Mike Hourigan, your Virtual Safety Motivational Speaker
In a Virtual World, Nothing is as Real as Safety
My roots as a virtual safety motivational speaker go all the way back to when I was working in factories and loading trucks. Though right now a lot of people are working virtually, to the men and women on the factory floors, in warehouses, construction, over-the-road, in...
The Need for Virtual Negotiation Skills Speakers hasn’t changed, but the Times sure have!
My focus as a virtual negotiation speaker for accountants is not to teach you to “win.” In these difficult times called the new normal, my focus is to help your firm understand its negotiation aims without discouraging your present or future associations.
“Winning” a one-time negotiation may be fine if...
Change Management Speaker
Surviving Rapid Change When Your Pharma Organizations Goes Through Unexpected Changes
In my work as an international pharmaceutical change management speaker, I frequently get questions about surviving rapid organizational change.
“How do I survive all the changes going on around me? I’m worried. I’m overwhelmed.”
Pharma Change Management Speaker
Pharma Change Management is a Daily Negotiation
There are few industries that go through as many rapid...
In my virtual podcasts and live video conferencing on negotiating pharma industry change, I’m mindful of an irony. On one hand, the industry offers a wide range of innovative pain management solutions, with more coming every day. But on the other hand, there are few – if any – pain management techniques to help pharma sales reps manage the rapid changes around them. I am not being flippant. Change...
As a pharma industry change management speaker who specializes in negotiation, I know the importance of navigating the changes that are confronting all of us at this time. It is a confusing and challenging period. On one hand, there is an unprecedented, heightened awareness of the pharmaceutical industry during the COVID-19 pandemic we’ve not experienced in our lifetimes. Each day, literally, the world is searching for news of vaccines...
As a change management speaker, both in my virtual and in-person talks, I tell my audiences that navigating change is all about negotiation. It is your life skills that let you frame the negotiation. Let me give you an unfortunate, but worthwhile example. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a Disease. How We Face it is a Negotiation. We are currently locked in a battle against an unseen foe: the...
As an online negotiation skills speaker, I often speak to consultants, contractors and co-workers on negotiating skills techniques. In the old-school world, more often than not an entire team would travel to a major client and negotiate a contract. It was pretty impressive (and usually an impressive waste of time and money). In today’s world, there is a new set of online negotiating skills problems. It may be a...
In my specialty, as a professional services negotiation skills speaker for consultants, attorneys and accountants, I characteristically get questions from audience members as to the most important skills they need to get the job. While we like to use more sophisticated words, such as “getting the engagement,” but, let’s face it: either we get the business, or we go home! As a negotiation skills speaker for accountants when honing for...
As a negotiation skills speaker for accountants and the accounting industry, I routinely get questions from meeting attendees who are accountants as to the top negotiating skills they need to “get the engagement.” The accountants are surprised when I explain that it’s not about delivering a lengthy rationale in regard to price per hour or technical skills. There are more essential negotiation skills that are all too often ignored....
Inspirational Negotiation Skills & Techniques Speaker It is always an honor for me as a motivational negotiation skills and negotiation skills training speaker to offer helpful hints on effective methods to improve negotiation bargaining positions. In my keynote addresses, I frequently talk about the many negotiation skills that can be effectively used to ensure that the potentially equitable deal is not diminished by wasting away opportunities and leaving us...
If Safety is #1, What Comes Next? In my talks as a Negotiating Safety Motivational Speaker, I often ask my audiences the following question: “So if safety is number one, what comes next?” The question is often met with blank stares, shrugs and sometimes humor, with answers including “Lunch,” “Going home,” or “Winning the lottery!” What Does Come Next? Truth is, I would argue that negotiating safety is the...
Don’t Let Your Debits Take Away from Your Credits When I deliver motivational speeches as a negotiation skills speaker for accountants, I talk about the two sides of presenting to existing and potential clients. In making presentations, accounting firms must remember that negotiation skills with a current or potential client break down into content and techniques. They are distinctly different skills. Accounting Negotiation Skills: Content Most accounting firms presenting...
As a motivational speaker for safety and construction, I often start my safety keynote talks with the simple but important question of “What’s in Your Safety Gangbox?” It catches a lot of people off-guard, but it may be the most important question of all. From 2017 to 2018, OSHA reported that one out of every five workplace fatalities were in construction. In that period, almost 1,000 construction workers lost...
It’s Not the What, But the Why In my keynote and breakout sessions I talk as a negotiation skills speaker on workplace communication, I often say that above all, successful negotiation skills are about successful communication skills, where parties need to get to the “why” and not worry about the what. If I am negotiating with you, I can try to give you what you want if I know...
This is the fourth part in our series on managing change, with motivational change management speaker Mike Hourigan on change and employee fears of changes of direction. Where Do I Go from Here? As a keynote speaker and breakout speaker I often give sessions on change management and helping employees overcome the fears of facing new directions in their jobs, I often hear stories of valued employees, employees with...
This is the third part in our series on managing change, with motivational change management speaker Mike Hourigan on change and employee security fears. It is About Trust As a change management speaker who delivers keynote addresses on helping employees avoid job security fears, I emphasize that change is not the problem, rather dreading the changes before they occur is the problem. The fear of change translates into resistance,...
In this, the second part of our series on managing change, inspirational change management speaker on change and employee relationships Mike Hourigan discusses how change affects employee relations. In today’s organization, relationships with co-workers are dynamic. Certainly, remote and contract workers come and go, and those we may work with for years may move away, retire or change positions. Even those changes are anticipated; for example, “Marge,” the CFO,...
One of my roles as a change management speaker for companies and organizations in transition is to relay to executives that change almost always brings fears of competence. Managing change isn’t about explaining to employees “not to be afraid,” but helping them to get over the fear of what change is going to do to them. As a change management inspirational keynote speaker, I hear many moving stories of...
In my work as a change management speaker for industry meetings, I as a change management speaker generally find that change management processes take one direction. The usual change management direction is that management advises, even dictates change, and all of the good soldiers are expected to quickly conform and cope. Easier Said than Done Though the article is dated, the prestigious Harvard Business Review talked of The Hard...
In my work as a motivational safety speaker and communication speaker, I know that everything contributes to safety. The safety negotiation as I call it demands that safety and communication go hand-in-hand. However, safety communication is an art as well as a skill. It must be practiced in every meeting and situation. Not long ago, I witnessed an interaction in a company that illustrates the good, bad and ugly...