Keynote Session | Thursday, June 28 | 8:15 – 9:15 a.m.

The crisis of stress in the workplace is reaching epidemic proportions and is only intensified by the stress, violence and complexity of our home and community lives. Perhaps the one place where training professionals can make an impact is by teaching a new brand of emotional intelligence that can make work more humane. How do we do it and what will it take from us to be able to lead the way, all while improving productivity and output? How can the training community lead the way to rehumanizing our places of work? This talk will take a deep dive into how we, as trainers, can become more emotionally aware and how that can be built into the training programs we provide.

This keynote session will help you see why emotional intelligence is more about compassion and humility than about awareness and management. You will understand that what the great mystics were really talking about is mission-critical for training and development professionals, and identify how a deeper understanding of emotional intelligence can increase both your effectiveness and the performance of those you train.

Speaker

Kris Girrell, President, Innerworks Consulting, LLC As a strategic consultant to a full cross-section of international business and industry, including high tech, manufacturing, microelectronics, pharmaceutical, as well as professional services like research, consulting, legal and financial firms, Kris has helped companies to redefine their direction, function better as leadership teams and gain efficiencies across all aspects of their operations. In addition to the Greater Boston area, Kris has worked with firms in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He has been an executive coach to top leaders in their respective firms in the C-suite and senior management. Using a combination of behavioral and personal assessments to map out a plan for both short- and long-term development, Kris’ coaching has resulted in significant increases in their leadership and management effectiveness. Kris is an avid speaker and writer with publications in scholarly articles in journals such as CLO Magazine, CIO Insight, Talent Management, Baseline, and the Boston Business Journal, as well as books on a wide range of topics such as career decision-making, marriage success and personal transformation.