The Sweeney Agency

About Elaine Allison - Speaker on Communication & Motivational Strategy:

Elaine Allison began honing her insights into the differences between how we work, lead, and communicate, and succeed early in her career. She was one of Canada ‘s first female prison guards in an all -male-maximum security prison at the age of nineteen. Elaine had a crash course in understanding how we interact with each other and achieve, as her life virtually depended on it! She began to truly observe how we each dealt with conflict, leadership and power as we strive to make a difference in our work and personal lives.

Author of The Velvet Hammer, PowHERful Leadership Lessons for Women Who Don't Golf, Elaine has enthralled audiences from coast to coast with her lively presentations and affable style. Her unique blend of engaging people before, during and after her programs benefit clients by getting the right action and outcomes.

Aside from her early career mentioned, Elaine has taught children with behavioral problems in a special education program; managed over 1400 unionized flight attendants handling issues at 35,000 ft. while in the airline industry; and successfully handled the day to day challenges of various large corporations as a manager and then as a senior executive. She learned how damaging some behaviors and choices can be. She has developed training and keynotes for such industries as travel, trades, finance, insurance, military, corrections, police, retail, food services, media, technology, healthcare. Her messages are universal and are tailored to your needs.

Elaine's hands on experience, real life stories and illustrations of what we encounter daily, helps audiences consider all their options and apply immediate solutions.

She has several articles printed in industry publications, has had featured articles written and published about her work in the Globe & Mail, Houston Chronicle, Milwaukee Journal, New York Albany Times, plus ever city paper across Canada. She is a popular talk show host and been interviewed on over 100 radio shows and seen on ABC World News in New York (twice), Global TV and many talk shows on SHAW, Rogers, Access and OMNI.

What Elaine Allison Talks About:

I CAN FIX THAT: Guiding Principles to Resolve Anything
Organizations are constantly up against competitive pressures, budget constraints, loss of morale, traditional growing pains or amalgamations. Imagine what could happen if everyone could get into the mind set of resolve! With this message Elaine takes audience members on a path to realize;

• They can make a difference and contribute
• They can ignite innovation
• They can resolve issues
• Everyone is making a choice

Participants are pushed to think, create and solve. They leave with a smile of relief, eyes filled with excitement, and hearts filled with hope. Companies, associations, governments and individuals will remark on the immediate changes they feel, act upon and observe as they come upon challenges, stumbling blocks or obstacles. I CAN FIX THAT will make you realize the possibilities! They will learn:

• There is no problem so great that it can't be solved!
• How to find 3rd ways (not always their way)
• How not to come to the fight, but bring other's toward them
• How to observe their perspectives, so they can see opportunity

Customer Service - Becoming #1 in Customer Care
Without customers, there is no business. You won't need a marketing, accounting or operations department without them. Organizations that have raving fans actually have fewer error rates and lower costs to handling service breakdowns. The question is: How do you get your departments, stakeholders and (in some cases) even your suppliers to provide the kind of service you expect?

The customer is affected by what is happening with your organization, internally as well as externally. If you are ready to discover how a Culture of Care is created so your customers rate you number one, you will need the resources and skills Elaine provides to audiences. In Elaine's customer-ized sessions, you can find out how to:

• Use the secret technique that turns teams into Customer Care Crusaders
• Deliver extraordinary service even when things don't go as planned
• Employ the Knock it Off Nicely technique with each other and your suppliers so they understand your standards
• Implement change and get your teams eager to implement it
• Use a simple unique technique to solve service breakdowns from the inside out

Leading a Culture of Care
Everyone's leadership styles vary, from participative to autocratic and everything in between. There may be no best way, however leading a culture of care is based on results. In Elaine's leadership programs, the focus is on how you can turn your staff into Customer Care Crusaders. In her interactive and laugh out loud sessions, leaders will:

• Uncover which service breakdowns to focus on first
• Discover whether it is a system problem or a people problem, or both and what to do about it
• Learn how to set limits, encourage and engage teams to deliver their best every time because they want to and can
• Find out which targets, goals and nets to set with your teams and how they can be hit them every time
• Build a fool-proof system to keep continuous improvement alive and well on your team

Negotiating with Your Customer - So You Can Both Get What You Want
When a customer leaves dissatisfied, or you go broke trying to keep them happy, you won't be around long to serve them. Client and customer retention is the cornerstone of any business. In fact, every business or not-for-profit organization is actually in the relationship business. In this session, attendees will:

• Know the most important thing to do before you start any negotiation
• Learn the Ask, Don't Tell approach
• Uncover that negotiations are not meant to be tough even though they might be stressful
• Discover how to present your side without alienating the other person
• A method to understand your final options and walk away position
• Understand there is no problem so great that it can't be solved
• Bonus: Discover why women lead differently than men and what to do about it