Amy Blankson

Topics

The Future of Happiness in the Digital Era: Leadership Strategies to Enhance Performance and Well-Being

CATEGORIES: Well-being, Technology

Technology—at least in theory—is improving our productivity, efficiency, and communication. Yet the average mobile user checks their phones more than 150 times per day, and 67% of cell owners find themselves checking their phone even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating. Mindful attention is a scarce resource. As one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between happiness and technology, Amy Blankson unveils five strategies that successful individuals use to find a sense of balance between technology, productivity, and wellbeing in the Digital Age. In this talk, you will learn how to move from partial attention to full intention, how to hack your distractions to achieve maximum productivity and life satisfaction, and how to rid yourself of the tech graveyard in your office drawers to create more mental and physical space to do the things you love. By rethinking when, where, why and how we use technology, we can begin to recapture our focus, deepen engagement, and find flow in our everyday activities and relationships.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Discover the impact of distraction on your productivity and happiness.
• Establish positive technology boundaries to shift from a mindset of inattention to one of full intention.
• Learn healthy habits for tech use to maximize flow and engagement
• Understand how your technology use impacts your perception as a leader.
• Increase your flow and engagement by using brain-training techniques.

BEST AUDIENCES:
Sales, Entrepreneurs, Financial Services, Direct Sales, Technology, Education

Strategic Happiness: Rethinking Stress and Sustaining Positive Change

CATEGORIES: Leadership, Trust, Authenticity, Engagement

Happiness is the greatest competitive advantage in the modern economy, yet so often it is seen as a luxury at work. However, a decade of research shows that training your brain to be positive at work actually fuels greater success. In fact, 75% of our job success is predicted not by intelligence, but by your optimism, social support network and the ability to manage energy and stress in a positive way. It is time to get strategic about how we can raise happiness levels at our organizations to empower teams to reach their full potential. In this talk, Amy draws on her experiences working as Co-founder of global consulting firm GoodThink to empower teams that happiness is a choice, happiness is a habit, and happiness spreads. She explains how we rethink stress in the midst of change and challenge and how we can lead positive change from any position in the organization.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Learn how the field of positive psychology has changed everything we thought we knew about finding happiness and success.
• Understand why happiness is a choice and not a genetic or environmental byproduct.
• Discover practical strategies for practicing happiness on a daily basis.
  Uncover the power of emotional contagion and use positive social influence to deal with toxic co-workers.

BEST AUDIENCES:
Sales, Entrepreneurs, Financial Services, Direct Sales, Technology, Education

Conscious Innovation: Leveraging Potential Through Creativity and Collaboration

CATEGORIES: Innovation, Creativity

In the information economy, collaboration is the ultimate currency. Digital communities now enable us to “upsource” projects to collective wisdom, thereby tapping into vast reserves of knowledge and creativity. Yet at the heart of this movement are individuals, many of whom have ceased to believe that they can overcome systemic barriers to making a difference in their organization. The Ancient Greeks defined optimism as “the belief that our behavior matters,” which is a critical concept for helping individuals to remove limiting beliefs and to shift towards solutions-based thinking. In this talk, Amy will share inspiring stories of individuals who have mobilized their communities for positive change and will reveal core strategies for how to leverage the potential of teams. Using a combination of design thinking and experiential activities, Amy will show audience members how we can all be innovators if we act together with intention.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Learn how upsourcing knowledge has fundamentally shifted the nature of collaboration in the Digital Era.
• Discover how leaders are leveraging collective wisdom to innovate faster and more effectively.
• Understand why positive individuals are 3X more creative than negative individuals.
• Identify and fact-check limiting beliefs that hinder creativity.
• Empower individuals to use a growth mindset to fuel innovation and create positive change.

BEST AUDIENCES:
Business Owners, Entrepreneurs, Marketing, Technology, Civic/Government, Education, Nonprofits

Increasing Gender Parity in Leadership: Why it Matters and What We Can Do About It

CATEGORIES: Inclusion, Well-being, Leadership

While gender parity in management has long been an issue, the events of the past year–particularly in the field of technology–have shed new light on why women continue to struggle with breaking through the glass ceiling. While these stories give us snapshots into the challenges that women in the field face, we would be remiss to simply push for more management positions, board seats, or funding opportunities for women without answering the underlying concerns and misconceptions about women in the field: Why should there be more women in leadership? How did current leaders navigate their career choices? What challenges have they faced along the way? Drawing upon dozens of interviews that Amy completed over the past year for her Forbes series on “Women Execs in Tech,” Amy will share her insight to these questions and provide a path forward for leaders of any gender.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Uncover shared characteristics of some of the world’s most successful women
• Explore current challenges for women in leadership
• Learn why gender parity is vital to innovation and organzational culture
• Discover best practices for recruiting, retaining, and promoting top female talent.