Speaking and Trainings

Duration: 60-90 minutes

Abstract:

We have our names on the door, the vacation home, and the envy of our peers. Our net worth may be well into the millions. Our spouse is visible and vibrant, and our do-it-all kids are headed for big things. Outwardly, we seem to have it all, but behind the scenes …

We spin in an endless cycle of obligations, lacking life purpose or peace. We feel driven to amass more wealth … because there is never enough. Our spouse and kids resent us for putting career ahead of family. We long for a spiritual connection, but don’t know where or how to begin. We have few friends or mentors who will tell us the truth. Our lives may look good on the outside, but inside we’re beginning to sense: I’m stuck … This isn’t working.

Jim outlines the “stages of stuckness” and presents the common symptoms, patterns and stories of leaders and spouses who are navigating challenging life transitions. He then paints the path out of the stuckness, built upon a commitment of realizing core-level life transformation.

Duration: 60-90 minutes

Abstract:

“Everyone views me as successful, but my passion for life is quite low. I feel slow and sluggish. I’m going through the motions in my work and in my relationships. I don’t seem to have any energy. If I’m so successful (powerful, wealthy, significant, in control), why do I feel so empty? How do I feel good again?”

Conventional routes to success often leave high-achieving people drained, disillusioned, and cut off from loved ones – even if they achieve their “goals” – because the conventional road bypasses the inner journey. True, sustainable aliveness, grounded in an inner peace, can only be achieved by self-exploration, a commitment to total truth, and the intention to reestablish the precious flow of life through us.

This session presents the common ways energy, passion, and joy get drained out of our lives, how to get them back, and how to amplify the flow of life into us, through us, and out to others.

Duration: Full Day

Abstract:

The morning session will focus on how to lead with clarity and courage, especially during times of crisis. Jim will share the stories and concepts that form the foundation of his recent book on life transition Facing Pain—Embracing Love: The Map to Authentic Living.

After this entertaining and eye-opening plenary session, members will self-select into forum-like groups for experiential, high-impact sharing about their lives. To deepen connectivity within the chapter, members will form groups with other members whom they do not know well.

The afternoon session is a blend of life-sharing, experiential exercises, culminating in small-group discussions on the major issues we face as leaders today. These issues include (1) connection with our sense of calling or destiny, (2) connection with the key people in our lives, and (3) connection with ourselves.

The day will offer varying tones, from serious self-discovery and group-level authenticity, to playfulness and creativity. Look for a high level of participation and interaction rather than passive “learning from an expert.” Prepare to be stretched.

Duration: 60-90 minutes

Abstract:

The majority of leaders we’ve spoken with and coached over the last decade are carrying a blend of anxiety, embarrassment, resentment, and paralysis related to the world economic and political uncertainty, and its impact on their businesses, families, and personal lives.

One leader describes his blur of emotions as “an annoying, low-grade hum that’s always present in my head.” These unexpressed emotions drain energy, distort thinking, and blunt the innovation and decisiveness required to lead during troubled times.

These are not “head” issues. They are issues of the heart, psyche, and spirit. And from our experience most high achievers are either inexperienced or clueless on how to navigate their emotional paralysis, and lead with courage and clarity. They are scared and lost. Most have never been here before. They need help and don’t know where to start.

This session offers specific, immediately usable tools for stilling the inner turbulence and reclaiming lost energy. In addition, the session will address:

• How to go into and through your own fears to a place of clarity
• How to acknowledge, grieve, accept, and move on from the losses (financial, dreams, relationships) you have incurred or will incur as part of the worldwide uncertainty
• How to face and release the relentless inner voices saying “I should have known,” or “Why didn’t I …” that drain energy, inhibit relationships, and reduce productivity
• How to be present for, listen to, and support others (family members, work associates, forum mates) who are struggling with their own emotional turmoil
• How to enlist support for yourself (guides, coaches, advisors, mentors)
• How to lead with integrity, calmness, and courage, when all around you are scared, blaming, or numb
• How to forgive yourself and others, learn from and release the past, and focus with confidence on your go-forward plan

Duration: Full Day

Abstract:

In the more than 200 YPO and WPO forum retreats Jim has led, the following themes
dominate:

• What do these terms mean: purpose, mission, vision, fulfillment, calling, genius?
• How do I make a difference in the world, outside of the business arena?
• How do I move from disillusionment to destiny; from achievement to stewardship; from success to significance?
• What legacies, beyond wealth, do I want to leave my children and my grandchildren?
• I know what it’s like to be “in the zone.” How do I get this feeling back?
• What is blocking me from stepping into my destiny, and how do I get through these blocks?
• When all is said and done, what is my life for?

You have always been an achiever. Your philosophy of “short-term pain for long-term gain” has paid off. Your accomplishments have met or exceeded those you contemplated some 20-odd years ago when you launched your work life. It’s been a great ride and you feel you’ve had an impact. You’re pleased with most of the elements in your life, and you appreciate your tremendous good fortune.

But you still have energy. Regardless of chronological age, you’re young. Your peak is still in front of you. The relentless, burning “need to achieve” has you searching for ways to have an even greater impact. With your life at its midpoint, it’s a natural time to think about the past and plan the future. You may or may not be at a key “transition point,” such as a career change, the end of your marriage, or your youngest child leaving home, but you can’t stop wondering if “more of the same” will continue to deliver contentment and fulfillment in your life. By any measure you’ve been successful. But in your heart, mind, and soul, you ponder a greater calling, a sense of destiny beyond your current success.

We’ll explore these issues and yearnings in a confidential, one-day forum-like experience with your YPO peers. We’ll share, explore, discuss, and learn about the opportunities and issues surrounding Life’s Second Half.

Duration: Full Day

Abstract:

This customized training is open to YPOers and WPOers who wish to enhance their skills in building small-group interaction and authenticity. “Small groups” includes your forum, your executive team, and your immediate family

This workshop blends forum best practices with Jim’s extensive work with YPOer executive teams. The workshop is 40% teaching and 60% experiential. You’ll have the opportunity to practice on “live” issues in your business or personal life.

The workshop will cover the following areas:

• Inspirational leadership: encouraging and directing others to execute on plans and initiatives.
• Team collaboration: sharing challenges, and brainstorming approaches.
• Taking responsibility for your life: noticing when you drift into debilitating drama; tools for shifting back into a mature leadership position; specific tools for shifting out of blaming and complaining, or rescuing and enabling.
• Surfacing and addressing difficult topics and conflicts. This is a foundational skill for all small-group and work-team environments. It is fundamental to authentic relationships. Participants will be coached in how to deal cleanly and directly with any issues that drain energy from the team or mire the organization or individuals in the past. In particular we’ll focus on how to initiate and conduct difficult conversations.
• Making clean agreements and repairing broken agreements.
• Offering and receiving feedback, criticism, advice. The primary take-home skill is the receiving of all forms of feedback with curiosity vs. defensiveness.
• Appreciating and inspiring team members. Most work teams (and forums) do an excellent job of criticizing and challenging, and a poor job of appreciating and celebrating. When a goal is reached, they briefly acknowledge the accomplishment and then they set the bar higher. The result: a demoralized team where “nothing is ever good enough.” Appreciation, gratitude, and fun are a way of life for inspiring leaders.

This full-day training interweaves all elements of Jim’s Authentic Relationships model, tailored specifically to YPOers’ relationships (forum, business, family).

Duration: Half Day or Full Day

Audience: Parents of young adult children

Abstract:

You watch with curiosity—sometimes anguish or confusion—as your young adult child navigates a combination of:

• They are searching for direction in their next stage of life
• They struggle to meet their own and/or parents’ high expectations
• They have lost an identity
• They are looking for new tools to navigate life independently and responsible without help of parents
• They would like to strengthen their relationships with parents, siblings, extended family, work colleagues, sometimes even friends, and learn better ways to communicate with them authentically
• They are uncertain on how to initiate or be in a loving partner relationship … or … to end a dysfunctional relationship

This straight-talking, experiential workshop lays out the costs you and your young adult kids are paying, and what you can do to help them become mature, responsible adults. And, how to come to peace in your parenting role.

Specifically:

• How to best encourage and empower young adult children to realize their own destiny
• How to be welcoming and nurturing without enabling or rescuing
• How to repair strained or broken relationships with your young adult children

The OnCourse resources use riveting role plays to model the outward interactions, the inner angst, and deepest yearnings in the parent-child dynamic.

Duration: 45-90 Minutes

Abstract:

Whether it’s water cooler gossip, an unsupportive boss or team leader, or an insubordinate employee, the last thing a business needs is drama. Unaddressed office drama causes infighting, petty rumors, meaningless meetings, and turf wars that drain energy and deflect the work team from the collaborative pursuit of important goals. Regardless of the type of organization, leaders often avoid dealing with drama in the workplace, or deal with it badly. 

At hundreds of off-site retreats, mediations, and coaching sessions, corporate transitions expert and award-winning author, Jim Warner, and co-author, Kaley Klemp, have witnessed the full spectrum of drama, including whiners, pouters, kiss-ups, bullies, mavericks, narcissists, manipulators, loners and martyrs. They determined that almost all of these drama-laden personas can be distilled down to the antics of four sabotaging roles. Diagnosing and directly managing these four roles is the gateway out of drama. 

In this entertaining, educational, and experiential session, Jim blends humorous and relatable case studies with proven tools for defusing office drama and fostering clean, authentic interactions. And—as a bonus—the tools apply equally well in personal relationships. Imagine: a drama-free office and a drama-free life!

Duration: Half Day to Full Day

Abstract:

This interactive, educational, and experiential workshop focuses on the key concepts and practices for achieving and maintaining a drama-free work environment. Participants learn proven tools for diagnosing and dealing cleanly with energy-draining drama in all relationships—senior leadership teams, work teams, and cross-department projects.

Workshop Components:

• A blend of visual-rich teaching, in-the-moment role-plays by the resources, and video-clip case studies
• Transparent, forthright group interaction to foster and sustain enduring authenticity among team members
• Specific tools for assessing and managing your own drama tendencies
• Specific tools for assessing and managing the drama tendencies in others
• How to “manage up” in an organization

The workshop accommodates up to 80 participants from the same organization or work group. Case studies are derived from pre-work completed by attendees and tailored for immediate relevance to the organization and participants. The workshop is a blend of large group teaching (e.g., identifying drama types and proven tools to address them) and breakout group discussions (e.g., “what would you do” reactions to case studies).

Duration: 45-90 Minutes

Abstract:

This provocative keynote is for individuals and couples who are at a crossroads. At varying levels, all participants desire deeper personal awareness, a sense of meaning and passion in their lives, and more authentic connections. In addition, participants face some combination of the following issues:

• I have no idea what is next in my life; I have only a vague sense of life purpose, mission, destiny, or passion
• My career is my identity
• I always have to be “on”
• My life is being run on a treadmill
• My marriage needs revitalization
• I desire deeper relationships with people who won’t judge me
• I need friends who will be truthful
• I need to make peace with my past
• I would like to explore the spiritual dimension
• I desire greater intimacy with my spouse, family, and friends
• I long to experience grace and joy

Duration: 60-90 minutes

Abstract:

“Everyone views me as successful, but my passion for life is quite low. I feel slow and sluggish. I’m going through the motions in my work and in my relationships. I don’t seem to have any energy. If I’m so successful (powerful, wealthy, significant, in control), why do I feel so empty? How do I feel good again?”

Conventional routes to success often leave high-achieving people drained, disillusioned, and cut off from loved ones – even if they achieve their “goals”—because the conventional road bypasses the inner journey. True, sustainable aliveness, grounded in an inner peace, can only be achieved by self-exploration, a commitment to total truth, and the intention to reestablish the precious flow of life through us.

This session presents the common ways energy, passion, and joy get drained out of our lives, how to get them back, and how to amplify the flow of life into us, through us, and out to others

Duration: 60-90 minutes

Abstract:

This soul-searching session challenges participants to examine their approach to two grounding and seeming incompatible energies in life: Pain and Love. Based on Jim Warner’s book of the same name, Jim maps the life journey as a serpentine journey through several way stations (fantasy, comfort, numbness, isolation and confusion, suffering, forgiveness, surrender) in the quest for Authentic Living. We are challenged to resist delusion and accept reality, going into and through the darkness of our pain (trusting that there is light on the other side), while concurrently embracing love.