Sheila Bethel

Global leadership and change expert, CEO of Bethel Leadership Institute, best-selling author, and Hall of Fame speaker Dr. Sheila Murray Bethel has a client list that reads like a global “Who’s Who” of business, trade associations, education, and government. She is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame, having given over 3,000 presentations to over two million people in 20 countries. She brings a broad view of current trends and relevant issues to help organizations maximize human resources, solve people problems, and increase bottom-line results. With business savvy and people smarts, she understands how to help people be their best and knows what it takes to make a business work.

A thriving entrepreneur, Dr. Bethel has served for three years as a Founding BOD Member and Director of the Instititute for the Achievement of Human Potential, a not-for-profit national leader in innovative rehabilitation of brain-injured children. She was also Regional Sales Manager for Adventures in Achievement, a training and development corporation, and served on the BOD, as Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, and as COO of The Money Lenders. She is currently CEO of the Bethel Leadership Institute, the mission of which is “expanding the global dialogue about 21st-century leadership and change.”

Dr. Bethel writes for several international publications and online publications, and is a guest columnist for The Washington Post. Her latest of five books, A New Breed Of Leader: 8 Qualities That Matter Most in the Real World, What Works, What Doesn’t and Why, is winning global praise.

In addition to vast experience in the for-profit and nonprofit worlds, Dr. Bethel served on the Board of Advisors of America’s Promise with General Colin L. Powell. She also worked with the Bush White House in 1990 and, along with her husband Bill, founded the first business school in the old Eastern European Bloc located in Opale, Poland. She has worked on programs with four US Presidents, governors, members of Congress, and the military, including General Colin L. Powell.

Calling on her 25 years of experience, Dr. Bethel offers powerful guidance for leading in tumultuous times. She artfully blends content-rich presentations with an entertaining and motivating style. You receive the double benefit of enjoying yourself while learning practical, immediately applicable real-world material for real-world results. She cuts right to the core issues you care about and shows your audience what works, what doesn’t, and why.

Dr. Bethel holds a PhD in philosophy with a major in communications, and has served on the adjunct faculty of Indiana Purdue University, San Francisco State University, and the University of Southern California. She is a currently a member of the Advisory Council for Amsted University based in Malaysia. Her books are used as course material and are in libraries in 127 universities and colleges worldwide.

Inspirational Leadership: Keep People Engaged & Moving Ahead

Have you ever wondered why people will walk through fire for some leaders or follow them anywhere just to see where they are going? What do Kenneth Chenault, CEO of American Express; Oprah Winfrey, CEO of Harpo Productions; and Christopher Cowdray, CEO of the Dorchester Collection hotels, teach us about inspirational leadership? What sets these leaders apart? What gives them that special competitive edge? The answer is they have developed the ability to inspire others to do and be their best. It is about the insight and wisdom to connect with your people in ways that turn a team into a community, accountability into trust, and language into people bridges. It’s about giving followers the tools and skills they need to fulfill their inborn desire for achievement and contribution.

What is your obligation as inspiring leader? It’s to motivate, challenge, guide, and train your workforce for productivity and sustainability. Dr. Bethel helps clarify and identify the essential 21st-century leadership qualities of competence, accountability, openness, language, values, perspective, power, and humility. These qualities are a fixed beacon giving direction and purpose to every member of your organization. When you inspire others by leading with these qualities, they are more engaged, productive, and committed, which, in turn, grows your business, benefits your customers, and strengthens your brand. There has never been a time when inspired leaders have been needed more. Leadership is not something conferred upon only the highly educated, the rich, or the powerful. You can be an inspired leader who makes a difference.

The Art & Skill of Creating & Leading Dynamic Teams

Is your organization using all the team-building tools available to chart a course for the future you want? More than any other leadership quality, the art of team building encompasses all of your other talents. It is the catalyst to all you want to accomplish. Times have changed and so has the concept of team building. In a world where people feel increasingly disconnected and isolated, collaboration, trust, and camaraderie become more valuable every day. Technology gives us excellent tools as aids for team building. However, in the process of using these tools, we have become technologically excellent and humanly challenged. We must make sure that we continually make those human connections, no matter how far flung we are, across the office or across the world. We all want to be a part of something larger than we are, to feel that we can make a difference.

How do you create an environment where teams are born and thrive? The payoffs for great team building are enormous. To build and sustain your team you must concentrate on the five basics of servant-leader team building: directing, motivating, training, delegating, and reward and recognition. People want to be led, not managed. As leader, you control the environment where teams are born, nurtured, and thrive. Football coaches Tom Landry and Vince Lombardi and business leaders Indra Nooyi of PepsiCo and Ursula Burns of Xerox are classic examples Dr. Bethel uses to expand thinking about teams. She stirs imaginations and opens minds about being a team builder in an age where working together cohesively has more challenges than anything we could have imagined in the 20th century. It’s a new world, and we must take a new look at the art and skill of team building in the 21st century.

Leading Others Through the Gauntlet of Change

Making real change is the hardest process any person or organization ever confronts. It is also one of the most rewarding. Yet some people resist productive change. What causes these barriers and why are they so hard to overcome? How can you stay sane, healthy, and effective in times of turbulence?

What are the indispensible ABCs of personal and organizational change? In her content-rich change program, Dr. Sheila Murray Bethel lays out clear, common sense how-to’s designed to help you and your organization keep up with ambiguity and uncertainty as you move forward into a prosperous future. You’ll learn how to maintain a sense of humor and balance while gaining more control in any change process. Using her own life filled with extraordinary change, going from the ironing board to the executive board, Dr. Bethel shares a wealth of ideas, actions, and skills that decrease stress, prevent burnout, increase productivity, and make work and life more enjoyable. Discover how Jim Senegal, CEO of Costco, and Donna Shalala, President of the University of Miami, maintain productivity amidst change. You’ll learn how the language of change keeps people and situations in perspective, motivates and inspires a bias for action, builds cooperation and trust, and maintains focus on key issues in our topsy-turvy world. Leading in times of change is like making bread – you are the yeast that helps people rise to the occasion. Whether you lead a small team or major organization, Dr. Bethel fills your toolbox with a strong set of change tactics to lead others through the gauntlet of change.

Where the Rubber Hits the Road: Exceptional Frontline Customer Service

Would you be shocked to learn that 68% of your customers who quit doing business with you do so because they were treated badly? In our increasingly competitive global environment, you cannot afford to be a part of that statistic. Because response matters and caring really does count, it is critical that an emotional connection with your customers is at the very foundation of your service ethic. This connection is often the most underestimated and under-used service quality. The best frontline people—in person, on the phone, or on the net—are those with not only the standard skills of calming upset customers, asking questions, and being a good listener; they also have that all-important emotional connection that says, “We really care about you as a customer and we want to earn your loyalty.” The most successful customer service teams have values and beliefs about serving others that translates into the ability to create loyal customers who become your unpaid ambassadors of goodwill.

Dr. Sheila Murray Bethel’s 4 A’s of World Class Service have struck a responsive chord in organizations around the world. This formula has propelled entire customer-service departments from mediocre to outstanding. Dr. Bethel gives a new depth and meaning to the whole concept of customer service as an attitude, not a department. Unintentionally, every organization has a “sales prevention team.” Be sure your frontline people are not inadvertently part of the problem, but rather part of the solution. This program is the perfect complement and a welcome addition to all of your other customer service initiatives. It will enhance them, deepening the understanding of how and why true service benefits not only your customers and your company, but how and why it adds to the quality of life for your frontline people.

Lemons into Lemonade: How to Get & Stay Motivated in Tough Times

What are the enduring personal strengths needed to stay motivated and inspired in tough times? Can you really motivate yourself into a better life, satisfying job and fulfilling relationships? In this reassuring and timely presentation, Dr. Bethel gives you a set of powerful life tools, step-by-step actions to build resilience, staying power, and enthusiasm for surviving and thriving even in the worst of times.

Dr. Bethel deepens your understanding of the extraordinary Five Secrets to Happiness. Every day we see examples of people who have embraced these compelling principles to survive and conquer hardships. Michael J. Fox, the late Christopher Reeve, many cancer survivors, and the “come-back people” of Hurricane Katrina all discovered these eternal insights and wisdom. You will see that when they are used daily, they can literally turn your life around.

You learn to avoid the “negativity trap” and turn pessimistic responses and attitudes into positive actions. You will reexamine how to tap into your inner strengths, values, belief systems, and commitment so you have a fresh and better perspective on both your business and personal life. The bottom line is that you can live happier, improve your relationships, and be in more control of your surroundings as you design the rich fulfilling life you deserve. Lemons into Lemonade is all about commonsense skills that help you do and be your best, especially in tough times.