Keynote Speaking for Events

Storytelling Speaker & WorkshopsMy focus in my coaching and speaking is to help you and your team understand your why. And to understand and start to develop and tell your and their own stories, about YOUR why. And ultimately to turn jobs into careers, staff into believers. To have a common purpose, a common cause.

Attracting and retaining the right talent is an issue for every company. So are motivation and productivity. Startups and early years companies have a clear purpose, people have close contact with the founders and the purpose moulds every action. As soon as your company starts growing beyond a few hundred people, either through organic growth or acquisition, this contact with the founders and connection with “the cause” decreases and believers become employees. Do your people view their time with your company as “just a job” or a career*? Storytelling, company culture and purpose make up the essence of a company. But in many companies, the only stories told are the repeated stories of the founders. Recited but not lived. This is ok (but still not great), when things are going well. But who doesn’t want everyone in the company to be living the ethos while at work, “getting” the purpose of the company while at work and fluently talking about it in their private lives and on social media?

Everyone wants to work in places with a purpose. And every employer wants to employ motivated talent who are believers in the purpose of the company. So why the gap? And why is it important?

Why It’s Important

If your people don’t “get” the purpose of your company, if it’s just a job, they are easily lured away by small increases in salary. Or they take their talents, and your training, to a competitor who does offer them purpose. Reducing unwanted churn is one of the bonus results of having a purpose and storytelling within a company. Sometimes the founders haven’t properly sat down and understood what their purpose is. Maybe, in the beginning, it was just survival and they were too busy for reflection – and everybody was handpicked and working closely together every day so it didn’t matter. But as the company grows, or other companies (and their people) are acquired, common purpose (sometimes called an employee brand) and the energy and focus and drive that goes with it, gets fuzzy and diluted. Or it becomes misunderstood or disappears altogether.I work with founders as well as second, third and fourth generation leaders to identify and articulate their story, the story and the essence of their company… and to identify the common purpose, the cause.As Simon Sinek calls it – “The Why”.  (If you lead a company and you haven’t seen his talk… you really need to fix that!)  Watch it now and then read on.

But if your company is big and growing, that common purpose, your why, needs to be fluently retold by everyone both while at work and in the private lives and in social media. Successful companies large and small are full of believers. Storytelling helps your people tell their own stories about the purpose, “The Why” of your company. Of course, this doesn’t make any sense if the head of the company doesn’t understand the purpose of the company. Always the best place to start. Most of my work is helping leaders of companies understand their why. But sometimes I am asked to do storytelling keynotes and workshops for their teams. As a storytelling speaker, I tailor a keynote for your company based around YOUR WHY followed by a storytelling workshop to help your talent develop their own stories. Stories they are more likely to live by and to talk about in their private lives and on social media. These are the stories that attract and retain talent. Stories that turn jobs into careers. Stories that tell of purpose. Not everyone wants this for their events. Some companies just want to hire an “inspirational speaker” to come and wow their team. Almost tick box. That’s fine and them – my favourites are often super successful sportspeople. Some really are inspiring and give a good buzz – but how many lessons are heard, and learned, and applied from these talks? The truth is it varies: it depends on your team and their attitude and how the event is billed and it depends on the content of the talk and the calibre of the speaker. I have seen some really entertaining speakers – but entertaining doesn’t necessarily challenge or change behaviour. Which is surely the point of the event?

Marcus Webb

Chief Storytelling Officer

“Peter is one of the best practitioners of “tough love” I’ve ever seen. He’s direct and uncompromising. He “gives it to you with the bark off,” as they say – but you’ll love every minute of working with him.”

Rainer Hettinger

Siemens Nixdorf

“Thanks a million Peter – or should I say $400 million?” – after winning a large contract.

Angela Bowland

VP Strategy & Marketing CSC

“An excellent coach for top level presentations. Great results, expert, high integrity.

Partner

Magic Circle Law Firm

“I was invited to join the partnership! Which of course I accepted! It was an incredible feeling, with a flood of relief and excitement….The partners who interviewed me said how strong my interview had been.”

Head of Public Affairs

FTSE 100 Company

“The interview. For THAT job. Investing in Peter’s coaching obviously worked because I was successful and am absolutely over the moon with my new role. He also guided me through the process of negotiating my salary up which saw an increase of over 35%.”

General Counsel

U.K. National Regulatory Agency

“Very pleased to say that I have this afternoon been offered the job. Thanks for your help, it really was invaluable!”

Keynote Speaking & Coaching

My focus in my coaching and speaking is to help you and your team understand your why. And to understand and start to develop and tell your and their own stories, about YOUR why. And ultimately to turn jobs into careers, staff into believers. To have a common purpose, a common cause.

I speak on storytelling, communications and public speaking and have given storytelling speeches and workshops to over 4000 people in 9 countries in Europe and Asia.

Some keynote speaking highlights include:

Keynoting on the purpose of storytelling at a London Toastmasters Speaking Competition to 150. Keynote Speaker and mini-workshop at an Accenture event for 300 new hires and new promotes. Creating and delivering speeches and storytelling workshops in 5 cities and in 4 countries for one of the biggest companies in the world. Speaking to founders of exciting new startups about their WHY and storytelling at startx.com- the Stanford University in-house startup accelerator in Palo Alto, California.If any of this pushes your buttons, contact me here: info@peterbotting.com.

*are you creating career opportunities? Or just jobs?