Business and Leadership Keynote Speaker
Picture this: you’re now the executive producer of a movie, and your workplace is a movie set.
Every day you have a cast and crew show up. Their job is to create a “blockbuster”–a smash hit—so you have more customers, greater profitability, and increased success.
But then you hear them say things like:
“It’s not my job, I just work here,” or, “It’s not my responsibility.”
This article was originally posted on November 9, 2016, and has been updated.
“I’m done.” If an employee is telling you this, it means she has reached her limit. For one reason or another.
It could have nothing to do with low morale, lack of opportunity, or a dislike of her job.
She may be ready to move up, move on or begin a new chapter in her life.
All perfectly reasonable reasons to leave a position.
However, she may have shut down or become apathetic. Or maybe she is sucking the life out of her co-workers by being negative day in and day out.
Also known as a “dead wood employee”.
This article was originally published on September 7, 2016, and has been updated.
Do you remember your first encounter with a passionate leader?
The reality is that any leader can be passionate…if they know what to do.
But first, let’s look at why this is so important. [Read more…] about Passionate Leadership: 12 Key Traits That Distinguish The Best From The Rest
Communicating effectively. Is that you? Communication is the secret to success. Without understanding others, without understanding that we, when we send a message as leaders, we are ultimately responsible. Your communication is not something that other people should be trying to figure out.
In any communication, there is always a sender and a receiver. So when we are communicating with others, we need to communicate effectively. We need to be clear. We need for others to understand exactly what they mean. The leader who communicates a message and then thinks to themselves, hmmm, I don’t think they got it. Well, if that’s you, then it’s actually your responsibility.
It’s not the other person’s task to understand what you meant. It’s your responsibility to be clear, and every person needs different communication. Some people, they may not need a lot. They may already have the skills to do the task, but there are others who need more direction, more communication from you. So we can’t communicate with everyone in exactly the same way.
We need to be flexible ourselves, and those leaders who have the ability to communicate effectively understand that one size doesn’t fit all. Being a great communicator is everything because business is all about communication, and business is all about people. So I would suggest if you wanna be a better communicator as a leader, do everything possible to hone those skills to be open to learning to be open to communicating.
This article is a transcript of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIbqu54h2_8 on YouTube.
Michelle Ray (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
In leading others as SHRM say, one of the most important things that we can do is value diversity and differences in others. To be able to celebrate those differences is gonna make you successful as a leader, and it’s gonna make your organization successful. Because we want to be able to embrace differences and not to categorize people because they are different. That is the key to having success for our organizations.
It’s never been more relevant than it is today. Do you value diversity? Do you value diversity, gender diversity, cultural diversity, divergent thinking? That is what makes you a great organization. That is what makes you an organization that is separating yourself from the competitors, separating yourself from your competitors. Because people are watching you. They are watching you as a leader. They are watching you as an organization. Make no mistake that you as a leader, when people are assessing your business, are assessing the opportunity to work for your organization. They are looking at your ability to recognize and celebrate diversity. Because if we look at the world through a myopic lens we are in trouble.
We need to be able to celebrate all the differences that are out there in terms of people, in terms of their way of thinking, in terms of the way that they are operating. My hope is that for you as a leader you will always remain open minded.
Because, as a famous poet Anonymous once said, many an open mind should be closed for a repairs.
This article is a transcript from Michelle Ray’s Leadership Secrets at YouTube YouTube.
Michelle Ray (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
SHRM identify that one of the competencies that we need to have as leaders is the ability to set the vision. They identify this as one of the key competencies when it comes to leading organizations. Setting the vision is all about being transformational.
It’s about being focused on the future. On the other hand, leaders who are transactional are going about the day-to-day functions associated with leadership. And whilst all of those are critically important, the idea of being future focused is above all else. It means that you have an eye on tomorrow and that you are thinking about the vision in everything you do. It’s about big picture thinking and sometimes we get so caught up in the minutiae of the day-to-day, that we lose sight of that vision.
Great leaders are always cognizant of the vision and they’re able to take people along with them to realize the vision of their organization. Think about great leaders that you have come across in your own life. Great leaders that you have studied. Why have you admired them?
I would say the great majority of leaders that I have admired are the visionaries. So great leaders are those who are able to keep their eyes firmly fixed on the future.
This article is a transcript from Michelle Ray’s Leadership Secrets at YouTube YouTube.
Michelle Ray (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
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.
Michelle Ray (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
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.
Michelle Ray (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
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.
Michelle Ray (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
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.
Michelle Ray (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
