Resilience, Agility and Wellbeing: Growing Powerful Teams

As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast go alone, but if you want to go far go together”. What does Harvard have to tell us about 25,000 working adults in 25 countries? That resilience, agility, and wellbeing can transform a group of random individuals into a dream team. In this highly interactive keynote, Savvas reveals the secrets behind growing powerful teams.

Resilience, Agility and Wellbeing are all muscles: Let’s work out!

The cocoon approach: As with butterflies, adversity is necessary to bring the best out of people. Making room for your team to fail safely: Failure is not the opposite of success but an internal part of it. Agility as the insurance for the unknown. Emotional regulation: The dangers of permanent decisions based on temporary emotions. Communication and other coping skills: Words have power but what you don’t say matters as much. The five pillars of holistic employee well-being: Good health leads to healthy business. Embrace technology: Catch up or pay up. Investing on relationships and trust: Trust takes years to build, seconds to break, and forever to repair. Developing psychological safety: Rituals for organizations. The trampoline vs mountain theory: How to move forward when you feel like bouncing back. Surviving in the wild activity: Triggering the fundamental principles of resilience. The navy seals on building resilience: Combining mental toughness with a collective sense of purpose. “When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.” – Seneca – The hidden power of acting on the spot: Teams' familiarity can make or break a team in distress. The importance of sharing a common mental model: Collaborating wordlessly. The case of “Miracle of the Hudson” emergency landing of U.S. Airways Flight 1549.

Revolutionizing Customer Experience: The New Era

Think of a restaurant you visited in the last couple of months that was just good. Do you consider yourself as a loyal supporter of that restaurant? Would you recommend it to a friend that is visiting from another city looking for somewhere nice to go?

Why not?

Because good rarely gets rewarded. Good is expected and quickly fades from our memory. It is not a competitive advantage anymore. The reality is that there are only two types of services that can change customers’ preferences. Exceptional and bad. Anything in between will be forgotten or ignored. In this keynote, the four pillars of customer loyalty are unfolded.

The theory of the velvet rope. Violating expectations with style. Going the extra mile: The story of a stuffed giraffe’s vacations in Rich Carlton. Your own mythological monster.

The Science of Public Speaking: Talk to Persuade

What worries you the most while you are on stage presenting? Forgetting your words? Not being interesting enough? Research demonstrates that there are two ways to overcome your limitations as a public speaker: to learn effective techniques, and then practice them on stage over and over again. It is not nuclear physics but it is a fact. The proposed keynote aims to decode and introduce the science behind public speaking to add value to the area of presentations.

Key tips for preparing for an upcoming speech/presentation. Common mistakes that untrained speakers make. Expectation and impression management during public speaking and presentations. Strategic use of audiences' attention and importance of avoiding split attention effects. Increasing presentation's memorability. Influence of transmitting ideas through successful narratives. Neurochemistry and three-dimensional mechanics of storytelling. Conscious differentiation of body posture and the influence it has on others' perceptions. Hand gesture management to enhance our message. Voice tricks that can help us captivate our respective audience. Introducing the concept of the speaker's knockout to understand why our behavior changes so much when we speak in public. Learn how to control cognitive load to unlock your natural communication powers. Generating the scientific effect of emotional contagion as a speaker. Advanced public speaking tips all the way from business presentations to the TED scene.

Leading Transformation: The Impact of Curiosity, Communication and Leadership

The business world today is sailing in different waters compared to thirty years ago. Change is inevitable and we need to think of the transformation process no longer as just a question of keeping up, but rather a leadership issue that requires a deep shift in mindset. Consequently, it’s going to take a new set of leadership skills and structures to captain this ship.

Boston Consulting Group describes a new type of transformational leader who defines the vision and strategic priorities, but who also embraces an inclusive approach, based on curiosity. Much like empathy and self-awareness, curiosity is a proven and useful leadership skill which is essentially about asking questions. The powerful simplicity of asking smart, strategic, thoughtful, and targeted questions, to the right people, at the right time can lead to extraordinary results.

More often than not, organizations fail to lead transformation. There can be many factors behind this failure, but the number one reason is organizational resistance. In other words, the people.

Manage the people and change comes effortlessly. Incorporate key players in the mix. Form a large volunteer army from up, down and across the organization to serve as the change engine, rather than just driving change with a small, powerful core group. Remember: You are “people” also. Change the world by your example not by your command. Clarity in communication: Don't make people work to understand what they need to do. Use sophisticated measuring and monitoring.

Connect, then Lead: It’s What You Don’t Say That Matters

In today's highly competitive world, everyone communicates but only a few people connect. Connecting with people means making every moment valuable and in the long run, it will change your business.

In this keynote, Savvas shares his insights into communication beyond words. Body language is a huge part of connecting with others and takes up a large part of daily communication.

The audience will learn practical science-based nonverbal tools they can use when interacting with others. In addition, they will learn about conscious differentiation of body posture and the influence it has on others' perceptions as well as voice tricks that can help to captivating audiences.

The final part of this talk focuses on the power of reading micromomentary facial displays. Microexpressions frequently range from 1/5 to 1/25 of a second and are frequently associated with concealment of emotion. These brief facial expressions are often difficult to detect and may affect individuals without their awareness. The extended, workshop version of the speech includes a presentation on identifying basic facial muscle movement and intensity, introduction to the concept of micro-expressions, observation and decoding of world leaders' actual micro-expressions and much more. Participants will learn how to read microexpressions in a business context and detect underlying emotions and intentions.