Todd Dewett

DANCING WITH MONSTERS
WE’RE ALL IMPERFECT, YET PERFECTLY CAPABLE
This supercharged keynote accompanies Dr. Dewett’s game-changing fable, Dancing with Monsters. Sometimes we look in the mirror and see a monster. Sometimes we look around at work and see monsters too! That’s okay. You can learn to manage monsters. Further, you can start to realize that the imperfections that define all of us are in no way limitations. You can remove some, work around others, and even leverage some of them as the assets they really are.

Using practical advice backed by science, and stories as his familiar foundation, Dr. Dewett shines a light on your path forward. No more hiding behind fear. No more excuses. It’s time for an exhilarating ride into a world where more is always possible.

It's a serious recipe for success: face your fears, build yourself, and then help others. Now you’ve moved from fearing the monsters, to managing the monsters – no, now you’re dancing with monsters!

As Joe Vampire states in the book, “One monster who believes is formidable, but a monster squad is unstoppable.”

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

*Fear drives growth when you choose to believe it. Fear is mostly an illusion. It can be overcome like any other obstacle. With kindness and perspective, leaders replace fear with trust, psychological safety, and a growth mentality. 
*Talent matters, but chemistry matters more. Ability is only the foundation.Relationships and rapport provide the secret power to high performing teams. What good is talent when people don’t enjoy their work or each other?
*Leaders help teams discover greatness. Through perseverance and learning, creativity and innovation become fun norms, not scary unknowns. Leaders make this happen with empathy and by modeling the way

SHOW YOUR INK: UNLEASHING THE POWER OF AUTHENTIC LEADERSHIP

This powerhouse keynote is based on Dr. Dewett’s popular book Show Your Ink. It’s a supremely colorful take on the importance of authenticity in work and life.

Dr. Dewett’s decades of research and business experience have revealed that too often people, teams, and companies lack one vital ingredient for success: authenticity. At its core, authenticity is about being “more.” More real. More honest. More credible. Above all, more human. Authentic relationships are built on trust, rapport, candor, and vulnerability. The result is stronger motivation, productivity, and a willingness to change and improve.

Using practical strategies backed by science, and stories as his medium, Dr. Dewett lights a fire and changes how you view yourself, your team, and your work. Get ready for an emotional ride as you learn that more is always possible when you are as authentic as possible.

This talk is a traditional keynote-style talk using engaging and educational stories that make the learning stick. The goal is to have your team energized and ready to engage their roles at a higher level.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• More is always possible. Create teams that are committed, not just compliant. Ignite the fire for excellence as the only real standard. Transform your culture by investing in world-class relationships.
• Excellence is free. The very best drivers of personal and team improvement don’t cost a penny. It takes time, effort, and honesty – but it’s free. Start leading the way and change can start right now.
• Authenticity beats authority. Achievement is about connection, not power. Discover and clarify the authentic you. Through candor, build authenticity in others. Remember, authority means people have to comply. Authenticity means people want to help.

LIVE HARD: MAXIMIZING WHAT’S POSSIBLE – NOW!
This electric keynote is based on Dr. Dewett’s powerhouse book, Live Hard. Your audience will fall in love with this colorful take on creating success, living fully, and leading as a champion of change and innovation.
To maximize what’s possible you must understand what it means to lead fearlessly and embrace possibilities. It’s all about making thoughtful decisions in order to live fearlessly, create success, and to embrace the future. With the right attitude, relationships, and choices the future is yours to define. Choose to live fully. Choose to live the dream. Choose to live hard.
Using practical advice backed by science, and stories as his familiar foundation, Dr. Dewett shines a light on your path forward. No more hiding behind fear. No more excuses. It’s time for an exhilarating ride into a world where more is always possible.
This talk is a traditional keynote-style talk using fun and instructional stories that makes knowledge accessible and practical. Your team will feel informed, motivated, and ready to tackle tomorrow successfully.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Fear is useful. Some fears are real. Most are illusions that deceive. It’s time to face your fears and speed up learning by allowing fear to propel you forward. When you realize that fear is your friend, you’re ready for rapid growth. What are you afraid of? When you’re ready, there is only one answer – nothing.
• Creativity is required. Sure, intelligence matters. Yes, hard work is vital. But the missing ingredient is creativity. You don’t achieve excellence without making new contributions beyond the status quo. New products, services, processes, technologies, business models – creativity and innovation must be among your top skills.
• Perspective is everything. Chasing excellence isn’t risk free. There will be bumps in the road. The truly successful learn how to process these moments faster and smarter. You have to make the choice to see the silver lining, to define a learning moment, to choose to grow through the situation.
  In tough moments, perspective is everything.

THE TRUTH ABOUT CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION: WHAT MOST MANAGERS THINK, BUT ONLY GREAT MANAGERS DO

This entertaining keynote is based on Dr. Dewett’s writing and research on creativity and innovation. The talk is a brutally honest take on the importance of creativity, innovation, and change at work; how we don’t manage them correctly – and what to do about it.

Dr. Dewett’s years of scholarly study and practical business experience lead him to identify one major truth about creativity and innovation: we say we want them, but often resist them passionately. Creativity and innovation are about questioning our reality, debating how we do things better, and tolerating new ideas. In practice, the status quo often dominates, people don’t want to debate, and new ideas are not embraced. It’s time to close the gap between what we say and what we do.

Using straight talk and practical insights, Dr. Dewett illuminates the key leader behaviors that drive creativity and innovation. Change emerges not as a complex phenomenon that is hard to initiate, but as a natural tendency that is too often suppressed.

Get ready to laugh, think, and hold yourself accountable as Dr. Dewett shares facts, anecdotes, and stories that make creativity and innovation truly accessible. You will leave with a new view of creativity and innovation, a new vision about how to support next-level conversations, and a strong desire to get started immediately.

Like all of Dr. Dewett’s talks this is a traditional keynote-style talk using engaging and educational stories that make learning come to life. The goal is to have your team energized and ready to move past the rhetoric to kick-start real progress.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• People don’t resist change. This is a myth caused by poor management. People only resist change they don’t understand, change they did not see coming, change for which they have not been prepared or trained, and change for which they did not have a voice in creating.
• Mistakes are essential. No important new product, service, process, technology, or business model arrives fully formed and error free. Great things always emerge from a process of learning that involves smart principled risks. In a culture that values creativity and innovation, learning from mistakes is an expected right-of-passage.
• Candor trumps civility. Real change requires real conversation. Civility is to be highly valued, but not as much as straight talk. Unfiltered but professional candid conversations are always at the heart of successful change movements. Good teams love civility, but great teams love candor even more.

BUILDING TEAMS THAT TRANSFORM: UNDERSTANDING HOW LEADERS MODEL THE WAY

This thought-provoking keynote is based on Dr. Dewett’s many years of writing, research, and teaching – much of it derived from his popular guidebook The Little Black Book of Leadership. Over time, so many half-truths have emerged about how to build great teams. Todd shares the very few that are actually backed by science and truly work in the real world.

The simple truth about teams is that achieving compliance is easy, but inspiring commitment is more difficult. Staffing a team, setting expectations, and delivering feedback are not complicated processes. Building a winning team, collaborating to set engaging goals, and creating a dialogue that improves all of us is much more challenging – but so worth it. When managed correctly, a team is definitely much more than the sum of its parts.

It’s time to bridge the gap between our potential and our reality. Using his trademark no-nonsense delivery, Dr. Dewett shares the behaviors and practices that transform a group into a team. Your attendees will be entertained and educated as Todd uses practical wisdom and memorable stories to prepare you for next level performance.

Like all of Dr. Dewett’s talks this is a traditional story-based keynote-style talk that is practical and applied. The result is professionals more informed about how great teams function and more willing to go make it happen.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Ownership is everything. Goals and clear expectations are essential, right? Kind of. They of course matter, but never move a team forward rapidly. Not unless each team member feels they have ownership. Voice, collaboration, and ownership are what turn compliance into commitment.
• Rewards are overrated. Okay, when earned, recognition and rewards are very useful. Notice the key word – earned. Most organizations strive passionately to recognize everyone for something. Bad move. Reward excellence, and for everyone else build a positive and supportive work environment that creates the conditions for – you guessed it – more excellence.
• Passionate for positivity. The first rule of great teams is that we’re all in this together. No show-offs, people who hog the credit, and no bullies of any kind. Negativity occasionally gets you compliance due to fear. It never helps you achieve commitment. In contrast, positive leaders and a positive work culture will move your employees to follow you through the most difficult of challenges.