Self Leadership and
The New Leadership Playbook
Blog by Andrew Bryant

The term "business motivational speaker" can seem generic and vague, possibly like something from the TV Show, The Office. Far from being comical, a business motivational speaker is someone who inspires, informs, and motivates audiences to think differently, feel differently, and act differently. They are typically hired to speak at conferences, seminars, and other events to help motivate and inspire business professionals to reach their goals.

The professional, rather than the comical, business motivational speaker typically has deep subject matter experience that they can use to energize and motivate employees to take action. They will often provide strategies to help their audience reach their goals, with a mindset of enthusiasm and positivity.

Delivering results is essential for any team or organization, but delivering results when employees are fatigued, stressed, or unclear of priorities is impossible. A business motivational speaker is not a...

Whether in a one-to-one conversation or giving a presentation, you owe it to yourself and to your audience not to be boring.

The number one reason for boring your listeners is being too focused on yourself and or your topic. This could be because you are nervous and shy, or because you have not yet realized a fundamental truth that is attributed to Theodore Roosevelt:

"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"

3 Strategies for How Not to Be Boring

1. Be Curious

A great maxim for connecting with people and not boring them to death is, "if you want to be interesting, be interested." Be interested in the people you are speaking with, ask questions, and listen carefully to what they say. When you do this, you can connect what you want to say with their worldview.

Curiosity and open-mindedness will also mean that you can talk on multiple topics and have interesting perspectives.

2. Be Passionate

A guaranteed way to not be boring is to be...

Imagine being on a big waterslide at a theme park. Your descent to the bottom is inevitable, due to gravity, the flow of water, and the design of the slide. What is within your control is how you view the experience. Is it fun, or frightening? Are you learning and experimenting, or rigid and inflexible?

Now imagine your brain as a cascade of neurons firing rapidly. The pattern of connections is influenced by your genetics, your conditioning, and your physiology.

Just like the waterslide, in each moment of life, your brain is giving you an experience. This experience is yours to choose how to enjoy but ultimately governed by physics.

Self Awareness Matters

As you pay attention to your experience, your awareness increases, and with awareness comes ideas.

Ideas matter. Ideas are not just the result of experience, they become part of the cascade of neurological connections that generate your experience.  Ideas are what make us uniquely human, and without them, there is no...

Impostor Syndrome, doubting your skills and being fearful of being exposed, is much more prevalent than you might think.

I remember some years ago, speaking with a senior executive who would hide in his office and constantly check his phone to see if some imagined mistake had been discovered. 

This was an extreme case but I think we all question how good we are, and it feels great when we are validated for doing a good job. 

"BE CAREFUL that being validated doesn't turn into a NEED"

The Need for Validation

When we are born, we can do nothing useful but are loved by our parents for just being. Just being human in itself has value, and how much we appreciate that value is the measure of our Self-esteem. But, here's the rub, when we go out into the world, to school, to college, to work, we are not appreciated for just being, we are measured for our doing. 

We have been conditioned to perform. From the encouragement to take our first faltering steps, and successful...

Times of Crisis can bring out the best and the worst in people. Charles Dickens begins his Tale of Two Cities with:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Living in a post-pandemic world with a war in Europe, it certainly feels like the worst of times, so, how do we avoid it becoming, “the winter of despair”?

Behaviors in Times of Crisis

People respond to the stress of crisis in different ways, typical behaviors that let you know that you, or someone you know, is not coping include:

• Disbelief or Denial
• Emotional numbness
• Increased use of alcohol and drugs
• Anger, moodiness, and irritability
• Nightmares and other sleep disturbances
• Panic attacks
• Isolation or withdrawal from others
• Disinterest in previous activities
• Sleeping too much

Primed, Paralyzed, or Prepared

Why are some people more easily triggered by tough times, some just freeze whilst others are calm and rational.

The answer is that your response to external events is...

You may already have broken your New Year's Resolutions, but don’t beat yourself up. Self-leadership is about living intentionally NOT perfectly. Each morning get up, and set a new intention to be a little better today; over time the results will astound you. 

Self-leadership intentions are the rules we set for ourselves. If you want some inspiration, here's a list:

7 Simple Rules for Living

1. Make peace with your past - so it won't disturb your present
2. What other people think of you is none of your business
3. Time heals almost anything - give it time
4. No one is in charge of your happiness. Except you.
5. Don't compare your life to others - and don't judge them, you have no idea what their journey is about.
6. Stop thinking so much. It's OK not to know all the answers. They will come to you when you least expect it.
7. Smile. You don't own all the problems in the world.

Self-leadership for Living

Self-leadership is the practice of intentionally influencing your thinking, feeling, and...

Organizations of all sizes can keep employees motivated and engaged by hiring an experienced virtual keynote speaker. Virtual events are no longer unique, but done well they are an engaging way to provide employees with valuable insights, tips, and tools to be more efficient and effective. Here are some of the key benefits of hiring a virtual keynote speaker.

1. Cost-effective

During the 2020-22 Global disruption, virtual keynote speakers quickly became the go-to option for organizations, however, even though travel has opened up virtual or hybrid events still have benefits. First among these benefits are the savings from travel, accommodation, and other associated costs. Many global, inspiring, and motivating speakers have adapted their presentations with digital technology, allowing organizations to access top-tier speakers that they couldn’t previously access or afford.

2. Convenience

Virtual keynote speakers with a studio are flexible and so organizations can easily...

If you want to be a better leader, presenter, or influencer then you must embrace diagrams or models to amplify your message.

The human brain is brilliant at pattern recognition but has a limited capacity for language or numerical manipulation.

“A picture is worth a thousand words” 

When it comes to ideas and information, a diagram or model communicates much more effectively than words. Here are seven of the many diagrams that I use in my leadership coaching, and keynote speeches. 

1. Find your Sweet Spot

Success in life and career is a Venn diagram. You must find your passion, but passion alone is not enough, you must develop your talent and find a market for your skills. 

Jim Collins used this diagram in his book, 'Good to Great'. The Japanese have a concept, Ikigai which means reason for being. The Japanese diagram has a fourth circle, what the world needs. Imagine doing what you love, doing what you are good at, and being paid for it, and it makes a...

Whether it is for the company conference, sales kickoff, or client event, somebody inevitably searches for ‘the best motivational speaker’. Most professional speakers and subject matter experts despise this term, but it is the number one Google search phrase, for this role.

Every corporate event can be improved with a top motivational speaker who tells great stories and elevates the thinking beyond the spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentations, but who is the best motivational speaker for your conference or event?

Getting a Top Motivational Speaker 

Getting a top motivational speaker depends on your budget and their availability but there are other factors to consider:

1. What outcome are you looking for, how do you want the audience to think, feel, and act differently after the speech?
2. How much is your audience ready to be challenged? Or are you looking for corporate entertainment?
3. What is the theme of your event?

If your motivational speaker provides the keynote,...

Some years ago, the head of Learning and Development for one of my clients told me that I was too loud on social media, specifically, LinkedIn.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“You are always posting success stories and ideas, but you are already coaching our leaders so you don’t need to do that”.

I understood her conservatism, but I was acutely aware of the impact of not having a voice or presence.

Can you be too loud on LinkedIn?

A year later the same person came to me to ask if I could deliver a workshop on social media for her company’s leaders, to increase their visibility. Her conservative outlook had given way to the realization that:

• No visibility, no credibility
• No credibility, no influence
• No influence, nothing changes

The Irish poet and playwright, Oscar Wilde said;

“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

This concept is uncomfortable for the more...