Ryan Estis has more than 20 years of experience as a top-performing sales professional and leader. As the former chief strategy officer for the McCann Worldgroup advertising agency NAS, he brings a fresh perspective to business events. As a keynote speaker, Ryan is known for his innovative ideas on leading change, improving sales effectiveness and preparing for the future of work. He was recently recognized as one of “the best keynote speakers ever heard” by Meetings & Conventions magazine alongside Tony Robbins, Bill Gates, Colin Powell and Mike Ditka.
Ryan delivers keynote speeches, courses and online learning with an emphasis on actionable content designed to elevate business performance. His curriculum emphasizes emerging trends influencing leadership effectiveness, sales performance and customer experience. Ryan helps participants prepare to thrive in today’s ultra-competitive, hyper-connected business environment.
Ryan supports the world’s leading brands, including Liberty Mutual, Darden Restaurants, Goodyear, the Dallas Cowboys, Medtronic, ECCO USA and Blue Cross Blue Shield. He is a faculty member for the Institute of Management Studies, a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board and a certified Human Capital Strategist.
Ryan and his team publish original research featuring client case studies to expand the live event experience. He is also the author of a popular blog on business performance. His writing has been featured in Inc., Forbes, Entrepreneur, FastCompany, SmartBrief, Business News Network, Crain’s Business, and Yahoo Business.
Ryan is an Ohio University graduate who resides in downtown Minneapolis. When he’s not traveling to speaking engagements around the world, Ryan enjoys down time with family and friends, practicing yoga and cheering on his beloved Minnesota Timberwolves.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has been very clear about what his organization does with its brilliant jerks: It gets rid of them. As he has said in the past about them: “Some companies tolerate them. For us, the cost to effective teamwork is too high.”
Netflix aspires to develop a “Dream Team,” which they define this way:
How can HR become more strategic? Is there an opportunity for HR to have a much bigger impact on business performance?
A 2012 PwC study found that organizations are looking for leadership from HR. In the survey, 62 percent of business executives felt that human resources departments need to serve a leadership role in managing skill and talent shortages.
Everyone is busy. Our inbox, calendars, to-do lists and screens run our lives. Everyone is working a second shift and we don’t take vacations. Life moves fast.
How can great leadership and a strong company culture elevate engagement and drive business performance? Our new white paper, “Winning with Culture: How Leadership Drives Engagement & Performance,” answers that question.
When I was working my way up through a sales organization, I looked forward to growing from running my territory to leading an entire region. When I was promoted to vice president, my first big priority was recruiting.
I inherited a region with two open territories. There was a sense of urgency in getting these two under-performing markets on the right track, and it was also my big opportunity to immediately add value as a new leader. I worked closely with HR to screen candidates and schedule interviews in each market.
I walked into the restaurant five minutes early for our 6:30PM reservation. He was waiting to greet me by the bar. I couldn’t help but smile. I’ve never forgotten the sales lesson “showing up on time means you’re five minutes late.” He was always five minutes early.
Have you ever worked for an extraordinary leader?
I have. It can be a life-enhancing experience.
Leadership is an awesome responsibility. The best leaders are acutely aware of the impact they have and at the same time recognize that leadership isn’t about them. It is about helping people become who they are capable of becoming in an effort to get the best results.
Did I help somebody today without expecting anything in return?
How will I be remembered by the people I worked with today?
In the video below, I talk about how asking yourself these two questions can help business leaders view their performance in terms of how others experience it. This is the heart and soul of the How Advantage. Even a company that offers the same product at the same price as its competitors can distinguish themselves by how they do business.
Last week I had the good fortune of delivering a new strategic workshop in collaboration with Don MacPherson of Modern Survey. Don and I examined the future of work and the opportunity that HR professionals have to drive business performance through employee engagement. We leveraged the most current data set from Modern Survey research in an effort to facilitate a robust discussion related to what is next in talent strategy and workforce readiness.
What inspires you to unleash creativity? The big ideas and breakthrough thinking that will move you and your organization closer to the future you want?
In this era of invention it’s worth considering. The artist needs to tap into the source that inspires creativity. Increasingly, so does the Sales Professional, HR Manager and Chief Marketing Officer. As our problems become increasingly more complex and the pace of change continues to accelerate, everyone needs the ability to create what is next and new.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal has named its 2012 Best Places to Work honorees. An exceptional group of companies in the hometown delivering progressive work style design and experience during a time when so many employers simply cannot get it right. This group has figured out that culture is a real competitive advantage. Fun to watch.
I am not a social media expert.
I talk about it. The Social Shift. The impact and opportunity. I can site examples. I live it everyday through blogging, sharing, posting, connecting, checking in and occasionally checking out. I know it has been a catalyst for growth in my business. I know it has also been a catalyst for growth in my life.
The world of work is a complicated place.
Technology, globalization and the great recession have accelerated the pace of change and brought about category disruption, new competition and what can feel like never ending chaos.
In a time where we need people to step up and become the very best of who they are capable of becoming, job satisfaction is at unprecedented lows and trust and confidence in senior leadership has plummeted.
I was winding down our event. Sales Training with a team of quality sellers working for an organization that is profitable, growing and stealing market share from their competition. This team was Switched On and pushing toward the next level of breakthrough performance.
Successful brands serve as a promise about an experience that creates expectations in the hearts and minds of customers and employees. Culture will increasingly determine how effective you’ll be in keeping those promises. The ability to influence culture will define and determine the impact of your brand experience.
I opened my eyes 5 minutes before the alarm clock sounded. 5:25 a.m. Atlanta. Still half-asleep. I was into the third day of a 3 city, 3 keynote speeches on 3 different topics stretch. Time to help a national sales organization kick of their annual Sales Summit. We finished our sound check around 7:30. Attendees were starting to fill the room to an upbeat playlist. Coffee. Breakfast. Name tags. Networking. You know the drill.
My client, the CMO of the organization walked over, smiled nervously and asked if I was ready. I smiled and answered in the affirmative. Then she added:
