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Barbara Bartlein    

Workplace culture and productivity expert

Barbara Bartlein, RN, MSW, CSP, is a workplace culture expert. For over 30 years, her presentations and seminars have helped professionals, teams and leaders build high performing workplaces. A clinical psychotherapist and former VP of Columbia-St. Mary’s Hospital System, she understands people and organizations.

Presenting over 60 programs per year, Bartlein’s high energy keynotes and seminars improve teamwork, increase cooperation and productivity. Bartlein is a high content speaker who educates, entertains and motivates professionals to improve workplace performance.

Bartlein is the past president of the National Speakers Association-WI chapter. She has earned the (CSP) designation, the highest earned honor given by the National Speakers Association. Held by fewer than 10% of the speakers in the world, the CSP is the speaking profession’s international measure of professional platform skill.

The best selling author of three books, she is also a contributor to four Chicken Soup for the Soul books. Her newest work, Energy Suckers – How to Deal With Bullies in the Workplace, is being used by companies and teams to improve organizational culture.

Bartlein has been featured nationally on CNN, NBC, Bill O’Reilly, FOX TV and USA Today. Her client list includes top Fortune 500 companies, including Johnson Controls, Northwestern Mutual, Discover Card, Aurora Healthcare and Miller Brewing.

Speech Topics


Growing at the Speed of Change

To grow your business you need to grow your people. Enhance the abilities of your employees by building the mentoring and coaching skills of management. You learn:

  • The manager's role in a learning organization
  • The value of regular meetings to offer feedback in a structured format
  • The process of 'feedforward' to produce personal change
  • The four key beliefs that make it difficult for successful people to change
  • Eight ways to avoid stupid management

Energy Suckers - The Seven Types of Bullies

Energy suckers can emerge in any workplace and bully those around them with their gossip, criticism, and just rude behavior. Learn about the different types of energy suckers and how you can deal with them in this fun program. The seven types you will learn:

  • Stress puppies - pressure bullying
  • Underdogs - needy bullying
  • C-Gull managers - corporate bullying
  • Know-It-Alls - narcissistic bullying
  • Energy suckers - emotional bullying
  • Repeaters - serial bullies
  • Sociopaths - psychopathic bullies

Energy Suckers - How to Deal With Bullies in the Workplace

Bullying is an epidemic in the workplace and appears to be increasing. In recent surveys, it is reported that over 35% of workers have experienced bullying firsthand. Make your workplace bully free with this comprehensive training program. You learn:

  • The high cost of bullying to American business
  • Common bullying behavior
  • How the bully chooses targets
  • What you can do if you are being bullied
  • How to make your organization bully free

The Magic of Making a Difference

Designed for helping professionals, this entertaining and inspirational presentation motivates with laughter. Successful, happy people are those focused on giving to others and following their personal passion. You learn:

  • To identify the three facts for happiness
  • The importance of doing the right thing
  • How to avoid the expectation machine
  • The value of small kindnesses in making a difference

Balancing Act

Laugh your way to better balance as you realign work, home, and other demands. Utilizing humor, this presentation focuses on our changing culture and the effects on our lives. You learn:

  • To evaluate your personal balance utilizing the "Balance Wheel"
  • The top three strategies to re-balance
  • How to enhance your ability to say "no" and set realistic limits
  • Techniques to simplify your life at home and at work

Building the Habit of Success

What does making your bed, flossing your teeth, and exercising have in common? They are three habits of very successful people. New research into how we form and change habits can help you transform your life. You learn:

  • The latest research on habit formation
  • Why it is so difficult to extinguish "bad" habits
  • The importance of building "keystone" habits
  • How to recognize triggers for habits and change your response

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I'd Rather Die Than Give a Speech

It is often said that the greatest fear is the fear of speaking. An even bigger fear is lessening to a poor presentation! Enhance your presentation skills by learning the secrets great speakers use. In this seminar, you learn:

  • To identify the five rules of excellent speech preparation
  • The eight steps for creation of a presentation or speech
  • How to develop the "opener" and "closer"
  • The importance of story telling to make the point memorable
  • Skills to research and establish rapport with an audience
  • To identify techniques to increase confidence and decrease nervousness
  • How to build credibility and authority through the use of statistics, examples and visual aids

Bury My Heart at Meeting Room "C" - How to Run Effective Meetings

According to the Annenberg School of Communication at USC, a typical manager attends five meetings a week and averages two hours and 14 minutes each day in the meeting room. Make the meetings you lead and attend more effective with positive outcomes. You will learn:

  • How to determine if a meeting needs to take place
  • The importance of picking the best venue to make the meeting efficient
  • How to create an agenda and stay on track
  • Who should be in charge and why
  • How to record the discussion and decisions
  • Why it is critical to give assignments to participants with timeframes

Taking Charge of Your Time

A recent study of a thousand business people reported that 89% take work home, 65% work more than one weekend a month and 53% spend less than two hours a week looking after their children. No wonder too many of us complain that we don't have enough time. Learn how to take charge of your time to get more out of life; at work and at home. You will learn:

  • The two biggest workplace pressures
  • Symptoms of poor time management
  • How to set priorities
  • The difference between development and maintenance activities
  • The enemies of time management
  • How to use time to your benefit

Compassion Fatigue

Compassion fatigue is a form of burnout that manifests itself as physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion. It has been referred to as the "cost of caring" for healthcare practitioners and others who work in helping professions. The comprehensive and entertaining program presents the latest research on the biology of compassion, understanding fatigue and how to prevent it.

In this program, you learn:

  • Who is most vulnerable to compassion fatigue
  • The new research into the biology of compassion
  • How to construct systems to create more time
  • The concept of psychic numbing

Team Building Magic

Looking to have your team work closer together and more collaboratively? We conduct an interactive program where the gout breaks into teams and participates in fun challenges. The progress of the teams is then processed and the participants get an opportunity to see how they function in the group. You team will:

  • Survive a place crash
  • Transport "toxic waste"
  • Balance nails
  • Lower a helium stick

Building High Performing Teams

Using the DISC Style Analysis Tool, participants identify their own personal style and the style of others. You learn the communication techniques for each style to maximize individual and team performance. You learn:

  • recognition of the four basic behavior styles
  • Identifying your own strengths and areas for improvement
  • Communication skills for better teamwork
  • Implications for each style in building stronger teams

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