Michael Lee Stallard

Jason Pankau and I will be presenting in the Wisdom Webinar series organized by the South Bay Organizational Development Network.  The webinar will occur from 9:00 AM until 10:00 AM PST on April 13.  You can register to participate at this link.

One of my favorite business books is Paul Spiegelman’s Why Is Everyone Smiling?. Spiegelman is the CEO of Beryl Companies, a call center outsource company for the healthcare industry. On March 24-25 I’ll be moderating a session at the Conference Board’s Customer Experience Management Conference in New York City where Paul will be speaking. You can learn more about the conference at this link. And be sure to check out the above webcast I hosted with Paul.

One of my favorite business books is Howard Behar’s It’s Not About the Coffee. Behar is the former president of Starbucks International and Starbucks North America. On March 24-25 I’ll be moderating a session at the Conference Board’s Customer Experience Management Conference in New York City where Howard will be speaking. You can learn more about the conference at this link. And be sure to check out the above webcast I hosted with Howard.

I highly recommend seeing The Blind Side, a movie about Baltimore Ravens’ offensive tackle, Michael Oher.  It’s worth the price of the ticket alone to see Sandra Bullock’s tour-de-force performance as Michael’s adoptive mom, Leanne Tuohy.  What I especially like about the movie is that it shows how the right social environment helps people thrive in life.

I don’t want to give away the story so let me just say in a nutshell that it was Leanne Tuohy who reached out to Michael.  It would have been easy for her to ignore him, but she didn’t. Instead, Leanne felt compassion for a young man who was wearing shorts in the winter and hanging around a high school gym just to stay warm.  She took the time to get to know him and his life’s story.  While others saw him as “Big Mike,” a quiet, giant, African-American young man from the Memphis ghetto, Leanne Tuohy saw him as a thoughtful boy with a big heart and protective instincts to match.  She called him “Michael,” a name he much preferred to “Big Mike.” Leanne’s insights helped Michael discover who he really was deep down inside and who he could become. These insights helped Michael see himself as a protector who “has the back” of his family and those he loves. It should come as no surprise then to learn that Michael Oher thrived in football as an offensive tackle responsible for protecting his teammates from the defense.

The Blind Side shows how the social environment we live in shapes us for good or ill. Read more »

Last week I did a webcast for members of the America Society for Training and Development (ASTD). The webcast covers select research findings from the field of neuroscience and their implications for leadership, productivity, innovation and employee engagement. ASTD is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and development professionals.  The webcast and slides are available at this link. (Note: clicking on the link will begin an automatic download of the webcast and slides.)

This week I’m chairing the Human Capital Institute’s Employee Engagement Conference in Boston.  During the conference  I promised to share some free resources with conference participants.

Here are links to the Employee Engagement Network, the Forum for People Performance Management and Measurement and the New Talent Management Network.

If you like the stories and ideas I shared at the conference, you’ll love the book.  Here is a free pdf download of  Fired Up or Burned Out. The free book download is only available through Friday so hurry!

I’m posting my slides and select published articles so that you can download them for free at Slideshare.

You can participate in a free webcast I’m giving for ASTD (the American Society for Training and Development) at 2:00 PM Eastern on Oct. 29 by signing up at ASTD Michael Lee Stallard Webex.  Nearly 700 individuals have already signed up!  During the webcast I will discuss findings in neuroscience and other research that helps us see what type of work environment is necessary for employees to thrive individually and collectively.  The webcast will address issues such as leadership, employee engagement, productivity and innovation.

In my experience as a leader, a board member and an advisor to leaders, I’ve learned that all great leaders are “servant leaders,” a term first used by Robert Greenleaf in his influential essay “The Servant as Leader.”  Recently, I hosted several webcasts on the leadership and employee engagement channel at Brighttalk.com that have a link to the servant leadership theme.  

Howard Behar, the inspiring and wise former president of Starbucks International, spoke with me about his experiences as a leader and his outstanding book entitled It’s Not About the Coffee.  I loved this book.   Read more »

John Timmerman, Corporate Vice President of Operations at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. (click here for his bio) was my guest on a recent webcast on Brighttalk.com’s Leadership and Employee Engagement Channel.  You can see the webcast by clicking on employee engagement.

During the webcast John identifies a variety of Ritz-Carlton practices that hep make it a Connection Culture including: Read more »

Please join me as I host a webcast with Charles W. “Willy” Moore Jr. on January 14, at 11:00 AM Eastern. When I spoke to a group of leaders at Lockheed Martin last year I heard Willy share his thoughts on leadership. He impressed me with his wisdom and extensive experience as a Vice President responsible for a major group at Lockheed and as a Vice Admiral during a distinguished 36-year career in the United States Navy. During his Navy career, Vice Admiral Moore served as a Deputy Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Readiness and Logistics, Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and Commander, U.S. Fifth Fleet (1998-2002). In this role VADM Moore commanded all U.S. Naval Forces throughout the Middle East and the Horn of Africa during a time of nearly constant combat. VADM Moore led his forces in combat operations including Infinite Reach after the 1998 Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, Operation Desert Fox in Iraq and subsequent combat in the no-fly zone, Operation Southern Watch, Operation Determined Response after the terrorist bombing of USS Cole and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan fighting the global war on terrorism.

This is a webcast you don’t want to miss. To sign up for the live webcast or to hear a recording, click here.

On Friday, January 23 at 12:00 PM Eastern Time, I hosted a 30 minute webcast with Tim Sanders, Author of the newly released book Saving the World at Work. Tim also wrote two other outstanding books entitled The Likability Factor and Love is the Killer App. Tim has deep experience in cutting-edge businesses and marketing. He was the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! and later their Leadership Coach. Prior to his senior positions at Yahoo!, Tim created and led the Yahoo! ValueLab, an in-house “think tank” which delivered futuristic insight to the company’s partners and clients. To hear the webcast click here.