GREG BELL
Change | Peak Performance | Leadership | Teamwork | Innovation
Author of Water the Bamboo
More than just a motivational speaker, Greg Bell is a thought leader, business consultant, and leadership seminar trainer. His popular books—Water The Bamboo®: Unleashing The Potential Of Teams and Individuals and What's Going Well? The Question That Changes Everything—have inspired an array of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies like Nike, Disney, Manpower Group, Kaiser Permanente and Comcast, to athletic teams like the Portland Trailblazers, Oregon Ducks Football, and the Gonzaga Bulldogs Basketball.
As an innovator and keen observer of highly successful leaders and teams, Greg has learned that the key to success is having the courage to use the skills you already have to achieve a result greater than you previously imagined.
Inspiring and energizing audiences with his engaging storytelling, Greg shares his knowledge with excitement and passion. His ability to masterfully blend insight and encouragement with just the right dose of reality makes him the consistently top rated keynote speaker at major conferences. A Certified Speaking Professional (the highest earned designation from the National Speakers Association), Greg influences thousands of individuals and entrepreneurs each year with his innate ability to connect personally with audience members.
Greg holds political science and law degrees from the University of Oregon and currently serves on the UO Foundation Board of Trustees. He is also the force behind Coaches vs. Cancer - a campaign for the American Cancer Society that has raised over $100 million for cancer research. In addition to his corporate leadership experience, Bell is a TEDx Talk alum and serves on the advisory board for the Portland TEDx conference series.
TOPICS
* LEADERSHIP
Only dead fish swim downstream
Throughout time, people have searched for the precise blend of ingredients that create transformational leadership. While the list is varied, there is one leadership characteristic that impacts and strengthens all others: Courage. Great leaders are willing to swim against the stream. They don’t wait for fear to subside; they’re resilient and confront it head on.
Everyone has the capacity to be courageous. Through powerful stories and eye-opening anecdotes only he can deliver, when you choose Greg Bell as your leadership keynote speaker, you’ll learn how to unleash your own tenacity and cultivate the bravery and leadership potential of those around you.
* CHANGE
If you change nothing, nothing will change
In today’s turbulent marketplace, the ability and willingness to adjust and adapt is a distinct competitive advantage. But, even the most successful businesses don’t like change. It’s hard. It’s scary. Most often it’s not the change itself that’s causing our angst, but rather our fear of changing a winning strategy or tactic.
Change doesn’t have to be the enemy. Having a trusted partner leading change management in your organization can alleviate much of the stress caused by growth and change. Having the courage to do things you’ve never done will enable you to embrace change and the opportunity, innovation and growth it inspires. Sharing his expert insights and real-world stories, Greg will help you and your organization unearth the courage and resilience to face the fear of change head on.
* TEAMWORK
Together everyone achieves more (T.E.A.M.)
Teams are the foundation of organizational life. Yet any leader knows that building and leading high-performing teams is one of today’s most complex challenges.
The pinnacle of teamwork is creating a solution that no one individual could create on their own. This is achieved when team members embrace diversity of opinion, work together to identify and solve problems, and are committed to a common vision, goals, and metrics. A strong team-building plan is critical for growing organizations. Giving organizations an under-the-hood look at the characteristics of high performing teams, Greg explores how to build and nurture teams that consistently perform better, innovate more, and achieve collaborative success.
* INNOVATION
There are no frontiers beyond your reach
Throughout Greg’s years as an innovation keynote speaker, he’s noticed one inhibiting factor that stands out among the rest: while innovation is vital to shaping the future, potential breakthrough ideas often struggle to survive. Why? Because innovation introduces change. That’s right. Resistance, not a lack of creative ideas, is the most powerful lens for viewing an organization’s innovation mindset. Too often entrenched systems and bias thinking of "That’s not the way we do it around here" stifles innovation in its tracks.
Innovation isn’t a person or a process. It’s a culture of curiosity that must be integrated into everything you do. It needs to be everyone’s job, all the time. Greg encourages you to open your mind and ask yourself “what if?” This mind shift breaks the bias that inhibits innovation, and fosters an environment in which creativity flourishes and ideas are turned into action.
WHAT CLIENTS ARE SAYING
"We were thrilled when Greg agreed to present his agrarian wisdom at our team event for Leadership and Innovation. Greg took a great deal of time and care to understand our event objectives as well as the target audience. The result was very well received; team members of different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives all remarked as to how personalized the event felt. Greg has a unique ability to craft his timeless messages into a variety of formats – for any situation or context. Our team came away from the event both energized and reflective. Feedback received from event participants was exceedingly positive. I highly recommend Greg as a speaker. "
— Cliff Milbank, Senior Project Manager, Nike