The Sweeney Agency

About Robert Harris - Leadership and Change Management Speaker

Robert Harris, President of Robert Harris Resources Inc., is a dynamic speaker who has the ability to hone in on real workplace issues and challenges, and provide innovative solutions and communication tools that participants can immediately benefit from. Robert speaks on topics that reflect his significant work and consulting experience from the past 25 years encompassing change leadership, Strategic Influencing, Overcoming Resistance, Reconciling Differences, Resolving Conflict, Negotiating Agreement, and Career Management.

Robert is able to teach people how to leverage their people skills to achieve better results. Robert is also very adept at integrating the client’s needs and business challenges into his presentations so that audience feels an immediate connection to the relevance of his presentation. His style is engaging, informative, and entertaining as needed.

Robert’s corporate experience includes senior management roles in the high technology, beverage, healthcare, and public sectors. As Director of Human Resources for Molson Breweries, Robert was on the Steering Committee coordinating the merger with Carling O’Keefe.

Robert has published numerous articles in the business press and is the co-author of three books Global Impact – Award Winning Performance Programs from Around the World, Navigating Your Career – a Roadmap to Individual and Career Success, and Change Leadership: Inform, Involve, Ignite!.

Robert has a distinctive ability to provide audiences with practical solutions that can be applied in their work and personal lives. Robert quickly connects with audiences of all sizes in presenting simple yet innovative strategies for improving workplace effectiveness.

What Robert Harris Talks About:

Robert L. Harris regularly presents keynotes and workshops on current topics of interest which require him to apply his own experience and knowledge to emerging organizational and client needs. These topics include: Change Leadership; Negotiating and Influencing; Conflict Resolution; HR and Leadership Best Practices; and Career Management.

Change Leadership – Bridging the Disconnect Between Advocates and Resisters
Research shows that over 2/3 of all change initiatives fail. A big reason is the 'disconnect' between those pushing for change, and everyone else. Robert presents a proven model for turning employee apathy and resistance into understanding and commitment. He highlights 5 key strategies that are simple to implement, and highly successful, but invariably neglected by organizations. Robert will make linkages to workplace examples of change success.

The 3 I’s of Change Leadership – INFORM, INVOLVE…IGNITE!
Communication and engagement are the two most critical ingredients to change success. People can’t do what they don’t know; people can’t do well what they don’t understand; and people won’t do what they have no involvement in. This presentation unveils a strategic model for planning, communicating and then implementing change. Robert will give examples of what works and what doesn’t from his extensive experience in organizational change.

Negotiating For Agreement – How to Get the Needed Results and Preserve the Relationship
Negotiating is a critical skill for all organizations. Both internally and externally, we must be able to secure an agreement that also causes both parties to want to continue to do business with each other. All too often, people fail in their ability to achieve necessary outcomes – either was give-in to keep the peace, or force others to accept our solutions which can damage the relationship. Robert presents the secrets to 'win-win' negotiating, demonstrating how to achieve positive substantive and relationship outcomes. He teaches how to both “claim value” and “create value” in a way that maximizes results.

Strategic Influencing – How to Reconcile Differences when Begrudging Compliance is simply Not an Option!
Most people do not know how to resolve disagreement or influence, especially UP!. All too often, we argue hard for the validity of our perspective, or spend time trying to refute the validity of others. Invariably neither side is happy and often, no agreement is reached. In this presentation, Robert Harris presents a highly innovative Strategic Influencing tool and 4 step process that causes the most conflicted parties to find consensus and commit to action plans for moving forward. This is one of the most critical skills needed in organizations – how to reconcile differences and influence for agreement. This tool allows you to influence UP, DOWN, LATERALLY, and OUT in getting the commitment you need to succeed. The audience can immediately apply this tool to real workplace needs.

Navigating Your Career – A proven Model for Individual and Organizational Success
According to Gallup Poll data, only 29% of employees are fully engaged at work. Disengaged employees cost North American companies $300 billion in lost productivity. Engaged employees have higher productivity levels, create higher profitability, and show better levels of retention. Employee satisfaction and engagement strongly correlates with customer satisfaction and engagement. According to the 2006 Job Retention Poll conducted by the Society of Human Resource Management, 52% of employees cite career development as the most effective tool for job retention. Robert Harris is an expert is Navigating Your Career – both from an individual and an organizational perspective. In this presentation, Robert outlines what a company must do to put a state-of-the-art career development process in place (it is not costly!), and what employees must do to “take charge” of this careers. Although the responsibility is shared, ultimately the onus falls on the individual. Robert will explain a 3 step process (model) for taking charge of career matters. The result will be better equipped employees and higher retention for organizations.