Andy Kaufman

Leading Teams That Deliver

Our success in delivering results often depends on how effectively we collaborate. Yet getting a team of people to truly work in partnership—let alone be self-organizing—can be a daunting challenge. We’re left with the tension: we need our teams to be high performing yet teams are made up of people with varying degrees of knowledge, skills, and commitment. We need our teams focused on delivering a goal, but sometimes egos, personalities, and agendas get in the way.

In this highly interactive keynote, Andy Kaufman asks you to think back to one of the best teams you’ve been a part of in your career thus far. What made it so exceptional? Andy also shares a model that helps you diagnose what’s going well with your team and factors holding back team effectiveness.

How does your team deal with conflict? Do you see gaps in levels of commitment and trust? Are you looking to better motivate and engage your team? In this keynote, Andy shares practical ideas to help your team move forward in its ability to deliver successful results.

NOTE: In the 90-minute version, you can include our interactive element called The Spy Game, which drives home important lessons about team interactions in a fun way.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Excellent for company meetings, conference keynotes, leadership retreats

That's Not What I Meant!  How to Improve Your Ability to Understand and Be Understood

Project managers and leaders know that communication is vital to our success in business. You can improve (or aggravate) almost every situation in business and life by how you communicate. The well-crafted message can make the difference between getting sign-off or creating more resistance. It can help us influence despite limited authority or create more obstacles to delivery.

In this highly interactive keynote, Andy Kaufman starts with the standard Sender-Receiver model and shows the breakdowns that so often happen as we try to communicate with others. Andy will help you understand the biases that cause misunderstanding. Then Andy works directly with the audience to walk-through real-world scenarios to apply the learning.

This is a fun, insightful, motivating keynote that will arm your participants with practical tools to improve their communication. If you’ve ever wondered, “How in the world could they think that?” you’ll benefit from this keynote.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Excellent for company meetings, conference keynotes, leadership retreats

Help for the Crazy Busy - How to Get Control Over Your Time and Commitments

One of the most consistent concerns expressed to us by professionals and teams around the world is this: We don’t have enough time!

The stress of having too much to do and not enough time to do it is overwhelming. In this interactive keynote, Andy Kaufman shares practical lessons to help you get a better handle on what it takes to more successfully manage your time and commitments. Topics include understanding the role of taking care of yourself (including getting more sleep and exercise), factors that drive procrastination (and strategies to overcome them that will help you manage your time and projects), ways to say No without saying "No", and strategies to manage interruptions.

Andy shares specific strategies to help you get more control over your time with less things falling through the cracks, allowing you to focus on the most important priorities. You will leave with a helpful list of books and other resources to continue the learning after the session.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Excellent for company meetings, conference keynotes, leadership retreats

Leading Under Pressure

Leading today is not for the faint of heart. Most professionals are faced with more work to do than they have time or resources to do it. Most of us face the daily burdens of leading in a stressful and often thankless environment. Yet your roles are so critical! How can you hang in there when burnout seems inevitable?

In this session, author and executive coach Andy Kaufman relates lessons learned from interviewing many of today's top experts on leadership. Andy shares why your ability to thrive starts with taking care of yourself. Andy will share an innovative, evidence-based perspective on stress that can help during times of pressure. And he will explain one of the most important and overlooked strategies to help you and your teams when the pressure is on.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Includes reinforcement materials for further learning

How to Make Better Choices for You, Your Team, and Your Projects

As leaders of teams and projects, we regularly face choices and decisions that have downstream consequences. Do you want to be able to make better decisions in your personal or professional life? Do you want to help your team members make better choices when it comes to decisions on their projects? Or are you simply curious about how and why people make certain choices?

In this highly interactive keynote, Andy Kaufman, PMP shares why the familiar pros-and-cons approach seems to make sense—but is profoundly flawed. He discusses how our biases influence the options we consider and the choices we make, and how we can fight those biases. Andy shares examples of how team leaders can influence team decisions in positive and negative ways. Is our problem with decisions that we are overconfident? Maybe—and maybe not! Andy will show how overconfidence is overrated as an explanation for poor decisions.

You and your team have important decisions that need to be made. No technique can guarantee great decisions every time, but you will leave this session with practical ideas and tools to make better choices for you, your team, and your projects.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Excellent for company meetings, PDD's, and conference keynotes

Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place

One stakeholder says Zig. The other says Zag. No compromise in sight, but the project deadline looms closer on the horizon. The rock and the hard place—welcome to the world of managing people and projects! If it wasn’t for people, our jobs would be much easier, or so it seems at times!

It’s critical for aspiring leaders to learn how to negotiate conflict. Whether we like it or not, we can count on it: any time people are involved, and given enough time, there will be conflict.

After working with hundreds of thousands of people across cultures, we have found you don’t have to like conflict but your ability to successfully & consistently deliver results can depend on how confidently you navigate conflict.

This keynote helps your participants learn to deal more effectively with conflict.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Excellent for company meetings, conference keynotes, leadership retreats

The Dirty Little Secret of Business - It's All About Relationships

Regardless of your role, there are challenges and roadblocks that stand in your way.

How can you deal with difficult people who are obstacles to your ability to deliver?

How can you influence someone to align with your priorities even when you don't have the organizational authority?

How can you find time to network when you're overwhelmed with day-to-day work?

In this keynote, Andy Kaufman shares "The Dirty Little Secret of Business." You won't learn this secret in school, yet it is critical to your success. The secret is simple—it's all about relationships. Andy describes the key relationships you must develop to advance your projects and career.

Discover how understanding different personality types will improve your ability to build rapport, influence people, and control situations. Learn what networking is—and isn't—and how to increase the effectiveness of your networks with less effort.

Particularly in today's challenging economy when you are being asked to deliver more with less, it's critical that you invest in the power of relationships.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Excellent for company meetings, conference keynotes, leadership retreats

How to Win Friends, Influence People, and Deliver Projects

Since first published in the 1930’s, Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People has motivated generations of aspiring leaders to polish up their people skills.

Yet imagine a typical project manager opening the book, and reading the first principle: Don't criticize, condemn, or complain. "Don't criticize? Am I just supposed to put up with sub-par performance?" They turn to the next chapter to find: Give honest and sincere appreciation. "Honest feedback, perhaps, but appreciation? With the problems those stakeholders cause?"

Concerned, they check out the third chapter: Arouse in the other person an eager want. "Now wait a minute! That sounds like something that would get me called into HR!"

It's easy to discount and even parody the lessons from Dale Carnegie’s work. Yet Andy Kaufman shows how your success in delivering projects might just depend on your application of Carnegie's principles. Participants of this keynote learn practical insights on topics such as how to handle challenging stakeholders, deliver difficult news, and even get those people in other departments to listen to you! Bring this insightful and entertaining look at Dale Carnegie’s timeless classic to your organization.

(Includes direct audience interaction)

Excellent for company meetings, conference keynotes, leadership retreats