John Baumann

John Baumann Speaking Topics

• Respect & Appreciation: What Employees Truly Desire & Deserve

  Broken down to the basic elements of the workplace dynamic, what all employees, associates, contractors, etc. really want most from the people they work for is respect & appreciation. This includes honesty, acknowledgment when a job is well done, credit for their contribution whether individually or part of a team. This feel good presentation is a reminder or refresher that works with any audience, but works especially well for those in a service industry like nurses and other healthcare professionals; first responders like police officers, firemen, EMTs, etc.; and front line factory personnel and front line supervisors. My talk contains several stories of appreciation related to my daughter's cerebral palsy and my Parkinsons. Here is an excerpt from my Article published in a business newspaper: Organizations make reference to their “culture” or “corporate culture” and sometimes refer to their “mission” or “mission statement.” These documents typically include some reference to how important their employees are, how customers come first, integrity, and so on. The words may be different, but they are all cut from the same cloth, a bunch of words. What boggles the mind even further is when an organization proclaims that they are going to “change their corporate culture.” Generally, all they do is rearrange the wording. You never see a mission statement change from “our supervisors will manage in a dictatorial manner” to “we will treat all employees with respect and appreciation.” No one would put down on paper the one about being dictatorial even if it is pervasive throughout the organization. I say, dump the mission statement and get out there to effectuate change: show your employees that you care about them.

• Proactive Workplace (Sexual) Harassment Prevention Culture Program

  I have an extremely effective, unique harassment prevention approach. It is all about proactively anticipating and peer involvement. In the workplace, the accepted approach for addressing discriminatory harassment, including sexual harassment, is to have a lawyer at a big law firm write a long, wordy, all-inclusive policy against such activity and then insert it on pages 45 to 48 of a 100-page employee handbook. Most of the time, handed to, but not read by, new employees on their hectic first day of employment and then never referred to again until someone is accused of violating the policy. I wrote an Article for the American Management Association which focuses primarily on awareness. The worth of such efforts may be seen in the example of one company with fifteen steel processing plants and 1,500 employees, of which 1,200 are on industrial plant floors. In places including Detroit, Cleveland and Gary, Indiana. You would expect this type of organization to be involved with several harassment lawsuits per year. For a ten year period, there were NONE. Yes, NONE. Despite diversity in all repects: gender, race, religion, etc. How? Using engaging imagery and appropriate real life examples, to have the employees feel what it is like to be harassed. This talk will likely save you millions in attorney fees and settlements.
  Here is an excerpt from my Article in a business newspaper: Involve all employees in the program. A proactive prevention program that involves all employees, both salaried and non-salaried, creates a culture that does not tolerate harassment of any kind and is the most effective program to actually prevent harassment in the workplace. Peer pressure and the negative reaction of co-workers to inappropriate language, the use of derogatory terms, and unacceptable jokes or slurs will do more than anything else to eliminate and prevent harassment in the workplace. There are many other areas that would benefit from this fresh

• JUST ENOUGH TO BE DANGEROUS: What everyone needs to know about the LAW

  In an entertaining and often humorous way, this talk or series of talks has been described as mini-law school. Listeners are given the basics of several areas of law to choose from including the court system, contracts, personal injury negligence, employment, labor relations, intellectual property, environmental, and alternative dispute resolution. This speaker was selected "Most Inspiring Prrofessor" by the Scholar Athlete of the Year at the University of Louisville and a Faculty Favorite Finalist. This is a BIG PICTURE approach with the objective of helping business people and the general public at least know when they need to contact an attorney and which type of attorney they may need.

• DECIDE SUCCESS: 12 Action Steps to Achieve the SUCCESS You Truly Desire

  DECIDE SUCCESS uses short stories to bring the success principles to life, engaging imagery. I have dedicated my life to inspiring, explaining my twelve action steps to achieve the success you truly desire to, and bringing hope to as many people as possible. You will have an actual plan to be more successful after hearing this speaker. There are twelve action steps to achieve the success that you truly desire. I make no secret of the phases and steps: Part I (the Mapping Phase) is to assess and envision; Part II (the Work Phase) is to give your best effort, prepare, and raise your level of intensity; Part III (the Active Phase) is to seek out experiences, and identify and nurture contacts and resources; Part IV (the Expansion Phase) is to increase your level of awareness and to trust your instincts; and Part V (the Legacy Phase) is to maintain a positive attitude, live a life of integrity, and have faith. These are in a very specific sequential, step-by-step order.
  I want to mention that there is a real reason that I included the phrase, you truly desire. Sometimes what you currently believe that you desire to be successful at is not what you truly desire to be successful at. This talk starts and ends with these twelve principles. The guts of this presentation explain and add flesh to these principles. I used to think that success was something reserved for a person starting out and then establishing a career, but there are so many more applications for these success principles. Some have decided to focus their attention to succeed in a sport or an artistic endeavor whether as a career or as a hobby. Success comes in a variety of shapes and sizes. This program also teaches leadership and management skills from an Executive, Attorney & Human Resourses Manager who succeeded in Corporate America for 23 years.

• Proactively Anticipate: Avoid Regrets

  All work-related fatalities should cause the owners and management of any organization to pause. Every one of us has an obligation and a moral duty to do what we can to prevent future fatalities by proactive anticipation. I was at a charity golf outing one Monday afternoon when I got "the call." A truck driver had lost his load, resulting in the death of a mother of two young children. This call hit me as hard emotionally as any other issue I had to address in my professional career. As I collected my thoughts, I remembered several times over the past year that I had thought of questioning the load securement assurance program. Perhaps I thought I might step on some toes, dislike the conflict, or believed that doing so was not my job. I regret to this day not actively engaging in the discussion. To prevent work-related deaths, raise your level of awareness by proactively anticipating, especially in the area of accidents. You may save lives.