Colin James_Biography

It is rare to find one person who can MC a conference brilliantly, deliver a standing ovation standard keynote as well as run a deeply engaging workshop to embed skills, all on the same day. He can also consult with clients on event design to create profoundly memorable, world-class conferences.

Colin is one of those people that has spent his life exploring cultures, religions, philosophies and human psychology, which has seen him travel far and wide and have adventures others only read about. He has a background in broadcasting and marketing but it is his unique corporate style and content that sets him apart.

He was recipient of Australian Educator of the Year, 2008. This award recognised his achievements as an Educator over 23 years starting in 1988 at the Australian Quadriplegic Association where, as Training Manager, he designed a groundbreaking 18 week Tertiary Rehabilitation Program. His work with people with spinal cord injury led to him working alongside Christopher Reeve and Facilitating the Australian Spinal Cord Injury Summit in 2002.

He is one of those speakers who creates two experiences: ‘where did the time go?’ pointing to the fact he holds the full attention of every room he presents to and ‘we don’t want him to stop’ reflecting the depth and value he brings to every event he delivers.

COLIN TAILORS ALL OF HIS DELIVERIES AND WORKSHOPS TO THE CLIENTS AND CONFERENCE OUTCOMES.

COLIN JAMES DOES NOT FALL NEATLY INTO A CATEGORY AS HE IS A SUPERB SPEAKER, FACILITATOR, TRAINER, EDUCATOR, CONSULTANT AND COACH.

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Altmore International Pty Ltd t: 1300 556 933 +61 2 9977 7076 | e: [email protected]

w: colinjamesmethod.com colinjames.com.au

Shifting The Landscape Of Business Through Keynotes, Facilitation & Coaching

“Colin James was simply outstanding and right-on-message for us. His humour, insight and personable approach made both his keynotes resonate with everyone in the room. He was definitely the highlight of the day.”

- Chelle Brown, Sales Comms & Events Manager, Fairfax

“Never have I come across such an original approach and genuinely engaging facilitator as Colin. The day has lead me to re-think my own approach to training and development, leadership and my career overall.”

- Mike Wallace, Training Manager and Consultant, MCW Aviation Consulting Pty Ltd

“Thank Colin for his exceptional contribution to our National Sales Conference last week. Every time I work with Colin I’m surprised and delighted, he never disappoints and he was so on brief, we were thrilled with the outcome. His session really resonated with our team."

- Charle Howard, Sales Implementation Manager, Asteron Life

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KEYNOTES

Colin is not the ‘motivational speaker’ type. Platitudes, sound bites and tired ‘Believe in yourself and anything is possible’ hyperbolic stuff is not what he does. His keynotes, whilst deeply engaging (and using much humour), also challenge and provoke whilst imparting practical depth and workable knowledge.

Colin designs each keynote to client context and outcomes. Here is a sample of the topics he can deliver -

The number one cause of workplace disruption, conflict, disengagement and low productivity is stress and anxiety. The ability to manage stress and handle anxiety is a skill. Now here is the fact that confronts many: the workplace does not cause stress and anxiety. How can we say this? Because, in any workplace, not everyone is stressed or anxious. Different people in the same context respond differently and, to keep it simple, respond either productively or negatively. What’s the difference?

Productive people who manage challenging environments well, who have what looks like natural confidence, who flourish in perceived adversity have well developed Lizard Management Strategies.

This is a deeply powerful idea that Colin James has been developing for 20 years. It leaves everyone who hears this keynote or completes this workshop able to handle stress and anxiety immediately in their lives - professionally and personally. This can be a catalyst for both a cultural shift and for personal effectiveness to skyrocket. LMS is a game changer.

Knowing what the Lizard is, and how it can managed, lives long in the minds of everyone hearing this powerful and life changing method. This session can be a keynote, a workshop or a combination.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:

• HOW TO ELIMINATE INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP ANXIETY • HOW TO GAIN NATURAL, EFFORTLESS CONFIDENCE IN ALL CONTEXTS • HOW TO NEVER SABOTAGE YOURSELF AGAIN

LIZARD MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES (LMS):

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“I CAN’T BELIEVE IT!” MAKING THE ‘IMPOSSIBLE’ POSSIBLE

MANAGING THE CHANGE GAME:

BRILLIANTLY:

“I can’t do that!” “I have never been able to [fill in the blank]” “I wish I had the talent to [fill in the blank]” This session is a deeply powerful demonstration of the reality that what holds people back in their lives are limiting beliefs. Colin James shows participants how to draw a fully rendered, artist quality portrait in ONE HOUR. A life long belief such as “I can’t draw to save my life” is turned on its head in ONE HOUR. This is a startling experience that is a life changer for many. This session gives participants a tangible and real-life experience for challenging and redefining their belief system. The whole session is 90 minutes of extraordinary learning.

The ultimate lesson from this session is this “If a life long limiting belief can be changed in one hour what else do I (and we) need to question that could bring the changes I (and we) want in our lives (and organisations)?” This session can be a keynote, a workshop or a combination.


• HOW TO RELEASE THE GRIP OF LIMITING BELIEFS

• HOW TO ACCESS YOUR NATURAL INNER TALENTS - EVEN THE ONES YOU THOUGHT YOU NEVER HAD

• WHAT POSSIBILITIES IN YOUR LIFE YOU MAY HAVE NEVER CONSIDERED BEFORE

• HOW BADLY WE HAVE BEEN PROGRAMMED AND HOW TO CHANGE IT.

“We are going through a lot of change right now” “The restructure is being announced” “We are going to roll out the new strategy and there are a lot of changes”… you have heard these sort of words a thousand times.

Change for many invokes fear, anxiety and the like. Why? How can we make change an easier and less complicated palaver? A session by Colin James in high demand is Managing the Change Game Brilliantly.

You would think that with ALL the change everyone has been experiencing in their lives of late we would simply get better at managing change better. So why aren’t we? Structural and organisational change often fails to understand and appreciate the psychology of change. Most adults hate change. Period.

In this session Colin James unpacks the psychological change cycle and, once understood, lets people and teams manage the whole process far more effectively.

This session can be a keynote, a workshop or a combination and has helped 1000’s understand the secret to making change easier.


• HOW TO MAKE CHANGE WITH STYLE AND GRACE

• HOW TO SUPPORT AND MANAGE A TEAM THROUGH A CHANGE PROCESS SUPERBLY

• WHAT HAS STOPPED YOU ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS IN THE PAST AND HOW TO ENSURE THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN AGAIN

AFTER

BEFORE

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Good leaders create good followers and good followers create good leaders. Sounds kind of obvious right? Leadership is theoretically easy. That's why there are tens of thousands of books on the subject. Of course it's more complex than reading a book or article.

What constitutes excellent leadership? Does the answer lie in focusing on "Followership"? Followership challenges both Leaders in organisations (how to be a better leader) and employees (how to be a better 'follower').

Colin James has been studying, exploring and researching the nature of Leadership and Followership for 3 decades. He draws upon a host of stories, references, humour and his unique graphic presentation ability to hold audiences fully engaged and enthralled. Above all it’s practical.

This session can be a keynote, a workshop or a combination.


WHAT MAKES AN EXCELLENT FOLLOWER?

• The 3 key reasons Followers follow and the 3 reasons they will stop

• How to build authentic leaders that compel followership

• How this knowledge can transform people and cultures

FOLLOWERSHIP:

ENGAGEMENT MYTH:

Improving Employee Engagement Why it’s not easy…but eminently possible

We often hear clients saying: “My bonus is linked to the engagement score of my teams… so how do I hit the number?” “For some reason our engagement score dropped… even though we are doing well?” “We can’t figure it out… they get paid well, it’s interesting work, great environment and we have hardly improved our engagement. Why?” “I now have people reporting to me. Damn.”

Millions of words have been written and uttered about employee engagement. What’s the secret sauce? What’s the best environment? Is it really the head honcho that makes or breaks? Does the fish rot from the head?

Colin James has been researching and analysing the ‘engagement thing’ his whole career. As a communicator he has to ‘engage’ his audiences and has extrapolated ways of building engagement regardless of how negative, hostile or shut down people might be.

The session is a little confronting, deeply insightful, humorous and eminently practical.


• HOW TO FACILITATE ENGAGEMENT FROM WHERE PEOPLE ARE - NOT WHERE YOU THINK THEY ARE…

• HOW TO IDENTIFY AND MANAGE THE ENGAGEMENT BLACK HOLES AND SWAMPLAND…

• HOW TO COMMUNICATE IN A WAY THAT ENLIVENS, ENGAGES & MOTIVATES (AND NOT THE ‘RAH DEE RAH’ HYPE)

• INSTANTLY APPLICABLE TECHNIQUES THAT SHIFTS THE ENERGY TOWARDS THE POSITIVE

To check for availability and find out more please call Katrina 1300 556 933 or email [email protected].

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Today Leaders are expected to be adaptive, visionary, innovative, collaborative, agile and drive direction and results. Investing in your Leaders is critical, yet so often its left to chance with leadership ‘off sites’ crammed with a packed agenda, insufficient insight and no real opportunity for sustained change.

Leadership Team and Exco off-sites, strategic planning sessions and board/executive retreats all need superb, objective facilitation skills.

AN EXTERNAL FACILITATOR PROVIDES UNBIASED CAPABILITY TO CREATE AND HOLD AN ENVIRONMENT FOR DEEP CHANGE AND BE BOTH A PROVOCATEUR AND COACH, TO ELICIT REAL OUTCOMES.

The term ‘High Performance Teams’ gets used a lot these days as the aspiration for the group of senior leaders who run businesses or divisions. The role of LT’s (leadership teams) is to decide the strategic and operational effectiveness of their businesses. This can be a complex, politically fraught, personality driven, power play experience at times and a strong hand to manage these dynamics can ensure productive debate and achieve meaningful outcomes.

Additionally an external facilitator can ask the difficult questions, bring to the surface the ‘unsaid’ stuff, manage the overly dominant players and ensure that the team is not side-tracked by off-road meanderings or unnecessary conflict.

What is required is someone who has years of international experience across a range of industries and who has proven ability to manage the process.

Colin James has facilitated and led Leadership Team off-sites and development programs for over 20 years across industries such IT (SAP and Oracle), Financial Services (NAB, CBA, St. George and Ernst & Young), PetroChemical (ExxonMobil and BP), Government (Federal Department. Secretaries Off-Site and Federal Department of Education) Health (Medibank) just to name a few. He has facilitated sessions in Australia, Singapore, China, India, USA, and South Africa.

Facilitation is a complex and sophisticated skill and Colin is internationally recognised for his ability to manage groups through often challenging and difficult processes from strategic planning, organisational restructure, conflict management, Executive Leadership Team meetings, product launches and the like. He is a master of navigating complexity, conflict and politically tricky situations and facilitating outcomes that have lasting and measurable value. He is simply a master Facilitator.

To check for availability and find out more please call Katrina 1300 556 933 or email [email protected].

FACILITATION


Helping Boards, Executive Committee and Leadership Teams to drive towards full commitment in developing strategic plans, implementation and supporting their teams to run more effectively.

"Colin models leadership engagement from the front of the room. He skilfully takes seemingly complex matters and puts them into simple terms. Colin’s elegance of design and the art of delivery is second to none.”

- Dr Yvonne Su, CSP Specialist Leadership Development Group

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Millions of dollars are spent on staff and team events across the country every year. What is the return on investment? How can you raise the standards of events to ensure the highest quality outcomes for every participant? How can you ensure a return on investment so there are direct business benefits following these conferences, meetings and events?

THE SOLUTION IS COACHING AND PREPARATION OF ALL SPEAKERS AND CONTRIBUTORS FOR IMPORTANT STAFF CONFERENCES AND EVENTS

The Reality: Your logistics and conference teams do OUTSTANDING work in organising events. The amount of work involved in making everything look seamless is applause worthy.

The Problem: The experience of the contributors, speakers, panellists and other sessions is often nothing more than average. Many rely on PowerPoint decks to download screeds of data (with the inevitable ‘you probably won’t be able to read this’) where the purpose and value for the participants is lost.

The Solution: Planning, Designing, Preparing, Coaching, Practice, Dress Rehearsal.

As Australia’s leading Corporate and Executive Communications Skills Training we will work with you on the following;

1. Determining measurable outcomes for the event 2. Designing the agenda to best deliver the outcomes 3. Identifying the best process for each session 4. Designing the presentations 5. Preparing each Speaker and Panellist for their delivery 6. Coaching and practice sessions for each contributor 7. Dress rehearsal prior to the event to ensure highest

delivery standards 8. Post event review and coaching for next steps

Our team, led by Colin James, will be relentless and demanding. There is no compromise in ensuring the resources invested into the event return the best possible return for everyone involved.

Showing up and walking though a bunch of slides to a semi-attentive audience (many of whom will be on phones and devices) will never be acceptable again once you have worked with us.

Contact us to discuss how we can work with you in ensuring events do not just become ‘yet another corporate offsite’ where the dinner becomes the highlight and the rest of experience forge>able or low, low value.

COACH THE SPEAKER

Coaching and preparing your Speakers and Panellists to deliver high value, deeply engaging sessions at your PD days, quarterly meetings, leadership retreats and planning events.

“Thank you again for your insights, wisdom and consummate professionalism over the past few days. There is nothing more powerful than ideas – and I deeply value the new ones I gained from you this week. I look forward to using the new tools you have given me in my personal and professional life.”

- Gideon Klein, Director, True North Partners

Colin James_Biography

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