The past 18 months have been a rollercoaster of challenges for any organization. Even the best companies are suffering leadership fatigue and employee burnout. Executives and managers are virtually keeping constantly in touch, usually by Zoom, guiding employees as best as they possibly can. The challenge many executives face, now that things are returning to normal, is motivating employees and getting them over the challenge of the past 18 months. Some employees are even afraid to go back to the office when they are allowed to. Other employees can’t wait to get back to seeing others in the office and are giving out high fives and bro hugs like they just won the Superbowl. With such a variety of reactions and challenges there’s a solution to getting everyone on the same healthy, high performance trajectory.
A company-wide reboot is exactly what a world class motivational speaker can do better than any internal executive, because of something neuroscientists call novelty. Novelty means that when something is new and different, your brain allocates more resources to it – you pay more attention, you find it more interesting, you listen. A great motivational speaker inspires with a story steaming in novelty and overflowing with interesting advice or knowledge.
What are the 5 key reasons to book a motivational speaker now:
- Re-boot Your Team
- Repair Mental Health
- Employee Self-Discovery
- Invest in Your Culture
- Make 2021 a Great Year
Re-boot your team
Let’s face it; working virtually spending several hours a day staring at a computer screen is a recipe for lethargy and declining motivation. That’s why the pandemic has dramatically increased the amount of alcohol consumed in the United states, and relationships have suffered with the highest increase in divorce rate in recorded history. Teams are not feeling cohesive and energized. A motivational speaker who is also a great storyteller can plant a seed that will grow into an entire tree of excitement and motivation for your team. Finding someone who has overcome extreme odds to face a fear, beat deadly cancer, or performed at the highest level is always a welcome story of hopeful optimism. This should be the primary purpose of an inspirational speaker coming to your organization. Make sure they have a great story to tell and are good at telling it.
Repair mental health
This second point is particularly important coming off of a pandemic year. A great example is the best commencement speech of 2021 that every graduate must watch. In this short 20-minute conversation with the graduating class of 2021, Patrick Sweeney shares three critical points and some hard-earned truths. His talk dramatically shaped the way these graduates looked at their past year and completely changed the mindset of several people who had been very negative about the events of the pandemic. Finding a speaker who has expertise in mental health, neuroscience, or psychology, is particularly helpful in 2021. The important thing is that they can move beyond academia and presenting like a professor to weaving their advice into the tapestry of an entertaining story. Speakers are always credible when they have a best-selling self-help book as well.
Employee Self-Discovery
It is not often that company leaders or executives help their team members find their authentic self and discover their true voice. Usually leaders are so focused on performance and deadlines that they often miss an area to dramatically improve the happiness and therefore productivity of each person on their team. Creating a culture where people are encouraged to engage in self- discovery helps to create a culture of courage allowing people to experiment and learn. Many people do not want to shine a light on reality or dismiss their own frailties and shortcomings. With self-discovery comes an acceptance of reality as it is rather than how someone would like it to be. It’s at that point when a person can start to reshape reality to how they would like it to be, but first comes that hard truth and authenticity.
Invest in your culture
Create motivational and inspirational speakers are expensive, it’s an enormous investment for any company to hire someone who can dramatically impact their organization and team. However, if it is a person who is truly world class and great at what they do, employees will appreciate the fact that they intended this investment to make their life better. When a company CEO announces a special event that includes outside talent, team members know that it comes at a cost and the goal is to help everybody be happier, find their purpose, and perform better. The fact that a great keynote speaker should also be entertaining is not lost on your audience.
Make 2021 a great year
Hiring and keeping talented people is challenging, so building meaningful relationships and constantly aligning goals and values with your team is critical. This only comes if you have a culture of courage and people can be radically honest with each other about everything from performance to motivation to relationships. Hiring a motivational speaker helps ensure personal development of your team members. The right speaker can greatly improve the culture of courage that you are trying to create in your organization.
There are a lot of executives in struggling companies who are only focused on the bottom line. If you are generous with your team and you bring in someone who can dramatically impact their lives, that generosity will be returned to you 10 times over. As Aristotle said, “For what is the best choice for each individual is the highest it is possible for him to achieve”. As an outstanding leader, it’s your job to help your employees achieve meaning success and happiness.
If you are looking for one of the best motivational and inspirational speakers of 2021, check out Patrick Sweeney’s keynote speaker reel, and contact his team for more information about how he can motivate and inspire your team to the next level. Also check out one of the top audio books of 2021.