Chris Dyer

LEADERSHIP IN A RECESSION - LESSONS OF SUCCESS

What do your managers need to know right this moment to lead through a recession? How can you foster innovation when it feels like a pressure cooker? What’s on the mind of your employees? What small changes can you make today to better face what’s coming tomorrow?

In other words…how do you lead through a recession?

Chris Dyer successfully led and grew his companies through 2 major recessions and a pandemic. During that time they were named a fastest growing company by Inc Magazine 5 times, and were named a best place to work 13 years in a row. In this focused keynote, the emphasis will be on the lessons learned, specific changes needed during these crisis events, and practical advice on where to really focus.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Redeploying the focus of an organization
• Should we all be in sales?
• Learning how to leverage transparency and listening to retool the company

WTF?! – 7 PILLARS OF AMAZING CULTURE

Are you stuck figuring out where to focus (WTF) to improve engagement and performance? After years of research and countless interviews with top leaders across industries, Chris Dyer has uncovered seven key ingredients that matter in every workplace. These unconventional factors have the power to transform any culture, kick-starting productivity, performance, and profits.

In this dynamic and interactive keynote, Chris shares the seven things every leader can do better to improve culture and make a real difference, from the C-suite all the way down to new managers. Audience members will assess their effectiveness with all seven pillars of workplace culture and learn where they stand. This keynote has been shared with tens of thousands of people, averaging 4.9 out of 5 stars and comes from his best-selling book: The Power of Company Culture.

Seriously, WTF?! Do you make your employees’ strengths stronger or improve their weaknesses? Come find out!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Uncovering the top seven things that make a difference at work
• Learning how to better budget time and effort to make improvements
• Developing a personal plan to connect with your employees and determine WTF
• Identifying tactical tips to change your culture for the better

DELEGATION HACKS - THE LOST ART OF LEADERSHIP & HAPPY EMPLOYEES

The art of delegation and trust is not something that any leader shows up knowing how to do well. The best leaders learn and adapt a strategy from their mentors and find ways to communicate and empower their staff. But along the way a stressed-out boss, a failed project, or a bad employee can cause even the best leaders to get stuck and stop delegating. Key employees also find it hard to delegate as they move up in the organization and take on new roles and responsibilities, they fail to shed work that others could do, causing massive backlogs and frustrations. Learning how to delegate is a key skill for everyone! For some reason, as we emerge from the pandemic, organizations are seeing this as a massive obstacle for productivity, performance, and employee happiness.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Setting clear goals and expectations
• Differentiation based on the task, importance, and team members involved. Being a good delegator is not one size fits all.
• Empowering and rewarding employees or teammates for trying their best, even if they didn’t get it right the first time. Positive collaboration creates a long-term cycle of trust and success.
• Determining your hang-ups and issues with delegation

MASTERING TOUGH CONVERSATIONS

What conversations have you been avoiding?

Just the thought of broaching certain topics can be enough to bring on a spontaneous stomachache and palms so sweaty you’ll be glad shaking hands went out of style.

Sometimes saying what’s on your mind is easier said than done. Where do you start, and what direction should you take the conversation? How do you prepare, and how do you know when you’ve gone too far?

In this poignant keynote, organizational communication expert Chris Dyer will help audience members understand how to take on tough conversations with skill, tact, and grace. He breaks down key strategies for leading different types of discussions, while also providing powerful tactics for quelling confrontation avoidance.

Having purposeful conversations, no matter the topic is the ultimate weapon for building an extraordinary culture. This keynote is sure to impact your team for years to come!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Identifying when tough conversations need to happen
• Identifying cognitive biases that impact how information is perceived
• Knowing how and when to end a conversation
• Identifying personality types and leveraging the best strategy

PANTS OPTIONAL: THE FIVE SECRETS TO REMOTE SUCCESS

Work used to be something done in offices. Now it’s being done on couches, at kitchen tables, and in bedrooms across the globe. While organizations have been leaning toward remote work for years, the events of 2020 accelerated that transition, sending many workers to their home offices permanently with little to no preparation. Employees and organizations alike have been forced to quickly adapt to this new environment, and they are often learning lessons the hard way.

As the former CEO of a workforce that has been fully remote for over 10 years, leadership and culture expert Chris Dyer was managing remote teams before it was the norm. In fact, he’s run over 100,000 virtual meetings. (Yep, you read that right!)

As a “remote-native” leader, Chris has spent years uncovering the secrets every organization should know to be successful in a remote-first world. In this timely keynote, he’ll share his top five lessons so you can learn from his mistakes. You’ll leave with a roadmap for creating a high-performance culture where employees thrive—no matter where they work.

You won’t want to miss this keynote aimed at helping you thrive virtually—pants optional!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Developing a familial remote culture where employees feel emotionally connected and invested, despite the distance
• Supporting team chemistry and capitalizing on “water cooler magic” from afar
• Discovering the most essential communication and productivity tools for remote teams

ANOTHER %@*#ING MEETING!?

Do you spend so much time in meetings that you hardly have time left to do actual work?

You’re not alone! The average employee spends about six hours per week in scheduled meetings, while senior leaders suffer through 23 hours a week—roughly half their working hours! Of course, open communication is necessary for collaboration and teamwork, but considering 71% of employees think meetings at their company are largely unproductive, it’s time to set a higher bar.

Chris Dyer has run over 100,000 virtual meetings and has been recognized by Inc. as an expert in effective group communication. In this session, he shares his secrets to reducing time spent in unproductive meetings, while keeping employees informed and engaged. He presents practical strategies for keeping dispersed teams connected, including several innovative types of check-in meetings that will transform productivity.

Great meetings are possible! Learn how.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understanding cognitive biases in group communication
• Identifying the do’s and don’ts of great meeting types
• Learning how meetings feed your culture
• Curating meetings employees will want to attend

MASTERING TOUGH CONVERSATIONS VIRTUALLY

What conversations have you been avoiding? Especially with that teammate you can’t see in person!

Just the thought of broaching certain topics can be enough to bring on a spontaneous stomachache and palms so sweaty you’ll be glad shaking hands went out of style.

Sometimes saying what’s on your mind is easier said than done. Where do you start, and what direction should you take the conversation? How do you prepare, and how do you know when you’ve gone too far?

In this poignant keynote, organizational communication expert Chris Dyer will help audience members understand how to take on tough conversations with skill, tact, and grace. He breaks down key strategies for leading different types of discussions, while also providing powerful tactics for quelling confrontation avoidance.

Having purposeful conversations, no matter the topic is the ultimate weapon for building an extraordinary culture. This keynote is
sure to impact your team for years to come!

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Identifying when tough conversations need to happen
• Identifying cognitive biases that impact how information is perceived
• Knowing how and when to end a conversation
• Identifying personality types and leveraging the best strategy
• Understanding the difference in virtual/remote/hybrid conversations.

HYBRID WORKPLACE SUCCESS

The transition to a hybrid workplace has been a success for many organizations. A hybrid workplace is a mix of remote and on-site work. This model has allowed organizations to be more flexible and adapt to the changing needs of their employees.

Of course, Hybrid is not easy and comes with many challenges. Some of the biggest challenges in remote work have to do with Hybrid work. In actuality, the Hybrid model is the hardest for organizations to get right! You need to start with communication, whether in one-on-one conversations, meetings of various sizes, corporate newsletters, emails, memos, notes, phone calls, or other formats. In a remote model, you often lose body language, facial expressions, and intonation in most communication channels. Communication is 7 percent verbal, 38 percent vocal, and 55 percent visual. That means that 93 percent of communication is nonverbal.

In this keynote, Chris Dyer will share his years of experience and lessons from his best-selling Book: Remote Work to help any organization rapidly improve every part of its hybrid culture.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Creating balance in meetings through virtual body language, respect for time zone differences, and better curation.
• Heightened focus on communication. Both through better listening, and improved writing skills.
• Learn how to create a positive water cooler culture for recognition, connection, and even some fun!

WHY FAILING DOESN’T SUCK: HOW TO REJOICE IN YOUR FACE-PALM MOMENTS

Mistakes, failures, errors, blunders, and mishaps. Are you feeling uncomfortable yet?

No one is perfect, but we all hope for a perfect performance at work. Guess what? It’s not going to happen! In this refreshing keynote, Chris Dyer shows how constantly trying to avoid mistakes can be even more detrimental than the occasional slip-up.

With today’s changing business landscape, innovation is everything. But to drive innovation, employees can’t be paralyzed by self-doubt or the fear of failure. Chris will show how accepting (and expecting) to fail from wrong decisions or poor outcomes is a hallmark of good culture. Audience members will learn how to make more room for creativity and healthy risk-taking when it matters most.

Making mistakes doesn’t have to be painful. From minor errors to epic failures, come learn how your face-palm moments can lead to colossal business success.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understanding the difference between mistakes and errors, and communicating what’s acceptable
• Managing mistakes with empathy, transparency, and fairness
• Following mistakes toward improvements
• Understanding Mistakes from Errors

LISTENING IS LEADING

What is the one quality that people value in virtually any type of relationship? Being a good listener. Unfortunately, listening doesn’t evoke the importance it deserves. This provocative keynote aims to change that since having a company full of purposeful listeners is the ultimate weapon for building an extraordinary culture.

Listening sounds simple, but if that were true, people would be better at it. The ability to listen meaningfully requires skills that must be learned, then sharpened and honed regularly. Organizational communication expert Chris Dyer will help audience members do an honest assessment of their listening habits and provide actionable ways to improve. Chris demonstrates how easy it is to go from “listen to reply”, to “listen and understanding.” This transformation is linked to stronger networks, better working relationships, higher employee engagement, trust, organizational effectiveness, and profits.

Becoming a better listener is well worth the effort! After all, there’s a reason we have two ears and only one mouth.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Overcoming barriers to listening, such as internal and external distractions, and cognitive biases.
• Developing formal and informal communication practices for improving listening
• Leveraging purposeful listening to build trust, teamwork, and commitment
• Increasing the emotional intelligence of your company

WHAT YOUR EMPLOYEES REALLY WANT, BUT WON’T TELL YOU

Today’s business environment is becoming more and more competitive when it comes to attracting top talent. Increasingly, companies are using their culture as a key selling point to recruit the best employees. In a world where culture has become a top consideration for many recruits, how do you develop a culture that attracts top talent and makes them stick around?

Often, your best source of information about how to create a culture that attracts the best people comes from your current employees. But how do you truly understand what your employees want? You could ask them, but chances are you won’t get a straight answer. Why? It’s scary to tell leaders what they’re doing wrong, but it can also be hard to articulate exactly what needs to change.

Based on years of research and countless interviews with top leaders, Chris Dyer knows the secrets of what drives satisfaction and engagement. It isn’t Ping-Pong tables or a Friday afternoon beer cart. And luckily, it isn’t more money either.

In this insightful keynote, you will put your finger on the pulse of your company’s culture and find out what you can do to make it healthier. You will leave with a variety of actions you can take immediately to give employees what they want and make your company a better place to work, thus allowing you to attract top talent.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understanding the top seven things that make employees stay
• Capitalizing on your culture’s strengths
• Improving recruitment strategies that focus on selling your culture
• Learning what employees truly want from their leaders