Graeme Cowan

	Are you seeking? The mindset and skills to turn a setback into an enjoyable challenge? To do less and achieve more? The ability to step back so that you can finish the marathon.

Graeme Cowan - What we do

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Keynote Speaking
Workshops
Leadership Coaching and Mentoring
Consulting

Busyness is for lazy people.

Sometimes we mistake activity for progress. Sometimes we will do anything, but the one thing we need to do. Sometimes we fail to lead because we are afraid to fail. Sometimes we think “me” beats “we”. Sometimes we forget what is TRULY important.

If these statements weren’t true, Enron, Arthur Anderson, Lehman Brothers, HIH Insurance, OneTel, ABC Learning, Allco Finance, and other failed organisations could still be around.

Making mistakes is not the problem, it is not learning from those mistakes and readjusting the sails quickly, that counts most.

Writing a “to do list” is easy. Knowing what has to be done first, and doing it, is much harder. Any dog can chase its tail.

Do Warren Buffett or Bill Gates – who both started with nothing - work 10000 times longer than the rest of us? You can present an industrious and impressive facade, but as Buffett famously said during the GFC - “When the tide goes out you quickly realize whose been swimming naked.”

Through his own personal collapse in 2000, Graeme has obsessed about these issues for 10 years. He has interviewed over 3000 people to understand what they learnt through battling adversity and overcoming it.

Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs (who was recently awarded CEO of the decade by Fortune magazine), whilst presenting the Commencement address at Stanford, told two important stories about his life which highlighted:

• Love and loss – he reflected on how his humiliating dismissal from the company he founded and loved, brought him some of his most valuable gifts and lessons in his life.
• Death – Everyday he asks himself - "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” This story only became more important when he was told to “get his affairs in order” after a pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

Graeme’s own escape from death, lead to him developing his THRIVE CREDO:

Understand your whYcode™. Follow your dreams. Take risks. Learn. Appreciate NOW. Laugh lots. Give back.

Graeme teaches his THRIVE CREDO in four ways:

Keynote speaking by Graeme Cowan

Graeme Cowan’s bio
Graeme Cowan’s Keynote Topics
Graeme Cowan’s Testimonials
Graeme Cowan’s Keynote Introduction

Presentation topics include:

• Bounce Back and Thrive
• Understanding your whYcode – the key to outlasting, outperforming, and outmanoeuvring
• Busyness is for lazy people – do less achieve more
• Best Practice in Managing Mental Health in the Workplace

Bounce Back and Thrive

“Every adversity carries with it the seed of an equal or greater opportunity” Napoleon Hill

This presentation confirms the assertion by Harvard Business Review that “More than experience, more than education or training, resilience determines who succeeds and who fails”. Through interviewing 3000 people who have battled with adversity and researching the bounce factor exhaustively, Graeme shares practical strategies that work.

Included:

• The 3 main mistakes people make when faced with a setback or problem.
• The 4 essential steps to bounce back and thrive
• Why understanding and accepting the exact nature of the setback is essential.
• Why realistic thinkers survive longer than optimistic thinkers in concentration camps.
• What you can do that will improve your mood and outlook fast.
• How to know when it is time to access trusted help.
• How stopping can help you go faster.
• Questions you should ask to create new solutions.
• Charting the right journey from here.
• How to adapt before a crisis occurs.
• How increasing your bounce quotient improves innovation and stamina.

Results

This is excellent for individuals, teams, and organisations who don’t wish to be paralysed by setbacks. Seeing the opportunity in every problem, and identifying creative solutions quickly, is essential in any fast moving environment. Most importantly, understanding that setbacks are best shared can be a breakthrough for some organisations.

Understanding your whYcode™

  – the key to outlasting, outperforming, and outmanoeuvring

“He who has a big enough why can bear almost any how.”  Friedrich Nietzsche

We are bombarded everyday by distractions that claim to be important. These messages come from family, friends, media, advertising, and work colleagues. However, every person has unique motivators and trying to emulate other people’s aspirations and drives almost always leads to despair. Understanding the “inner diamonds” or Deep Motivators of your whYcode™ is critical to making quick decisions that will strengthen your self esteem and boost your performance.

Included:

• What are survivor personality traits?
• What makes up your whYcode™?
• How do you discover your whYcode ™?
• Making effective decisions with your whYcode ™?
• Designing a career and life that enhances your self esteem?
• Why staying congruent with your whYcode ™ allows you to be more resilient and innovative.
• The benefits of establishing a team whYcode ™

Results:

Everyone from the military, to GE and Walmart, recognize the need for leaders to be able to be comfortable with complexity and able to deal with ambiguity. Having strong self knowledge – understanding your personal, and your team’s whYcode™

 - helps make quick decisions with positive outcomes.

Busyness is for lazy people: do less achieve more

"People, like nails, lose their effectiveness when they lose direction and begin to bend." Walter Savage Lander

This is the age of information overload. There is no shortage on any subject. Unnecessary distractions can have us chasing multiple rabbits down burrows. Technology now enables us to be in contact almost 24/7, and there is no shortage of people that would like to interrupt productive work. Despite this, Pareto’s law tells us that 20% of what we do produces 80% of our result. The key is to have clear goals and the clarity to recognize the “critical 20%”.

Included

•  What goals work and what don’t?
• What separates those that have inspired and meaningful lives from those who don’t?
• Why it is important to be grateful for what is working?
•  When to identify what isn’t working and shed it?
• What questions help identify creative solutions?
• What we can learn from marathon runners?
• Understanding the role cycles can play for thriving individuals and organisations.
• Why the most successful people and organisations say “no” more than “yes”
• Why less is more.

Results

Participants will understand that the most productive people and organisations are very focused, and play to their strengths. They will also understand that the best results are found by choosing to work on a few major projects. Success with these important projects often has a snowball effect.

Best Practice in Managing Mental Health in the Workplace

“No problem is insurmountable. With a little courage, teamwork and determination a person can overcome anything.” B.Hodge

Significant change causes significant stress.

According to a recent Medicare Private commissioned report, stress and low mood account for 33% of lost productivity in Australia. This presenteeism (employees at work but not fully functioning) and absenteeism are directly costing Australian employers $10.11 billion per year. Since the report 2 years ago, workplace counselling for anxiety and stress has increased 68% and 76% according to Davidson Trahaire Corpsych, Australia’s largest EAP providers.

We can’t stop change but we can choose how we respond to it. Setbacks can cause us to slide down the moodometer, but teams and organisations that learn the skills to bounce back will outperform, outlast, and outmanoeuvre those that don’t.

Included:

• The surprising impact that a team’s low mood can have on productivity.
• What people are doing in your workplace to avoid being “found out”
• Strategies to create a more open culture – we are as vulnerable as our biggest secret.
• 85% of Australian’s know someone close to them with a mental illness.
• How to ask “Are you OK?” – 3 important steps.
• Where do you find the best resources to assist?
• How to say “I’m not OK” – 3 essential steps
• Assisting someone at home who you are concerned about.
• The remarkable 500% ROI experienced for early intervention programs.

Results:

People will realize how prevalent stress and low mood is in the workplace and community generally. They will also understand the incredible support and success that comes through mutual support and understand who to access when a crisis occurs.

Half day and full day workshops

These workshops expand on the content of the Thrive Credo as presented in Graeme’s keynotes. The sessions are interactive, fun and are immensely practical. For a greater outline of the topics below please see Keynote Topics above.

Workshop topics include:

• Bounce Back and Thrive
• Understanding your whYcode™ – the key to outlasting, outperforming, and outmanoeuvring
• Busyness is for lazy people – do less achieve more
• Best Practice in Managing Mental Health in the Workplace

Leadership Coaching and Mentoring

What prevents us from making the changes we know will make us more effective leaders?

This is probably the most important question a leader needs to consider. Inevitably, those that are struggling to change should think deeply about this issue. Sometimes people know why they are having difficulty changing, and sometimes they need to gain additional insight into their Deep Motivators – their whYcode™.

Understanding their whYcode ™ is the key to long term sustainable change and success.

Time only permits Graeme to work with a small number of leaders, and his programmes are for a minimum of 6 sessions over 12 weeks. His work has the dual focus of individual and organisational goals and is geared towards positive and sustainable change.

Graeme brings an extraordinary diversity of experience to his programmes including:

• Insight into senior management issues born through his experience as Vice President and Managing Director of AT Kearney Executive Search.
• Deep understanding of organisational and leadership dynamics through his work in Marketing Management at Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, and Executive Search, Outplacement, Career Coaching, and Change Management experience at Morgan & Banks and AT Kearney.
• Deep insight into personal motivation through his development of the proprietary whYcode™ methodology.
• His acknowledged thought leadership into how people can bounce back and thrive from challenging times – as an award winning author of the BACK FROM THE BRINK bestselling book series and bounce factor research.
• The capacity to relate to people with authentic compassion, whilst challenging them gently to throw off their self limiting shackles.
• A deep understanding of the toll that adversity can take through his own life threatening crisis and the leadership role he played in RUOK? Day – www.ruokday.com.au 

To find out more about Graeme’s Leadership Mentoring Programme call +61 2 8014 8867 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Consulting

Graeme’s strong business background in marketing, recruitment, and deep understanding of organisational change issues, make him uniquely qualified for assisting organisations to:

• Recruit outstanding individuals with a high bounce quotient.
• Coach and mentor senior executives on fast strategy execution.
• Build supportive cultures that thrive under pressure.
• Stay ahead of industry developments.
• Benchmark leaders.
• Access his extraordinary thought leadership network.
• Challenge the status quo.
• Create a culture of continuous learning.
• Tap into his global network.
• Research the needs of critical stakeholders.

To find out more about Graeme’s Consulting call +61 2 8014 8867 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it