Brian Gareau

Topics

The Accidental Boss

Often individuals find themselves in leadership roles without a true understanding of how to succeed. Many are “good doers” misplaced, misinformed or misguided. And they find themselves struggling to balance the many demands of leadership. Now more than ever, these Accidental Bosses must effectively wear multiple hats (managerial, company advocate and employee advocate) to be successful and sustain organizational performance.

In this session, attendees will explore tactical and practical reminders on “blind spots,” “the signs all around us,” and “hazards” to effective leadership and sustainable high performance. As well, they will gain basic techniques that can significantly improve the commitment, effort, and loyalty of your workforce. Remember, people are the only asset an organization has that can appreciate over time … if we truly appreciate them.

Tap into strategic, tactical, and practical solutions that have come from more than 30 years of corporate experience and 200 consulting projects worldwide.

KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES include:

• Gain a clear understanding of a leader’s role and its impact on your workforce
• Discover techniques to mitigate the risk of four influencers of leader’s actions and decisions
• Understand how to drive employee engagement and create a high performing team
• Be brilliant in the 12 basics of a successful leader

I Wish Someone Would Communicate Around Here!

Gain simple and easy techniques for improving communication in your organization.

Ineffective communication costs businesses big bucks – research estimates over $30B annually in the U.S. and U.K. alone. Communication is a simple, but definitely not easy, concept to consistently execute. Inconsistent, mixed messages create inefficiency. New technology increases speed and accessibility but not necessarily understanding. It’s very frustrating, as a leader, to continually hear comments from employees like:

• “The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”
• “Nobody communicates around here.”
• “That’s the first time I heard that.”
• “Why doesn’t anybody listen?”
• “We simply don’t walk our talk.”

The famous Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw once said, “The single, biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place.” Let’s create better understanding through more effective communication – and help employees “get it!”

• After attending this session, you’ll be able to:
• Minimize the impact of some major barriers that make effective communication
  difficult.
• Expand your understanding of why effective communication requires three key steps and how to effectively use each.
• Pull from research findings that can help you influence change in your organization’s communication activities and employee behaviors.
• Improve your own communications immediately by applying powerful, practical
  communication techniques gained.

Customer Service – From The Inside Out

Research shows that “poor” Customer Service costs U.S. businesses over $80B annually. Are the behaviors and attitudes impacting these losses actually “reflections” of how leaders and employees are treating each other internally? External customers don’t care about an organization’s internal issues. But, internal issues can and do have a huge impact on delivering a competitive advantage of excellent external customer experience. Is your business culture safe or dangerous for customers inside and out?

In this session, participants will:

• Rethink accountability for internal customer service and gain ideas to maximize
  mutual responsibility
• Leverage the three critical “I’s” of employee engagement for improved customer
  service
• Discover four ways to assess if there is “unconscious conditioning” in how
  employees are treated internally that impacts external customer service
• Learn and apply ways to maximize “internal” Word of Mouth (WOM) to energize
  external customers
• Gain checklists for auditing workplace internal customer service effectiveness

Workplace Culture – Asset or Liability?

Competition is tough! Everyone is constantly looking for a “new” market, product or service, process, physical layout, design, delivery model, or technology that will differentiate them from everyone else. And, if they are fortunate enough to find “an edge” – how do they sustain it?

According to Harvard Business School, “business culture can have a significant impact on a firm’s long-term economic performance.” So why do so few companies “master” their business culture’s competitive edge? This session will explore:

• Simple ways to measure business culture
• How do leaders embed business culture
• Creating sustainable business culture differentiation for employees and then to
  customers
• Myths and magic of individual accountability

Let’s take the theory and make it a tactical and practical advantage for your organization.
Remember – business culture eats strategy for lunch! Tap into strategic, tactical, and practical solutions that have come from more than 30 years of corporate experience and 200 consulting projects worldwide.

After attending this session, you will learn how to:

• Understand and help others discover how to “See” and “Hear” business culture
• Explain how culture impacts high performance and ways to maximize the impact of each element
• Identify some of your culture differentiators for employees; and then, its impact on
  customers
• Define and use the Think-Feel-Act model
• Be able to dispel common myths about accountability

A Sustainable Fuel for High Performance

Many businesses today struggle with “people issues” including: the ability to attract and retain the best talent, employee resistance to change, absenteeism, and individual accountability. All these create frustration, waste and lost performance.

So, how do you unleash the engagement “sustainable fuel” (commitment, effort, loyalty) of your workforce? Engagement is more than an employee survey score – it must be an
integrated element of your people and business strategy. It must be a critical competency that leaders master. And, it must be a priority to improve and sustain high performance.

Tap into strategic, tactical, and practical solutions that have come from more than 30 years of corporate experience and 200 consulting projects worldwide.

KEY LEARNING OBJECTIVES include:

• Maximize a new high performance culture model
• Explain and use key drivers of engagement and “4 Rights” model
• Gain examples of key external business metric – engagement correlation findings for credibility back on the job
• Develop a list of tactical and practical ways to implement and keep your organization’s sustainable fuel tank full