Jen Shirkani

The Science Behind Engaging Leadership
There is an essential ingredient of long-term leadership success, particularly in complex and ever-changing workplace environments. Well-developed emotional intelligence (EQ) allows leaders to gain deeper insight into performance dynamics and build greater mastery to motivate and engage followers. This presentation includes definitions and development tips for the key skills set required to demonstrate EQ, understand its framework including its correlation to employee engagement, and participate in a discussion on the particular risks senior leaders face that hinder their ability to use EQ.

Talent Identification & Performance: Building a Championship Team
Exceptional performance is the perfect alignment of skills, rewards, feedback, management style, measurement and culture. Keeping employees engaged today requires staying in-tune with what is most important to them, finding ways to creatively match cultural features with their motivation factors. This session is designed to help leaders learn about employee performance drivers and easy to apply techniques for engaging, motivating, and developing their employees. In this presentation, Jen shares research that supports the engagement levers in employees today that leaders must be aware of and actively pursue to attract and retain top talent. This session includes startling statistics on how employees think about topics such as performance management, motivation, and leadership involvement. Attendees will leave with the missing key to unlocking potential and ways to shift from assuming and expecting to creating the performance they desire.

Staying Resilient in Changing Times
Dealing with the personal consequences of change is difficult; however, leading others through that same pathway is even more complex. Challenging times require resiliency competencies that provide the basis for leading through tough transitions. This presentation reveals strategies for managing a wide range of reactions to change, understanding change styles and provides awareness to the resistance factors common in new and uncharted territory. Learn how to increase your self-awareness and employ resiliency to build stamina and adapt your responses to collaborate more effectively.

How Top Leaders Use Emotional Intelligence for Success
Successful managers and leaders leverage the power of emotional intelligence (EQ) to engage and motivate their employees and associates. Leaders with high EQ can communicate with others effectively, provide balanced feedback, lead others through ambiguity, use humor to build rapport, read and respond to the leadership needs of others, and remain optimistic, even in the face of difficulty. These leaders can emotionally and mentally plug into others and can read the situation at hand and behave accordingly to get the best results for everyone. Studies show a direct correlation between high EQ and successful leadership. But managers can also fall into particular pitfalls that hurt their credibility and hard won success, impeding their ability to use the EQ they have. This presentation provides strategies for building a strong case for the importance of both IQ and EQ. Audience members will leave with practical examples and new skills as they learn about the unique leadership traps that can trip up even the most successful leaders, and the ways to avoid them. Jen explains why EQ is particularly hard to maintain at management levels of the company, shares the most common ego traps, and how to avoid them to increase leadership effectiveness.

Leveraging the Power of Emotional Intelligence for Success
Business today demands the need for professionals who are nimble, flexible and engaged. This presentation provides practical ideas for thriving in a dynamic environment through the development of the emotional intelligence competency. Studies show that top talent leverages the best blend between technical knowledge and expertise, with functional skills like self-awareness, adaptability and problem solving to navigate the complexity of relationships with coworkers and clients. Jen provides strategies to increase your level of effectiveness through times of change with practical tools and resources. Attendees will receive definitions and examples of key functional skills; learn how to diagnose performance issues related to low emotional intelligence; and learn techniques to develop emotional intelligence in themselves and others.

SheQ
Perfect for a women’s conference or large female audience, Jen’s “SheQ” presentation provides strategies for being more emotionally intelligent (EQ). Using EQ as a key competency builds more resiliency and helps women gain more confidence by learning to get comfortable with risk in a motivating and inspiring message. This session helps audience members see how maintaining a healthy level of challenge and struggle can enable everyone to be more powerful at work and in every aspect of life.

The Emotionally Intelligent Salesperson
In this presentation, Jen shares a consultative sales approach that leverages the power of emotional intelligence and creates client value and redefines “selling” to being seen as a trusted advisor. The most successful salespeople learn how to intuitively recognize their strengths, read people and situations accurately, and respond to others appropriately. This session provides a framework to correctly read both buying and resistance cues, recognize customer reactions and triggers, read their unspoken needs, and use timing to know when too close. Attendees will learn ways to prepare self-aware and motivational conversation prompters to enhance the dialogue, maintain a service mindset, identify the needs of others through listening and empathizing, and map a solution by determining need and fit and apply the techniques of “soft closing.” Using your EQ, clients will see you as a vital business partner, not just a vendor.