Topics - Chris Atkinson

Where is Organisational Culture?

Culture Defines Our Organisations...
Do you know how?

I believe there is no higher priority for an organisation than to create the most effective culture for its employees. In this presentation I talk about how you can both identify and observe your organisational culture.

We will take this seemingly large subject and uncover how it quickly becomes relevant to every employee, every day. The organisations that are prospering in today’s world are the ones with a vibrant culture, your culture is not defined by posters and mission statements, it is defined by the day-to-day behaviours.

Leadership is About Seniority: WRONG!

One of the hardest leadership attitudes to change is the sense that I am a leader because I am in some way important, senior or powerful.

Leadership is not connected to any of these things, the challenge of true leadership is to have enough humility to realise that leadership is 'given' to you by others not 'granted' through age, experience or seniority. This talk will inspire people at all levels to focus more on relationships and gaining commitment rather than using incentive and reward to motivate.

Corporate Energy – How to Engage & Inspire Others

Want to Engage and Inspire? - But how do you ACTUALLY do it?

A truly unique talk which by its nature has to itself inspire to have credibility! Most of us want to inspire out people, to engage and motivate them to give their best to a project or role. It seems there are masses of resources available online and in books to help you but the shocking discovery I made was that there are actually NO books or practical guides explaining HOW to do it.

The talk will break down engagement and inspiration into the emotional components you need to demonstrate, then I'll give you a clear toolkit of behaviours which will give you the very best chance of inspiring!

Leadership Skills for the Technically Minded

We Have Great Technical Experts in Our Organisation - But handling people is hard!

It is easy to get judgemental about the technically skilled, writing off leadership as a challenging route for them. There are books for leaders explaining how to lead technical teams but when it comes to growing the leadership skills of our technical experts, surprising little helpful advice exists.

This talk gets inside the strengths of a technical mind and explains how those strengths can be turned into leadership behaviours. Without stereotyping people most audiences will quickly recognise elements of their own behaviours and find humour in the challenges I speak about.

How to Lead People we Find Challenging

You Know Those People
...We never quite connect with

Imagine the time and emotional energy saved if you didn't have those frictions or pointless arguments that often happen with some colleagues, imagine if you could change that person to encourage them to see things differently. This line of thinking sadly is fundamentally flawed and importantly bad for business, it is a seductive lie that promises the impossible - that we can change or control people. This talk establishes two facts at the outset:

1. You CANNOT change or control people

2. You DO NOT want people to think like you

I'll explain why the people you find challenging are those in your team you have the shallowest relationship with and what you can do about it to build a productive working relationship. It is possible!

Motivation Beyond Money

Despite a growing body of research to the contrary, most organisations remain fixated on incentive and punishment as the key methodologies for employee motivation and engagement.

Many leaders find it hard to imagine an organisational context where money isn’t the driving force behind the motivation of their people. Whilst money will remain the primary reason why most of us decide to work it actually isn’t an effective motivator nor is it actually very effective as a means to drive higher performance.

This talk explains how to motivate your people, beyond using money.