Keynote SpeakersBlaire Palmer is a keynote speaker, author and the authority on disrupting the future of leadership, and wants to provoke senior leaders to think more critically about the idea of work and leadership itself.
Blaire is at the forefront of new thinking about what it means to lead in the 21st century.
According to Blaire, most of what you’ve been told about leadership is outdated.
Future of Leadership expert Blaire Palmer draws on more than 20 years of experience challenging, provoking and guiding senior leaders as they try to figure out how their people and organisations can thrive in these fast-changing times.
Our relationship with work is on the verge of disruption, which we haven’t seen since the Industrial Revolution. That means the expectations of our people, the environment which brings out their best and even the role that business plays in the wider world are up for reinvention.
Covering hybrid working, empowerment and engagement, diversity and equity, leadership and motivation and anticipating future work trends, Blaire busts myths about leadership and change and stimulates audiences with real-life stories and fresh ideas to rethink what it means to lead in the 21st Century.
“We just wanted to let you know that Blaire was fantastic yesterday. She was so engaging, funny, and on topic and had everyone in the room listening intently. Her presentation was definitely a highlight of the day. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Please thank Blaire for us – she was amazing”.
Jane Spriggs, NTT Data
As a Producer on the BBC’s ‘Today‘ programme in the 90s, Blaire spent a decade breaking stories and shaping the UK news agenda before her fascination with leadership and change led her to train as one of the UK’s first corporate coaches.
Two decades on, she gives audiences unparalleled insight into what’s happening in the most innovative Boardrooms in the UK and Europe, trends she’s spotting in her work, and what works (and doesn’t) when it comes to change and leadership in real businesses.
As an author, Blaire’s books include:
- The Hyper-creative Personality: How to Focus Your Ideas and Become the Most Successful Person You Know.
- The Recipe for Success: What Really Successful People Do and How You Can Do It Too.
- What’s Wrong with Work: The Five Frustrations of Work and How to Fix Them for Good.
- Punks in Suits: How to Lead the Workplace Reformation.
Blaire Palmer – Keynote Speaker:
Blaire realised that something about the workplace prevents people from doing their best work. The standard models about motivation, change, culture and leadership were just academic theories – they didn’t work on the ground. This is even more true today, as we must recalibrate how to lead our businesses in an unfamiliar, volatile post-pandemic world.
Audiences want to know what leaders in other companies are doing in these uncertain times. How they engage and motivate people, how to improve retention and attract the right talent in a competitive market, and how to lead confidently through change.
Blaire draws on her real-world experience working with businesses across industries and presents a new kind of leadership based on authentic human connection, trust, empowerment, and continual innovation. She shares practical tips that help audiences start collaborating more enthusiastically, support their teams in solving gritty problems, create safe spaces where people can speak up and speak out, and feel inspired and energised about the future.
Lively, thought-provoking, witty, and direct, Blaire encourages audiences to challenge everything they think they know about leadership.
Known for combining warmth and charm with a no-nonsense, straight-talking style, she inspires audiences with her fresh ideas.
- Forget everything you thought about leadership.
- Put all the books down!
- Ignore the wise words your first boss told you a million years ago.
- The world has changed, and none of it matters now.
Furthermore, in 2023, in partnership with the Open University, Blaire wrote a report on the link between L&D and well-being. The report examines how training and career development can proactively improve well-being in the workplace.
Blaire’s Speaking Topics:
- Busting the Myths of Leadership
- Change and the Journey of Change
- Leadership and Authenticity
- The Link between L&D and Well-being
- Mental Health
- Motivating yourself and others
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Trust and the search for meaning and purpose
- Breaking down hierarchy and silos
- Diversity and Inclusion
- The role of “followers” in business and the role of “leaders.”
- Trust, credibility and presence
- Breaking down hierarchy and silos
- Organisational Culture Change
- Hybrid working and collaboration
- Empowerment and Employee Engagement
- The Future World of Work
Popular Keynotes Speeches by Blaire Palmer:
Punks in Suits:
How to lead the workplace reformation by harnessing personal leadership.
The business environment has never been more challenging than it is right now, and senior leaders are the ones bearing the pressure and responsibility. Levels of trust in authority figures are as low as they’ve ever been. But what if we could turn every individual employee and contributor in an organisation into a leader?
Busting the Myths of Leadership:
How do we lead in this ‘post-Covid’ world of work? Well, it starts by rejecting conventional wisdom about leadership… the rules of work that evolved in the 19th and 20th Centuries and focusing instead on the power of authentic human connection, trust and the wisdom of the people you hired. To do that, leaders need to change how they see themselves and their role in the business and empower their people to be great.
As a leading motivational speaker, Blaire Palmer draws on more than 20 years of experience working as a coach and confidante to senior leaders and their teams and presents her practical yet powerful guide to becoming the leader your people need you to be. Lively, funny and thought-provoking, Blaire makes audiences confident to try something new.
Busting the Myths of Change:
The rules of change are changing. It’s not about selling people on ‘The Why’ anymore. Now, they need to feel THEY are leading the change. In this keynote, Blaire Palmer draws on more than two decades of running leadership and culture change programmes to explain how to create passionate enthusiasm for change throughout your organisation.
Please get in touch with us to check availability and fee, or to book business speaker Blaire Palmer.
