The Sweeney Agency

About Cheryl Cran - Speaker on Leadership and Mulit-Generatioal Communication:

Generation and leadership expert Cheryl Cran is a sought after consultant on trends in the workplace. Cheryl strongly believes that harnessing generation intelligence in the workplace is the bright future of business. Cheryl’s presentations on leading the generations and corporate culture include real-life examples and case studies along with practical solutions. Audiences love her direct approach to leadership and strategic management of the generations in the workplace.

Cheryl’s consulting firm Synthesis at Work analyzes business trends that focus on leadership and communication strategies for increasing profits and productivity. Her research includes 15 years of audience response surveys, generational focus groups and employee surveys.

For 12 years, Cheryl worked as a top-performing leader for GE Capital, Mortgage Insurance Company and Bank of Montreal. During her career in finance she thrived in difficult economic times and motivated her teams to business excellence through two recessions.

In 1994 Cheryl joined the business strategy department of a nation-wide consulting firm - after great success with their clients she established her own consulting practice Synthesis at Work. For the past 16 years Cheryl has worked in such varied industries as finance, construction, oil and gas, forestry, resources, health care, government, film, hotel/hospitality, retail and entertainment. Cheryl has the unique ability to apply her expertise in individual client circumstances to provide customized business solutions.

In her fourth and most recent book, 101 Ways to Make Generations X, Y and Zoomers Happy at Work she provides strategies for companies on target recruitment, retaining employees and succession planning for Generations X and Y. Other popular books written by Cheryl are The Control Freak Revolution which shows leaders and their teams how to create better results by focusing on what they can control; 50 Ways to Lead & Love It provides 50 fast and easy tips on leadership for leaders and manager; and Say What You Mean - Mean What You Say is a foundational book on communication in the workplace.

Cheryl’s change management and business strategy ideas and articles have been featured in Forbes magazine, Metro New York, The Globe and Mail, Readers Digest, Selling Power magazine, Builder Woman magazine and The Financial Post . She is a monthly commentator on workplace issues on a Vancouver cable news program and frequently participates in radio and television interviews.

What Cheryl Cran Talks About:

Say What You Mean: Connect to Communicate
How to Thrive in the Social Media, Multi-Generational and Fast- Changing Workplace
Welcome to the communication age. Thanks to the internet, social media and email, everyone is on information overload. The new currency is people skills and communication is cash. Advanced communication can mean the difference between having awardwinning individual departments and having a Fortune 100 company. Communication is often touted as a necessity by executives and leaders…and left at that. The reason the topic of communication surfaces repetitively is that, even though it is universally acknowledged as important, people don’t always communicate in the most effective ways. Some of the most common workplace communication challenges are a result of the following:

• Constant, incessant change of people, processes and technology and the diversity of teams
• New teams are formed with new people bringing in generational and personality dynamics that can make it seem as if we are starting from scratch
• Challenges with highly technical people communicating with non-tech People
• Companies restructure and downsize and those left to deal with the changes struggle to regain footing within the new workplace
• Companies merge and get bought out, sowing confusion over who does what and who is responsible
• A silo mentality prevails and pretty soon interdepartmental communication is fraught with excessive email threads, misunderstood objectives and garbled strategy

Cheryl Cran presents the solutions in this keynote or seminar:

• How to communicate with connection, purpose and positive outcomes
• What to do with the differing generational approaches to work
• How to improve communication between high tech and low tech teams
• How to set up systems within teams to ensure open communication and focus on project success
• How to blend social media communication with traditional face to face, phone and email communication
• How to increase interaction, understanding and information sharing between ALL of the generations

Lead Gen X, Y and the Zoomers in Turbulent Times
This keynote is based on Cheryl’s soon to be released book, Who Is REALLY in Control? A recent USA Today article asked Zoomers (Modern Boomers) if their retirement plans have changed due to the economy and the response was 41% intend to retire later than planned. This clearly indicates that generational communication in the workplace will be an area of opportunity for the next few decades.

Deciphering generational labels can be confusing, so it’s easy to see how clarity in the workplace can be a challenge when team members claim vastly different perspectives. Add to that the current turbulent work environment and you have an added challenge to navigate these times of massive change.

The future success of your organization is dependent on the people you have on board. A seasoned guide, Cheryl Cran, will show your team that, while differences of opinion are the rule, the gaps between their perspectives aren’t as large as they think. Using her trademark humor, relatable examples and interactive elements, Cheryl motivates business audiences by providing real-world techniques that equip your group to face the challenges of inter-generational communication in the workplace.

Take Positive Control of the Future!
What if you had a crystal ball? Cheryl Cran can help you see what the future holds, what the trends in the workplace are and what we need to do to take control of the future.

Based on Cheryl’s best-selling leadership book, The Control Freak Revolution, this keynote shows how being a positive control freak is necessary in tough times. It motivates and teaches audiences to channel their passion for quality and performance into specific positive leadership techniques that prepare everyone for challenging times and the future ahead.

By utilizing positive control, leaders can influence coworkers and achieve results that would make their competitors envious. This keynote is fun, vibrant, full of content and puts a unique spin on positive controlled leadership skills. Cheryl steers audiences through humorous examples of why negative control leads to failure, and how harnessing positive control of the future can lead to a fun, funky brand of leadership that inspires others to follow.

Leadership for the Future: Lead to Attract - Lead So They’ll Stay
What is the one thing that leaders must do to succeed? Boldly look to the future! Being bold is recognizing opportunities to evolve your team, move them forward and helping every individual to full personal accountability for their success.

This energetic, forward thinking and candid program is designed to inspire focused, assertive action by leaders of all types and styles to prepare us for the exciting future workplace. The fun of the keynote comes from Cheryl’s dynamic presentation, her pullno-punches delivery and the infectious audience response. The content is filled with trends, case studies and practical tools for success, all guaranteed to provide value to your teams. Whether or not you think you lead, it’s a fact that we all must demonstrate personal leadership. This keynote looks at everyday leadership decisions through a humorous yet practical lens and then provides steps to create greater success at work and in life.

Say What You Mean - Mean What You Say
The new currency is people skills and communication is cash. Advanced communication can mean the difference between having award-winning individual departments and having a Fortune 100 company. Communication is often touted as a necessity by executives and leaders…and left at that. The reason the topic of communication surfaces repetitively is that, even though it is universally acknowledged as important, people don’t always communicate in the most effective ways.

Based on Cheryl’s bestselling book, Say What You Mean – Mean What You Say, this program highlights the personal benefits of solid communication to motivate personnel at all levels and provides proven communication techniques that audience members can use immediately. Effective communication begins with your ability to understand the position of the other party. Cheryl outlines a simple process to help members of diverse business units understand the unique challenges of people in differing project roles.