Mike Hourigan, Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Speaker As a national keynote speaker and breakout speaker helping people with their negotiation and conflict resolution skills, I am well aware of how words such as “negotiation” and “conflict resolution” are interchanged, even misused. When I present to corporate and association audiences on negotiation skills, I talk of two broad classifications. There is “hard negotiation,” for example, when customers walk into a...
Don’t Hire Just Anyone, Hire Someone Special! As a motivational and keynote speaker on hiring great support and administrative staff for healthcare practices, it’s my rewarding task to guide practice managers to not hire “just anyone,” but to hire someone special. How Can I Be Sure? In leading breakout sessions for practice managers and medical professionals on hiring, the most common question I receive is, “Mike, how can I...
Hiring and Motivating Administrative and Support Personnel in Your Practice As an inspirational keynote speaker for the healthcare industry on hiring and motivating administrative and office support personnel for healthcare practices, I know all too well the challenges you face. Heather Farley, M.D. writing for Delaware Business Times (April 5, 2019) stated that “Healthcare facilities tend to be among the highest-stress work environments of any profession—right up there with...
Healthcare Industry Negotiation Speaker Mike Hourigan How to Interview People When You Hate to Interview As a healthcare industry keynote speaker and breakout speaker who talks on hiring, motivating and retaining non-professional staff members, I frequently get feedback from professionals and office managers on the challenge of interviewing for support staff positions. Most healthcare practices find interviewing prospective support candidates difficult. Culture or a Good Match? The conventional wisdom...
Why is being a safety motivational speaker so important to me? Earlier in my career, long before I was an executive and dressed in suits, I worked in production on the factory floor. I saw first-hand what happened to workers who took safety for granted. I am passionate about being a national safety speaker on safety topics and challenging organizations to reduce workplace injuries. More Aware, but Not Enough...
Too Many Signs, Not Enough Communication We should all know that communication skills are vital to safety. In fact, improving safety communications is a frequent topic in my safety keynote addresses and safety breakout sessions given by a breakout speaker. When there is a breakdown in communicating safety, people die or get injured. While employees understand the importance of safety, they often don’t get the message. At the end...
Change Management Speaker is critical when it comes to safety. As I deliver keynote speeches and lead breakout sessions to organizations on navigating safety change, I know the challenges but ultimately the benefits that change can bring. As opposed to many issues that affect companies, as a former production worker myself, I know what happens if safety regulations are ignored. Disregarding safety directly affects lives. Change management might be...
I often stress the importance of Negotiation Skills in my Safety Motivational keynote addresses. Why? Because emphasizing safety to transportation, manufacturing, food processing or refinery personnel is a continuous negotiation. Organizations understand the need for safety training, but to many employees it is just another boring meeting where they have to force themselves to stay awake. They walk into those meetings complacent, and they leave the same way. Why...
As a Dallas Change Keynote Speaker, one topic I am frequently asked to present is the challenge of the “blended office,” the so-called intergenerational office. It’s a mixed blessing of challenges, but also tremendous upside. The Challenge The intergenerational office is more than saying, “We’ve got young guys and old guys.” In fact, there are five groups in the modern office setting, with each group having varying values, work...
Whenever Las Vegas Keynote Speaker delivers a keynote speech in Las Vegas on Millennials in the workplace, he is often met with head-shaking. “Mike, you claim to like Millennials, what exactly do they want?” As a Las Vegas motivational speaker addressing the challenges and opportunities of blended workplaces, where Boomers, Gen-Xers, Gen Y and Gen Z have to get along, most of the older guys expect me to say,...
What Would Robert Kennedy Think of Twitter? It was Robert Kennedy Jr. who said “Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.” Though RFK would have been 94 on this date, he would have easily understood the need to champion change in today’s society and modern workplace. I would venture that had his life not been cut so short, RFK would have...
Found: The Darkest Bulb in the Chandelier! As a keynote speaker, I am honored speak to professional associations nationwide on the many challenges of managing change. One important aspect I talk about in regard to change is that the organizations that are most successful in navigating around challenges are those that give their people the permission to think. Giving employees the go-ahead to think about how to work out...
Safety Speaker “I’ve got your back, even if you don’t like it!” Data recorded by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2017 showed the number of claims for serious back injuries to be 148,780. In addition, there were 311,330 claims for muscle tears and strains injuries. In studies of workplace-related injuries, overexertion from improper lifting and moving of objects accounts for more than 25% of all workplace injuries. In...
Are You Prepared to Start Negotiations on an Airport Bus? As a negotiation skills speaker one question I often get is “At what point in a meeting does the real negotiation stuff take place?” My answer is, “Yes.” By the one-word answer, what I mean is negotiation skills can start even before the actual meeting, on the plane prior to the meeting, or in a taxi or Uber to the hotel....
Mike Hourigan: Your Next Keynote Speaker for New Orleans, LA Why Meeting Planners Choose New Orleans New Orleans is one of the Top 50 Meeting Destinations in the United States, and for good reason. With more than 22,000 sleeping rooms, a vibrant cultural, music and food scene, this easily walkable, exciting, diverse city also boasts some of the nation’s best convention centers. For example, The Ernest N. Morial...
Where’s My Assigned Parking Space? There’s a supposedly true story about the corporate officer who called all of her organization’s department heads together for a serious meeting. Pounding the table to emphasize key points, she said “We must immediately make sweeping changes to our culture. Everyone must be valued. No one, and I mean no one, is better than anyone else!” The next day, she just about lost it...
“How Many Bananas per Bunch?” One of my great joys as a negotiation skills speaker is to meet with meeting attendees both before and after my keynote addresses and seminars. Sometimes the meetings are casual and informal, sometimes as part of a question and answer session. I really like these interactions because I had real-life experience myself starting with manufacturing and sales and working my way into upper management....
Safety Speaker How a Safety Speaker can benefit your Organization. Ensuring the safety of the employees, as well as the premises, is one of the primary components of running a successful organization. It is not merely about wearing the right safety gear and operating machinery as per the safety guidelines. In fact, it is much more than simply adhering to the safety best practices. Creating a safe work environment...
Why should you choose Houston, TX to host your next sales meeting or keynote speaker event? As America's fourth-largest city, Houston manages to be a bustling metropolis that has a small-town feel to it even though it's home to an incredibly high concentration of Fortune 500 companies and over 90 languages are spoken in Houston. Houston is also an event planner's dream with four different convention centers to choose from...
Human Resources Keynote Speaker Human resources Keynote Speakers are expected to be experts on just about everything that keeps an organization's heartbeat in check. Finding the right people for the organization and making sure that quality talent and recruiters are on the same page on an ongoing basis is just the first part. Human Resources (HR) professionals are also tasked with resolving disputes, arranging training, the bureaucratic aspects of managing...