Biography

Jason Young has been called a “rare breed” when it comes to developing leaders and customer service initiatives. During his 10 years at Southwest Airlines, the airline consistently rated No. 1 in customer service and employee satisfaction, and the former senior executive was a key driver in creating and developing the company’s innovative training programs, successful leadership, and customer service culture that have become renowned in the business world today.

Driven by the need to extend his unique insight into leadership development to others outside Southwest, Young separated from the pack in 1998, when he left the airline to launch his own consulting practice to focus on corporate training and development services, specializing in leadership, customer service, and team building.

Today, as president of LeadSmart, Inc., Jason Young shares his vision for developing successful corporate cultures and workplace environments with forward-thinking companies, including Starbucks, Radio Shack, Coca Cola and Tyson Foods. He has captured his philosophy of creating high-performance cultures in his recent book, The Culturetopia Effect.

Capturing the innovative strategies and tactics he created at Southwest Airlines, Jason Young offers practical insights and strategies that can be implemented immediately. His keynote presentations and training programs are in demand for audiences ranging from senior level executives to frontline employees. Participants are treated to a compelling experience that will change the way they view themselves, their customers and the company for which they work.

Jason Young’s keynote and workshop presentations inspire audiences while reinforcing the concepts and skills geared to increase learning and assist in the transition from the meeting room to the workplace.

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High Performance Culture and the Remote Workforce

In his keynote speech, Jason Young addresses the challenges and potential negative impacts of remote working on organizations' culture and employee engagement. He provides insights and strategies for managers to navigate this new reality and create a healthy culture within a remote workforce. This speech emphasizes the importance of leaders being aware of the unique dynamics of remote work and taking proactive steps to create and foster a high-performance culture.

Learning Objectives:
- Understanding the Negative Impact: Jason highlights the potential negative impact remote working can have on an organization's culture, such as decreased collaboration, communication gaps, and reduced employee engagement. Attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges associated with remote work and their impact on team dynamics.
- Navigating the Remote Work Reality: This speech equips leaders with practical strategies to navigate the remote work reality and build a high-performance culture. Attendees will learn how to leverage technology with guidelines, establish clear communication standards, and utilize virtual collaboration best to enhance team cohesion and productivity.
- Creating a Healthy Culture: Jason Young emphasizes the importance of proactively creating a healthy culture with remote teams. He explores the significance of trust, transparency, and frequent feedback in fostering a positive work environment. Attendees will gain insights into how to create a culture of accountability and maintain team morale even in a remote setting.
- Leadership Lessons for Remote Work: This speech provides leaders with valuable takeaways for effectively leading remote teams. Jason Young shares leadership best practices, including setting clear expectations, providing support and resources, and nurturing a sense of belonging among remote employees. Attendees will gain practical tips and strategies to enhance their leadership skills in a remote work environment.

Culturetopia: How to Lead Real Culture Change with Your Team or Organization

The goal of the Culturetopia workshop is to lead participants to an understanding of what culture is, what makes it great and how it can be changed! Based on his experience as an insider at famed Southwest Airlines and consultant to dozens of other Fortune 500 companies, Jason Young offers a dramatically different approach to creating and sustaining a high-performance workplace.

His solution for companies is to create an organizational culture where employees can do their best work and one that will produce the desired performance outcomes in productivity, profitability, employee retention and customer satisfaction. The key is intentionally identifying and developing the essential factors that impact performance for any organization: leadership principles, management practices, team alignment and employee behavior.

These are the elements that truly define organizational culture and that have the greatest impact on results. Jason uses his experience as a manager, trainer, and consultant to dozens of leading companies to develop the concept of Culturetopia: the ultimate high-performance workplace. In this presentation, Jason provides practical, easy to implement guidance to the seven key determinants that make a healthy, productive, and profitable culture of any team or organization.

The Culturetopia Workshop covers:
- Culturetopia Values - An in-depth look at the 7 critical values that create high performing teams and organizations.
- Creating Corporate Values - How to develop your own unique value system for your organization that can owned and shared.
- The Culturetopia Process - The framework for organizational buy- in, development and implementation of culture change.
- Continuing Improvement - Learn how to keep the culture alive and vital - measuring, assessing and adapting.

Servicetopia: How to Create the Ultimate Customer Service Experience Every Time

Participants will discover how a real commitment to service excellence will delight the customer, impact the bottom line, and transform the organization.

As competition continues to heat up for goods and services, most companies today struggle to value, define, and implement a focused customer service approach – one that places a system- wide preeminence on customer satisfaction. Servicetopia teaches participants how outrageous customer service can transform your company and impact the bottom line.

Servicetopia is a revolutionary approach to customer service based on the fundamental, yet often overlooked, reality that companies must deliver consistent world-class service in order to attract, build and maintain customer loyalty.

Servicetopia happens when all employees are aligned with the mission and vision of the company and go to work every day committed to providing exceptional service. They understand their purpose in the organization. They perform their duties with passion as they seek to meet every customer’s needs. They are professional and work tirelessly to build customer loyalty. They follow a carefully out- lined process to ensure customer satisfaction and eliminate pain and frustration. And in the end, they add a little pizazz to surprise and delight the customer.
Servicetopia will help unveil the meaning behind “customer-de-fined” service and how that will separate you from your competitors. By understanding that customers judge service based on certain key factors such as reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy, and responsiveness, participants can learn to make the most of those moments of truth that face every organization to leave a legacy of service.

Lead Smart: The Most Important Skills Every Leader Needs to Succeed

Are your leaders and managers equipped to manage your company’s most valuable asset — your people?

The simple goal for Lead Smart Essentials is to teach participants a thorough understanding of the critical skills identified by research as essential to effectively manage people. Most individuals in management roles may learn some of these skills through experience, over time. This workshop is designed to expedite the learning and growth process for any leader with a supervisor role or for those in a development process with aspirations for a leadership role.

The essential skills this workshop covers:
- Communication Styles - Understanding your unique communications style and how if fits with the styles of the people you lead.
- Situational Leadership - Because every person and each situation are different, know how and when to lead differently with confidence.
- Performance Coaching - Great leadership and coaching skills go hand in hand and are the best way to ensure high performance.
- Accountability - Leveraging behavioral tendencies and the role of accountability in effectively managing people.
- Interpersonal Communications - Best practices and techniques of great communication with individuals and your team.
- Active Listening - Critical communication barriers and specific techniques to effectively listen and understand.
- Feedback and Recognition - The power of feedback and recognition and the strategies for delivering them to those you lead.
- Navigating Resistance - Leadership is hardest when facing and overcoming resistance and change with the people you lead.
- Performance Reviews - Turn the least favorite activity of 90% of managers into a positive experience and powerful growth tool.

Team Smart: The Smart Way to Create and Lead High Performance Teams that Succeed Together

Team Smart helps achieve the goal of every company — more work, better work and fast- er work with fewer resources. The only way to achieve more, better, faster is through empowered, motivated, and high-performing teams that work together to achieve common goals. Building productive teams and instilling a team attitude is often the most difficult challenge — even for the most experienced manager.

Team Smart covers the key skills required by anyone that leads a team or those required to work within one. The main areas in ad- dressed are this workshop team building, team management, the individual’s roles within the team, communication and problem-solving methods and techniques will also be discussed with regard to practical applications within a team structure. Team Smart will provide the opportunity to develop skills and practice techniques required for leading teams of any kind.

A variety of training methods are used in this presentation, including presentation, discussion, exercises, and demonstrations.

Presentation learning objectives include:
- The ideal team model and four common characteristics
- Team leadership skills
- Team motivation and buy-in
- Developing the power of relationship
- Steps to team alignment
- Understanding why most teams fail and how to prevent failure
- The power of feedback and how to use it effectively

Resolve Smart: Managing Conflict and Differences for Greater Growth and Success

Based on famed Thomas-Kilmann research which studied disagreements and people’s preferences for dealing with conflict situations, this program provides key insights, tools, and methodology for managing and resolving all types of conflict – and creating a healthy workplace environment.

The Resolve Smart workshop utilizes the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) which is the number one best-selling instrument for conflict management.

This workshop is designed to help people understand how different conflict styles can impact a team. Participants will learn how individuals with a given style can constructively deal with team- mates with different styles, how the entire group can identify its style, and how the team can compensate for any weaknesses in its style. Learn how to build group effectiveness and learn specific guidance for both the leader and the team on strategies for handling conflict to everyone’s benefit.

- Focuses in depth on all 5 styles of conflict modes — when to use each style, and specific techniques and detailed guidance for employing each style effectively.
- Delivers a pragmatic, situational approach to conflict resolution, change management, leadership development, communication, employee retention, and more.
- Suggests tips for reducing each style’s negative side effects.
- Improves conflict-handling skills for every level of employee.
- Demonstrates successful and healthy conflict management process and model for any organization.

Change Smart: How do you lead yourself and team to success when everything is changing?

The Change Smart workshop helps leaders understand the basis for accepting, embracing and leveraging organizational change to everyone’s benefit. Participants learn the critical foundation and tools for navigating the change process and effectively leading others through change.

Leading Change Process Program Outline

Psychology of Change:
- The foundational principles for managing change
- Theories and Perspectives
- Principles of Change

Best Practices Research data:
- Best practices in change management

The CHANGE model:
- Fundamentals of managing the people side of change
- Diagnose employee resistance to change
- Help employees transition through the change process
- Create a successful action plan for personal and professional advancement during change
- Develop a change management plan for your employees
Preparing for Change
- Define your strategy
- Prepare your team
- Managing Change
- Communication plan
- Coaching plan
- Resistance management plan
- Training plan
- Reinforcing Change
- Celebrating successes
- Diagnosing resistance
- Reinforcing change

Speak Smart: Presentation Skills Training for Anyone who Speaks or Presents in Front of Groups

Being able to speak confidently in front of groups is one of the most important skills every professional in any position needs.
Speaking in front of any group can be a terrifying experience for many people, even professionals. However, the ability to deliver effective presentations to a variety of business audiences is a critical executive, management, and leadership skill. The Business Presentation Skills for Leaders workshop will teach individuals at all levels to prepare and deliver presentations that are well organized, dynamic, and motivational.

The Business Presentation Skills workshop focuses on eight primary objectives that each participant will achieve:
- Build a firm foundation for powerful presentations
- Turn nervous stress into presentation success
- Use your complete self to communicate
- Format your message for maximum results
- Adapt your presentation style for greater impact
- Make it more compelling with personal conviction
- Confidently enjoy each speaking opportunity
- Present like a pro in all situations

In addition to great presentation coaching and skills content, each participant will also get to practice specific presentation scenarios that will be videotaped and evaluated during the workshop. Individual feed- back will then be provided by the course facilitator. Participants will receive a self-study learning module that recaptures the material presented during the workshop. After you leave the Business Presentation Skills workshop you will have the skills necessary for any type public speaking or business presentation with persuasion and confidence.

Gen Smart: Generational Workforce

How do you recruit Millennials, communicate with them, lead, teach, and motivate them? How do you effectively manage the uniqueness and interpersonal dynamics between generations?
The workplace is filled with significant generational differences and associated challenges between Traditionalists, Boomers, Generation X-ers, and the newest group – the Millennials.
The Millennials are the generation born between 1982 and 2000 that were formed by attentive, helicopter parents, schools that propagate high self-esteem, and an ingrained comfort with dependency on technology. Each generation learns, values, thinks, develops differently, and must be led differently. Yet each generation has common ground which managers can leverage and build on.

In this presentation, Jason Young encourages leaders not to judge but to coach and mange each generational group with intentionality. Jason explains how to manage the various generations in a way that helps create and sustain a high-performance workplace.

Gen Smart workshop helps leaders and managers understand their Millennial employees and focus on some fundamental areas that have been shown to make a difference. This workshop focuses on specific skills that managers at any level can use to improve the effectiveness of their changing work force.

Testimonials

Jason Young is high energy, knows his subject, and presents it in a way that leaves you feeling great! He breaks down challenging subjects into easy-to-understand components and applies common sense to tough topics. You are sure to be pleased with the end result!
– Mike Bessier, Starbucks Coffee
Jason Young is indeed a rare breed when it comes to developing leaders. His practical yet effective approach is highly contagious and will ignite any organization with long-term, positive, measurable benefits.
– Jim Wimberly, COO & Executive Vice President, Southwest Airlines
Thanks for the very practical, enlightening and well-presented program. The insightful information Jason presented was done in a way that our folks can actually put it to use in their individual lives.
– Mike Baker, Senior Vice President, Tyson Foods
Our executive team was able to take the communication training that Jason Young provided and put it to immediate use. I have seen a difference in their presentation skills as well as their overall communication skills. It was some of the best training that we have seen.
– Rick Gillis, Vice Presidentm Coca-Cola Bottling Company of North Texas
Jason’s motivational style was entertaining as well as educational. The group left the meeting fully energized and excited to be providing the leadership that will create an associate-driven, high-performing, customer- focused environment within the competitive healthcare business.
– John H. Jeter, M.D., President and CEO, Hays Medical Center
On behalf of all of us from the Port of Seattle, I want to thank you for your motivating presentation. We all came away deeply impressed and incredibly inspired.
– Mark Reis, Port of Seattle
Every single person in attendance was greatly touched by the eye-opening presentation that you gave and the insightful and educational stories you told. You brought new meaning and understanding to the relationships that we have with each other, our friends and our families.
– Nancy Fitzgerald, General Manager, Production Group International
I was very impressed with Jason’s insightful ability to immediately apply the current issues within our company to his excellent presentation. It was a huge success.
– Dan Lohr, Regional President, ALLTEL

Booksby Jason Young

The Culturetopia Effect

Servicetopia

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Blog Posts

 

Mental Health Awareness: The Mark of a Modern Workplace

🌎✨ As we recognize World Mental Health Day, we're shining a spotlight on critical mental...

Read More

What’s Holding You Back from Managing Your Energy Effectively?

Have you ever wanted to get more energy in your day-to-day activities? https://youtu.be/hltabhE0QRM Have you...

Read More

Use Improv as a Mindfulness Practice and Improve your Well-Being

🌟 Mental Fitness Through Improv & Mindfulness 🌟 https://youtu.be/xuAhzUGZ438 Mental fitness is not just about...

Read More

Innovative Event Strategies to Inspire Your Attendees with Courtney Mesmer

https://youtu.be/1erTgGFdyW8 Watch this week’s podcast episode here: YouTube • Spotify • Apple Podcasts • Amazon...

Read More

Valuable Life Lessons from Parenting & Overcoming Failures

Learn valuable life lessons from overcoming failure and parenting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJTIi-nhq60&list=PLXTlGHk63lLgbS8LN-PENXDzwMdqWAnOm "Life’s greatest lessons come from...

Read More

Pink October: Breast Cancer Awareness and the Power of Healing Our Emotional Histories

Pink October: Understanding the Connection Between Emotional Health and Breast Cancer This newsletter is brought...

Read More