Adam Markel

Adam references the iconic instant photography company, Polaroid, in his keynote about reinvention. When digital photography came along, they didn’t embrace it. Rather, they refused to embrace the necessary reinvention because they were attached to the status quo. As a keynote speaker, Adam often asks audiences to brainstorm about a powerful pivot question, “What would you do in your life or company if you knew you could not fail?”

You can change things more easily, but not by taking drastic steps, by taking small steps. Making small changes will lead to a massive shift over time – one that is more sustainable in the long term. Consciously creating each one of these small micro pivots, or pivots by design, will intentionally catapult your organization’s reinvention. If you don’t make those small changes yourself, someone else will make them for you, causing a pivot by disruptive.

Over the past year leaders were increasingly faced with the challenge of optimizing employee performance while championing them through the very real issues of the pandemic and social unrest. According to the Harvard Business Review, employee productivity in most organizations dropped by at least 3 to 6 percent during COVID-19.

Many of us are relieved at the prospect of getting back to “normal”. But let’s face it, these issues are unlikely to be resolved by going back to the way organizations used to function. We’re also witnessing a cultural shift where a large percentage of employees, in particular millennials, have new expectations around what is required to build a culture of collaboration and productivity.

The only way forward is to become Change Proof – to have the capacity to leverage uncertainty and change – whether it’s the new normal or the next normal – to build long-term growth. The way forward involves a series of small but meaningful PIVOTS that reset, re-energize and re-engage our workforce.

Resilience is the foundation, both individually and organizationally. Research shows that by utilizing innovative recovery techniques and resilience rituals, we don’t just recover from adversity we actually increase our capacity to address future stress and avoid costly burnout. In other words, we are built to bounce forward, not back. Our brains can learn (at almost any age) how to process stress and turn it into strategy — by building the narrative of resilience. Resilient cultures enjoy improved health, more energy, passion and engagement, lower turnover and greater team innovation and productivity.

In his highly interactive keynote, The Way Forward, Adam shares tangible, impactful practices to improve our levels of resilience – and how to leverage the power of uncertainty to build long-term growth and become Change Proof.

Stress and overwhelm are even larger challenges for organizations today, making these questions ever more important: Are we too tired, busy or burned-out to think big? And if so, what do we do about it? With the pace of change only continuing to escalate during and after COVID-19, it’s critical that businesses provide an optimal environment for people to be at their best.

With an estimated $62 billion being spent each year in corporate health and safety costs alone due to exhaustion and burnout, it’s vital that leaders develop the organizational capacity to not only perform under stress, but to thrive in the face of it.

In this virtual, high-energy and interactive talk, Adam explores the critical factors necessary to build higher performance capacity and resilience through a Got Your Back Culture. Your team will leave with tangible takeaways for a lasting impact well after the event is over.

Unprecedented, chaotic, overwhelming, exhausting. These are the words most frequently used today to describe our personal and professional lives. Let’s face it though, this is not the first time – nor will it be the last – that we will be challenged on a mental, emotional, physical, and yes, even a spiritual level. When we’re not at our best in these areas, we just don’t perform well, leaving creativity, flexibility and innovation on the table. The impact? Our key performance indicators suffer, including revenue and profitability.

Today’s imperative is for our organizations to cultivate our ability to become Change-Proof: having the ability to not just to ride the waves of change… but to shred them and stay on top for the long ride! Resilience is the foundation, both individually and organizationally, for maintaining performance. Research shows that when we develop, practice, and invest in the skills of resilience, the results are improved health, more energy, passion and engagement, lower turnover and greater team innovation and performance.

In this virtual, high-energy interactive talk, Adam teaches simple, usable daily practices to improve our levels of resilience and how to leverage the stress of uncertainty and change to build long-term growth.

With 18 years as a trial attorney and 9 years as the CEO of a large training and development company, Adam Markel has much to share with audiences about leadership and resilience. However, his greatest and most enduring lessons came from the 7 years he spent as a lifeguard on the beach in Long Island.

In this high energy talk, Adam will share what he calls the “Resilient Leadership Model” to help create high performance results — where team members are mentally, emotionally, and physically bought into the same mission. Adam helps his audiences understand that resilience is a lot more than endurance and that leadership means more than simply being in charge. His heart-centered leadership techniques help organizations understand how to nurture their teams so they can outlast the competition and go the distance.

Through a combination of audience participation and powerful stories straight out today’s headlines, Adam Markel shares:

• How transparency creates trust — the most critical element in developing a high performing team.
• How to hold team members accountable from a place of love versus judgment.
• A game-changing feedback system to encourage more authentic, fast and effective communication.
• Systems that encourage healthy risk-taking and create a got-your-back culture vs, a watch-your-back culture.

Disruption is inevitable. If your organization is not prepared to manage and make the most of change – or clings to the status quo because of the perceived risk, your days may be numbered: 88% of the Fortune 500 companies from 1955 are no longer in business.

Without a pivot-ready culture, businesses run the risk of mediocrity creeping in, threatening an organization’s long term profits and its very survival.Our ability to reinvent and innovate – what Adam Markel refers to as “PIVOT-Ability” – is critical to business longevity. Pivoting requires vision, agility, resilience and the ability to utilize change to its fullest.

Through a combination of foundational principles, stories and interactive exercises, Adam Markel will help your team:

• Embrace the law of small changes to increase productivity and operational longevity.
• Leverage a 4-part Resilience Regeneration process to build top-down and bottom-up resilience into your organization.
• Shift from an old paradigm success formula to one that encourages your team to reach new heights while learning from “great mistakes”.
• Breakthrough the fear of change and challenge “status quo” results.

According to the Harvard Business Review, employee productivity in most organizations dropped by at least 3 to 6 percent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders are increasingly faced with the challenge of optimizing employee performance while championing them through the very real issues of today. But there are hacks to help employees be more resilient, based entirely on science and a bit of common sense.

The most current research confirms that we are actually built to bounce forward, not back. Our brains can learn (at almost any age) how to process stress and turn it into strategy — by growing the narrative of resilience. Utilizing state-of-the-art recovery techniques and rituals, we don’t just recover from adversity we actually increase our capacity to address future stress and avoid costly burnout.

Resilience is the foundation, both individually and organizationally, for reversing declines in performance. Research shows that when we develop and practice the rituals of resilience, the results are improved health, more energy, passion and engagement, lower turnover and greater team innovation and productivity.

In this high-energy interactive talk, Adam teaches simple, usable daily practices to improve our levels of resilience and how to leverage the stress of uncertainty and change to build long-term growth.

Leadership Lessons From the Lifeguard Stand” takes audiences back to his days as a Jones Beach lifeguard, where a single incident with a swimmer they couldn’t rescue coalesced the team into one that grew to understand how to deal with the massive change the ocean offers up hourly. In his high energy keynote, Adam shares the kinds of leadership, teamwork, resilience and high performance required to deal with 100,000 people on a crowded summer beach (and over 100 rescues each day) that applies to any business that wants to win. After that first loss, they never lost another person in Adam’s 7 years there, or as Adam’s team would say, “no one goes down in our water”.