Chester Elton

The vast majority of employees’ days are now spent working collaboratively, but still 96 percent of executives cite poor teamwork as the main source of workplace failures in their organizations. How can managers lead their teams to improved performance given the volatility and challenges we face today. Based on an 850,000-person study of the most profitable, innovative work teams, New York Times bestselling author Chester Elton introduces his audiences to the new science of teamwork—helping leaders deal with the increased speed of change in business, global and remote employees, the rise of the Millennials, the need to work more cross-functionally across departments, and more.

Elton’s research has discovered a set of leadership disciplines that make the biggest difference in building today’s best teams. He helps leaders: identify the drivers of each team member for maximum engagement, help new people and teams work faster & smarter, inspire greater innovation through healthy debate, build bridges across functions, cultures, and distance. 

While most leaders understand their most reliable competitive advantage comes from their people, few know how to get their teams “all in”—convincing employees to buy into the strategy they’ve put forward. If a culture is clear, positive, and strong, then people will believe what they do matters and that they can make a difference. If a culture is dysfunctional—chaotic, combative or indifferent—employees will spend more time thinking about why the people sitting next to them should be fired than getting fired up themselves. Teaming up with research giant Towers Watson, #1 bestselling author Chester Elton presents the findings of an unprecedented 300,000-person study conducted in the worst of the recession for his book All In. Based on this breakthrough research and his extensive consulting experience with a who’s-who of successful organizations, he presents a simple roadmap that all managers can follow to create a high-achieving culture in their own teams where employees are engaged, enabled and energized.

Elton offers specific how-tos for each step, and tells fascinating stories of leaders in action that vividly depict just how these powerful methods can be implemented. Audiences will learn: the 3 research-based characteristics of the world’s most profitable, productive organizational and team cultures, the 7 steps today’s most successful leaders use to generate buy-in, how managers at any level can build a productive workgroup culture of their own where employees commit to the culture and give an extra push of effort.

Most managers want to create cultures where their teams achieve above-and-beyond results, but for a culture to really take off teammates must encourage each other on a daily basis. The answer is in rooting for each other: having each other’s backs, appreciating strengths, and recognizing strategic behaviours.Based his #1 bestselling book The Carrot Principle, which unveiled a 10-year, 200,000- person survey, Elton has become the preeminent authority on employee recognition. Now, he introduces us to Carrots 2.0—showing incontrovertible evidence that today’s employees respond best when they are recognized for things they are good at and for those actions where they had to stretch.

Elton introduces audiences to new generational and industry-specific data —helping managers link recognition to what is most meaningful to their employees. He introduces practical concepts that help managers encourage excellence, including ideas such as appreciation vs. recognition, effort vs. achievement, and praise vs. rewards. Chester shows how great managers lead with carrots, not sticks and in doing so achieve higher: Productivity, Engagement, Retention, Customer Satisfaction.

By 2024, 75 percent of the workforce will be Millennials and Gen Z. The best leaders are retaining more of their key, young talent by creating meaningful career discussions from day one, and are helping younger workers understand their impact on the greater purpose of the organization. In addition to learning how to help team members of all generations work together more effectively, leaders in this session will discover ways to reduce employee attrition by helping each employee understand their core motivators and sculpt the nature of their positions to better match those drivers. The truth is very few leaders know what is really motivating to their people or, even if they do, don’t know how to apply that information to day-to-day work.

Be a Better Manager by Friday: Real skills for inspiring employees, leading a team, and winning in today’s transformative marketplace
For leaders looking to drive innovation, diversity, and inclusion in their teams, many established management practices are doing more harm than good. Too many leaders are dampening their employees’ exuberance and refreshing diversity with old-school management approaches that are killing their cultures. This fresh, funny and challenging keynote presentation will debunk myths such as The Smartest Person in the Room, Treating Everyone the Same is Fair, Appreciation Comes in a Paycheque, and We’ll Let You Know if You Mess Up. Audiences will learn how to lead in such a way that today’s employees will follow—including establishing a clear future vision, enhancing diversity, increasing trust levels, and providing opportunity and growth development paths. Designed for senior leaders and managers, this session is typically customized to an organization’s specific leadership challenges.

For leaders looking to drive innovation, diversity, and inclusion in their teams, many established management practices are doing more harm than good. Too many leaders are dampening their employees’ exuberance and refreshing diversity with old-school management approaches that are killing their cultures. This fresh, funny and challenging keynote presentation will debunk myths such as The Smartest Person in the Room, Treating Everyone the Same is Fair, Appreciation Comes in a Paycheque, and We’ll Let You Know if You Mess Up. Audiences will learn how to lead in such a way that today’s employees will follow—including establishing a clear future vision, enhancing diversity, increasing trust levels, and providing opportunity and growth development paths. Designed for senior leaders and managers, this session is typically customized to an organization’s specific leadership challenges.