Patrick Boland

Setbacks and disappointments can leave us reeling and de-motivated for long periods of time. We want to get up and try again, but we struggle with motivation, not knowing where to start and what to do first. 

In this session you will learn:

• The three responses we all have to Challenge & Failure
• How these responses affect our nervous system, our energy and our thinking
• How to identify unhelpful narratives that we tell ourselves (e.g. the things that ‘should’ be happening)
• How to move beyond shame and guilt, and playing the victim, and 
• How to create the inner conditions for outer change and growth

Conflict, the great taboo in so many workplaces. If we’ve never experienced healthy, quick conflict, we can easily fear and avoid it at all costs. We bury our frustrations until one day we resign or our frustrations explode and shock those around us. Or, we go the other way, communicating aggressively and demanding our way, often without realising how this affects others. Both responses erode trust, damage the culture and lead to poor performance over time.

In this session you will learn:

• The roots of unhealthy conflict
• How to communicate assertively and healthily
• How to express preference, desire and need in ways that will land with others
• how to form and maintain healthy boundaries
• How to address conflict with others
• A new way to envision trust and what approaches to take when trust breaks down
• How to create simple systems of feed-forward and feedback to make sure conflict is healthy and quick into the future
• Healthy relationships
• Spend less time on office politics, work-related stress, and disengagement from employees
• Create the DNA of a healthy organisational culture where groups and teams can quickly move from ‘Storming’ to high ‘Performing’.

Most leaders spend their early careers being in control of almost everything. And as they become more seasoned and senior, and take on more responsibility, they cannot ‘be in control’ in the ways they once were. Under pressure, many become very stressed, sacrificing their health and relationships in the pursuit of leading through chaos; they are ‘attached’ to control. Until finally it becomes too much, and some swing the pendulum the other way, disengaging completely and becoming ‘detached’.

In this session you will learn:

• How to lead effectively when you’re not ‘in control; how to be present and connected and ‘non attached’
• The sources of the narratives that have made us believe that ‘to lead well, I need to be in control’
• An exploration of the values and identities we hold as leaders and how these inform our need to be in control
• Meaning and purpose; how to shift the dial from what’s expected of us by others to cultivating inner leadership that emanates from the depths of who we are

The most effective leaders are deeply aware of how their presence impacts every dimension of their leadership. This talk provides a framework for leaders to understand how best to connect with who they are and with those whom they lead.

Patrick integrates ancient wisdom with scientific research, introduces psychological models, anecdotes and reflective questions that outline how to:

• Focus on both the financials and the people,
  the results and the road that gets us there, the personal benefits and the impact on the wider organisation and community
• Uncover the narratives that have shaped us so we can embrace our whole self (false self and
  true self)
• Re-envision leadership as something that takes account of the breadth of human experience

In an age that values youth and speed, it can be difficult to find elders who embody deep wisdom; mentors who have experienced the successes and failures of life and want to guide future generations to mature. But many of us have encountered ‘mentoring’ programmes and been sorely disappointed by our experiences. So how do we make sure mentoring is done well?

In this session you will learn:

• Where mentoring originated and a vision for what it can be today
• The difference between mentoring and coaching, consulting and teaching
• The impact of a good mentor vs. a bad mentor
• The attitudes to look for in a mentor, to cultivate in mentoring programmes
• The three core skills involved in exceptional mentoring
• The impact that high quality mentoring has on our energy, optimism, capacity to take action with more responsibility and contribute to a healthy culture

Another change programme, a new vision, a different strategy…but not everybody is as excited about yet a new initiative. And as the vision and strategy start to impact the day-to-day activities of ‘how things are done’, performance drops, managers are firefighting with their teams and targets seem more and more difficult to meet. 

In this session you will learn:

• A simple, highly effective approach to linking your vision to your strategy to your tactics, can be used for the whole organisation or for any project
• A four-tier model of trust that can help us diagnose how the vision and strategy are impacting our people and culture

How to embrace a both/and, dual focus on both the financials and the people, the results and the road that gets us there, the personal benefits and the impact on the wider organisation and culture