Keynote Speaker in San Jose

I recently spoke as a keynote speaker in San Jose. The title of my talk was, “Developing Influential Leaders and I spoke to the employees at a software development company. I focused on how to cultivate the five traits all influential leaders have. With the continued growth of the tech industry, San Jose is a city of up-and-coming leaders who need to hone this skill set in order to thrive in its competitive climate. However, aspiring leaders across all industries will benefit from a motivational speech that ignites self-confidence and growth.

I spoke on the importance of developing the following five traits, giving pointers on how to cultivate them. A speaker who motivates your employees to grow these traits in themselves will give you a great ROI by boosting the value of your best talent.

1. 1. Hone your interpersonal skills.

      Making people feel good about themselves gives them positive feelings about you in turn. Give credit where it’s due, recognizing others’ accomplishments and strengths. Give people the benefit of the doubt when they make mistakes, always presuming their intent was good, and let them correct their own errors. Take ownership of your own mistakes as well, never passing the responsibility onto others. Remember important details about your employees’ lives, like their kids’ names—those details show you truly value them.

   2. Develop the power to persuade.

      To persuade people, you need to understand their position on an issue and what they value. If you’re preparing to pitch a controversial idea at a meeting, take the time to craft an argument that addresses all their potential concerns. In the longer term, boost your persuasiveness by forging alliances with people whom others respect, like those in positions of authority.

   3. Build a strong reputation.

      Learn how to be a decisive leader who knows when it’s time to make a decision and stick with it. After the ball is in motion, follow up to make sure people are following through. Being a strong yet fair leader will earn you respect and make people work hard to gain yours. Likewise, maintaining a high level of professionalism will also make people take you seriously and model that behavior in their own work. Demonstrating this trait in smaller groups will brand you as a leader who’s ready for advancement.

   4. Develop your skill set.

      Continue taking advantage of professional development opportunities that help you understand your field inside and out. Know what it takes for your subordinates, coworkers, and boss to do their jobs well. If you work in the marketing department of a San Jose software company, maybe you don’t need to know how to actually design the software your coworkers produce. But know what they do on a daily basis—what their challenges are, what their work flow process involves. This knowledge will help you become a better manager as you take on advanced leadership opportunities, supervising employees in various departments.

   5. Develop executive presence.

      My most in-demand training is Executive Presence: Four Ways to Convey Confidence and Command Respect as a Leader. Executive presence means having perception, visibility, and influence. This starts with growing the kind of confidence that radiates out to inspire others, building trust in you and your ideas. Having this deep level of confidence means staying calm when crisis hits, serving as the voice of reason in the middle of the storm. Likewise, voice your ideas and defend them confidently in meetings, and strive to remain confident and collected even in the most stressful situations. Take on highly visible projects or those that directly boost the company’s bottom line. Learn to recognize innovative ideas and take calculated risks that will get you noticed. If you spearhead the release of a groundbreaking new software package at a San Jose tech firm, for instance, you might get noticed throughout the Silicon Valley as well as in your own company. Yes, your idea could fail, but executive presence means having the courage to risk failure.

A great motivational speaker brings the audience into an enhanced state of consciousness where they can’t help but absorb new ideas. In this state, they’ll start to envision themselves as the leaders they truly want to be.

Visiting cities from New York to San Jose as a keynote speaker has shown me that up-and-coming leaders often just need a confidence boost to start honing these qualities in themselves. A strong motivational speaker will show them that if they have the drive to succeed, they can accomplish what once seemed impossible.