The Art of … Productions just held a fabulous 5 world class speaker event in Toronto on Leadership. This inaugural The Art of Leadership conference featured five internationally renowned bestselling authors and visionaries: Patrick Lencioni, Ann Rhoades, General Rick Hillier, Tim Sanders and Tom Rath. Ron Tite hosted the event.
The day’s biggest draw was Patrick Lencioni who is not only the Founder of The Table Group, but a New York Times Bestselling Author of multiple books including “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” & “Getting Naked,” both of which he quoted from repeatedly during his presentation. He was full of insight and charm and very clearly worked through the importance of building an open dialogue based on strong trust in one’s workplace. These same pillars apply equally well to a marriage or any important relationship.
Ann Rhoades spoke next, focusing on “Corporate Culture & Employee Retention.” The former Chief People Officer at Southwest Airlines & Bestselling Author of “Built on Values,” Rhoades was truly genius and my personal speaker of the day. To the point and full of gem after gem of solid tips on top customer service, she was possibly the best speaker on Customer Service I’d heard and someone whose examples I found both logical and inspiring and whose roadmap for accomplishing culture change was actually full of practicable steps. Her speech alone was worth the admission to this seminar.
General Rick Hillier followed, focusing his talk on “Leading Change & People Development.” The former Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces & Bestselling Author of “Leadership,” General Hillier had the crowd enraptured from beginning to end of his witty, engaging speech. There was a lot of common sense substance to his words and he made the key to leadership seem simple and possibly even easy. His real life examples from his family and career effortlessly supported his core analysis and system of team building.
Tim Sanders spoke next and his topic was “Talent Management & Future Trends in the Workplace.” The former Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! & New York Times Bestselling Author of Love is the “Killer App,” Sanders did not have as much charm or ease on stage as some of the earlier speakers but his real life example of what Yahoo! Did wrong during the crisis and ways they could have done better and opportunities that came their way that they neglected, was an insightful and valuable talk nonetheless. His speech also spoke to the heart with roots in the works of Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie and other great teachers on the importance of understanding life’s gifts are abundant and there is plenty to go around.
The final speaker for the day was Tim Rath who talked on “Employee Engagement & Strengths Based Leadership.” The Global Practice Leader at Gallup & #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of “Strengths Finder 2.0” & “How Full is Your Bucket?,” Rath was another highly anticipated speaker. Although he too was not as engaging on stage as some of the other speakers, his insight into the importance of focusing on people and company strengths rather than weaknesses and how the impact on that can be measured was very interesting to learn.
Overall, this was one of the strongest The Art of … Productions events with a lot of substance and insight – as promised “an exciting blend of cutting edge thinking and real world experience” – and was well worth attending.
Photo Credit: T. U. Dawood
