Speakers Connect

Being Brilliant Every Single Day!

nextchapter — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:26:37 +0000

Most leaders can deliver great performance sometimes. The challenge is being brilliant every day.

Dr Alan Watkins, armed with his medical background, turns the focus on you and explore the science behind leadership. He reveals how the best leaders in the world think about leadership and show you how you can step change you own ability, control your own biology and regain the energy levels you had 10 years ago. Be prepared to be surprised by how good you could be.

Dr Alan Watkins

Alan Watkins is the founder and CEO of Complete Coherence Ltd. He is recognised as an international expert on leadership and human performance. He has a very broad mix of commercial, academic, scientific and technological abilities.

Over the last 13 years Alan has worked, lectured and consulted to small, medium and large multi-nationals all over the world on leadership development. He has coached many of the UK’s leading businessmen and worked with numerous Boards and thousands of Senior Executives in the FTSE 100.

Alan is an Affiliate Professor of Leadership at the European School of Management, London. Originally trained as a physician he also has a first class degree in Psychology and a PhD in Immunology. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience at Imperial College, London.

He has published a wide variety of scientific papers in various peer reviewed scientific journals, written several book chapters and his own book on Mind Body Medicine was published in 1997. His second book on Leadership is expected to be published in 2012.

Alan has extensive media experience in radio and television. He recently featured in his own ten part series for BBC1 called “Temper your Temper” where he coached ten individuals with anger issues. He also contributed to the BBC series “The Truth about Food”.

He recently stepped down after 7 years as the Chairman of an autism charity having helped it establish itself as the UK’s leading provider of behavioural services to autistic children and regularly advises government and other international organisations.

Creativity – The Most Important Leadership Quality…

nextchapter — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 17:50:42 +0000

Recent Torrance tests have revealed that while general IQ increases with each generation, creative thinking and problem solving (CQ) has been declining since 1990. At the same time a just-released survey by IBM of 1500 CEOs in over 30 countries and 66 industries has revealed that creativity is considered the most important quality in leadership.

How can you be more creative?

Creativity guru, Fredrik Haren, shares his insights in the above video…

Fredrik Haren

Fredrik Haren is a Swedish entrepreneur, publisher and author who now lives in Singapore. He is the founder of a creativity company called interesting.org, and has been invited to speak on creativity in over 1000 sessions to people in more than 30 countries. He was awarded “Speaker of the Year” in Sweden 2007, and was selected as one of “Sweden’s 100 most inspiring persons” by the magazine “Leva” in 2008. In 2009 he was selected one of “Sweden’s most sought after business speakers”. Fredrik has written a total of 7 books, including best seller “The Idea Book, and his new book, “The Developing World” published last year.

Want to inspire your team on innovation and creativity? Contact us at info@speakersconnect.com for more information or to book Fredrik for your next event.

Managing Gen Y Talents

nextchapter — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 00:24:47 +0000

Dr Graeme Codrington

Dr Graeme Codrington is an expert on the new world of work and multi-generational workplaces. He is a keynote presenter, author, futurist, facilitator and strategy consultant working across multiple industries and sectors. His unique style blends cutting-edge research, thought leading insights with humour and multimedia-driven presentations and workshops.

Speaking internationally to over 100,000 people in about 20 different countries every year, he has shared the platform with the likes of Edward de Bono, Jonas Ridderstrale, Allan Pease, Sir Ken Robinson and Neil Armstrong. He has won numerous awards for his speaking and facilitation, including “Speaker of the Year” by the Academy for Chief Executives. His client list includes some of the world’s top companies, and CEOs invite him back time after time to share his latest insights and help them and their teams gain a clear understanding of how to successfully prepare for the future.

He has three best-selling books published by Penguin, including the award winning, “Mind the Gap” and “Future-Proof Your Child”. He is currently writing a book on “Strategic Leadership Intelligence“.

Graeme works from bases in London, Toronto and Johannesburg, presenting and facilitating on every continent around the world.

Andrew Grant: Who Killed Creativity?

nextchapter — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 00:58:44 +0000

Why school is out of date for future workforce demands

If you read some of the most popular books on creative thinking, you might conclude that you need to fail at school in order to succeed in life. Many of these books describe the admired contemporary creative thinkers and entrepreneurs who simply couldn’t fit into the standard system. This may be comforting for those who have just received their final results for school or university and feel they have ‘failed’, or for those heading into a new semester struggling with the rigorous demands of the current education system. But perhaps it might be best to look at this topic from a completely different angle. Doesn’t the education system, in fact, fail children by not preparing them adequately for the demands of the contemporary workforce? As these children will become the future leaders, isn’t it worth considering how they have been failed, and how this issue may be rectified? And isn’t the failing in itself an important part of the learning process?

A quick recap – Torrance tests results (the most reliable indicator of creative thinking capability) show that while IQ has been increasing with each generation, CQ (the Creativity Quotient) has been on the decline since the mid 1990s. And now one a new IBM study has revealed that CEOs believe creative thinking will be the most important quality needed for the leaders of the future. Which means that investigating the apparent death of creativity and the strategies we can use to get it back should become a top priority.

Creative thinking is not just inventing

Since Steve Jobs’ passing away, a number of articles have appeared that have cast him in a new light. One of the most unusual assessments has been that he was not actually an inventor. That claim might surprise many people, but it reveals that what Steve actually did best was to perfect and optimise other people’s inventions until they worked and were useful. He figured out how to make things do what they were actually meant to do. The digital music player, for example, was invented in 1979, the smart phone was released by IBM in 1992 and the tablet computer by invented by Alan Kay in 1968. But Steve Jobs pushed these concepts through until they worked and worked well. By combining, remixing and creating until the innovation was perfected and ultimately successfully sold in an attractive package, he left other tech organisations in his wake. The more traditional companies could only stand dumbfounded, scratching their heads and wondering just what had happened. Whilst it was Apple in the first decade of the 2000s, there will be others that might even topple Apple in the next. Consider how, for example, Google is now being threatened by Facebook.

How different is the unique skill Steve Jobs embodied from those school systems strive to develop! Learning for most students is characterised by trying to learn established facts and ideas, and is bookmarked by exams that measure the ability to replicate and reproduce rather than innovate. They are immersed in systems that rely on the ability to answer the questions correctly rather than creatively. There is little time or space to explore, reflect on, create and recreate – particularly as they advance through the education system.

To be creative, individuals have to be prepared to fail, and to be resilient in the face of rejection. They need to be independent thinkers, self-sustaining and self-reinforcing. Biographies of great artists and scientists nearly always start with a prolonged period of zero success and recognition, and this is a huge factor that often rules out many people from being productively creative.

Many inventions have been inspired by accident (3M Scotchguard is a famous example) or come about as a result of people using failure as a learning opportunity — people, that is, who did not fear failure and were willing to get back up and try again and again.

Hands up – identifying the problem

We decided to interview children in the school context to try to understand what happens as children go through the education system and how they end up losing their creative spark by the time they enter the workforce. We approached our children’s international school in Bali armed simply with a series of questions and a video camera, but were fascinated to get such stark responses from our small sample group. We started in the kindergarten room, which was adorned with all sorts of creative products from the children themselves. When we interviewed these young children there was a great enthusiasm. ‘Yes! ‘– they all felt they were creative, and ‘Of course!’ – they were all proud of it. We felt significant relief and hope that creativity was still well and truly alive.

However, when we entered the senior classrooms the wall art was replaced with maths and science charts, the children were sitting in rows, and everything was restricted and subdued. According to the teachers we interviewed there was “no need for the additional stimulation in the environment” as students were “being prepared for high school”. The students’ responses to the questions we asked were also markedly negative.

Following on from our school survey, we have now also surveyed thousands of international seminar participants from companies we have worked with to ask if they think they were more creative as children than they are as adults. Of the respondents, over 80% have indicated that they believe their level of creativity has declined, and many reveal that they struggle with being creative in their current work environment. Probably not surprising when you consider the emphasis in the workplace on reaching targets and impacting the bottom line.

Getting beyond correct to creative

Developmental psychologist James Fowler says that education needs to move people out of a synthetic-conventional type of belief system – where something might be believed because it is the perceived norm – into one that involves questioning, enquiry and tolerance with ambiguity.

We need to start to think about how we might incorporate genuine learning processes into our organizations instead. Too many trainers are out there just thinking that they can impart facts that will solve everything. But it’s not the knowledge that we lack. What is lacking is the method of passing that knowledge on so it has an impact and is relevant in people’s lives. This is an art and a science, and it needs to be seriously studied.

Sales experts say that the biggest problem with an experienced sales person is that they know “so well” why their product benefits their customer, that they forget that the job is to help the customer make this connection, not themselves. What organizations need to be developing instead is what management guru Peter Senge refers to as “knowledge workers”.

No wonder a recent TIME article has reported, “The biggest problem with Asia’s schools today is that children themselves no longer link substantive learning with schooling. Students don’t see any interest in what they’re being taught.” The article goes on to report that, “Surveys show that while East Asian pupils top worldwide academic tests, they retain the information for the least amount of time, believing, not surprisingly, there is little utility in what they learn in the classroom…”

As Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Education Tharman Shanmugaratnam has identified, “The existing education system has produced reliable managers for predictable times, but it now needs to produce a new breed of leaders who have a certain ruggedness, an ability to respond quickly to situations.”

It is critical thinking skills, along with the ability to push beyond failure to eventual success, which are the skills that are urgently needed for the future and that we need to be developing at all levels.

Andrew Grant

Andrew Grant is the CEO of Tirian and creative designer of Tirian programs which are sold under license internationally. Andrew has worked on leadership and team development for top executive clients in multinational companies throughout the world for more than 15 years and is a recognized leader in the field.

Andrew has been in high demand as a keynote speaker and has shared the stage with top international speakers such as Stephen Covey, Jonas Ridderstrale and Bob Nelson. Andrew has been a keynote presenter and executive level facilitator in over 15 countries, and has successfully worked with over 30 different nationalities. He has presented at the global leadership conference for the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) & World Presidents’ Organization (WPO), where he ran several key sessions – including the opening keynote, and moderation of the inaugural merger meeting between YPO & WPO. The feedback received after the event was rated one of the highest ever achieved. Andrew has also been invited to speak on Leadership in the Middle East, presenting to over 2000 participants. Previously, as a lecturer in Education at the Central Philippines University, Andrew worked on breakthrough education projects across Asia. He has also worked pro bono with aid groups in El Salvador, Thailand and tribal India.

Why Does Smart Executive Fail…

nextchapter — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 05:56:37 +0000

There’s a scenario that keeps repeating itself in today’s business climate. A company is voted one of the most admired in the world. Then three or four years later, it’s in dire financial trouble. A CEO is celebrated on the covers of Business Week, Forbes, and Fortune. Soon after, the company is in the midst of a disastrous merger or some other fiasco.

What goes wrong in these cases? Usually it seems that top management made some incredibly stupid mistake. But the people responsible are almost always remarkably intelligent and usually have terrific track records.

To answer these questions, Prof Sydney Finkelstein has carried out the largest research program ever devoted to corporate mistakes and failures, and uncover -with startling clarity the causes regularly responsible for major business breakdowns. Learn from Prof Finkestein’s insights on Why Smart Executives Fail, how to avoid business failure, and what to do if they happen.

Contact us at Speakers Connect should you wish to engage Prof Sydney, and other renowned business speakers for your next event.

Robin Sharma: 5 “One Minute Productivity Moves”

nextchapter — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:43:34 +0000

Great productivity tips from our leadership guru, Robin Sharma:

1. Have the courage to get great at saying “No Thanks” to any activities that don’t advance your priorities.
2. Take 60 seconds every morning to do a written game plan for a productive day. “The things that get scheduled are the things that get done.” as I shared in The Greatness Guide.
3. Take a few seconds each day to turn off all your technology and work deeply on a key project with zero distraction.
4. Take 60 seconds to breathe deeply and focus on your progress. This will re-energize and refuel you.
5. Take 60 seconds to un-clutter your work area so you create space for your creativity to flow.
Below please also find his video on three best keys to being super productive:

Robin Sharma is a speaker of Speakers Connect . Contact us at info@speakersconnect.com for more information or to book Robin to inspire your team / audience on leadership.

Flicker album of Robin speaking in Hong Kong.

比較兩地人才 ~ 王浵世 Mr Eddie Wang

nextchapter — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:20:11 +0000

《原來錢作怪》:比較兩地人才撰文:王浵世 Eddie Wang
(九十年代出任滙豐銀行中國業務部總裁，退休前為中國民生銀行行長)

香港的職場近年來發生革命性的變化，在投資銀行的年輕一代顯得特別明顯。我們這班本地的小夥子似乎給內地來的對手比下去，目前的情況每況愈下，越來越多位置給別人搶走。大家不信，到IFC看看，便知道所言不虛，四處都是講流利普通話的“外來者”。

人家似乎能夠讓老闆相信：樣樣都可能！再難的事情都有辦法解決。得、得、得，我幫你搞定。還有，我認得誰、誰、誰，我家裏認識他；他女兒跟我在耶魯一起讀研究生。說起來一本正經，老闆由半信半疑轉換爲信到十足。

我們這邊廂有點接不上來，首先不在耶魯讀書，不認識此人的女兒，更不用說家裏根本不認識此人。再說，事情要按照別人的說法來做的話，不一定行得通。臉上表情一看就知道，不同意；就算同意，也無法想辦法通通氣。

我們想說：我們有國際視野。沒想到對方在耶魯讀書，自己沒法比。我們做事穩妥，不會“放飛機”；事情在我手上，再困難也會搞定。以前一直以爲低調是好事，總是悶聲不響，總是默默耕耘，正所謂“沈默是金”。說實話：我們就是缺點面子，不缺點子，但是少一點膽子。可是在“ 錢作怪”的日子，我們弄不出“錢生錢”的本事，最多替老闆省點水電費，說起來是有點吃虧。視野放得開，心胸放得下，國內多跑跑，平時多給力，讓普通話飛。我們有自身的價值，還沒全面體現出來而已。

其實兩地專才各有優點，不能說誰較優勝。中國人在發展當中，其中最重要是「道」．既是道理的「道」，也是道義的「道」，即是說方法一定要踏實。兩地人才要以這個「道」為基礎，爭取學習機會，各展所長。

網上重溫:

http://programme.rthk.hk/rthk/tv/programme.php?name=tv%2Fmoney&d=2011-05-07&m=episode

From 《原來錢作怪》Facebook Page

Contact us at +852 3489 9246 or info@speakersconnect.com to engage Mr Eddie Wang to inspire your team and clients on concrete knowledge of doing business in China.

Robin Sharma: 17 Tips to Double Productivity in 14 Days

nextchapter — Mon, 30 May 2011 04:14:43 +0000

Great tips from our leadership guru, Robin Sharma:

I wanted to share 17 of the tactics I’ve learned that I know will help you lean into your productive best in this age of dramatic distraction:

1. Turn off all technology for 60 minutes a day and focus on doing your most important work.

2. Work in 90 minute cycles (tons of science is now confirming that this is the optimal work to rest ratio).

3. Start your day with at least 30 minutes of exercise.

4. Don’t check your email first thing in the morning.

5. Turn all your electronic notifications off.

6. Take one day a week as a complete recovery day, to refuel and regenerate (that means no email, no phone calls and zero work). You need full recovery one day a week otherwise you’ll start depleting your capabilities.

7. The data says workers are interrupted every 11 minutes. Distractions destroy productivity. Learn to protect your time and say no to interruptions.

8. Schedule every day of your week every Sunday morning. A plan relieves you of the torment of choice (said novelist Saul Bellow). It restores focus and provides energy.

9. Work in blocks of time. Creative geniuses all had 2 things in common: when they worked they were fully engaged and when they worked, they worked with this deep concentration for long periods of time. Rare in this world of entrepreneurs who can’t sit still.

10. Drink a liter of water early every morning. We wake up dehydrated. The most precious asset of an entrepreneur isn’t time – it’s energy. Water restores it.

11. Don’t answer your phone every time it rings.

12. Invest in your professional development so you bring more value to the hours you work.

13. Avoid gossip and time vampires.

14. Touch paper just once.

15. Keep a “Stop Doing List”.

16. Get up at 5 am.

17. Have meetings standing up.

Robin Sharma is a speaker of Speakers Connect . Contact us at info@speakersconnect.com for more information or to book Robin to inspire your team / audience on leadership.

Flicker album of Robin speaking in Hong Kong.

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World [Video Post]

nextchapter — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 08:09:40 +0000

An inspiring story of a young man who left Microsoft to change the world…

At age 35, John Wood left an executive career track at Microsoft Corporation to form Room to Read, a nonprofit organization that “combines the heart of Mother Theresa with the scalability of Starbucks” to help children across the developing world break the cycle of poverty through the power of education. Razor-sharp business acumen honed at Microsoft, combined with a passion to change the world, makes Wood a unique, inspiring and popular speaker with universal appeal.

Wood founded Room to Read out of deep concern that nearly one billion people lack basic literacy and that over 200 million children in the developing world are not enrolled in school. “I was blessed with a solid education, which was a wonderful foundation for my future. As a result, I had a great career at a company that encourages people to dream big dreams. I started Room to Read as a way to give that same opportunity to children in the world’s poorest places. Education is a hand up, not a hand out. It is within our power to be the generation that ends poverty, so we need to think big and execute flawlessly.”

Since its start in 2000, Room to Read has sponsored the opening of more than 1,100 schools and 9200 multi-lingual libraries across the developing world. The organization has distributed over 7.4 million children’s books in multiple languages and supports nearly 8,800 girls with long-term scholarships. Wood describes these results as “total tip of the iceberg” as Room to Read plans to increase this literacy network to 20,000 libraries and schools serving at least 10 million children by the year 2015. The organization currently operates in nine countries in Asia and Africa, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, South Africa and Zambia.

In his award-winning memoir, Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, Wood tells the story of how he raised over $80 million of financial commitments from a “standing start” to develop one of the fastest-growing non-profits in history. The book was described by Publishers’ Weekly in a starred review as “an infectiously inspiring read.” Now in its 14th printing and translated into 20 languages, it is popular with entrepreneurs, philanthropists, educators, and internationalists alike, and was selected by Amazon.com as one of the “Top Ten Business Narratives of 2006″ and voted by Hudson Booksellers as a “Top Ten Nonfiction title of 2006.” The book was also featured during Wood’s appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show and the resulting “Oprah’s Book Drive” with Room to Read raised over $1 million from viewers. Because of the positive response from viewers, the show has re-aired on numerous occasions.

During his career at Microsoft, Wood ran significant parts of the company’s international business divisions, including positions as: Director of Marketing for the Asia-Pacific Division; Director of Marketing for Microsoft Australia; and Director of Business Development for the Greater China region.

Wood holds a master’s in business administration from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, a BS in finance from the University of Colorado, and honorary doctorates in humane letters from the University of San Francisco and Westminster University.

We at Speakers Connect is thrilled to have John Wood,author of best-seller “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” and founder of “Room to Read” joining our speakers bureau

Contact us at Speakers Connect at info@speakersconnect or +852 21654126 if you would like to engage John Wood for your next event, or viist us for more international speakers from us.

Robin Sharma: How to Do Your Best Work [Video Post]

nextchapter — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:47:57 +0000

Robin Sharma, who has been named one of the top 10 leadership gurus in the world, is the author of 10 major international bestsellers including The Greatness Guide Series and The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari, his books have been published in over 40 countries – helping millions of people and organizations create extraordinary results.

In the video below he shares the secrets of how to do your best work…

Robin Sharma is a speaker of Speakers Connect . Contact us at info@speakersconnect.com for more information or to book Robin to inspire your team / audience on leadership.

Flicker albums of Robin speaking in Hong Kong.