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Jackie’s messages are designed around a series of powerful stories about REALLY COOL companies and GUTSY leaders. Her stories are both inspirational and very practical. They are loaded with unconventional, yet successful, business best practices from companies like SAS Institute, USAA, Southwest Airlines, Synovus Financial, Quad/Graphics, Ernst & Young, TD Industries, and other companies, that are admired for business, people strategies, and leadership.
When she’s not speaking Jackie spends time inside these COOL companies learning directly from their leaders, employees and clients about what it takes to create an organization that is a magnet for great talent!
Prior to speaking and writing, Jackie served as a coach to executives, managers, and front-line professionals on the results of the firm’s organizational and 360-degree leadership assessments. She also served a similar role for the Center for Creative Leadership where she offered upward feedback to executives participating in the five-day Leadership Development Program.
Jackie is co-founder of the Family Business Institute at the University of San Diego where she was one of the creative forces behind the development of practical, research-based educational programs for closely-held family businesses. She also worked with MassMutual Life Insurance Company to design the first-ever CD-ROM training tool for family businesses and provided expert commentary on the complex business and personal issues faced by family businesses today.
Prior to 1993 Jackie was Manager of Corporate and Professional programs for the University of San Diego. During her tenure at the University, Jackie founded the Certificate in International Business Program and was director of the Institute for Quality & Productivity. In addition, she taught public speaking and communications courses as an adjunct professor. She received her bachelors degree in communication from the University of New Hampshire, masters degree in speech communication from San Diego State University, and she earned a doctorate in educational leadership at the University of San Diego.
Besides juggling the multiple priorities of speaking and consulting, Jackie is the Freiberg family anchor. She is the chief choreographer coordinating the schedules of three very active children—Taylor Grace, Aubrey, and Dylan. She bikes, runs and plays soccer.
Keynote Topics:
- Gutsy Leadership
Creating a workplace that explodes with Productivity, Passion and Profitability.
The challenges facing companies in a global economy will demand more than conventional thinking and business as usual. The world is not changed by those who are unwilling to take risks. No Wimps! It takes GUTS to move an organization in bold new directions. It takes GUTS to get out on the lunatic fringe where new breakthroughs are found. It takes GUTS to come down from the Ivory Tower and talk to people in a human voice that’s intimate, inviting and authentic. It takes GUTS to blow up the old rules and free smart people from dumb processes that limit their potential. It takes GUTS to lead with love and trust rather than manage by abstract authority and fear. It takes GUTS to make work fun and not take yourself too seriously. It takes GUTS to be accountable
- Embrace Change Courageously
Maximize your strength by focusing your power, resources and assets on what is in your control.
It used to be the BIG that ate the SMALL. Now it’s the FAST that eat the SLOW. The world has changed—radically. Those who capitalize on the opportunities that come with change will move with speed, agility, and adaptiveness. The winners will be those who learn how to learn faster. But this requires a level of confidence that is foreign to many. This segment is designed to get people to brand themselves as champions of change rather than shrinking from it.
- Totally Engaged Employees
Learn how GUTSY leaders create the fuel that ignites the hearts and minds of their people and inspires them to work at full throttle..
Gutsy leaders have a bias for action. That’s why we call them movers and shakers. They’re not interested in the politics and formality of playing to TITLES and they’re not big on planning to plan. When things are simple they can move fast. This raises their level of satisfaction because speed is exhilarating! Yesterday’s accomplishment fuels the fires of motivation for today. When things are unnecessarily complex people get bogged down. Boredom and hopelessness set in. Enthusiasm goes out the door. Great people leave and the mediocre busy themselves with activities that don’t add value. Kevin will show your audience how to increase speed, lower costs, and improve service by getting employees to play at full throttle. This theme is really about freeing people to do what’s right for the company and its customers. It’s about motivating your people by expanding their capabilities to get things done.
- Creating A World Class Workplace
Build a culture that attracts, recruits and retains loyal employees.
Leaders of the 100 best companies to work for in the U.S. say that the single biggest predictor of overall success is a company’s ability to attract, retain, and motivate world-class people. They went on to say that the most important lever in enhancing this capability is corporate culture.
Every organization has a culture. The question is: Is that culture intentional and purposeful or is it accidental and haphazard—established by default? When it comes to creating the culture, character and personality of the organization, great companies let nothing go to chance.
The question we will address together is: What drives culture? Answer: A community of gutsy leaders who care about the culture enough to protect, promote and reinforce it everyday. But how? Kevin will give you an opportunity to “wrestle” with the strategies employed by Southwest Airlines and other companies for reinforcing corporate culture.
You will discover some fresh ideas for driving culture as well as to affirm and intensify the good things you are already doing.
- Blow The Doors Off Business As Usual
Are you worthy of employee and customer loyalty? Discover the GUTSY strategies that create it and sustain it.
Great companies have a "people first" philosophy. They know that when employees feel honored and served there is a reciprocal effect that causes them to provide extraordinary service to their customers. The message is that you can’t do service well externally unless you first do service well internally. Gusty leaders breed a spirit of service within their cultures because they see themselves as servants of the people they lead. Kevin points out that many of us have a tendency to oversimplify the work of our colleagues. Consequently, he advocates the kind of walk-a-mile activities where people in one functional area develop the empathy to better understand the pressures and complexities of their co-workers in other functional areas. Jettison the kind of silo-building, turf protection, and tribalism that renders an organization sluggish and unresponsive. Trade it in for a spirit of collaboration, teamwork and unity. The result will be a seamless approach to serving your customers.
- Equip People To Think And Act Like Owners
Discover what happens when gutsy leaders create a sense of business literacy and get people at all levels to think and act like owners.
The great writer Robert Frost once said, "Isn’t it a shame that when we get up in the morning our minds work furiously - until we come to work." In the new economy this can’t be true. Everyone must come to work fully engaged and ready to make a difference. Ownership is a state of mind. It’s a fundamental way of looking at the world and approaching the work we do. Ownership is about giving ourselves and others the freedom to act. It’s about removing the fears that cause lack of initiative. This theme inspires people to assume ownership for serving the customer and managing costs out of the business.
- Define Your Business AS a Heroic Cause
It’s amazing what people will do when work is defined as something heroic. Make it purposeful and then get out of their way!
What motivates people to do their best? What causes them to dedicate the totality of who they are—heart, mind, and soul—to the success of the business? This point goes beyond the extrinsic motivators (salary, benefits, bonuses, perks) to the things that move people internally. It shows the power of what can happen when people find the passion and heroism in their work.
- Fun Pays !
Lighten up, loosen up and make work more fun.
Kevin makes a compelling argument for escaping the tyranny of the “OR”— that place where people say, “If you’re having too much fun you must not be productive.” Unfounded! Flawed thinking! The evidence suggests otherwise! People are in fact more energetic and more productive when they’re having fun at work. With some hilarious video vignettes and extremely funny stories, Kevin will make your audience belly-laugh as they both discover and experience how other companies lighten up. He’ll outline the huge payoffs for making work fun and give your audience members permission to laugh at the off-the-wall things they do! The result? Better communication and teamwork, more creativity, higher levels of retention, and lower levels of stress and burnout.
Client Testimonial:
"I got nothing but praise for Jackie’s presentation, even to the point of being told that she is the best speaker APRO has ever had. She really was wonderful and added so much to the success of the meeting. She took the time to visit with Bill Keese and I regarding our industry and really used that in her presentation, which is something I always like to see, but don’t always get."
-- Shelley Martinek, CMP
Education Director, Association of Progressive Rental Organizations
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