Category Archives: Personal Leadership

BLOG: Speaker Warren Macdonald: Uncertainty & Changing Your Perspective

Warren Macdonald - Motivational Speaker & Change Expert - www.kmprod.com/warren-macdonald

WARREN MACDONALD

Warren Macdonald has climbed over obstacles most people cannot imagine. Having lost both of his legs from a freak accident while he was backpacking off the coast of Australia, Warren not only decided that his injuries wouldn’t slow him down ― he decided they would propel him to new heights. Just ten months after the incident, Warren climbed Tasmania’s Cradle Mountain and later summited both Mount Kilimanjaro and El Capitan. Inspiring audiences to turn challenge into change, Warren’s talks foster the desire to seek opportunities and overcome obstacles.

Below, Warren writes on uncertainty, and how shifting your perspective can change everything:

All of us feel stuck at some point in our lives, and it’s no wonder. The scientific community suggests that the average adult makes approximately 35,000 decisions each day…

Most of those decisions happen unconsciously, but often, bigger decisions have the capability to consume us; to overwhelm us.

So, what can we do about it?
How do we get unstuck?

We can start by asking “why?”.

  • Why do I want this to happen, or not?
  • What’s in it for me?
  • How does this situation affect myself and others?
  • What will happen if I say “no”?

Remember, perception is key. We need to see as complete a picture as possible when answering these questions and that often means looking through a different lens that the one we’ve been trained to look through.

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Molly Fletcher – Business Leader & Negotiating Expert

Molly Fletcher - Speaker - Business Expert - http://www.kmprod.com/speakers/speaker-molly-fletcherMOLLY FLETCHER
Speaker & Former Sports Agent

 

MOLLY FLETCHER helps inspire and equip game changers to dream, live and grow fearlessly. A keynote speaker and author, Molly draws on her decades of experiences working with elite athletes and coaches as a sports agent, and applies them to the business world.

Here, Molly talks about “Why Your Personal Mission Statement Matters”

Recently I was away from home at a personal development retreat, working on crafting my personal mission statement. I was feeling great about my progress when I called my husband, who aside from handling his professional career, was handling all the normal daily issues at home with our three girls.

While I was feeling inspired, rested and focused from my time at the retreat, I could tell my wonderful husband had experienced an exhausting day.  Sometimes those long distance parenting calls can be challenging when you aren’t in the same physical location to support each other.

This call was a bit different, and this moment became a turning point for my work—all because of my personal mission statement. I want to share this process with you so you can see the great value in focusing on your best purpose, the best you, and how it benefits others—especially those closest to you.

In that phone call, I did not default to trying to fix or rescue the situation. I paused to reflect on my 10-word mission statement (To connect, inspire and lead with creative courage and optimism), which guided me to new behavior that was healthier for everyone in my family. Instead of frustration or caving in, I reflected on my mission statement. How could I connect, inspire and lead with creative courage and optimism inside this one conversation with my husband?

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Molly Fletcher – Why It’s Never Too Late to Reinvent Yourself

Molly Fletcher - Speaker - Business Expert - http://www.kmprod.com/speakers/speaker-molly-fletcherMOLLY FLETCHER
Speaker & Former Sports Agent

 

MOLLY FLETCHER helps inspire and equip game changers to dream, live and grow fearlessly. A keynote speaker and author, Molly draws on her decades of experiences working with elite athletes and coaches as a sports agent, and applies them to the business world.

Here, Molly talks about Why It’s Never Too Late to Reinvent Yourself

Fearless reinvention is a topic near to my heart. People often ask me about how I could leave my secure, comfortable job as a sports agent to pursue my dream of speaking and writing about reaching your greatest potential and achievement. What I think resonates with people is that I went all in. I wasn’t miserable or forced out of my old job. I was clear on what my dream was and the risk involved. When I left the agency where I had been for almost two decades, I had three keynote speeches booked that added up to about 5% of my base salary—yikes.

Did I know I would make it? No, but I was comfortable betting on myself and embracing the unknown. I had created choices for myself, but it was up to me to pull the trigger. Maybe you are doubting your ability to do the same, so I want to share what I’ve learned with you: Here’s why it’s never too late to reinvent yourself.

The clue to your reinvention is right here; pinpoint it.

We all gravitate to what we are good at, and in your current work you are doing something that springs from your passion. This thing is going to launch you to success in your reinvention. Here’s what I mean.

As a sports agent, I thrived building relationships. I love taking a raw relationship and building it into an unbreakable bond. The higher the stakes, the more I wanted to succeed, and the more I did. As I repeated this daily for multiple years, relationship building became second nature to me. When I considered leaving my career, this foundational skill gave me the confidence to believe I could get on a stage and establish an awesome connection with an audience of hundreds or thousands of people. It may have been a completely different career, but the premise was the same. To thrive, I would have to turn these raw connections into authentic relationships.

Your ability to authentically and authoritatively do what you are most passionate about is growing inside you right now. That gift is going to really blossom in your reinvention. I firmly believe and love the idea that when we follow our passions, the career follows us.

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Molly Fletcher – Business Leadership & Negotiating Expert

Molly Fletcher - Speaker - Business Expert - http://www.kmprod.com/speakers/speaker-molly-fletcherMOLLY FLETCHER
Speaker & Former Sports Agent

 

MOLLY FLETCHER helps inspire and equip game changers to dream, live and grow fearlessly. A keynote speaker and author, Molly draws on her decades of experiences working with elite athletes and coaches as a sports agent, and applies them to the business world.

Here, Molly talks about 3  Leadership Lessons from Parenting:

Time passes so quickly that I can barely believe my three daughters are almost teenagers. Seems like they were just in diapers, I was telling my friend Hal Runkel, president of The ScreamFree Institute and a national expert on helping families create great relationships. I love to pick his brain to be the best mom I can be as my children grow more independent.

Hal’s wisdom helps people become better leaders, not just better parents. Hal repeated three simple words to me: love, learn and launch. That’s your role as a parent, he explained.  It stuck and serves a great reminder for building great relationships on corporate teams, not just families.

Lesson 1: Love.
A great leader (and parent) is excited about each team member, their skills and personality, and how they will fit into your mission and team chemistry. This connection remains no matter what the person does. Yes, you may have to have hard conversations along the way—the deep respect that grows from a leader’s care makes those difficult moments easier to navigate.

Here’s a specific example of love and leadership: recruiting and hiring. This is your first step to bringing a new person into your team, and he or she can sense your passion and authenticity (or insincerity). There is no substitute for this gut emotion.

In recruiting and hiring, we only have one chance to make a first impression, which can make or break success. As the keynote speaker at a recent national conference on talent acquisition and the candidate experience, I learned that nearly half of all candidates (47.7 percent) had no previous relationship with a company before applying, meaning that the candidate experience is the first exposure they have to a company’s brand and highlighting the need to for employers to get it right.

Company values are crucial to shaping an employer brand; 41.4 percent of candidates stated that the most important marketing material influencing their decision to apply was the company’s values.

If you are unsure of this person’s qualifications or fit, that can be hard to hide. Great leaders find some level of emotional connection to those who work for them. This can be through a shared passion for the work, for the team, for goals. In this context, “love” is a deep connection that is essential for long-term success.

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Michelle Ray – Three Strategies to Respond Positively to Negative Feedback

Michelle Ray - Workplace Relationships ExpertMICHELLE RAY
Three Strategies to Respond Positively to Negative Feedback


Michelle Ray is an award-winning speaker who helps people and organizations of every description to take the lead, get out of their comfort zones and develop the willingness to risk. As an in-demand business conference speaker, educator and leadership coach, Michelle challenges her clients and audiences to take charge of themselves, shift perspectives and discover their greatest potential.

If you have ever been at the receiving end of criticism, either from a co-worker or manager, it is likely you have found yourself struggling to respond positively…or worse, have defaulted to apologizing when you have done nothing wrong. Even if the criticism is warranted or offered inappropriately, you cannot control the other person’s intention, words or delivery. What you can do is respond in a positive fashion while maintaining respect…for yourself and the bearer of disparaging comments. Whether the feedback pertains to your work, your relationship or a specific situation that transpired between both parties, your goal is to rise above the negativity and respond, rather than react.

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