You Won’t Win if You Can’t Keep Your Best People: Leveraging the Science of Emotional Intelligence

With 40-70% of people contemplating leaving their jobs, the challenge of retaining your best and brightest has never been more important.

But you won’t keep and engage them if you rely on pay, benefits or cool job titles.

It’s been a challenging two years and people are getting burned out and overwhelmed, yet they are now facing increased uncertainty, change, and the pressure to deliver with limited resources.  What they need to be successful in this environment is a manager who is equipped with the skills of Emotional Intelligence (EI). A manager who, in times of stress, can tune in to the needs of their directs and help them grow, be resilient and productive.

Unfortunately, at the very time your people have this critical need, pressure is pushing your well intentioned managers to become more command and control, and less connected to their people, causing your best to consider greener pastures.  It doesn’t have to be this way.

In this powerful virtual or live experience, your managers and leaders will learn how to:
-Grow their skills of Emotional Intelligence so they can tune into the challenges their people are facing.
-Lead with empathy and edge, to drive increased retention, engagement and performance
-Use brain-based strategies to manage their own stress and emotions so they can be resilient, a source of calm in your organization and coach people to be their best in the most trying situations.
-Influence & engage others who are at a distance and create the conditions to keep best and brightest, which is the key to winning in 2022.

Why Avoiding Difficult (Last 8%) Situations You Face is Sabotaging Your Best Performance

Most people struggle to have the impact they want to have because they lack the tools to confront the more difficult conversations they face. Avoiding difficult conversations, decisions, and tasks, what we call Last 8% Situations, not only handicaps an organization’s ability to adapt and win but disengages their most important resource, their people.

Now is not the time to play safe. As you face a new post-pandemic normal, tough decisions and conversations will have to be made about how you work (and where) in order to realize your organization’s success.

In this powerful virtual program, your people will learn specific tools to:
-Engage in the difficult conversations and decisions that lead to a high performing culture that drives innovation, engagement, and success.
-Create an environment of high psychological safety so people are not afraid to offer new and different ideas, the key to innovation.
-Work better, together, in a virtual environment where people struggle to stay focused through long days on Zoom.

“This virtual keynote exceeded my expectations. I learned something new hearing about the research on the Last 8% and our brain responses.”
– Deloitte

Are You an Exceptional Leader: Why Meeting Your Biggest Challenges has Everything to Do with Leading Under Pressure

Your organization, like others, is facing big challenges: whether it is an accelerated rate of change, threat of disruption, ambitious targets or aggressive competition. Your people experience these organizational challenges as pressure, which can result in diminished performance, lower engagement, and an inability to deal with change. It doesn’t have to be this way. Research is clear that some leaders are better prepared to handle and lead their people through these challenges more than others. In this powerful keynote, based on the NY Times best-selling book, Performing Under Pressure, The Science of Doing Your Best When it Matters Most, your audience will learn how to leverage pressure to help them get to the other side of performance and succeed in achieving their most challenging goals.

In this cutting-edge keynote your team will learn:

▪ What exceptional leaders do differently from the average, to help their people manage change and perform at their best.
▪ How to build a culture ready to take “smart risks’ and innovate.
▪ Specific tools to leverage pressure and help others get to the next level of performance.

The Science of Emotional Intelligence:The Missing Ingredient Behind Building a Highly Engaged Organizational Culture

Why would anyone want to be led you? This is the single most important question a manager or leader needs to ask themselves if they want to unlock the potential and creativity of their people. The reason your employees get up in the morning and choose to be engaged and productive has nothing to do with a manager’s level of IQ or technical capabilities, it has everything to do with their manager’s level of Emotional Intelligence (EI). The research is clear that Emotional Intelligence is the single most important driver of an engaged, results-driven, highly effective workforce, especially in environments that are undergoing significant change and disruption.

In this interactive keynote, your team will discover:

▪ What the brain does under pressure and specific tools to manage it more effectively.
▪ Self-awareness: understanding the impact your leadership style has on your people.
▪ Strategies to manage emotions when there is tension and conflict.
▪ How to win the hearts and minds of your people by connecting to the emotions that drive their behavior.
▪ Engaging stories from the frontlines of leaders who are stepping up and winning in the most challenging pressure-filled circumstances.

All Change is Personal

“People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings.” – John Kotter

The usual approach to change does not take into consideration the human brain and its neurological realities. The brain’s primary hardwired mission is ‘first, keep alive.’ When change is coming the brain senses personal danger and all too often its built-in responses are to trigger emotions that cause people to resist and prevent change. This is the major reason why over 80% of change efforts fail.

In this program, you will:
-Learn what Last 8% situations are and how they impact the personal aspect of change
-Understand what happens to your brain in face of change, uncertainty, and pressure
-Specific tools and strategies to manage emotions so you can deal effectively with change
-Understand how to apply the strategies to increase resilience, as well as promote creativity and innovation.

This powerful program is delivered by Bill Benjamin, of the Institute for Health and Human Potential, who contributed to the New York Times best seller, Performing Under Pressure. Bill has degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science and has worked with people in high pressure environments including Goldman Sachs, Intel, NASA, The U.S Marines, The Federal Reserve Bank and Surgeons, to name a few.

How to Perform Under Pressure

Your people are facing the most intense challenge of their careers, yet most continue to rely on their IQ and technical skills to manage through. It’s not enough.

To survive, your organization needs to be agile and see opportunities where others do not. Your team needs to learn how to work effectively with others who are, themselves, under pressure themselves.

In this powerful program, your team will learn:
-Specific tools learned from working with high performers in the NFL, NBA, Olympic teams, Navy seals, Goldman Sachs, Intel, among others to be more adaptable, resilient, collaborative and opportunistic.
-How to manage their brain so they think, perform and lead under pressure.
-The single most important daily habit that increases focus and decreases burnout
-This virtual program is based on a 12,000-person study we did for our New York Times  bestselling book, Performing Under Pressure

“Best online presentation I have ever attended. Different than the usual: interactive and engaging, yet highly substantive. Huge success.”
– Morgan Stanley