TALKS FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION
Our Jumpstart Speaking Promotion is booking now!
Availability is limited for Fall/Winter.
”Having Bill as our keynote speaker was such a joy for our people leaders! This presentation really spoke to leaders in helping professions, who are doing their very best to charge their own batteries and create safe environments so they can support their frontline staff and ultimately our clients. Bill has an incredible wealth of knowledge to share that is vital for creating healthy habits, employees, and healthy organizations as a result. His presentation was both informative and inspiring, and we look forward to inviting him back in the future!
Stacey WebsterLearning Consultant, Organizational Development at the Department of Social Development, Government of New-Brunswick
”Dr. Howatt provided a Keynote Presentation at our CALEP Conference on September 11, 2023, and his speech was one of the highlights for our entire program. This particular Keynote Presentation focused on Workplace Mental Health & Burnout and were topics that resonated with our Conference attendees. Dr. Howatt is an engaging speaker that employs a dynamic speaking style and encourages interaction amongst the audience to help achieve a deeper understanding. Furthermore, the tips that Dr. Howatt provided to help protect and promote mental fitness were well received by our Conference attendees and is information that they can employ in their daily lives going forward.
Craig StayuraManager, Mineral Land at Tamarack Valley Energy Ltd.
”Dr. Bill Howatt served as the Keynote Speaker for two of our corporate safety forums over the last couple of years. Dr. Howatt’s presentations have contributed to progressing the conversation on mental health and wellbeing within the organization. Not only have our employees benefitted from his knowledge early on in the pandemic through his ‘Mental Fitness 101’ presentation, Dr. Howatt also helped our employees understand the anxiety associated with a return to office through his ‘Ready to Return?’ presentation. Dr. Howatt is becoming a household name with our workforce and we look forward to working with him in the future.
Said MohamudIOL
”Bill Howatt reached over 300 of our people leaders helping them understand the importance of mental fitness, for them and for the people who rely on them. He made concepts relatable, digestible and removed any stigma associated with this sensitive topic. Feedback from Softchoice leaders include “this is some of the best training I’ve ever received at a leadership conference”….”thank you for investing in mental heath and wellness, this topic is situation critical and I feel better equipped to support my people”…. “Bill Howatt was amazing, great content topic, great speaker!” In the Spring Bill came back to speak to all of Softchoice, the feedback was consistent “so relatable…thank you for speaking so freely about his important topic”….”really like the idea of a mental fitness plan…and journaling”… “we really needed to talk about this as an organization, everyone is working through their own “stuff”…understanding where to start tackling my own mental health and wellness is so helpful!”
Sara LockhartSoft Choice Team
”Dr. Bill Howatt's leadership session on building psychologically safe workplaces was extremely well-received by our audience of Ontario Public Service leaders. It had the largest attendance to date for our mental health speakers series. Dr. Howatt's dynamic presentation style engaged participants throughout the session, and those in attendance said it helped them to better understand their pivotal role in fostering psychological health and safety among their own teams.
Kristen DelormeAssistant Deputy Minister, Ontario Public Service
”Dr. Bill Howatt is a very accomplished speaker and he has spoken at several Conference Board events including Workshops, Executive Networks, Conferences, and Webinars. He has also conducted internal workshops for staff at the Conference Board on developing coping skills. Both our staff, our clients and participants at events have enjoyed Bill's sessions. We highly recommend Bill for any speaking engagements you have on topics surrounding workplace mental health.
Charles BoyerExecutive Network Manager Workplace Health, Wellness, and Safety The Conference Board of Canada
”Dr. Bill is one of the best presenters we have ever heard, his knowledge and expertise in workplace mental health is remarkable.
Angela RossHealth & Safety Coordinator, Town of Hinton
Dr. Bill Howatt’s goal is to help employers problem-solve for workplace mental health. Many employers are unsure where to start or how to impact workplace mental health. There are three common reasons why workers and leaders struggle with mental health: being trapped in fear, insecure social connections, and being stuck in regret.
Using an approach called Howatt Works, Dr. Bill helps employers UNLOCK workplace mental health by finding the right combination of three mental fitness protective factors–these are actions that reduce mental harm and promote mental health.
- Support employers with workplace mental health strategy and planning
- Support leaders to become psychologically-safe leaders
- Educate employees to promote their behavioral health
Howatt Works yields greater revenue opportunity and alchemizes pain into motivation. Organizations that ‘get’ mental health right witness a corresponding positive effect on revenue. Mental health is a huge, yet commonly-missed opportunity for organizations seeking to grow.
Dr. Bill offers three signatured talks to help employers discover more opportunities to grow, and resolve mental health problems in the workplace.
Check out Dr. Bill’s collection of books to see how this can further support your organization, and inquire about bulk discounts.
Mental Health Talks
MENTAL HEALTH TALK
No More Languishing
No more languishing or feeling ‘blah’ – discover the road to flourishing!
Workers’ and leaders’ emotional well-being is determined by the amount of time they spend in pleasant emotions (e.g., flourishing) and unpleasant emotions (e.g., languishing). Languishing is not a mental illness. It is a negative mental state that drains emotional well-being. When stress, uncertainty, or fear occupy the mind, this increases the risk of living in a constant state of languishing (i.e., feeling ‘blah’). An estimated 60% of the workforce is stuck in a chronic state of languishing that negatively impacts their employee experience, productivity, and mental health. The longer a person is stuck in languishing, the greater their risk of sick time, disability, and resignation.
Mental health (e.g., behavioral health) is not intuitive; it is a trainable skill. The majority of employees have never been trained or supported to mature intrapersonal self-care knowledge and skills required to flourish. Dr. Bill, a leading expert in workplace mental health, provides participants with practical steps to discover and maintain a flourishing mindset. He leverages his clinical, corporate, and personal experiences to offer learners insights into why people languish in the workplace, barriers to moving forward, and how mental fitness can transform how they feel and think. Like with physical health, there are no magic solutions or shortcuts. But with the knowledge and skills, a personalized mental fitness plan, and repetition, new habits can transform how employees think and feel.
Learning Objectives
- Define languishing and flourishing
- Discover how and why people experience long periods of languishing
- Understand how stress, mental health (e.g., behavioral health), and mental illness are linked
- Evaluate learners’ risk of languishing and how it impacts their work and home life
- Examine behaviors that facilitate the cure for languishing
”Many thanks to Dr. Howatt for his recent presentation on mental well-being and ‘no more languishing’. Dr. Howatt’s open and candid presentation style resonated with the team, and we very much appreciated hearing some simple and effective tips and techniques to shifting out of those ‘blah’ feelings, and daily exercises to improve mental well-being and fitness.
Ontario Fish & Wildlife Policy Branch
Book your talk with Dr. Bill today!
Mental health is not intuitive – it is a trainable skill.
MENTAL HEALTH TALK
Protecting Mental Health through Coping Skills
Are we in a mental health or coping crisis? Why are some people happier than others? Life is filled with challenges. How we cope with the stress of those challenges directly and profoundly affects our happiness and mental health, particularly in the workplace. Half a million Canadians miss work daily due to mental health issues. The effects of stress on workers’ and leaders’ mental health can negatively impact their overall quality of life and potential at home and work. Gaining insight into how daily micro-decisions impact resiliency and developing coping skills benefit employees’ and leaders’ experience and organizations’ capacity to achieve their full potential.
Learning Objectives
- Provide learners with tips to cope with work and life challenges.
- This talk leverages Dr. Howatt’s book The Coping Crisis. Participants will receive an e-copy.
Book your talk with Dr. Bill today!
Mental health is not intuitive – it is a trainable skill.
MENTAL HEALTH TALK
Unlocking the Habit of Mental Fitness: How behavioral health shapes emotional well-being
One constant in all workplaces is stress, and there is no chance employers will eliminate all unwanted stress. However, employers can mitigate mental harm and promote mental health. One action is not to assume workers and leaders have the knowledge and skill to regulate their emotional well-being. On any given day, five in five employees have mental health (e.g., emotional regulation) that benefits from intentions like physical health (e.g., diet, exercise). Mental health (i.e., behavioral health) is not intuitive and is a trainable skill. Dr. Bill provides employees clarity on what they can do to positively influence their mental health by unlocking mental fitness habits. Mental fitness determines the percent of time employees feel they are flourishing (e.g., thriving) versus languishing (e.g., feeling “blah”).
Mental fitness assists employees in maturing their resiliency, which provides additional personal psychological protection (PPP) that is the last line of defence for employees from workplace mental harm. Every employee owns their mental health. However, employers must acknowledge that it is important for them to engage in behaviors like creating a psychologically safe workplace that contribute to employees’ mental health.
This short program will provide employees and employers insight into behaviors that promote emotional well-being.
Learning Objectives
- Discovering what mental health is versus mental illness and how mental fitness contributes to it.
- Explore what a mental fitness plan is and its benefits.
- Uncover how to unlock the habit of mental fitness one decision and behavior at time.
Book your talk with Dr. Bill today!
Mental health is not intuitive – it is a trainable skill.
Psychologically Safe Leadership Talks
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE LEADERSHIP TALK
A hack for becoming a psychological safe leader
Since the pandemic, workplace mental health has been top-of-mind for more boards, CEOs, and senior leaders. This is happening because of the growing understanding that workers’ mental (behavioral) health is related to retention, attraction, disability costs, productivity, sustainability, and quality of life.
80% of the employee experience can be directly attributed to the leader-employee relationship. The future of work suggests a critical success factor for employers’ sustainability will be people management. Leaders must discover it is not always WHAT they are doing that matter the most it is HOW they are doing it.
The goal of this talk is to provide leaders with a short cut for HOW to become a psychological safe leader. This presentation will provide leaders with four core competencies must be in place to be successful as a psychological safe leader, and with coaching tool for the kind of key performance behaviours that when mastered will create the habits required to facilitate a psychological safe and inclusive workplace.
Dr. Howatt is a leading international expert in workplace mental health with an extensive background in leadership development and executive and team coaching for leaders to create psychologically safe workplaces.
Learning Objectives
- Understand workplace psychological health and safety and the leader’s role.
- Explore four core competencies and KPBs that facilitate psychologically safe leadership.
- Discover how leaders can move towards psychologically safe leadership, one interaction at a time.
Book this talk with Dr. Bill today!
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE LEADERSHIP TALK
Becoming a Positive, Psychologically Safe Leader: Maximizing employees’ experience one interaction at a time
Organizational leaders must meet the demands of their employers as they deal with the many challenges and uncertainties in the work world. They must be flexible, ready to pivot and adapt to change, and accountable for their workers’ experience, productivity, and well-being. The future of work requires leaders to be aware of workers’ experience and emotional well-being. Workers who spend more time in positive than negative emotions are more creative, engaged, and productive, have better attendance, and are less likely to leave or experience mental harm or mental illness.
This program focuses on opportunities. Leaders who are aware that every interaction with their workers matter, are more likely to create positive emotions. The by-product is leaders are perceived as approachable, trustworthy, and caring. This only happens when leaders can build TRUST and increase workers’ confidence that their workplace is psychologically safe, free of fear and silence, and where they feel welcomed, valued, and included.
This presentation introduces leaders’ key performance behaviors (KPBs) and habits for becoming trusted and psychologically safe leaders. Dr. Howatt is a leading international expert in workplace mental health with an extensive background in leadership development and executive and team coaching for leaders to create psychologically safe workplaces.
Learning Objectives
- Understand why and how leaders can be a protective factor
- Examine a three-step communication strategy to maximize opportunities for psychologically safe communications.
- Discover what KPBs and Habits will put a leader on the right track to build trust with their reports.
Book this talk with Dr. Bill today!
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE LEADERSHIP TALK
Self-care: The Number One Protective Factor
The most important thing a leader can do for themselves, their organization, and reports is to regulate their emotions and maintain their emotional well-being. Stigma can be a barrier to asking for help. It also can be a barrier to engaging in self-care. Forbes reported that nearly 60% of leaders feel used up at the end of the workday. Eighty-four percent of workers say poorly trained leaders create unnecessary work and stress. Leaders experiencing unpleasant emotions and stress are more prone to be reactive, short, and irritable. Leaders who are stressed and feel overwhelmed often are not in tune with how their emotional wake can impact others. Mental health (i.e., behavioral health) is a pillar of self-care. It is not intuitive; it is a trainable skill. Self-care is leaders’ ability to mitigate their risk of mental harm and promote mental health. The environment can contribute to or take away from a leader’s overall well-being. The last line of defence for a leader is their personal psychological protection (PPP).
Dr. Bill provides leaders with a framework for leadership self-care that includes practical guidance for improving and maintaining their emotional well-being.
Leaders who discover how to flourish are more prepared to cope with constant challenges, stress, and change than leaders who are languishing. Leaders who learn how to self-regulate their emotions and cope with stress by adopting self-care daily practices that promote their mental health are more likely to show up ready to meet the day’s demands.
Learning Objectives
- Understand the difference between mental illness, mental injury, and mental health.
- Discover factors that will impact a leader’s ability to regulate their emotions.
- Explore mental fitness micro-decisions and behaviors leaders can do daily to facilitate their self-care.
- Define an action plan
Book this talk with Dr. Bill today!
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE LEADERSHIP TALK
Banishing Burnout: Guidance for Leaders’ Self-Care & Employee Mental Health
Workplace stress and burnout since the pandemic globally have become a big challenge for workers, leaders, and employers. Some consequences are an increase in employee turn, a decline in worker and leader abilities and productivity (i.e., a decrease in discretionary effort and an increase in presenteeism), an increase in attendance, and STD and LTD disability claims due to mental health. How work is organized matters because workplace stress kills. In fact, 2.8 million workers die each year according to the UN because of how work is facilitated and organized. Dr. Bill Howatt an international expert in workplace mental health will provide leaders with awareness on the link between stress and burnout, and what leaders can do to support themselves and workers mitigate the risk for mental harm and burnout.
Learning Objectives
- Examine the link between stress and mental injuries /psychological and burnout.
- Explore how stress and burnout negatively impact individuals’ mental & physical health, and
performance. - Discover why leaders’ self–care is critical for supporting workers’ mental health.
- Understand how leaders are a protective factor for mitigating workers’ stress and risk for burnout.
Book this talk with Dr. Bill today!
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE LEADERSHIP TALK
Leading Remotely: Tips for Managing Hybrid Teams in the New World of Work
The pandemic has changed how organizations think about and organize work. This has resulted in nearly 50% of the workforce working from home at least some portion of time. This new paradigm makes it more challenging for leaders to facilitate both causal and formal interactions. Both are required to build and maintain psychologically safe relationships between the manager and worker. The purpose of this webinar is to provide leaders with tips on what they can do proactively to facilitate the employees’ experience regardless of where they work. However, in the context of a remote worker it requires more attention, follow through and monitoring to ensure the workers psychological health and safety is secure. Ultimately, employers and leaders can be a protective factor in mitigating mental harm and promoting mental health.
Learning Objectives
- Explore why leaders’ self-care is critical for facilitating and supporting workers.
- Introduce what is a psychological leader.
- Discover how a leader can have a positive impact on hybrid teams.
- Examine protective factors that leaders can influence that can reduce mental harm and promote mental harm.
Book this talk with Dr. Bill today!
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE LEADERSHIP TALK
Mitigating Workers’ Job Demand Frustrations: Practical Psychologically Safe Leadership Tips
The United Nations suggests that 60% of workers rate their job as their primary source of life stress. The world of work is filled with constant uncertainty and change that challenge employers and leaders that ultimately gets passed down to employees. Job demand is one common psychosocial stressor that if not properly managed results in workers’ increased risk for experiencing psychosocial hazards (stress, fatigue, distraction, and mental errors). When job demand stress is ignored or dismissed it is common for some employees to break down because of these demands that result in these workers being at increased risk for burnout, resignation, loss of productivity (e.g., presenteeism), and sick time/disability.
Many leaders are feeling constant pressure from employer expectations and employees’ concerns about how work is being organized. This can leave some leaders asking themselves “What can I do the work must get done.” When there is lots of work demand pressure a leader may not be able to control all the WHAT MUST GET DONE but they surely can play a role HOW WORK WILL GET DONE. Dr. Bill Howatt will provide leaders with some practical tips he has implemented when supporting and leading in the competitive and demanding financial world on Wall Street. Leaders’ self–care and commitment to being psychologically safe leaders provide the learner with the foundation to take the learning from this short course and to begin to apply them.
Learning Objectives
- Understanding the physiological link between job demand and worker health.
- Exploring how the leader’s mindset and level of engagement impacts worker job demand
experiences. - Recognizing what job demand is the workplace and how it is a psychosocial factor that can be either a
positive charge or drain. - Examine practical actions a leader can take with in their span of control to mitigate job demand one
action at time.
Book this talk with Dr. Bill today!
Employer to support HR leaders and folks who are facilitating Workplace mental health
MASTERCLASS
How to become an impactful Psychologically Safe Facilitator
The goal of this program is to prepare those assigned to support workplace mental health with curriculum and guidance on HOW to create psychologically safe workplaces.
About the program
A comprehensive, four-day program that includes preparation and post-work assignments that PSFs can use as their workplace mental health plans for the next 12 months. This program provides a learning experience for PSFs and facilitates a rapid mental health strategy for HOW employers can facilitate an evidence-based action plan. We call this a master course because learners can have their post-course assignments reviewed. The total commitment to complete this program is estimated at 35 hours. Upon completion, learners will receive a certificate of completion and be eligible for OHS and HR CEUs.
This program is interactive with a blend of instruction, group and individual activities, individual group discussion, and Q&A. The curriculum leverages the most current global lead practices from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia to positively impact workplace mental health. It has been influenced by Canadian applied workplace mental health research sponsored by WSPS, CSA, MHCC, and CPA.
Overview
Over the four-day program, the learner will be brought on a journey that explores Psychological Health & Safety, and how it can be facilitated to support employees’ mental health. The learner will also be introduced to the CSA Standards Z1003, Z1008, Z1010/1011, and how they can be leveraged to support in designing workplace mental health strategies.
Employee Benefits
- Understand how to protect employees’ mental health
- Discover the roadmap for facilitating psychological safety
- Gain insights on how to measure impact.
Employer Benefits
- Build internal capacity for protecting and supporting employee mental health
- Development of a 12-month plan for facilitating a mental health strategy.
- Understand how current investments are being utilized by employees.
- Gain insights on potential gaps in current mental health strategies.
