Kerr, an international business speaker, president of Humor at Work, and author of the upcoming book, The Humor Advantage: Why Some Businesses are Laughing all the Way to the Bank (Dec. 2013), says the amount or type of humor you’ll find in any given workplace depends almost entirely on the culture. “In workplaces that encourage people to be themselves–that are less hierarchical and more innovative–people tend to be more open with their humor,” he says. “Even people who aren’t always comfortable sharing their humor tend to do so in more relaxed environments where the use of humor becomes second nature with everyone’s style.”

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