COVID-19 – A Massive Change Opportunity
A global pandemic has delivered us the biggest leadership test in history. Every individual and organization in the world has faced new circumstances and realities simultaneously. While many organizations have been severely impacted or frozen by COVID-19, some organizations have thrived. Difficult times are when you find out who you really are as a leader and a company. While all this feels scary, history has shown us that in prior economic recessions, some amazing innovations can result. In the last economic downturn of 2007-2007 when the global banking market nearly collapsed and thousands of people lost their homes and their jobs, something unexpected resulted: over 30 unicorns were born, such as Airbnb, Uber, Slack, Glassdoor, Groupon, and Dropbox, to name a few. Times or turmoil and change present amazing opportunities to look at problems differently and innovate. In this engaging talk, Steve will reveal examples and stories from history that show us NOW is the best time to play offense as an organization and turn what feels like a disaster into a victory.
The Future of Work
Today the way we work, where we work and how we think about careers is undergoing a massive transformation. As the Gig economy continues to grow, as employee turnover continues to rise, and as the average life of a company continues to shrink, there are massive consequences to the work economy. While most of the media focuses on how AI and Robots will eliminate millions of jobs, the untold story is what a “career” means is changing. More and more workers are changing jobs faster than ever AND more and more professionals are making big career pivots than ever before. In this engaging seminar – Steve will review the significant changes taking place in the world of work and what it means to us as professionals, leaders and organizations. This session will inspire new ideas and new ways of thinking for both professionals and organizations and offer ideas and suggestions on how to optimize for success in the future.
The State of the Union of Work
We are in the midst of a tidal wave of transformation in the world of work. From the growth of the Gig economy to the explosion of share work spaces like WeWork – how we work, where we work and even our relationship to work is changing in dramatic fashion. Today we have more choices on how to earn an income than ever before outside of a regular job AND we have more visibility to what is professionally possible with our unique backgrounds and experiences given this new transparent job market. And yet even with all this new choice and opportunity, engagement remains at extremely low levels in North America and around the world. In this engaging talk Steve reviews the new reality of work and offers ideas and suggestions for to attract, hire and retain world class talent and teams in this new work frontier. This session will review how people are thinking differently about their careers and what that means for employers.
How to Make Culture Your Competitive Advantage & Elevate Your Business
In a world where turnover is increasing, and employee engagement is low, culture today means far more than just the norms of how we get along. The great companies of today have made their culture a powerful weapon in the war for top talent. Today your culture is both your employer brand and your company brand, and thus its imperative you invest and nurture your culture if you want to win today. In this engaging talk Steve reviews how you can leverage your culture to attract great talent AND to thrive in this complex new reality. Steve can speak from experience as he helped architect LinkedIn’s dynamic culture which became and critical component of their success during massive growth. During Steve’s talk he will review how LinkedIn built and leveraged their culture to massive competitive advantage in the war for talent against Google, Apple, Facebook and Twitter among others.
The Future of Leadership in a Digital Economy
The way we work today is very different than just a few years ago. What employees expect in a job and a company continues to change rapidly. How you hire, engage and lead talent in your companies has evolved a great deal. Today great leaders communicate and course correct more than they weigh information and make decisions. Great leaders today are information brokers more than decision makers. In this talk Steve will share how many organizations are rethinking and reimagining the role of a leader. This talk frames out how leadership has and needs to change to be effective in this fast paced, data intensive digital reality where employees have more power, voice and choice than ever before.
The LinkedIn Growth Story
The LinkedIn Growth Story – How a small low profile company competed for talent and won against sexy giants like Google, Facebook and Apple
Through the telling of many real-life stories and experiences Steve reviews the wild LinkedIn growth ride in the late 2000s where the company grew from 400 to 4000 employees and grew from staff in 2 countries to staff in 17 in under 4 years. Steve will share many of the mistakes and the lessons LInkedIn learned during this growth spurt and how they ultimately beat some of the greatest companies in the world in the war to hire the best talent while also revolutionizing the recruiting industry. Winning the war for talent against sexier brands who can pay higher salaries than you can is a timeless lesson for all leaders today.
The Future of HR and Recruiting
The Future of work is here! In this session, Steve will teach you about the many changes taking place in business and the workplace that are propelling the creation of new and exciting Human Resource Strategies. During the session Steve will share 1) how the HR function is evolving; 2) the many new jobs in HR such as Branding and Analytics, and 3); the many new technological tools and resources that are allowing the HR function to reveal new talent insights and help companies win today.