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Corporate Seminars & Talks Sometimes it's hard to believe, but I've been speaking to groups for over 25 years. My first efforts in the 1970s were in the career development arena. As I began to write books and expand my interests, I gravitated toward other subjects. I recently looked over the titles of the seminars I've done over the years and the topics have been wide-ranging:
As I reflect back, my early seminars were okay, but certainly not spectacular. Even though I was an extrovert, and reasonably comfortable in front of a crowd, I was not a professional speaker. And, like all neophytes, I made the mistake of thinking more about me and what I was going to say than thinking about what the audience needed to hear and how to make it an enjoyable and informative experience. As the years went by, I became more comfortable speaking in front of people and my presentation skills began to improve. By the mid-1980s, more and more people began coming up after a session to compliment my skills as a speaker. Then, in the summer of 1987 I was invited to speak at the annual convention of the American Library Association. I was nervous when I learned that 500 librarians would be in the audience, but I ended up really enjoying the session. What I didn't expect was the review of my efforts a month later in the August 1987 Library Journal:
It was a watershed experience for me. Around that time, I began to realize that I not only had some important things to say to people, but I was able to do it with passion and enthusiasm—and even some flair. Now, more than fifteen years later, I love speaking so much that it's become an integral part of the way I make a living. These days, though, my seminars are mainly on the topic of "Effective Leadership." Over the past decade, I've become a serious student of leadership and have delved deeply into the leadership literature. While modern writers have written many important things on the subject, I've learned that the greatest and most powerful insights about leadership were written centuries, even millennia, ago. The titles of my leadership seminars vary a bit, depending on the client and the venue, but the most popular title is "Forging the Leader-Follower Connection." A description of this seminar is included below. FORGING THE LEADER-FOLLOWER CONNECTION Too many leadership seminars confuse being in a leadership position with actually being a leader—and when they do talk about leadership, they often emphasize things like charisma or presentation skills, the most superficial aspects of leadership. This seminar will answer the question, "What is the connection between leaders and followers? And what are good and great leaders doing that poor leaders are not?" It will challenge participants to think about how effectively they are currently performing as leaders and help them initiate a meaningful discovery process to answer that question. It will also provide participants with conceptual tools and feedback devices they can use with peers, key employees, and family members as they answer the question, "What do I need to do to become an extraordinary leader?" The seminar will bring the insights of psychology as well as the wisdom of the world's greatest thinkers to the topic of leading and managing people. Members will learn that the essence of leadership has to do with meeting deep human needs on the part of followers. When these needs are met, the leader-follower connection is made and followers will walk the ninth mile for their leaders. When these needs are ignored or are squashed by "little murders" or other ineffective behaviors, followers will do the minimum that is required or actually work to sabotage the goals of the leader. A number of key human needs—and how to meet them—will be surveyed. Participants will also be exposed to the concepts of "Relationship Management" and "The Vital Signs of Leadership." As they engage in a self-assessment process, members will be given tips on how to overcome self-deception and insulation from feedback, two of the biggest problems of leaders throughout history. Participants will also gauge how well they're doing on some critical leadership dimensions, such as avoiding, complaining about, or overreacting to problems instead of confronting them effectively. The length of my seminars & talks also vary quite a bit. When I speak at the annual conventions of trade and professional associations, I pack a lot of material into an hour or an hour and a half. And when I do an "in-house" seminar for the executives and managers of an individual company, they often last for three or four hours. A sampling of some comments that former clients have made about my seminars are included below.
— Dave Dickson, President,
— Mark Thill, Executive Director,
— Roger M. Moery, President,
— Bob Kight, VP Human Resources,
— David Greer, CEO, In addition to my corporate and trade association seminars, I also do about fifty seminars each year for an international association of more than 8,000 CEOs called Vistage (formerly known as TEC, for "The Executive Committee"). I've been doing this since 1993 and have now logged well over 500 presentations throughout the United States and Canada. The folks at Vistage do a thorough job of rating speakers and only the most highly-rated continue to get invited to speak to newly-formed groups. The best Vistage speakers are a pretty impressive collection of individuals and I'm proud to say that I have earned the distinction of joining that select group. Out of several thousand speakers, only a few dozen have been named to their exclusive "200 Club," an honor reserved for speakers who have done more than 200 presentations and who have been consistently rated as excellent by Vistage members. For more information about my ratings (and a sampling of the comments Vistage members have made about my seminars), read on below. Vistage Ratings Each month, hundreds of Vistage groups (each one comprised of 10-15 members) meet in the morning to hear speakers on a wide variety of topics and in the afternoon to discuss business and personal issues. To ensure that members are getting the very best speakers, Vistage has implemented a rigorous speaker rating procedure, in which speakers are rated from "one" to "five" on both content and delivery. What follows is a summary of my ratings (as of a few years ago):
Vistage rating forms also provide an opportunity for members to write comments about speakers. Below you will find a sampling of comments that have been written on my rating forms:
Fees and Availability For fees and availability, please contact Dr. Mardy. |
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