Need a speaker who can grab your audience’s attention for longer than their intro? Hire world-renowned professional keynote speaker Colin James to deeply engage and inspire at your next event.

The employee who survives and thrives in the future will have to adopt the skills, qualities and attitudes of a true professional.

Who is responsible for employee engagement? The employer? Of course. The employee? Definitely. It’s called a work ethic. This keynote challenges everyone to think about their level of professionalism in their approach to their jobs, their work and their careers. The ‘Professional Employee’ operates at the highest standards in the toughest conditions.

Good leaders create good followers and good followers create good leaders. Sounds kind of obvious right? Leadership is evidently theoretically easy, hence, there are tens of thousands of books on the subject. Of course, it’s more complex than reading a book or article. What constitutes excellent leadership? Does the answer lie in focusing on ‘Followership’? Followership challenges both leaders in organisations (how to be a better leader) and employees (how to be a better ‘follower’).

This keynote is perfect when a huge dose of laughter is needed in a conference agenda. Colin ‘stumbles’ through all the elements that make for boring, dull, ‘dive-for-the-phone’ type presentations. He demonstrates typical ‘PowerPoint paralysis’ style presentations, empty jargon-filled rhetoric, overly nervous and petrified delivery, rambling to the point of incoherence before unpacking the 6 elements that can make any presentation rock the house without using PowerPoint at all.

Colin James has been researching and analysing the ‘engagement thing’ his whole career. As a communicator, he has to build engagement and gain attention regardless of how negative, hostile or shut down people might be. The session is a little confronting, deeply insightful, humorous and eminently practical.

How can we make change an easier and less complicated palaver? You would think that with ALL the change everyone has been experiencing in their lives of late we would simply get better at managing change. Structural and organisational change often fails to understand and appreciate the psychology of change. Most adults hate change. Period. Colin unpacks the psychological change cycle and, once understood, lets people and teams manage the whole process far more effectively.

This session is a deeply powerful demonstration of the truth that what holds people back in their lives are limiting beliefs. Participants learn how to draw a fully rendered, artist quality portrait in ONE HOUR. A life-long belief such as “I can’t draw to save my life” is turned on its head in ONE HOUR. The ultimate lesson from this session is this “If a life-long limiting belief can be changed in one hour what else do I (and we) need to question that could bring the changes I (and we) want in our lives (and organisations)?”.

Stories define us individually and collectively. The stories of the world’s great brands (think Apple and Steve Jobs) become legends. Business relevant stories communicate and connect with everyone. Using stories can shape and influence how people feel, think and behave more than almost any other form of communication. Effective stories can change opinions, they can inspire individuals and teams to achieve goals that many might think is ‘pie in the sky’ and they profoundly link key messages to memorable stories.

The ability to manage stress and handle anxiety is a skill. Productive people who manage challenging environments well, who have what looks like natural confidence, who flourish in perceived adversity have well developed Lizard Management Strategies. This deeply powerful keynote enables people to handle stress and anxiety immediately in their lives – professionally and personally. This can be a catalyst for both a cultural shift and for personal effectiveness to skyrocket.