That People Thing - Blaire Palmer

“A very energizing, fresh, relevant, (even provoking), but still enthusiastic & positive presentation. A warm, shared show based on strong experience in the field. A real inspirational speaker!” - Bruno Meijer, Airbus

“Blaire’s interactive and engaging session on behaviour change was the perfect fit for our conference. Her fascination with leadership and change shone through and she presented our audience with an array of real take-home advice that resonated with everyone in the room.” - Luke Nichols, Editor edie.net (sponsors of Sustainability Live)

“Blaire's presentation was inspiring, relevant, fresh and fun. There was a great sense of collaboration at our Top 100 Leaders meeting today and that was, in no small way, down to the thought-provoking messages and enthusiasm that Blaire brought to the event. Just what we needed.” - Petar Cvetkovic, Chief Executive, DX Group

“Blaire has done a fantastic job. Not only does she engage the crowd during the live event, she’s also really got involved in tweaking the actual event design. She really has been a joy to work with. we would not hesitate to work with her again” - Sarah Scarth, founder Resonate EWvents

“Blaire captivated our audience in presenting her experience and advice with regard to empowering McCormick's staff to succeed and develop. She was upbeat, engaging and gave us confidence that we are on the right journey with regard to diversity in our company.” - Melanie Williams, VP Human Resources EMEA, McCormick UK Ltd

“Blaire Palmer was everything the EAIE wanted in a leadership speaker. In only 45 minutes she was able to turn everyone’s perceptions of leadership and management on its head. Blaire was extremely relevant and was able to clearly and simply get her message across to our international audience. She is a must have for any conference! Highly recommended!” - Nicole Hardaker, European Association for International Education (EAIE)

“Blaire Palmer gave insight to the core of what it takes to be a leader today. Blaire brought a sense of realism, humour and practicality to an energising session, leaving a deep impression on the audience.” - Ian Gregory, Head of Learning and Development at Foreign Commonwealth Office

Disrupting the Victorian model of work - the hierarchy, the siloes, the risk aversion and being busy over being productive - may be the shot in the arm that a team needs to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. Blaire can show your organisation how to empower individuals to go beyond being merely ‘team players’ to create a culture of Personal Leadership. This in turn will fill your organisation with motivated, engaged, and fundamentally collaborative cultures during times of change. The conventional models of topdown leadership are no longer enough for organisations to truly thrive, but if everyone taps into their own inner strength, creativity, sense of purpose and curiosity, the company will be able to weather any storm, together.

Blaire uses her extensive experience to propose inspiring but practical solutions to help audiences tap into their own inner leader and motivate their employees to do their best work every single day.

Key Takeaways:

• Why it is no longer enough to have leadership at the top
• How every contributor to an organisation can be their own best leader
• How to meaningfully create a collaborative approach to deal with disruption and challenges
• The link between empowered employees and loyal employees
• Enabling individuals to understand their own personal contribution within an infrastructure
• How to do away with egos in senior management to allow all employees to do their best work

The ideal audience: Organisations that have ‘tried everything’ to create an energised workforce postpandemic and are ready to do something different.

Inclusion has to be about every individual bringing the unique parts of themselves to work, and using them to inform and enrich the work they’re doing for you every day. Whether that is leveraging the different perspectives and experiences of people at different stages of their life, from new Gen Z hires to women in midlife, or the unique knowledge brought by employees from different cultures to your own, Blaire brings her own personal experiences of navigating the world of work in different seasons of life, and in different challenging work environments, to challenge ideas about what diversity really means.

Blaire asks teams to consider: what if organisations harnessed this uniqueness, and created a working culture that encouraged employees to solve challenges through their expansiveness? In addition to this, Blaire knows it’s impossible to talk about inclusivity without dealing with the challenges of hybrid working and collaboration. Although leaders claim to want to embrace flexibility, there are unique challenges to leading a distributed team. Instead of getting caught up in the details of ‘two days in the office or three?’ Blaire offers holistic oversight to these collaborative working challenges that focus on harnessing that broader overview of individuals and company culture.

Blaire will inspire and energise your team to think about a future of work and leadership that enables everyone - with their own strengths and needs - to thrive for you.

Key Takeaways: 

• How to approach diversity and inclusion as a gift to a workplace
• Meeting people in the team in their uniqueness
• Creating a culture that prioritises wellness in exchange for individuals doing their best work