As one of the youngest female producers of the BBC’s flagship “Today Programme” Blaire spent a decade breaking stories and shaping the UK news agenda before her fascination with leadership and change led her to train as one of the UK’s first corporate coaches.

Since then she’s written 3 successful books on the subject and is regularly quoted in the media.

Unlike many speakers on the subject, her interest isn’t academic. She doesn’t speak as a business school professor or as a former CEO trying to generalise from one unique experience. Instead, Blaire draws on her insights as a coach, confidante and agent provocateur for CEOs who spends most of her days supporting and guiding leaders through change as they shape their company. Her speeches give audiences unparalleled insight in to what’s happening in the most innovative Boardrooms in the UK and Europe, trends she’s spotting in her work and what actually works (and doesn’t) when it comes to change and leadership in real businesses.

Blaire is no stranger to change herself. From leaving her safe and respected job at the BBC and starting her own company at the age of 29 to becoming a digital nomad and taking her family (and her two dogs) on the road for a year, she is well-versed in the personal roller-coaster of change. She believes business can be a force for good in the world and that work can provide us with a sense of meaning, purpose and community. She’s on a mission to live and work on these terms…and help others do the same. But that can’t happen without change.

Known for combining warmth and charm with a no-nonsense, straight-talking style, she shakes up our thinking and inspires audiences and leadership teams alike with her fresh ideas. Focusing on the need to re-think business and how we work for the 21st century Blaire encourages audiences to challenge everything they thought they knew. Audiences love her energy, her down to earth approach and her depth of knowledge.

Speaking

Blaire Palmer speaks at leadership conferences around Europe and is at the forefront of new thinking about leadership and change. In her keynote speeches she busts outdated myths of business and presents a model of the kind of leaders we need now. Inspirational, funny and thought-provoking, Blaire draws on two decades of experience inside the boardrooms of international companies and challenges audiences to re-think everything they thought they knew about how leaders bring about change.

Keynotes

Punks in suits

It’s time leaders revealed more of the Punk underneath their suit. At a time when trust in major institutions is in crisis, when a disrupter is threatening to come up your blind side and change your industry forever, when your Gen Y (not to mention the incoming iGens) want work to be meaningful and purposeful, and when digital disruption, global teams and agile working are making the job ever more complex, it’s time to get back to basics.

Audiences at your leadership conference will discover –

• The cultural, social, technological and political trends that are changing the context in which business operates
• The urgent business imperative to redefine leadership in a fast-changing world
• What the future of organisations looks like and how leadership will need to adapt
• The big questions today’s leaders need to be asking themselves in order to change from the inside
• And how to reveal more originality, humanity, bravery and creativity beneath the suit

A brilliant gamble

Everyone knows that change is now a constant. But actually letting go of habits, beliefs, processes and attachments that no longer serve you (or your company) is another matter. Too many companies talk about change but keep a foot in both camps – carrying on what they’ve done historically while trying to innovate. Sorry folks. It’s time to place your bets. Stay in the past. Or embrace the future. And if you’re serious about change relying on outdated notions of how to bring it about is going to get you in to deep trouble.

In this keynote, audiences are –

• Exposed to some of the game-changing trends due to hit business in the next 5 years
• Challenged to re-think deeply engrained assumptions about how people and organisations change
• Inspired to reimagine their own role during change
• Provoked to make a choice – stick with the status quo…or leap into the unknown
• Given practical ideas for leading in constantly changing environments