Since 2000, Blaire Palmer has been helping organizations drive real change in their businesses and create places where people can come and do their best work.
As a Producer on the BBC’s flagship “Today Programme” in the 90s, she spent a decade breaking stories and shaping the UK news agenda before her fascination with leadership and change led her to train as one of the UK’s first corporate coaches. Two decades on, she gives audiences unparalleled insight into what’s happening in the most innovative Boardrooms in the UK and Europe, trends she’s spotting in her work and what works (and doesn’t) when it comes to change and leadership in real businesses right now.
Blaire Palmer realised early on that there is something about the workplace that stops people doing their best work and that the standard models about motivation, change, culture and leadership were just academic theories. They didn’t work on the ground. And that is even more true today when we need to recalibrate how to lead our businesses in an unfamiliar and volatile post-pandemic world.
Audiences want to know what leaders in other companies are doing in these uncertain times, how to engage and motivate people, how to improve retention and attract the right talent in a competitive market and how to confidently lead through change. Blaire draws on her real experiences working with businesses across industry sectors and present a new kind of leadership based on authentic human connection, trust, empowerment and continual innovation. She shares practical tips that mean audiences can start collaborating with each other more enthusiastically, support their teams to solve gritty problems, create safe spaces where people can speak up and speak out, and feel inspired and energised about the future.
Blaire Palmer is the author of 3 successful books on leadership and is regularly quoted in the media. She writes a monthly column for the UK’s leading HR publication HR Zone, has a regular column with AccountingWeb and is host of The Human Revolutionaries Show. She is Chief Executive of That People Thing, a leadership consultancy, and lives in Berkshire with her teenaged daughter, dogs, rabbits and chickens.
Blaire Palmer has authored a book titled “Punks In Suits – How to lead the workplace reformation,” which is scheduled for release in early 2024.
How on earth do we lead in this ‘post-Covid’ world of work? Well, it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom about leadership…the rules of work that evolved in the 19th and 20th Century, and focusing instead on the power of authentic human connection, trust and the wisdom of the people you hired. To do that, leaders need to change the way they see themselves and the role they play in the business and empower their people to be great. Blaire draws on more than 20 years working as a coach and confidante to senior leaders and their teams and presents her practical yet powerful guide to becoming the leader your people need you to be. Lively, funny and thought-provoking, Blaire leaves audiences feeling confident to try something new.
The rules of change are changing. It’s not about selling people on ‘The Why’ anymore. Now they need to feel THEY are leading the change. In this keynote, Blaire draws on more than two decades running leadership and culture change programmes to explain how to create passionate enthusiastic for change throughout your organisation.
The conventional wisdom is that, to bring about change, the best leaders create followers. Then they paint a picture of a glorious destination, explain WHY this is the best or only option and, once everyone ‘gets it’ change occurs. If it doesn’t it’s either a communication problem – people didn’t understand – or they did understand but people are resistant to change and are too afraid to take the leap. Leaders are left frustrated, asking “How many times do we have to tell them before they overcome their innate fear of change and buy-in to the plan?”.
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