Jamie Bricker

Do you want to be an effective leader? “A big part of leadership is facilitating, encouraging, and allowing people to grow—rather than standing up there trying to show how smart you are,” says author, educator, and former school principal Jamie Bricker. To be a truly successful leader, you must put your people first—and you must help reveal their skill sets and passions, maintain transparency and openness, and fully support one another. In this genuine and revitalizing talk, Jamie presents a new way of looking at leadership, skills training, and innovation at the office. Jamie dives into his decades of experience as a passionate and effective leader to provide the tools and techniques managers need to successfully train and continually engage their employees. Being a leader isn’t just about hiring and firing. It’s about encouraging and rewarding your employees to support creativity, boost innovation and problem-solving, and lead to greater business success.

If you take a look most at most companies’ Glassdoor reviews, it’s not uncommon to see phrases like “thrown into the fire” or “sink or swim” when employees describe the training they received. Even when these is a standardized training procedure in place, employees often feel unprepared to deal with the daily challenges of their work. And, when they’ve mastered their tasks, and are ready to contribute more, they can feel stifled and unsupported. In this unexpected and revitalizing talk, author and educator Jamie Bricker presents a new way of looking at skills training and innovation at the office. “Each of us carry around a ‘Smart Phone” full of a lifetime of skills and experiences,” he says. “Employers must acknowledge, respect, and, most importantly, routinely activate the ‘Smart Phone’.” Jamie shares how encouraging and rewarding risk-taking and a growth mindset can boost innovation and problem-solving, support creativity, and lead to greater business success.

How can we set our students up for success? Every day, educators are faced with this question and its overwhelming possibilities. It’s simple, says educator and author Jamie Bricker: “Students need to learn how to think, not how to remember.” In this practical and inspiring talk, Jamie introduces educators to this concept of the “New 3 Rs of Teaching and Learning:” Richness, Relevance and Return on Investment. Through an engaging mix of hard research and personal anecdotes, he shares how and why we need to encourage active exploration in the classroom and reveals the types of tasks and exercises that activate students, challenge them intellectually, and enrich their critical thinking skills. By focusing on route, not rote, educators play a key role in preparing students for success in the ever-changing modern world. An infectious and warm speaker, Jamie connects powerfully with audiences of educators, rekindling our love for teaching and reminding us all why we do what we do.