What Leadership Speech Topic is Best for Your Event? by Mike Taubleb
Mike Taubleb
Speaker Bureau Owner - 20+ Years Empowering Meeting & Event Organizers to Curate the Ideal Professional Speakers and Related Talent. Industry focus: Insurance, Healthcare, Financial Services & Tech.
Leadership as a speech/event topic manifests itself in many forms, much like “Motivation”. What’s relevant to your program depends on a number of factors:
· Event and Ongoing Organizational Objectives
· Participant Job Titles, Industry, Experience Level/Tenure w Employer, Diversity
· Organization’s Status: Steady vs Fast Growth, Reorg/Turnaround, M&A, Highly Competitive, Risk-Taking/Less Regulated vs Oligopoly, Risk-Averse/Highly Regulated, For-Profit vs Cause-Related, High vs. Low Tech, Regional-National-Global, Public vs Family-Owned, Hierarchical vs Flat Org Chart, Sales vs Engineering/Tech Culture, etc
· Budget allowing for lesser-known vs better known thought leaders (Name Recognition)
· Audience Size
· Is this a one-shot presentation vs tie-in to ongoing initiatives
· Want someone in or outside the industry
· A relatively new, edgy, contrarian persona or well-known mainstream presenter. Want to reinforce top executive POV or offer alternatives
· Practical near-term vs long-view
· Presentation Skills/Respect by Employees of Your Executives who will speak at event
That said, here are leadership topics and themes Promenade sees for 2017 and beyond:
· Culture:
o Progressive, Ethical, Profitable Enterprises
o Cultivating Buy-In
o Recognition-Based
o Fostering an Innovation Culture
o Collaboration
o Remaining Nimble in Large Enterprises
o First Ask Why
o Lifelong Learning
o Diversity & Inclusion
o Hierarchical vs Flat Org Charts (Relatively Leaderless Organizations)
o Work/Life Balance
o Integrating Cultures – M&A.
· Productivity:
o Thriving in Speed or Pressure-based Environments
o Practical ways to do more with less
o Effective Digital Productivity
o Dealing with Uncertainty
· Influence/Relationships:
o Pre-suasian vs Persuasion
o Executive Presence
o Change Leadership & Reinvention
o Connectional IQ and Relational Capital
o Strengthening Existing individual relationships
o Building and Maintaining Alliances and Partnerships
o Generations in the Workplace
· Foresight, Planning, Strategy, Visioning:
o Using Sci-Fi Authors for long-view ideation
o How to think and work strategically
o Future workplaces and workforces
o Design Thinking
o How to Think Like a Futurist for your career, organization, personal life, etc
· Career Development:
o Coaching & Mentoring
o Preventing Burnout/Renewing Enthusiasm
o Personal Branding
o Grit
o Lifelong Learning
o Unconventional Career Paths
o Strengths-Based Career development
o Onboarding New Leaders
· Cross-Cultural Competency
o Talent Management
o Negotiations & New Business
o Doing Business in Asia, China, India, Africa, Europe
· Peak Performance Strategies of Famous/Accomplished People and Organizations:
o Athletes
o Musicians and Artists
o Military
o Entrepreneurs
o Inventors
o Adventurers
o Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Walmart, etc
o As seen at TED, TEDx, SXSW, Davos, etc
· Tech Savvy Execs – Hardware, Software, Social Media, Gadgets
o Remaining Relevant during Digital Transformation
o Virtual Distance Leadership (Leading Remote workforces)
o Predictive Analytics, Small and Big Data, Data Visualization and Business Intelligence.
· Prioritizing Processes Vs People
o Drive to Simplicity
· Rational Risk-Taking
· Leading Product Development
Examples of Leadership Speakers:
Leadership, Change and Management Speakers
Business, Leadership, Motivation Speakers
Broader Talent Search – All Including Leadership
Written by Mike Taubleb – Owner of Promenade Speakers Bureau