Cy Wakeman is a drama researcher, New York Times best-selling author, Hall of Fame Speaker, and the 2023 World’s #1 Leadership Guru, known for her Reality-Based approach to leadership. With over 25 years of experience working with top brands across various industries, Cy’s philosophy helps leaders and employees achieve better results with less drama, higher engagement without entitlement, and greater happiness, even in challenging work environments.
Deemed “the secret weapon to restoring sanity to the workplace and the worldplace,” Cy inspires leaders to elevate their teams while challenging them to strive for greatness. Her impressive client list includes Google, Meta, NASA, Pfizer, CVS, Johns Hopkins, and Bank of America.
A highly sought-after conference speaker, Cy holds a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) designation, placing her among the top 3% of speakers worldwide. With an avid fanbase of over 250,000 followers, her Reality-Based Leadership newsletter reaches 30,000 subscribers who regularly apply her modern leadership techniques.
Cy has authored four best-selling books, including her latest, Life’s Messy, Live Happy: Things Don’t Have to Be Perfect for You to Be Content (2022). She also shares practical leadership insights on her podcast, Reality-Based Leadership, offering tools to help leaders evolve their teams and navigate workplace challenges.
Recent research conducted by Cy Wakeman in conjunction with the Futures Company, has discovered that rather than driving performance and creating efficiencies for the organization, conventional leadership strategies and philosophies are actually fueling drama in the workplace. In fact, research indicated that under currently prescribed leadership philosophy and strategic best practices, up to three months per year of each employee’s time – potentially billions of dollars annually in the U.S. alone – is wasted in drama. In this session, Cy proposes a radically different approach to core leadership philosophies such as engagement, change management, and accountability. Join Cy as she calls leadership professionals to redefine HR and leadership with science and research and to teach leaders strategies and tools that will actually work in their modern workplace.
These are challenging times in our businesses today. In leadership, we must become willing to admit that the ways in which we have taught leaders to lead over the years is simply not working. These times are calling for a new type of leader, one who can bring peace, sanity, and results back to the workplace! In this session, Cy rocks audiences as she teaches the key principles of her new wave of Reality-Based Leadership™.
In this high energy session, Cy Wakeman will help leaders understand their heightened responsibilities in delivering teams and talent that are ready for what’s next along with strategies to ensure that teams able to quickly adapt and change and deliver on the needs of the organization to provide relevant, high- value, services in even mature markets. After all, change is only hard for the unready.
Everyone is talking about accountability, but few organizations are actually successful in ensuring that personal accountability is hardwired into their talent and everyday business operations. Join Cy as she breaks down the core competency of personal accountability and gives you no nonsense, workable strategies to hire for, coach for, and develop for accountability in your workforce! After all, personal accountability is the foundation of Reality Based Leadership™ – a revolution in leadership.
For years, our organizations have been investing time, money and energy into engaging our employees based on the promise that engagement drives results. While engaging our employees is critical, it turns out that engagement isn’t enough. Engagement without accountability is chaos. In this dynamic, provocative and groundbreaking presentation, you will be introduced to the concept of Reality-Based Engagement, where accountability and engagement intersect to produce awesome results. This will include some practical guidance for how to cultivate the power of personal accountability within your organization.
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