Michelle Ray

Business and Leadership Keynote Speaker

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Leadership

Why are Interpersonal Skills important for Leaders

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So, what are interpersonal skills, and why are they important as a leader? When I think about the times that I have had individuals come up to me and ask me about their leaders, or talk to me about their relationships with their leaders it’s amazing how they focus on the personal side, and the soft skills side. And it’s interesting because not every leader is conscious about the value of honing those soft skills.

It’s amazing because they are so critically important. What is it really mean? It means that you have the ability to connect with people. You have the ability to listen to people. You’re showing a genuine interest in others when they come to you and talk about what is going on in their life. It means that you’re making time for people and you’re really cognizant of who they are as an individual.

So, in the myriad of things that you’ve got going on and everything that a leader has on their plate it is so important to realize that that person that is in front of you in that moment, that is wanting your attention, they are wanting your attention for a reason because of your influence, because of the fact that they look up to you. So, for you to be able to have a conversation to really listen to their concerns, to as I said, know what’s going on with them in their life is far more important in the grand scheme of things than a task they might be working on.

Let’s never underestimate your ability to have a conversation, to be a great listener, and to hone your soft skills as a leader every day that you’re in that position.

This article is a transcript from Michelle Ray’s Leadership Secrets at YouTube YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

The Autocratic Leadership Style

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Some might say that an autocratic leader is out of style. I beg to differ. When could you need an autocratic style of leader? Well, it all depends on how you perceive the word autocratic. For example, in times of change and flux what do people need? They need someone to show them direction.

They need someone to say this is the way we are gonna do it. This is the way through. This is the way that we overcome this challenge. In other words, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a negative. Autocratic doesn’t necessarily mean dictatorial.

It means showing people the way when they are unable to discover it on there own. It means helping people to navigate through a difficult situation when people are at the crossroads or when people are confused about what to do next.

It’s someone who knows how to call the shots when people can’t find the way out. So, realize that may be one style that you can use and it’s situational depending on the circumstances. You might be the one who needs to call the shots and in those circumstances, that is totally okay.

This article is a transcript from Michelle Ray’s Leadership Secrets at YouTube YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

Key Leadership Traits: The ability to Take Risks

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SHRM defined one of the most important competencies in leading organizations as taking risk. The ability to risk. Without question, we want to be conscious of taking calculated risk. There is a difference between taking extraordinary risk and taking calculated risks. What kind of a risk taker are you? If we don’t take risks, we simply stand still. Of course today, it’s impossible to move forward without taking some kind of risk. That involves of course being able to let go of the fear and trust yourself. Trust in who you have around you. Trust in your decisions. Trust in your decision-making ability that you are able to take that next step.

Some of the risks we take may seem overwhelming initially, but once you’ve taken that risk and you’ve lived to see the result, you realize that what you actually did will give you the energy to continue to take risks. Being a risk taker doesn’t necessarily mean you are the risk taker extraordinaire, but you have an ability to embrace your fears, move through them and take the next step to take the risk.

This article is a transcript from Key Leadership Traits: The ability to Take Risks YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

Understanding Political Skills in Great Leaders – Office Politics

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Let’s talk about political competencies as a leader. I’m not talking about you being an elected official, someone that has all the votes, but when it comes to your business, it’s all about understanding what is going on with the people dynamics, understanding when people are trying to get their own agendas heard. This is something that really does come with time and experience. When you are honing your skills as a leader and you get to understand the games that people are playing and how they’re trying to advance their own agendas, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

However, for you as a leader, it’s really important for you to understand that we need to manage these kind of office politics, business politics, because if we don’t, it could result in your team being very dysfunctional, and people are playing that game of trying to one-up each other, and of course, that could lead to disaster because people are constantly trying to advance their own agenda, but at what cost?

You as the leader need to really be cognizant of people trying to advance their own agenda, play the political games. What is that all about? How you manage that is really essential to keeping harmony, high morale, high engagement, and a fully functioning organization.

This article is a transcript from Understanding Political Skills in Great Leaders – Office Politics YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

Why is Courage an Important Trait of Great Leaders?

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What does it mean to have courage as a leader? To have the courage of your convictions, to stand up for something that you truly believe in. Courage to me is a value. Click To Tweet When people are living their values, rather than just saying they have a value of speaking their truth, and having no fear, and standing up for what they believe in, to me there is a really big difference between actually living out that value every day. I’ve seen it very often where a person will just lack the courage of their convictions. As a result of that, they may live with regret. They may, again, end up demotivating their work environment, the team environment, when all of that could have been avoided if they actually just spoke their truth.

I think that a lot of this happens because people often hide behind a veneer, and they don’t necessarily understand, as a leader, that it’s okay to be transparent, that it’s actually very attractive to be authentic and stand up for what they believe in. People will gravitate towards that. Think of the last time where you needed to make a bold decision, you needed to act with courage as a leader, you needed to make a tough decision. Whether it involved making cuts to your team, as painful as that might have been, or maybe it meant that you needed to take the business in a different direction, you needed to make a business decision that you’d never made previously, whatever it might have been.

You needed to go after a different customer base, because you realized that what you were doing was old school, or you were losing customers, and you recognized that you needed to capture that market share again, whatever it might have been. You said to yourself, “I really need to do this differently, if we’re going to sustain the business and we’re gonna grow the business.” It doesn’t matter what the issue is. It’s really important for you to be true to yourself, true to your team, true to your business, and act with the courage to make those tough decisions, because that is what great leaders do.

This article is a transcript from Why is Courage an Important Trait of Great Leaders YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

Leading Self: Developing Adaptability

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Leadership Competencies is all about honing your ability to be adaptable, to be flexible. Today, I would say more than any other time, we are seeing the pace of change accelerating and so of course, we need to be flexible. We need to be adaptable, and along with being adaptable, we need to be willing to be flexible. There is no room today to stand still.

So, how adaptable are you to move with the pace of change, to recognize that things are happening outside of yourself faster than you can even imagine, faster than your business can even keep up with at times. So, if you are willing to be adaptable, and if you are willing to remain flexible, then you are in a position to teach other to do the same. You are in a position to be able to transcend change and you are able to remain on top of ever changing business dynamics and where your customers are going.

So, remaining flexible, is that you? Remaining adaptable, is that you? Because that is what we need to do as one of the core competencies to lead yourself.

This article is a transcript from Leading Self: Developing Adaptability YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

What is Leadership Development?

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So what is leadership development, and why is it important to your organization and the success of your business? Some people might say, “We’ve got to get more customers, we’ve got to find the best talent, the best employees.” In my view, all that is critically important. However, nothing matters as much as who you decide to develop as a leader, because it is the leaders that create the atmosphere, that mentoring your team that are making ideally the best decisions that have incredible influence on whether or not people feel motivated to stay in a job.

If your leaders don’t have the essential competencies to be successful, it really does start with you to make the best decisions and the best choices in terms of who you decide to put in those roles, and how you develop them.If you put the wrong people into the wrong role especially, thinking that they have the ability to be a great leader, that is going to cost you down the line. It’s going to cost you in terms of talent retention. It’s going to cost you in terms of lose productivity. It’s going to cost you in terms of low morale. So you need to make sure that you understand that you have the right people in place, and that when you decide to develop them, you’re investing wisely in your time, in your energy and everything associated with creating the best leaders that you can.

This article is a transcript from What is Leadership Development? YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

Leading Self: Increasing Your Capacity To Learn

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It was Eric Hoffer who once said that “…the learners shall inherit the earth, whilst the learned will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”

What an incredibly highly relevant statement that is. I love it, because it’s all about the ability to remain open, to see yourself as a lifelong learner. It makes sense that as a leader, there will never be a day where we should say that we know it all. How can that be possible when we remain open to learning, we will become better leaders, we will become sought after leaders in our organization. We will remain humble, and we will be seen as people who are sponges, who are always willing to grow.

Today, with the pace of technological change, and the speed of change, it is essential that we remain open to being a lifelong learner. Do you see yourself that way? Because that is one of the critical components to be able to lead yourself.

This article is a transcript from Leading Self: Increasing Your Capacity To Learn YouTube.

(Twitter) is one of the best international leadership keynote speakers in Vancouver. She helps you discover your potential through presentations, coaching and consulting. With over 20 years of experience Michelle has worked with hundreds of companies around the world. She is taking bookings for speaking engagements and can be contacted at MichelleRay.com

Three Ways To Sustain An Extraordinary Workplace Culture

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How often does one hear a president of a company open an event for his leadership team with the words: “Mom and Dad, I want to thank you for all you do”. Not only were his Mom and Dad in the audience, they were interacting with everyone throughout the entire meeting, from start to finish. The Founder (aka “Dad”) joined both his sons on stage to answer questions from attendees, holding nothing back. More than 300 people hung on his every word; laughing and at times moved to tears, as Dad told stories about the early days, his reasons for starting the company, as well has his vision for future success.  As I witnessed the smiles and animated conversations that ensued during coffee breaks, lunch and the reception afterwards, it was clear that this was no ordinary company. What made it so special? In a word: Culture.

The ability to sustain an extraordinary workplace culture while growing at an unprecedented rate is a scenario that many organizations would like to have. At the same time, preserving the unique attributes that make an enterprise successful can present its own set of challenges. The solution to maintaining an outstanding culture lies in consistently applying the following principles: [Read more…] about Three Ways To Sustain An Extraordinary Workplace Culture