Cal LeMon

According to the Society of Human Resources Management, Dr. Cal LeMon has been designated among the "Ten Best Speakers in America." "The best" is easy to write and slap on someone's picture, but creating a speaking career that captures and then changes an audience-is another story.

Dr. LeMon is one of those stories.

After an acclaimed career in the ministry that included serving as senior minister of a large, multi-staff parish and a chaplain at Harvard University, Dr. LeMon made a professional shift to become a senior faculty member with National Seminars Group. Cal traveled across the United States, Canada and Europe and quickly became the highest rated (from audience evaluations) male presenter for NSG.

So Dr. LeMon walks on stage blending the genuine empathy of a clergyman, the precise skills of a seasoned presenter, the business savvy learned from working with his Fortune 500 clients and a wonderful, unrehearsed sense of humor.

Dr. LeMon is the president of Executive Enrichment, Inc., a corporate education and consulting firm. Cal's client list includes Texas Instruments, Marsh & McLennan Insurance, El Paso Corporation, Clarins Cosmetics, Gannett Newspapers and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

You may have already met Dr. LeMon through his writings. Cal's newspaper columns have appeared regularly on the Opinion Page of USA TODAY. His articles have been published in HR MAGAZINE and the journal EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS TODAY.

For those who have been in his audiences, the "best" does describe Cal.

In the last 18 years, Cal has built a solid career by providing audiences with content that makes sense and a style that makes listening easy. Here are some of the highlights from Cal's exceptional career.

• Personally taught all 1400 employees of Tucson Electric Power Company five, core courses on the skills of working in an empowered workplace.
• Designed and hosted three nationally syndicated video conferences for the American Public Works Association.
• Designed and presented leadership development training for seven Gannett-owned newspapers.
• Wrote and presented managerial training modules for SBC in six locations through the Midwest.
• For the past five years has presented concurrent workshops and Mega Sessions at the International Conference for the Society for Human Resources Managers.
• Has presented workshops at the America Legal Administrators Annual Conferences and designed and delivered a national ALA teleconference.
• Is listed as one of only six, featured speakers for The Great Game of Business.
• Designed a state-wide public relations program for the California Association of School Transportation Officials that included the production of an award-winning video, "Stop…In the Name of Love."
• For the past 15 years has written and presented nine leadership development programs for El Paso Corporation, Houston, Texas. One of these learning modules, "Creativity as a Business Strategy," was disseminated through the company using a video and study guide format. From audience evaluations, Cal continues to be rated one of the two top presenters for El Paso's continuing education modules.
• Is a popular presenter, in six states, for TEC (The Executive Committee).
• Continues to write a business column for the Springfield Business Journal that is regularly reprinted in other business publications.

MOST REQUESTED TOPICS:
When You Make It To The Top, You Are Only Half Way There
In this just-in-time economy, all organizations have a new threat: instant, astounding success. Here is a keynote address for a group who has skyrocketed into wealth and prestige and wonders what is next. Dr. LeMon will serve up laugh-laced portions of business strategy to move past "success" to "greatness." 

How to Overhaul A Jet Engine ... At 33,000 Feet
When the whining refrain, "How am I supposed to do one more thing with everything you are expecting me to do?", drones on and on, it is time to challenge a work group with the possibility of the impossible. Leading the listener through a business arcade of astounding successes, Dr. LeMon will illustrate how an organization can make significant changes and, at the same time, not reduce the bottomline. 

Get A Life - Change A Name
This is a highly inspirational address especially for people who are in a job which requires them to be the "giver." Using the theatrical model of Don Quixote, Dr. LeMon weaves a stirring tale of how to realize self-fulfillment by filling up someone else. 

Killing The Secret To Keep The Dream Alive
The secret is "control." Buried deep in the neurons of all leaders is the unspoken belief that to be responsible for a group of people means controlling them; controlling their actions, thoughts conflicts and creativity. The dream is walk into a work environment and watch the staff take total responsibility for their own actions and the organization. Killing that secret is the beginning of organizational life. 

How To Find The Top After You Have Hit Bottom
This address is for organizations and people who have failed. Dr. LeMon will extol the value of falling on your face as the price of success. Failure, the audience will learn, is never a destination; it is a passage. The end result of sitting in this keynote address will be an embrace of the future without the fear of failure. 

Kiss and Sell
This keynote address is for an audience who have to continuously market a product(s) and get tired: tired of the buyer's resistance, the competition's taunting or the boss' hallucinatory quotas. When salespeople need a motivation lobotomy, it is time to kiss and sell.

In The Morning, Always Put On Clean Underwear
As children we were taught there are rules to life, which are always true. Dr. LeMon, in this address, reviews the rules for doing business and how they have all changed. With his vivid imagination and creativity, Cal gets the audience to laugh at the stupid rules in the workplace and then suggests some new ones which may not be timeless but will work. 

You Can Have It All
This is a unique, team-presentation by Drs. Cal and Kathy LeMon. Kathy is a clinical psychologist who often works with Cal in making presentations to working couples. This keynote provides both the framework and motivation for two people to be as much of a success at home as in the workplace. 

Giving God The Business
Spirituality and success have always been intertwined. Dr. LeMon, with his academic training in theology, leads the audience to a new understanding of bringing one's spirituality to work when deciding corporate values, responses to diversity issues, compensation levels, customer service obligations and a host of other business practices. 

Save Your Fork
When most of us heard "save your fork," the best part of the meal was about to make its appearance... dessert. What is the "dessert," the payoff, after we downed the gruel dished out at work or home? This keynote is an upbeat challenge to prepare and then enjoy our own personalized rewards (dessert). 

What follows is a listing of the most requested training programs Dr. LeMon is presently offering his clients. They are grouped in five specific workplace headings (Managing People, Improving Communication, Resolving Conflict, Developing Leaders and Increasing Productivity). Each course is briefly described followed by a listing of some of the most significant skills the attendee could expect to take back to his/her workplace. Each of these training programs can be adapted to fit a one to six hour timeframe and also be developed into the content for a customized keynote address. More detailed outlines are available upon request.

MANAGING PEOPLE:
Dancing With Difficult People
Most of us want to annihilate difficult people; dancing with them is a stretch. This workshop makes the factual case that difficult people will keep showing up… regardless of our best efforts. The art of working with these cretins of the coffee break is to understand the causes of their negative energy and then redirect them or, “lead the dance.”

Greasing-Up the Stuck Employee
Some employees show up every day, but have quit his/her job a long time ago. These people are stuck in routines, habits and thinking that is counterproductive to where your organization is going. This workshop will supply practical suggestions for “assisting” the stuck employee into “going with the flow.”

How to Child-Proof Your Organization
Psychologically, the term is “regression.” Emotionally, the right word would be “childish.” Both the label and the workplace situation is still the same: someone in your organization needs to grow up! If you see infantile behavior in your workplace from adults who are shaving everyday and putting on makeup, you may need this learning experience.

Forgiveness as a Business Strategy
The “payback system” is alive and well in most organizations. Some members of your staff have very long memories when they believe they were a victim. For these people, every work day is another attempt to balance out the scales of personal justice by “getting even.” Unfortunately, it is never enough. There is never enough satisfaction derived from vengeance. So the payback game is played over and over…at the expense of the organization that regularly loses productivity to the game…that no one ever wins.

IMPROVING COMMUNICATION:
Straight Talk
There are some skill sets that qualify for the “eternal” category. Interpersonal communication has to be one of them. If your organization has a “communication problem,” this workshop can offer your staff the skills on how to accurately send and receive face-to-face messages.

The Perception Principle
Perception does equal reality. Whatever we perceive, through all of our senses and intuition—is reality. Perception, therefore, is a strong organizing principle of all communication. This workshop is designed for companies and work groups that are struggling to understand why staff continues to “get the wrong message.” The course opens with a unique inventory that will identify for the participant what are the sources of reality (perceptions) in his/her workplace.

Right Writing
This is it!!! Grammar, punctuation, capitalization, run-on sentences, misplaced modifiers…they are the fun stuff of written communication in your workplace. Right? If you and your coworkers mentally struggle with, is it “who” or “whom,” “affect” or “effect” or what is the best way to begin a collection letter, this workshop is for you.

Power Talk
No one makes it to the top, without making it first to his/her feet. Public speaking continues to be at the top of the greatest fears list in America. Some people in your workplace would rather donate an organ than stand and speak in front of a group. This is a two-day learning experience that does include five “stand up” experiences for the participant to practice what he/she has learned. The final public speaking exercise is an eight to ten minute, video-recorded presentation so that both the class and Dr. LeMon can offer a critique. There is a limit of 12 attendees in this course.

The Master Trainer
For organizations that want to develop competent, internal trainers, this two-day workshop offers a “hands-on” learning experience. Dr. LeMon will share the practical insights he has gleaned over 30 years of presenting organizational education programs accented with the latest research into how adults learn. This combination will result in Dr. LeMon offering practical instruction with periodic opportunities for the participants to get on their feet to present short training modules using the skills they have learned. All of the participants will have one training presentation recorded on video tape for Dr. LeMon and the class to evaluate. Because of this intensive setting, this class is limited to no more than 12 participants.

RESOLVING CONFLICT:
Fair Fighting
There are two ways we fight with each other, “dirty fighting” and “fair fighting”. The “dirty” type is conducted with vast amounts of intimidation and name-calling. It isn’t pretty. Then there is the “fair” fighting where at least one of the two combatants works on solutions instead of sandbagging the other person. Research suggests we have tons of experience with dirty fighting, but not too much with the fair type. This workshop openly endorses conflict as a natural consequence of our humanity, but does offer skills on how to resolve it quickly and efficiently.

Verbal Defense Skills
Words, not fists, should be the adult weapons of choice when in conflict. The problem is what are the “right words”? What is the right collection of syllables to use in a professional environment when one is feeling slightly “bent out of shape”? That is the question that will be answered in this workshop.

Moving From Bargaining to Negotiation
Whether it is buying a new car, agreeing on a time for a teenager to be back home with the family car or, a labor contract, interpersonal negotiation skills are necessary to navigate through life. This course provides the framework for principle-centered negotiation, not bargaining.

Getting the Lone Ranger to Ride with Your Team
There is one in every work team. You know, the “loner,” the “fifth wheel” the one who “rains on everyone’s parade.” These “Lone Rangers” will not only be a pain-in-the-posterior, they can actually sabotage (which often is his/her goal) your team’s best work. There is no need to just “put up with” these team members; you can motivate them to take off their masks and ride with everyone else.

DEVELOPING LEADERS:
Management Clinic
This is a two-day, pragmatic learning experience built around the theme: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” Both “management” and “leadership” are legitimate expectations of someone who has responsibility for others. Management is often maligned as a “bean-counter” exercise when contrasted with the inspirational quality of leadership. This presentation gives worth to the manager who is often judged on whether he/she gets things done right. The majority of classroom time will be placing the participant in a specific workplace scenarios and then use the skills learned to give the “right” response.

Building Trust Through Leadership
Your employee walks in tomorrow to find out the coworker next to his/her desk has been “beamed up” in the latest restructuring, the co-pay for the HMO has gone up…again, and the turkey handed out at Thanksgiving has gone the way of the hula hoop. If your staff is having trouble believing that they are your most important “resource,” this workshop will add value to your organization. The course begins with the participants listing all the places in their personal and professional lives where the “rules have changed.” This exercise will make the point that “trust” is a non-tangible asset we bestow on other people and/or organizations. The responsibility is with both the leader and the institution to build a new framework for trust to grow.

A New Look for Leadership: The Assertive Servant
Leadership has never been more important. Organizations rise and fall, in a chaotic world and economy, on the skills of leaders. The ability to “sell” a vision of the future to a workforce that may not have the same perception is the art of being out front. This presentation is build around a unique paradigm: the assertive servant. This apparent contradiction in terms is intended to provide the balance between “respect for the employee and respect for the task.”

Mutual Respect, Mutual Gain
This is a course about the value of respect in the workplace and its influence on productivity. The problem with respect is everyone talks about it and worships it, but few people can define it. The participants will begin the workshop by crafting a working definition of respect through identifying its characteristics. These characteristics will become an outline for the learning experience.

Building the 14 Carrot Gold Organization
Having trouble motivating staff…even after you give them a raise and a bonus? Employee motivation is at the core of this workshop. Using the latest data and research on workplace motivation, the participant will be challenged to closely examine 14 non-money motivators that can be used in any work environment.

Finding Your Power in Empowerment
Since the 1970’s businesses have discovered the philosophical key to moving entitled employees (“you owe me a job just because I walked through the door today”) to work like they own the company. It is called empowerment. Using the thinking and practices of Dr. W Edwards Deming, management has learned that moving the decision-making about how the work should be done to those who do the work makes financial sense. This workshop provides an historic and contemporary trip through the refinements that have been made to the practices of empowerment.

Chicken Little Leadership
This is a workshop for management personnel who regularly encounter a work environment characterized as “chaotic.” When crisis punctuates a workplace, what are the skills the manager/executive should be able to quickly use? The answer to that question will be provided in detail throughout this learning experience.

Gender and Leadership
Men and women are different. That is both the blessing and the curse of diversity in gender. And, men and women drag these endemic differences into their leadership roles. Women and men lead differently. That fact does not make one gender better than the other. Just different. This workshop is designed for both genders to learn about each other and then learn how to adapt to one another.

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY:
The 25 Hour Day
Time management is really self-management. This workshop takes an intrapersonal approach to managing one’s life. All of the time management notebooks, charts and PDA programs will never work unless there is an internal commitment to control the clock.

Extra-Ordinary Service from Extraordinary People
Approximately 73% of the economy is populated with organizations in the “service sector.” Yet, “service” continues to be the most misunderstood and neglected skill dispensed across service counters today. This workshop will challenge the understanding and competence of even the most seasoned customer service agent. Using the latest neuro-psychology research into the mind of the consumer (How Customers Think by Zaltman), the attendee will learn the profound implications of tone of voice, visual ads, voice mail options and a myriad of other customer service contact points.

The “Y” Factor: Creativity as a Business Strategy
When there are fewer people and dollars to get done even more work, you need a new idea. When the competition begins to gobble up vast amounts of your market share, you need a new idea. When your organizational growth has come to a screeching stop, you need a new idea. This learning workshop is built around the premise that all the new ideas for your organization have not “been taken.” The attendee will learn that our minds are a bottomless lake of creative solutions to any problem.

Seeing Tomorrow…Today
This workshop is centered on the skills of “systemic thinking.” Using the research and writing of Dr. Peter Senge (The Fifth Discipline), the participant will learn the only way to restructure an organization for profitability is not to downsize people, but right size the “systems” that keep pumping out the same unprofitable results.

Caring for Yourself in Chaos
This is not a stress-management workshop; rather, it is a skill-based approach to personally managing unending organizational change. In other words, if your organization is restructuring every other month, there will be a personal toll extracted from you and your coworkers. Assertively managing that “toll” paid at the gatehouse of change is the goal of this workshop.