Topics include

• Life is Tough but I’m Tougher
• You and Your Partner – The Harder You Practice, the Luckier You Get!
• Emotional Intelligence – The Deciding Factor
• Success Psyche
• The Healthy Family: Is there a Recipe for Success?
• Nurturing the Woman Within
• The Essence of Women
• Cholesterol Free Companies
• Coping with Family Stress
• Parenting – Tips that really Work!
• From Trauma to Transformation – Life’s Lessons Through Life’s Experiences
• Is the Man in Your Head the Man in Your Bed?
• Mid-Life and Marriage – Crisis or Opportunity?
• Men and Women: Same Planet, Different Species.
• Happiness is a Choice
• From Adversity to Insight and Beyond
• Make the Rest of Your Life the Best of Your Life
• Mid life – ‘It’s Only too Late if you Don’t Start Now’
• Not Tonight Darling…I’ve Got a Headache.
• Grown-up Women
• Happiness
• NB Specific presentations to meet your requirements can be designed

Life Is Tough But I Am Tougher 

The multi media presentation is entertaining, challenging, poignant, inspirational and offers immediate take home value.  

Stress is a part of life – no one is immune.  We live through predictable and unpredictable life events or even crises.  How do we not allow “suffering” to go to waste?  Are there lessons that one can identify and harness in order to influence our present and our future, positively?  These lessons are highlighted and illustrated through story and include:

• Re-evaluation of priorities
• The healing power of support
• Taking personal responsibility
• Trusting the bigger process
• Challenging “reality”
• Vision
• An optimistic world view
• Commitment and persistence

The presentation also examines and expands the traditional view of success, identifies the characteristics of confident, empowered and fulfilled individuals and deals with obstacles that block or impede this journey. Emotional Intelligence, its skills and attributes is highlighted as a defining factor.

You And Your Partner – “The Harder You Practice The Luckier You Get”

Your relationship is an investment, yet unlike other investments we don’t audit it, we take it for granted and we expect to reap maximum dividends.  Happily ever after – the end … is really only the beginning! What happens, five, ten, fifteen, twenty years down the line?  Part of the problem is the fundamental differences in communication, behavior, dealing with emotion and sexuality between men and women.  While “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” applies some of the time, do unto others and they would have you do unto them, is more appropriate with regard to male/female relationships.  These differences will be explored as well as the main sexual complaints that women have about men and men have about women.

The characteristics of a healthy couple and the dynamics thereof will be highlighted as well as offering tips and exploring some relationship skills.  These include, boundary issues, communication, taking responsibility, importance of recognition and others.

This talk is humorous, a little risqué and offers immediate take-home value.

Emotional Intelligence – The Deciding Factor

IQ has been shown to be an inadequate predictor of future success. It peaks in the teens, is culture bound, static and predicts only 6% of job success. An array of non-cognitive life skills, which result in both personal fulfillment and career achievement have been identified and described as Emotional Intelligence (EQ). While the old thinking was suppress emotion because it clouds your judgement, the new thinking is integrate heart and mind, recognise your emotions and manage them intelligently.

The skills include:

• Intrapersonal skills – awareness of feelings; identifying triggers and management of emotion; assertiveness; confidence; self-esteem; self-actualisation; and responsibility.
• Interpersonal skills – the ability to form meaningful, long lasting and intimate relationships, emotional literacy, empathy and the creation of rapport.
• Flexibility and adaptability – the ability to think laterally to bounce back, tolerance, embracing diversity and risk taking.
• Stress management, soothing oneself, delaying immediate gratification for a long-term goal, prioritising and maintaining perspective.
• Mood expression, including happiness and optimism.
• The ability to have fun, to enjoy life and to cultivate an optimistic worldview, even in the face of adversity.

Emotional Intelligence has been labeled “The Sine Qua Non” of leadership.

Success Psyche

What is known today is that in the work place knowledge, skills and sophisticated strategies may bear little relationship to success, unless non cognitive attributes relating to personal fulfillment and happiness have been developed.

“People who feel good about themselves produce good results”. Yet our focus has traditionally been on the good results, not recognizing external organizational factors and the development of internal characteristics which are directly related to overall success.

Such organizational criteria include an internal morale and support system, the importance of recognition, excellent communication, less hierarchical  structures, room for mistakes and a spirit of innovation.

On a personal level the skills include: Intrapersonal i.e. awareness of feelings, identifying triggers and management of emotion, assertiveness, confidence, self esteem, self actualization and responsibility.  Interpersonal, the ability to form meaningful, long lasting and intimate relationships, emotional literacy, empathy and the creation of rapport.  Flexibility and adaptability, the ability to think laterally to bounce back, tolerance, embracing diversity and risk taking.  Stress management, soothing oneself, delaying immediate gratification for a long term goal, prioritizing and maintaining perspective.  Mood, including happiness and optimism.  The ability to have fun, to enjoy life and to cultivate an optimistic world view, even in the face of adversity.

Importantly, these skills and attributes unlike “IQ” which tends to be static, can be learnt and developed.

“The Healthy Family – is there a Recipe for Success”  

The family is the initial unit that influences and prepares children for life.  It is here, where through example and experience, children develop self esteem, confidence, the capacity to trust and form meaningful relationships, skills associated with flexibility and adaptability, stress management, self motivation, delaying immediate gratification and above all an optimistic world view.  The family is also the place where adults meet their needs for friendship, companionship, intimacy, security, fun and fulfillment.

We all live in a challenging environment characterized by predictable and difficult life events.  How do families not only survive but thrive, they move through the family life cycle of marriage, children, adolescence and grandparents?  Are there identifiable criteria for healthy family functioning?  Indeed there are.  Healthy families have mastered clear and functional communication.  They negotiate tasks.  There are no power struggles.  They promote autonomy between adults and encourage appropriate independence in children.  They know about the importance of guidance, discipline and love.  They are comfortable with emotion and are honestly and openly expressive.  They promote a sense of responsibility.  Individuality is respected, but the collective and a sense of their relationship is celebrated.  Affiliations to wider groups, social and otherwise, are encouraged.  Recognition is continually offered and respect is paramount.

The “How To” of the above will be discussed in detail.

Nurturing the Woman Within
Women are traditionally reared to be nurturers and care givers. These are indeed outstanding qualities. However, this also means that they often sacrifice their needs and place them last, both professionally and personally. This may result in a lack of a sense of entitlement, guilt associated with the recognition, ownership and ability to appropriately deal with emotion and difficulty with meeting their own needs. This manifests psychologically (for example low frustration tolerance, depression and relationship difficulties) and physically (for example migraine headaches, lower back pain, appetite and sleep disturbances).

How de we find our voice? How do we learn the difference between assertive and aggressive responses? How do we challenge these restrictive internal messages?

Can we develop the Emotional Intelligence we need to recognise and manage our emotions appropriately in order to avoid being hi-jacked by them?

The Essence of Women

•  Beauty – What is it?  Grace plus intelligence, seemingly intangible yet transcendent.  It is worn in attitude, confidence and acquired “knowing” that is compelling, attractive and unmistakable.  A sense of freedom, enthusiasm and yet containment connects “the wild woman” to her basic instinctual nature and intuition which guides her always and seldom makes mistakes.  She achieves a healthy balance between listening to her own inner drum beat and actualizing her caring and nurturing nature simultaneously.
•  Part of success and fulfillment depends on harnessing lessons from past experiences to influence your present and your future positively.  Life touches all of us.  What are these lessons and when we understand them, how can we translate them into behaviour that changes lives?
•  Gorgeous lips, but what do you say?  Stunning eyes, but what do you see?  Manicured nails, who do you blame?  Brilliant diamonds in your ears, but what do you hear?  Communication, taking responsibility, the importance of recognition, the difference between being assertive and aggressive and other life skills will be discussed.

Cholesterol Free Companies for the New Millennium
“Cholesterol” exists in companies as it does in bodies. “Cholesterol” is the destructive “stuff” that builds up, causes blockages, stops the flow, affects bottom line results, inhibits functioning, and causes heart attacks or even death!

The “cholesterol” in organisations isn’t obvious; it’s tricky and covert. But can, with specific and sensitive exploration, be identified. “Cholesterol” includes power struggles; corridor politics; a poor internal morale and support system; ineffective structures; masked and dysfunctional communication; acting on assumptions; lack of “buy-in” to the overall vision and mission of the company; insufficient space for innovation; passing the buck; a poor sense of personal value to the organisation; inadequate transparency; and people feeling isolated, with insufficient recognition or feedback.

When the “cholesterol” is identified and dissolved by means of specific interventions, amazing transformation occurs. And this transformation manifests tangibly throughout the organisation, affecting productivity and profit.

In this insightful presentation, Dorianne addresses how to identify “cholesterol” in your organisation and how to begin treating not only the symptoms, but more importantly, the causes.

Dorianne also consults around the issue of “Corporate Cholesterol”, identifying where it exists in the organisation and how to dissolve it.