Not that business keynote speakers have ever been a frivolous expense, but now more than ever, the spotlight in the speaker selection process is on ROI. Sure, you want someone who is dynamic and engaging. Maybe some name recognition would be nice. But the critical question is, “What will be the lasting impact of this speaker’s presentation?”

With budgets tightening, you can’t afford the luxury of spending a few - or several - thousand dollars just to amuse your audience for an hour. You need to be sure your investment is securing you a speaker whose impact will last for not hours, days, or weeks, but for YEARS. You need a speaker whose message is so powerful and thought-provoking that it will continually find its way back to the top of your attendees’ minds. And when it does, those attendees will either think favorably of your organization for bringing them in contact with that speaker (if you plan an association annual meeting or a national client conference, for example) or those attendees will be reminded to apply what they learned which will make your organization stronger (if you plan internal programs for leadership, all employees, etc.). Either way, the thousands of dollars you invested will be continuously paying dividends. That’s what you need. Right?

So who are these “magical” speakers? Here eight who have proven their worth over and over again:

• Marcus Buckingham
• Keith Ferrazzi
• Neil Rackham
• Benjamin Zander
• Jackie Freiberg
• Kevin Freiberg
• Ron McMillan
• Jason Jennings

The added bonus with booking speakers with this kind of lasting impact? Not only are they the only type of speakers you can afford to invest in during this economic climate, but they’re the exact type of speakers who will help you create a thriving business in spite of this economic climate!

For additional high-impact speaker candidates, take a look at our up-to-date Top Five Speakers list (http://www.thespeakersgroup.com/top_five_speakers) to see the speakers who are generating the most buzz in various topic categories. Or search our speaker directory (http://www.thespeakersgroup.com/speakers) based on your unique event parameters - we’ve carefully selected all of the speakers on our roster so you can invest with confidence.

Posted under Organizational Excellence, Planner Tips, Speaker Recommendations

Adapted from the TSG Speakers Bureau Reference Guide on Motivational Speakers:

All the labels can be confusing: motivational speakers, inspirational speakers, keynote speakers, public speakers, etc. Are they all the same? Are they all interchangeable? To a degree, there are great similarities, and yes, they can be interchangeable. There are significant differences, though, and we tried to bring some clarity with the “Motivational Speakers” installment of our reference guide.

What defines someone as a motivational speaker?

According to Wikipedia, a motivational speaker is “a professional speaker, facilitator or trainer who speaks to audiences, usually for a fee.” Motivational speakers are often utilized as keynote speakers to open or close events in dynamic fashion. A typical presentation from a motivational speaker ranges from 45 to 90 minutes, although some are as short as 30 minutes or as long as two hours.

Motivational speakers come from many different backgrounds. While the motivational speaking profession requires no formal training or certification, those who speak professionally and succeed in the profession possess the proven ability to lift up, educate and motivate their audiences. The best speakers can engage the audience and share best practices, experiences and life lessons without boring the audience. They do so through the use of humor, storytelling, originality, and the refrain from canned speeches.

What is the difference between a motivational speaker and an inspirational speaker?

Wikipedia describes a motivational speaker as one who has “the proven ability to lift up, educate and motivate their audiences.” In contrast, Wikipedia defines an inspirational speaker as one who “address[es] audiences with the aim of inspiring the listeners to higher values or engendering understanding about life and themselves.”

There are indeed similarities between motivational speakers and inspirational speakers, and someone could be labeled as both simultaneously. One subtle difference, though, is that inspirational speakers are often known for having a warm, encouraging message, sometimes based on a story of overcoming great obstacles. Motivational speakers, on the other hand, may be more dynamic and energetic, with a presentation geared toward “firing up” an audience.

To inspire, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, is to fill with enlivening or exalting emotion. To motivate is to provide with an incentive; move to action; impel. Note that inspiration connects with emotion; motivation connects with action.

Who are the most popular motivational speakers?

There are a number of outstanding motivational speakers available to enrich a meeting, conference or convention. Some of the most popular, most requested and most heralded are those whose presentations are both dynamic in style and rich in relevant content, such as  Harry Paul, Benjamin Zander, Mark Sanborn, Eileen McDargh, Marcus Buckingham, Jackie Freiberg and Kevin Freiberg. To evaluate more motivational speaker candidates, visit The Speakers Group’s online directory of motivational speakers.

Posted under Motivational Speakers, Planner Tips, Speaker Recommendations

The first line of a post titled “Mastering the Art of Motivation” on BNet.com grabbed my attention: “According to the Harvard Business School, 85 percent of companies report that employee motivation drops after the first six months on the job.” Wow!

I suppose that shouldn’t come as a great surprise. We can all remember back to when we started our job for the first time… It was new! Exciting! Challenging! Invigorating! By the time you’re six months in, it’s familiar. Routine. Mindless. Exhausting. That’s just one side of the story, though. Look at what else happens to new hires within the first six months on the job:

1. They become more familiar with their boss and co-workers… and they realize they are all helplessly flawed!
2. While they love the core responsibilities of their position, they realize there are some necessary activities (TPS reports?) that just aren’t as much fun… and they seem to take more time than the work they love.
3. In the midst of the “routine,” they lose sight of the purpose of the organization and even their position which initially connected with their passion.

The list goes on, but these are all very real issues. As the BNet post indicates, it is largely the responsibility of managers to watch over their employees and make sure their motivation does not reach dangerously low levels - and there are plenty of preventatives and remedies at the managers’ disposal. One “tool in the toolbox” should be a connection to personal and professional development authorities who can help business leaders create and maintain a workplace that fosters motivation for all employees. For each of the toxic issues noted above, there are speakers standing by with the exact antidote. For example:

Rick Brinkman, co-author of Dealing With People You Can’t Stand and a very funny, yet relevant, keynote speaker on “Conscious Communication,” is a great help in addressing situation #1 above. It is inevitable that we will cross paths with people we “can’t stand” in the workplace, but Rick’s message hits home with situations that people find themselves in every day and empowers them with practical solutions.

Marcus Buckingham, author of the bestseller, Go Put Your Strengths to Work, and co-author of bestsellers such as Now, Discover Your Strengths, is in high demand by companies seeking to bring the strengths movement into their organizations. Those employees who find themselves bogged down with activities which are not their strengths within six months will only experience further deterioration of their motivation level as time goes on. Within a few years, they’ll only be a shell of the person they were when hired. Marcus can help leaders and managers create a business that plays to the strengths of its greatest assets - its people. The measurable benefits of creating a “strong company” are amazing.

What about employees who lose sight of their - and their company’s - purpose? It is a sense of purpose that drives each of us. Take it away and we are lost. Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg, co-authors of books such as Boom! 7 Choices for Blowing the Doors Off Business-As-Usual, can be great resources to leaders, managers AND their employees. Reminding their audience members that they are “designed to choose,” they help individuals reclaim their sense of purpose and as a result, boost performance to levels higher than ever before.

And for a universal solution to keep everyone running at optimum levels, consider Harry Paul, co-author of the book, REVVED! An Incredible Way to Rev Up Your Workplace and Achieve Amazing Results (and also co-author of the popular FISH! book series about the Pike Place Fish Market).

These are just a few examples of speakers who can partner with business leaders to prevent the motivation drop-off of new/recent hires, and maintain peak levels of motivation for everyone in the organization. The investment in a speaker can range from a few thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, but what might the benefit be from having a motivated workforce showing up every day? Or, alternately, what might it cost to have an unmotivated workforce showing up every day?

Posted under Organizational Excellence, Planner Tips, Speaker Recommendations

Did you see Marcus Buckingham’s “I Hate My Job” interventions on Oprah on Friday? The show was essentially a follow-up report on four women who had been a part of Marcus’s strengths workshop and coaching in Chicago over the past few months. These women all faced different circumstances in their lives, but they were all “burned out” in one way or another before Marcus came on the scene. After he had helped them discover and pursue their strengths, though, it was amazing to see the change in their lives - more energy, more hope, more vibrance, more passion… more happiness!

Have you ever thought about how many of your employees may hate their jobs? According to the stats shared on that Oprah show, more than 80% of people are unhappy in their jobs. Odds are, some of those people work for you and your company.

As business leaders, we have a responsibility to take care of those who have placed their lives in our hands. And of course we have a responsibility to ensure that our business remains profitable and successful. But don’t the two go hand-in-hand? How successful can your business really be if 80% of your employees are dissatisfied at work? Or, how much more successful could your business be if 80% of your employees were satisfied at work? Perhaps that is the bigger question!

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days with Marcus Buckingham on his Go Put Your Strengths to Work book tour last year, and as I watched audience members stay “tuned in” throughout his presentation about the strengths movement, and as I saw people stand in line to meet him and thank him for the work he was doing, it was clear that this man was on to something that could change lives, and change organizations.

If you want to take your organization to new heights, sure, you should check your profit margins, rethink your marketing strategy, sharpen your sales tactics, and so on. But don’t overlook how much could be gained by taking the time to see if your people are working in areas of their strengths every day. If not, they’re likely to be unhappy and working at sub-par performance levels. It’s not easy to re-align people and their duties, but since when does being easy have anything to do with being right? When you set people up to play to their strengths every day, you’ll have stronger employees, who make a stronger organization.

Don’t take my word for it, though. Just look at the four women on Oprah. Look at Marcus’ research statistics. The proof is out there.

Posted under Keynote Speaker Reviews, Speaker News

Marcus Buckingham, best-selling author, popular conference keynote speaker, and leader of the Strengths Movement, will be on The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, April 18. How did this come about?

Last year The Oprah Winfrey Show called The Marcus Buckingham Company and asked what the “Strength Movement” was all about. To demonstrate, Marcus and his team went to Chicago, filmed a three hour Workshop and then coached the participants - talented women from all walks of life - over the following five months.

On The Oprah Winfrey Show on Friday, April 18, these workshop participants will share their stories of how they’ve been able to significantly increase their performance, at work and in life.

Here’s a preview of the show from Oprah.com:

Are you unhappy in your job? You’re not alone. Four out of five people quizzed in a CareerBuilder.com survey are unhappy at work—that’s 84 percent of the nation’s workforce!

Business expert and best-selling author Marcus Buckingham has helped millions of people reach new levels of success and happiness at work—including employees at Coca-Cola, Gap and Microsoft—with his radical “strengths training” approach. His key to success is simple:
Stop spending so much time trying to fix your weaknesses. Instead, focus on what makes you special and unique. “A strength is an activity that makes you feel strong,” he says. “If you want to know what your strength is, you’ve got to pay attention to how you feel. It feels like
focus. It feels like concentration. You feel invigorated. Energized.”

Another way to think of strengths training is to look at it as a report card. When a child comes home with a report card, Marcus says most parents would focus more on an F than an A. Really, they should give more attention to the A. “You grow the most in the area where you already show some natural advantage, some natural area of talent or strength or passion. That’s where you start,” Marcus says.

Marcus says being dissatisfied with work can filter into other areas of your life. “Your family [and] people that are the most important to you in your life are the ones that hurt,” he says. “If you’re going to win at life—if any of you or any of us are going to win at life—we’ve got to flip that switch.”

A YouTube video clip highlighting the show is available on the Marcus Buckinham on Oprah page on Squidoo.

Posted under Speaker News