David Mead

How to keep the flame inside your team alive and well

Length: 25 - 45 mins

Who it’s for:
Leaders who want to remedy the burnout their teams are facing and avoid it in the future by creating an environment where people are willing to share their challenges, ask for help and where they feel seen and heard.

Talk overview:
Employee burnout is a global concern, now more than ever. In a recent Deloitte survey of over 1000 respondents, 77% say they have experienced burnout at their current job. 91% say that unmanageable stress or frustration impacts the quality of their work, and 83% say burnout can negatively impact personal relationships.

Burnout is physical and emotional exhaustion that affects health and well-being. As work norms change, leaders carry a special responsibility to monitor and manage not only their team’s workload capacity, but also their emotional and physical well-being. This can only be done effectively when we have genuine compassion and concern for the humans we influence.

It requires more than DOING. It requires a focus on who we’re BEING

This interactive talk will explore three key traits that, when practiced, can help us:
- keep the flame of inspiration and joy alive in ourselves and our teams
- contribute to an environment where everyone feels seen and heard
- create the space for others to share feelings and challenges without fear of embarrassment or ridicule
- model the behavior we want to encourage
- acknowledge our own challenges and ask for help
- create deeper levels of trust and human connection on our teams

Emotional and physical well-being are vital to making work part of a meaningful human experience. We all deserve it and we can all contribute to it, no matter our role or title.

How to confidently take on the unknown we face, together

Who it’s for:
Those who are interested in running toward uncertainty and embracing new possibilities which can emerge from seeing challenges through a different lens.

Talk overview:
Uncertainty is a constant. It occurs both in prosperous times and periods of challenge. No matter how well or how poorly things are going right now, circumstances may change overnight. The possibility is always there, whether we want to think about it or not.

This possibility became our reality as we faced Covid-19. Numerous organizations, families, and individuals had their realities turned upside down, overnight.

Many of us who are used to feeling in control, have had the feeling of control stripped away from us. We wish things would just go back to normal because that’s where we know what to do. Instead, we find ourselves reacting to a force we simply can’t control.

So, what can we control? What if we shifted our perception of the current situation from an obstacle to our progress, to seeing it as a springboard to our progress?

In this interactive session, David Mead will share simple ideas which make it possible to approach uncertainty in a way which opens new possibilities we may not have seen before. Through polling and Q&A, he will encourage active participation that can prompt ideas for action for attendees.

Key concepts of the session include:
o Our two primary drivers - Love and Fear > How to understand and manage how we show up as people and leaders
o Purpose vs. Shared Commitment > Purpose is potential. Commitment is kinetic
o Focus on the condition we’re trying to create > How to reorient ourselves when things don’t go as planned
o Leading when we don’t know the answer > The humility to say, “I don’t know” and empowering others to contribute to the solution

We cannot control uncertainty. We can, however, control how we respond and lead during uncertainty. Leaders either limit or expand what’s possible for themselves, their teams, and their organizations. Which type of leader does your organization need right now? Which type of leader will you be?

Length: 25~45 mins

Who it’s for:

Leaders and teams eager to navigate the future of work in a way that builds trust, performance, retention and well-being.

Talk overview:

In many ways, the pandemic catapulted us into the future of work at a speed that some of us weren’t quite ready for. The lines between work life and personal life have blurred like never before. As we all learn our way through a new way of working, major changes in how, when and where we work are having a significant impact on leaders and their teams.

As we deal with shifts in technology, geography and flexibility, we must stay grounded in our humanity. Successfully navigating the future of work demands knowing, accepting and caring for the whole human, not just the “work” human.

This interactive talk explores why humanity matters to the future of work. David challenges participants to focus on culture and how they can take individual responsibility for it. By intentionally building and maintaining a culture of trust and human connection, leaders and teams can ignite transparent communication, collaboration and a sense of belonging, which become the rocket fuel for future engagement, performance and growth.

Drawing on his personal experience, as well as the patterns he has observed in leaders and organizations around the world, David offers a simple, actionable framework that gives participants:

- A greater awareness of their own leadership potential, no matter their role

- A framework for building and maintaining sustainable relationships at work and beyond

- Actionable tools and practices that build trust and human connection, tailored to their individual context

- A shift in mindset that increases their ability to face the future, together, with a sense of hope and possibility

How to keep people, and keep them thriving

Length: 25 - 45 minutes

Who it's for:
Leaders and teams facing the challenges of hybrid and remote work who want simple, actionable tools to build and maintain strong connections to their organization and each other.

Talk overview:
The way we work has changed. What hasn’t changed is the importance of trust and human connection. Although the human element was vital pre-pandemic, it was often ignored or minimized. Now, it demands our attention and the leaders and teams who embrace the human element of business will be those who thrive in the long term.

This interactive talk covers three essential traits required to infuse the human element into our cultures, along with simple, frictionless daily practices we can implement regardless of whether we hold a position of authority or not.

When we put these traits into daily practice, we experience work in a new way. Trust increases, psychological safety becomes the rule rather than the exception, innovation and creativity bloom, performance and retention increase. The result? Individuals thrive and organizations flourish.

As a result of this session, participants will leave with:
• A better understanding of how to connect with their teams, in person and remotely
• A mindset that guides them in behavior and decision-making
• Tangible tools that increase their teams’ engagement, productivity and a sense of belonging

How to keep the grass greener on your side of the fence

Length: 25 - 45 mins

Who it’s for:
Leaders eager to create and maintain an environment in which trust and human connection lead to greater well-being, higher individual and team performance, increased innovation and higher levels of retention.

Talk overview:
Every organization strives for high performance, growth, productivity and results. And often, organizations don’t realize they are self-sabotaging those efforts through the experience they create for their people.

When the culture we talk about doesn’t align with the culture our people experience, Culture Dissonance occurs. People go into self-preservation mode and they find it more difficult to trust and develop connections with others. Healthy, productive environments have Culture Congruence, where the stated culture aligns with daily behaviors.

In this interactive talk, David draws on his personal experience, as well as the patterns he has observed in leaders and organizations around the world. He will identify the symptoms of Culture Dissonance and explore three specific leadership traits that, when put into practice, lead to Culture Congruence.

As a result of this session, participants will:
- Have a greater awareness of their leadership impact
- Understand a framework that can help them lead with greater consistency
- Have tangible tools that increase performance, retention, transparent communication, well-being and more