David Irvine

Presentation Topics

The High Performance Organization: The Power Of Alignment

If you are committed to attract and retain the best talent and reach your fullest potential as an organization, culture will be your most critical competitive advantage. This is because your best people now have a low tolerance for compliance, and insist on engagement.

Take this rare opportunity to learn from one of Canada’s most respected voices on leadership and organizational culture. In this inspirational and thought-provoking session, David Irvine provides practical perspective and strategies to achieve values alignment that will unleash the potential of your organization.

Learn the fundamentals of creating a Values-Aligned Culture™ that will attract, retain, and inspire greatness, and how to achieve it.
Learn the seven leadership imperatives for building a culture that engenders trust, loyalty, open communication, engagement, and renewed commitment.
Discover how to renew yourself and your culture and breathe new life into your organization.

Authentic Leadership At Every Level Building Cultures That Attract, Retain, And Unleash Greatness

Leadership is not a title. You get promoted to being a boss, but leadership is something you earn by the choices you make and the actions you take. It’s about PRESENCE, not position.

Now more than ever, power, purpose, and privilege do not reside at the top of an organization. They potentially live at every level. We know that great cultures – organizations that exhibit such qualities as employee engagement, credibility, sustained commitment, camaraderie, and pride – can be created at every level. Regardless of your title, leadership is a decision to discover and express your unique talents in the service of others.

To attract and retain your best talent in today’s competitive marketplace, you must build a culture that fosters trust, inspires a shared vision, builds ownership and accountability, and gets people deeply engaged in their work. A new philosophy and approach is needed. Those you serve (yes serve!) want more than a job description, quarterly objectives, and yearly performance reviews. They want to be inspired - with an authentic experience.

You are invited to take this opportunity to step back, gain new perspective on this leadership responsibility, and strengthen your competence in the practice of leadership. David Irvine is one of Canada’s most respected voices on leadership and organizational culture and he offers a new view of who you are as a leader and what you and your organization can become. Leave with practical insights and strategies for building a culture that attracts, retains, and unleashes greatness.

Learn the difference between a boss and a real leader, and the true source of leadership power — your authentic presence.
Discover the three vital leadership accountabilities that will inspire others, renew your culture, and engage people in what matters most.
Learn the keys for building a Values-Aligned Culture™ that engenders trust, loyalty, open communication, and renewed commitment.

Bridges Of Trust: Making Accountability Authentic

Great cultures are built on leadership at every level: leaders who are aligned with organizational vision, values and expectations, and leaders who take ownership to make it happen. While the foundation of a great culture is leadership, the foundation of great leadership is accountability – the ability to be counted on.

With everyone talking about the need for more accountability in the work place, why is it that accountability is so likely to turn people off? You have to get to the deep meaning and application of accountability. If you don’t, it becomes a hammer to blame and punish people or at best, just another organizational buzzword.

In this inspirational, thought-provoking, and engaging session, David offers a fresh and powerful view of accountability that builds trust, respect, integrity, unleashes human potential, closes the gap between intention and performance, banishes blame and fear, and gets a grip on results.

Based on David’s inspiring book, Bridges of Trust, this session illustrates how accountability is not a “program” to be “installed” throughout an organization or a “flavour of the month” management fad. Accountability is an inspiring leadership philosophy that lies at the foundation of both labour and life, and promises four vital results:

Clarity - about your role, direction, and promises;
Communication - at a new depth, with the right focus;
Alignment – of values, purpose, passion, and agreements; and
Energy – to build sustained engagement.

In this thought-provoking and engaging session, David will share his proven and practical approach to accountability that builds a culture of greatness.

The accountability approach: how organizational accountability begins with understanding accountability and being personally accountable – at every level. You can’t hold others accountable until you are accountable yourself.
The accountable mindset: how to transform blame, entitlement, and fear into courage, personal responsibility, and commitment.
The accountable performance process: learn a simple and practical process that will inspire your high performers, deal effectively and respectfully with your “non-performers,” and renew your organization.
The bridge of trust: discover how to assess, inspire and engender deep trust in your organization through the power of accountability.

Embracing Change: The Power Of Possibility

To survive, your culture has to change. Once you have made a decision to be a leader, to shift from self-interest to service, you become the agent of change. But where is your road map? Where are your tools?

There are eight stages of change. The first is chaos; the eighth is possibility. Once you lead yourself and others to the point where possibility is embraced, transforming fear into confidence, you have done your job. When you have mastered the art of embracing change, you will not only build a strong, vital organization. You will build a strong, vital life.

Learn the difference between change, transition, and transformation, along with the accompanying benefits and risks of each, and discover how to know what is best for your culture.
Inspire trust, innovation, and commitment as you lead yourself and others through the eight stages of transformation from "attachment to the familiar" through "chaos" to "possibility."
Learn to balance stability with flexibility.

Authentic Personal Leadership: Living A Complete Life

Before you can be a real leader, you first have to be a real human being. A life of greatness — being all you can be — is about discovering your authentic power. There is one thing all great leaders have in common. They are authentic. Great leaders — regardless of their position — make the effort to know what is real about themselves. They understand what motivates them, and what their priorities and personal values are.

We all intuitively know that life is more than your job, your to-do list, or the inbox of your email. Life is ultimately about living to your fullest potential and being all you can be in the service of others. A truly rewarding and fulfilling life is about discovering your authentic power — the alignment of what you do with who you are. When you discover this power, you will not only find the key to real leadership that will guide the next generation; you will find the key to life.

A life aligned with your authentic self is life with greater balance, inner peace, vitality, meaning, and overall well-being. Leadership that is authentic reaches unimaginable potential.

Come prepared for an inspirational and thought-provoking session where David will share his profoundly human viewpoint on authenticity as the foundation of great leadership.

Choose from the following options to build your own customized session for authentic living and leading. (David will take your three preferences to build your specialized learning experience):

Discover greater balance, inner peace, vitality, well-being and meaning through living an undivided life, a life in alignment with your values.
Align your life with your life's purposes.
Realize the power of being trustworthy and a strong character by making integrity real and practical.
Discover your true identity — your worth away from your work.
Build a community for holding yourself accountable to stay on track.

Simple Living In A Complex World: The Power Of Personal Balance

"Simple living is a profound sense of connection… complexity made simpler, change made manageable, challenge made inspirational, and life made more meaningful."

As leaders — at all levels — you spend every day putting out fires. Then one day you look inside yourself and notice your fire is out. What happened? In the hurry to make a living, you have neglected to make a life.

Calling on his experience as a psychotherapist, David Irvine offers inspiration and guidance on one of the most pressing issues leaders face: closing the gap between professional achievement and personal satisfaction. Be inspired to go beyond traditional and superficial ideas about stress management and work/life balance, to proven, practical, and in depth principles and strategies to help you find balance, meaning, and significance in your work and life.

Take this opportunity to step out of the fray, engage important questions, gain perspective, insight, colleagueship, and renewal as a leader - in ways that meet the changing landscape of today's workplace and our wider society. David will inspire you to uncover that place in your soul where hidden possibilities reside, a place of simple, balanced living.

Choose from the following options to build your own customized session on Simple Living and Personal Balance. (David will take your three preferences to build your specialized learning experience):

Be inspired with a new view of work/life balance and how to achieve it.
Align your personal and professional values.
Discover your most vital resource in the midst of increasing demands: your authentic self.
Leave with a road map and practical strategies for managing your priorities and living with greater balance — in every area of your life.
Living on the edge of others’ pain: how to stay balanced and connected with those you are helping without putting yourself at risk.
Learn how to have greater mental health and well-being by living an undivided life.
Build a community for holding yourself accountable to stay on track.

Authentic Leadership in Education: Bringing Heart and Soul Back To School

Whether you are a leader in front of a classroom or in charge of school, there is no more important work than impacting youth.

Leaders in education care deeply about their schools. But in a society with an increasing emphasis on economics and achievement and a decreasing value placed on the children in our culture, the heart and soul of education is being both forgotten and eroded. David Irvine’s passion is to inspire, support and guide leaders to restore the true purpose in their work. In education, his purpose is to foster systems that build character and citizenship in students, preparing them to meet a changing world with a love for learning and the confidence to bring forth their unique gifts and true voice. In order to accomplish this, you, as leaders at all levels of education, must bring heart and soul back to your work.

Great leadership can no longer be reduced to technique; great leadership comes from the identity and integrity of the leader. The ultimate purpose of leadership in today’s schools is to design and foster organizations that serve both society and the soul of the teachers and support staff that work within them. The power of authenticity is an enduring approach for renewing and sustaining workplaces and communities that are depleted and where the human spirit can be trampled, overworked, and undervalued.

In this session, David will share his personal perspectives on leadership and life. Come prepared for an inspirational and thought-provoking message to renew your schools, your work, and yourself.

You will leave this inspiring, thought-provoking, and practical session with:

An understanding of the four societal trends impacting education today, and practical ways to respond to these trends.
Clarity about the difference between being a “boss,” and being a real “leader” in education.
The key leadership capabilities vital to responding to the current needs of education in today's world.

Working With The Ones You Love: The Human Side of Business Families

Growing up in a family business, and spending more than two decades of consulting, counseling, and leading retreats with family businesses, David Irvine has come to appreciate both the perilous and potentially gratifying journey of embarking on a business venture with the people that matter most to you. It is a challenge to build a business, and it is a challenge to raise a family. Combining the two can lead to either disastrous failure or deep fulfillment.

As the “leader’s navigator,”™ David offer business families a wide range of dynamic and interactive seminars, retreats, and keynote addresses on succession planning, relationship building, communication, authentic leadership, and business family governance. He promises to bring a practical, down-to-earth and personal approach to building successful and lasting business families. David’s energy will inspire you to take a closer look at your beliefs and guide you to find deeper connections in your most important relationships. He will show you how to use your business as a tool to build what matters most in your family and personal lives.

You will leave his business family programs with a renewed sense of perspective for your business and your life, and practical tools for building a sustainable business family. All members of your family, both in and out of the business, are invited to attend these compelling, thought-provoking, and powerful programs. You will leave with awareness and practical tools for dealing with the tough issues that too often get ignored.

There are seven key areas vital for building a cohesive, sustaining, respectful, and fulfilling business family. Each of these keys can be a used as a “stand-alone” workshop or presentation, or can be combined for a uniquely customized event.

Key #1. Governance
Key #2. Holistic Leadership
Key #3. Respect And Meaningful Connections
Key #4. Authentic Alignment
Key #5. Accountability
Key #6. Clear Succession Plan
Key #7. Strong Character

Authentic Parenting: Raising Accountable Young People

Accountability — the ability to be counted on — is a core trait needed for young people to meet the challenge of living — and thriving — in their world. Because you are not born with it, it must be relentlessly fostered in one’s upbringing.

David’s 25 years of experience as a family therapist, youth leader, best selling author, leadership consultant, and parent have given him important insights for raising responsible, resourceful and resilient children.

After more than two decades of teaching leaders in organizations how to foster accountability in the workplace, David has returned to his roots: accountability in the home, for this is where accountability ultimately begins. His approach to leadership in the home goes beyond the concepts of leniency versus strictness to the substantive issues of guiding children to be self-confident, trustworthy, and respectful of themselves and others.

Balance supports, demands, and strong character.
Take fear and blame out of your home and replace them with ownership and trust.
Teach your children self-discipline.
Empower young people to unleash their full potential.
Replace consumerism with citizenship and a commitment to contribute.
Deal with rights, responsibilities and contribution.
Find and express your authentic voice as a parent — your most vital resource.

This inspirational and thought-provoking presentation gives you fresh insight and practical tools to strengthen your competence in life's most challenging and important leadership responsibility: parenting.

The Gift of Depression: A Change of Mind — From Stigma to Significance

Depression and its myriad of forms will eventually affect every person in our society. In a rare opportunity to learn from one of Canada’s most respected voices on leadership and personal development, David Irvine will share, from his own experience, his perspective on transforming depression from the stigma of secrecy and shame to a gift of an enriched, authentic life.

Depression and Suicide: What do they have to teach us?
Living with Mental Illness: How can I help? When is help not helpful?
The Gift of Depression: A Change In Mind

Take this opportunity for an evening of reflection and renewal while you discover a shift in thinking about depression — in ways that meet the changing landscape of today’s community and our wider society.

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Authentic Leadership, Building Cultures that Attract, Retain, & Unleash Greatness

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