Speaker profile last updated by AAE Talent Team on 02/03/2025.
Ever find yourself flopping into bed exhausted without remembering exactly why? Is your team struggling to do their best work under the pressures of everyday work and life? Dillon’s research on high performers may explain what’s going on. She has identified an invisible, but insidious, form of stress. It's so subtle that you might not even know you're facing it, but it's affecting your performance at work and your everyday life. We call them “microstresses”, but they pack a big punch. Addressing microstress can have an enormous impact on both you and your team's performance. In this interactive workshop or keynote, Karen will walk your team through understanding the causes and very real physiological impact of microstress, plus personal exercises and small group breakout sessions to identify the most damaging, recurring sources of microstress, as well as tools to assess what sources of resilience you can tap to fight back.
Why is it that so many high achievers end up unhappy in their careers -- and their lives? That's the question that Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen set out to answer. Christensen was one of the world's most respected academics -- his book, The Innovator's Dilemma, was the only business book Steve Jobs kept on his bookshelf and Amazon's Jeff Bezos recently noted that it's one of the three books he expects all his top executives to read. But in the last class of every semester, Christensen focuses on a surprisingly nonbusiness question. How will the students in his class ensure that they not only have a successful career -- but a happy life? Being in that 'last class' had become so coveted among his HBS students, that Karen Dillon, then-editor of Harvard Business Review, asked Christensen if they could turn the thinking in that class into an article for her magazine. That would become a life-changing moment for Dillon. After collaborating with Christensen on what would become one of the most popular articles ever to appear on HBR's website, Dillon walked away from the top job on one of the world's most respected magazines. So, what can a business school professor say that it's powerful enough to trigger that response -- in Dillon and the hundreds of thousands of people who have read his thinking? The answer explains why it is that high achievers are hard-wired to make the very choices that can lead to a life of personal and professional unhappiness.
In this interactive workshop, participants will understand how proven business theories can be powerful decision-making tools. We will learn and discuss the theories of two-factor motivation, emergent vs. deliberate strategy, resource allocation, marginal costs, and more.
We will then use those theories to help answer three essential questions:
With interactive exercises and group discussions throughout, we will help participants understand what they most value and the long-term impact of the everyday choices they are making now so they can begin to answer the question: How Will You Measure Your Life?
Karen Dillon is a keynote speaker and industry expert who speaks on a wide range of topics such as The Microstress Effect and How Will You Measure Your Life?. The estimated speaking fee range to book Karen Dillon for your event is $30,000 - $50,000. Karen Dillon generally travels from Boston, MA, USA and can be booked for (private) corporate events, personal appearances, keynote speeches, or other performances. Similar motivational celebrity speakers are Suze Orman, Sonia Hunt, Joan Michelson, Lindsey Granger and Marla Blow. Contact All American Speakers for ratings, reviews, videos and information on scheduling Karen Dillon for an upcoming live or virtual event.
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