Tim Arnold
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Tim Arnold

Leadership Development and Teambuilding Expert

Leaders and teams are often in a tug-of-war, facing competing demands such as planning vs. action, structure vs. flexibility, change vs. stability, and work vs. home. In order to thrive, they must tackle these tensions head on. Tim Arnold provides his audiences with powerful tools that help them understand and breakthrough the chronic issues they face in both their professional and personal lives.

Arnold has spent over two decades helping leaders better manage complexity, increase resilience, and deliver results. Having run both a for-profit business and a homeless shelter, he leverages his real-world experience to help organizations pursue both profit and purpose. Past clients have included the United Nations, Compassion International, Royal Bank of Canada, Allstate Insurance, Toyota, and Siemens.

Arnold is the author of the bestselling books, Lead with AND: The Secret to Resilience and Results in a Polarized World and The Power of Healthy Tension: Overcoming Chronic Issues and Conflicting Values. His work focuses on helping leaders unleash the superpower of “both/and” thinking in an “either/or” world.

Lead with “AND”: The Secret to Leadership Resilience and Results

As a leader, you’re committed to making a difference and making the world a better place. But when it comes to moving things forward, does it often seem like you’re fighting an uphill battle against broken systems, impossible demands, and unreasonable people?

The secret is to move beyond divisive and limiting “either/or” thinking and embrace the transformational power of “both/and” leadership. When you can successfully leverage the following six leadership tensions, you will break through to a new level of resilience and results:

  • Become optimistic AND realistic.
  • Embrace change AND preserve stability.
  • Become profit-focused AND purpose-driven.
  • Have expectations AND extend grace.
  • Care for others AND care for yourself.
  • Become confident AND remain humble.

You deserve a way to successfully stay in the game and enjoy the adventure! Learn how to rise above polarity, division, and conflicting values. Join effective leaders from around the world who have the courage to lead with “AND”.

This keynote can be adapted into or followed up with a series of one-hour virtual workshops.

The Power of Healthy Tension: Leverage “Both/And” Thinking for Effective Teams and Productive Relationships

Most teams fail to reach their full potential because they get bogged down by unproductive conflict and polarizing points of view. Tim Arnold helps teams overcome the chronic issues that derail collaboration and teamwork, so your organization can tap into a new level of effectiveness!

In a polarized world that loves to pick sides, we can mistakenly treat every challenge as a simple problem to be solved, with a right or wrong answer:

  • Planning or action?
  • Structure or flexibility?
  • Change or stability?

This “either/or” thinking is a dangerous trap. For high performance and productive collaboration, we must learn to embrace what most people (and teams) avoid or ignore — tension!

“The Power of Healthy Tension” provides a simple framework to manage complexity in a healthy way. It shows teams how to tap into the superpower of “both/and” thinking to gain a massive competitive advantage and see next-level results.

Key learnings:

  • How to embrace diverse perspectives: Gain the ability to work effectively with people who have different opinions and perspectives than your own.
  • How to communicate more effectively: Learn the difference between a problem to solve and a tension to manage, and the skills required to communicate conflicting points of view.
  • How to make better decisions: Learn a thoughtful, deliberate decision-making approach when dealing with complex issues.

This presentation can be adapted into a half-day, in-person workshop.

Leading Change: How to Achieve Your Desired Results Faster and More Sustainably

Research would suggest that 70% of organizational change initiatives fail. This is because leaders and teams fail to understand and manage the following three tensions:

  • Tension #1: Embrace change AND preserve stability. Change is hard, and even good change doesn’t always feel so good. The best way to overcome being stressed and overwhelmed is to understand the predictable stages of change and learn simple strategies that will help you move forward in a healthy way.
  • Tension #2: Be optimistic AND realistic. Effective professionals understand what they can and can’t control, and they focus their energy on things they can actually influence. Learn how to be driven by hope for a better future while accepting the brutal facts of reality to increase resiliency and results.
  • Tension #3: Care for others AND yourself. When looking beneath the surface of some of the most incredible leaders in history you’ll often find family breakdowns, health issues, and burnout. And this is more of a threat when you’re leading people through change. Learn self-care practices that are meaningful and manageable and find ways to fit them into your day.

When teams and leaders understand and leverage these three tensions, they gain the ability to embrace change faster and experience the positive results of change in a sustainable way.

This keynote can be adapted into or followed up with a series of one-hour virtual workshops.

Additional Offerings

In addition to virtual and in-person keynotes and workshops, Tim Arnold offers customizable team Lunch and Learns, as well as more in-depth, six-month online leadership development programs.

Contact us for more information on these additional offerings.