Kris Boesch

About

Kris talks about how when people feel good about coming to work, they show up not only as better workers but as better people for everyone in their lives.
Audiences learn how to renew their commitment to teamwork and one another by developing common ground and creating profound accountability and a strong sense of "our work" through a shared identity and vision.
Kris has been featured as a workplace culture expert in Inc., Entrepreneur and Forbes and was recently named one of the “Top 100 Leadership Speakers” in Inc.
Past clients include: Petsmart, SE Johnson, SHRM, PMI, IPMA and Magnolia.

About Kris Boesch - Founder & CEO of Choose People, Author & Keynote Speaker

Kris Boesch is the CEO and Founder of Choose People, a company that transforms company cultures, increases employee happiness and boosts the bottom-line. The Choose People 360° Culture Audit is based on over 1000 hours of research conducted with the Industrial Organizational Psychology Department at Colorado State University.

She is also the author of Culture Works: How to Create Happiness in the Workplace. Prior to Choose People, Boesch was the CEO of Exodus Moving & Storage.

Kris’ journey into workplace culture started when she became the CEO of Exodus Moving & Storage.

Where many saw just another moving company Kris recognized quickly that if her employees felt good about coming to work, they would take better care of customers. In turn, this meant the financial health of the company would prosper.

The catch was the deck was stacked against her. The company was struggling to cover payroll. Turnover was high and culture toxicity even higher. And on top of all of that she didn’t have industry experience nor earned respect to demand behavioral changes. In short, the common approach of a boss-centric leadership style wasn’t going to cut it. She knew she was going to have to earn every inch of authority and return every penny of respect she gained to breakthrough.

So, she went to work to find another way, a way that put the focus on the only real leverage she had – her team.

She discovered that when people feel good about coming to work, they show up not only as better workers but as better people for everyone in their lives. Step-by-step she cultivated ways to create a culture where her team did feel good about coming to work.

Under her leadership Exodus became the largest mover in Northern Colorado with a turnover rate of 40% less than the industry average and a bottom line twice that same average.

But most notable of all – the workplace experience of her team went from being one of misery to one of joy.

From there, Kris’ life work truly began.

Kris has been featured as a workplace culture expert in Inc., Entrepreneur and Forbes and was recently named one of the “Top 100 Leadership Speakers” in Inc. Kris's past clients include Petsmart, SE Johnson, SHRM, PMI, IPMA and Magnolia.

Topics

What Kris Boesch talks about:

What to Say & How to Say It

This proven training creates team-wide commitment and capacity to directly resolve conflict. Through four steps, your team will learn how to communicate kindly, candidly and constructively. Across a variety of organizations in a multitude of industries, the Funkytown training has repeatedly reduced drama, gossip and triangulation while increasing team cohesion and camaraderie.

Kris’s down-to-earth, no-fuss approach to communicating concerns and frustrations resonates with those who relate to that pit of the stomach feeling when things go sideways. Many of us are accustomed – especially in the workplace – to avoid conflict at all costs. Some simply feel like it’s not worth the risk. Others just aren’t sure how and others don’t want to appear “negative.” In this highly interactive and humorous presentation, Kris will empower participants to speak on purpose as well as provide clear insightful steps to move tough conversations forward.

Key takeaways include:

Framework to Painlessly Tackle the Toughest of Conversations
Learn Communication that Creates Accountability
How to Communicate in a Way that’s Kind, Candid & Constructive
Self-Awareness of Your Conflict Style and that of Your Peers

How to Make Your Employees Happy & Your Organization Money

In this highly interactive and energized presentation, Kris Boesch weaves valuable content, enlightening stories and tangible tools to improve your organization’s culture and retention. Boesch who approaches workplace culture as the most paramount asset to an organization’s financial success, provides participants with specific tangible no-cost ways to create an extraordinary workplace culture. Whereas other programs miss the mark by only talking about employee “satisfaction” or “engagement,” Boesch takes workplace culture to a whole new level well beyond compensation, basic HR practices and “perks.” Participants will be able to take her doable best practices and lessons learned and implement them within their organizations to see immediate results.

Key takeaways include:

The Bottom-Line Business Case and ROI of Happy Employees
The 8 Critical Factors to Employee Happiness
The Top 10 Ways to Create & Keep Happy Employees

Break Down Silos & Build Up Trust

Interdependency awareness leads to profound team mindfulness and team members who are not only committed to personal success, but also to the success of their co-workers and the organization as a whole. Interdependency awareness creates a strong sense of belonging while dissipating divisions and emphasizing both community and collaboration. Meaningful analogies will be provided to create a shared language amongst your team to ground and activate this concept into their daily work experience. In this highly interactive and energized workshop, Kris Boesch will weave valuable content, enlightening stories and tangible tools to support you in creating interdependency awareness across your organization.

Key takeaways include:

Renewing Your Team’s Commitment to the Mission and One Another
Developing Common Ground, Deeper Camaraderie and Shared Identity
Creating Profound Accountability and a Strong sense of “Our Work”

How to Create Emotional Intimacy in the Workplace

This is culture 4.0. In this workshop, Kris takes cultural savviness to the next level. She unveils why emotional intimacy is the secret ingredient to the secret sauce of workplace culture. Participants will learn how to create voluntary collaboration, camaraderie and connection amongst their teams. This “glue” results in perseverance through tough times, inspiration to go the extra mile and retention of top talent. Divisions between “us and them” dissipate. In this highly interactive presentation, Kris weaves insightful content, memorable stories and tactical tools to take your company’s culture to the next terrace.

Key takeaways include understanding:

Why Emotional Intimacy is a Non-Negotiable
The 3 Critical Paradigm Shifts
7 Savvy Strategies to Strengthen Your Team

Recent Publications

“We wanted to extend a HUGE thank you from our team to you! Thank you again for giving such a meaningful talk and for being such a great person to work with. From our first discussion, we knew you would be a wonderful speaker for Carle Health. Your willingness to learn about us, our areas of improvement, and how you could help our leaders was much appreciated. Feedback from our CDI has been overwhelmingly positive and many leaders expressed appreciation for how useful your tools will be.”