Terry McKenna Speaker Biography
Leading Authority on High-Performance
Business Employee Strategies
Terry McKenna is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker and consultant to Fortune 500 companies as well as smaller regional chains on the topics of human capital optimization and organizational design: people and systems. Principal and co-founder of Employee Performance Strategies, Inc. (EPS), Terry helps companies become the customers’ brand of choice by becoming the employer of choice.
High-Performance Expert
Terry is principal and co-founder of Employee Performance Strategies, Inc. (EPS) founded in 1997. EPS is the leading authority in helping organizations achieve greater financial results by optimizing employee job performance. EPS develops high-performance workforces through training, organizational design, and process improvement. EPS is unique in their depth and breadth of experience in understanding and relating to business owners and their employees, due to their extensive history and focus on people-based strategy development and execution.
Publications
Terry is a well-known and respected author on a wide variety of topics. Terry’s most recent book, Hire the Best C-Store Employees – Interviewing Tactics for Hiring Employees Who Can Actually Make You Money, was a #1 seller in the petroleum/convenience industry. Terry writes a monthly column for Convenience Store News and Single Store Operator, and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal and the Harvard Business School corporate training video, Benchmarking Outside The Box.
ExxonMobil Corporation
Prior to founding EPS, Terry worked 17-years with ExxonMobil Corporation – U.S. Marketing Division. While at ExxonMobil, Terry led the development and implementation of a national customer service strategy, in addition to leading the achievement of ISO-9002 certification for customer service for convenience stores for ExxonMobil’s Singapore marketing affiliate.
Keynote Speaker
Terry connects with his audiences on an emotional level as he introduces concepts and methods that challenge their thinking, question their mental models and ignite their passion. Terry’s ability to relate to the boardroom as well as the frontline, his unique perspective on today’s key business issues, combined with his sense of humor, energy and enthusiastic passion result in audiences and clients requesting him again and again. Most importantly, Terry’s audiences leave with specific recommendations and strategies that are practical, implementable, and cost-effective, that will enable them to take their organizations to the next level.
Terry McKenna Speaking Topics
TAKE CHANGE BY THE HAND BEFORE IT TAKES YOU BY THE THROAT
Change brings both promise and peril. Organizations need to be quicker and more agile, because in a faster moving, more complex and uncertain world, success has never been more fleeting. Organizations must change before it becomes obvious. The most successful way to change is to create it. But to do so, organizations must be organized to position themselves out in front of the change curve otherwise they will be forced to change on their competitor's terms, which is competitive suicide. The key to success is to tilt the playing field to your advantage, and you do that by changing the rules of engagement. Organizations don't get better by chance, they get better by change!
CREATE YOUR FUTURE BEFORE IT CREATES YOU
The future is unknown, uncertain, and unpredictable. Because it's all three, organizations need a strategy to mapout their future. Sadly, too many organizations sacrifice their future for the present - then they're blindsided when the future arrives. Organizations are making their future, for better or worse, by what they do each day: decisions, behaviors, inactions. The future has already happened; the starting point is what is happening now and in the recent past that will have predictable effects in the years to come. The future requires decisions - now. It imposes risk - now. It requires action - now! "The future depends on what we do in the present." -Mahatma Gandhi
HOW TO CREATE A HIGH-PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION
Talent and skills shortages make up the #2 risk facing organizations today right after loss of customers. The ability to attract, retain and optimize employee job performance is the key differentiator that separates the great organizations from the pack. Top performers propel organizations on the fast track. You can't build a winning organization with slackers. Organizations must be ruthless in getting the right people, with the right skills, in the right roles, and the wrong people out of them. Talent is the driver of organizational success. Leveraging that talent demands new ways of thinking about how to transform human capital into financial capital. Potential means nothing if you don't do anything with it!
STRATEGY EXECUTION VS. IMPLEMENTATION - THERE’S A DIFFERENCE, AND IT'S A BIG ONE
No matter how brilliant a company's strategy, it still must be executed. Poor execution undercuts even the most brilliant strategy. An idea is only worth $10. It's the ability to execute that idea that turns it into a $10M idea. Strategy execution accounts for 85% of an organization's financial results. Average companies implement their strategy then walk away thinking the job is done. Great companies understand that the implementation phase of a strategy merely tees up the most critical phase: execution. Implementation and execution are distinctly different processes, yet interdependent on each other for success. Your ability to consistently execute your strategy - not just implement it is what will separate you from your competitors and enable you to win.
Terry McKenna Books
Hire the Best C-Store Employees – Interviewing Tactics for Hiring Employees Who Can Actually Make You Money
Purchase Book Hire the Best C-Store Employees � Interviewing Tactics for Hiring Employees Who Can Actually Make You Money
Purchase BookTerry McKenna Videos
Terry McKenna Speaker Testimonials
In over 20-years of booking speakers I have rarely – if ever – had the kind of positive feedback from my attendees as you generated.
- The Southern Association of Wholesale Distributors | CEO
Simply stated, your session, “Developing a High-Performance Workforce” was the #1 rated session at this year’s retailer convention. You’ve scored a trifecta, since this is the third time you’ve grabbed top honors.
- ExxonMobil | U.S. Retail Training Manager
Great comments from your recent presentation to our Chevron retailers and marketers. Here’s just a few: 1) Best session I’ve ever attended, 2) Made me second-guess and re-think about things that I never really thought twice about, 3) Loved the suggestions on emotional marketing and community involvement.
- Chevron Products Company | Learning Track Coordinator
Your presentation and insights on “Employee Engagement” contributed significantly to the overall success of Retail’s Big Show.
- National Retail Federation | Sr. VP Member Services
