Colin James

Colin James's 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 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 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.

• Individually tailored, deeply researched, profoundly engaging keynotes
• Regularly identified as the ‘highlight of the conference’ whenever he speaks
• One of the very few who can deliver 4-hour keynotes and keep everyone’s attention riveted
• Averages 9.95 in his keynote ratings over the last 12 years

  As one of Australia’s best keynote speakers, Colin’s presentation will help the audience to process and embed the core messages running throughout your event.

  Having worked with Boards, Executive Committees and Leadership Teams over many years, Colin can facilitate sessions on leadership strategy creation, leadership development and implementation, managing leadership dynamics, building leadership teams and leadership off-sites. Colin will ensure that he understands your objectives as well as the cultural dynamics and economic, competitive and strategic contexts the outcomes need to be achieved within. He will deliver an engagement which will be provocative, informative, galvanising, encouraging and deeply bonding to the degree necessary to fulfil the objectives.

  Colin is known for:

• Engaging even the most difficult participants
• Driving toward full commitment in developing strategic plans
• Supporting Boards, Exco’s and LT’s in engaging more effectively

Colin is a specialist in facilitation including team building facilitation, workshop facilitation, course facilitation, meeting facilitation and more.

Speaking Topics Include

Managing the Change Game - "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 palava? 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.

What you will learn;

•          How to manage 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.

“I Can’t Believe It!” - Making the ‘impossible’ possible

"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.

What you will learn:

•          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.

Lizard Management Strategies

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

  Followership

  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 organizations (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. This is what you will learn:

  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