For over 15 years, founder and CEO of Mind Insurance, Mel Neil has facilitated education and application opportunities for individuals and corporations to apply change and realise their full potential.
In her extensive career, she has educated many thousands of individuals in Applied Emotional Intelligence, focusing on presenting the empirical science and current research to lead others to an understanding and application of human flourishing.
Mel’s unique approach is driven by a desire to empower people of all backgrounds to make a life-long change that is relevant and sustainable.
Knowing that everyone has the right to flourish, she tailors packages and courses by carefully considering people’s unique needs and interests. This allows workshop and course participants to experience long-term success, through gaining a thorough understanding of the science of their emotions and human flourishing.
The success of Mel’s programs is evident in developing a true understanding and maintaining psychological wellbeing in her participants. Rather than focusing on products, participants learn the science and access relevant tools to effectively utilise the research for their own needs.
Mel sees her role as holding a space where she can teach the science in a practical way to those who can use it to improve the areas of their life that they wish to change. Whether through the award-winning Melbourne Tourism Leadership Program, the Happiness Lab, the Academy, or a program created just for you, learning from Mel will change your life and the lives of those around you.
Talking Points
A Flourishing Workforce - full of Happy and Healthy Humans
The battle for organisations to cultivate a healthy, safe, productive and profitable workplace is getting more challenging. The research shows that they are not winning.A Flourishing Workforce - full of Happy and Healthy Humans
Globally workforce engagement is at 15%; in Australia, it is 14%. Workers with low engagement have 12% more sick days per month, a performance loss of 8%, costing Australian employers $4796 monthly.
Mental injuries occur more frequently than physical injuries in the workplace. They are costing Australian employers $6.3 billion per annum.
Leveraging Human Capital can only happen when people are Flourishing. We can’t achieve this by managing arms and legs; we must also focus on nourishing hearts and minds.
Flourishing humans have:
- Greater resilience,
- Higher engagement,
- Lower levels of stress,
- Better quality decision-making when under pressure,
- More successful conflict resolution outcomes
- Higher levels of trustworthiness,
-Better physical and psychological health outcomes
- Recover faster from setbacks, and
- Cope better with change
Mel unlocks the Science of Human Flourishing for individuals, teams and organisations.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand what Flourishing is and isn’t
- Learn the only empirical framework for cultivating a Landscape for Flourishing
- Understand the causes of flourishing in individuals and teams
- Strategies for cultivating an environment where people can be at their best
Presented as a keynote or series of half-day or full-day workshops
Emotional Intelligence - the Science of Emotion and Psychological Fitness
In 2022, the World Economic Forum identified the top skills required to be successful in the world of work. 11 of the top 15 skills are EI competencies.Emotional Intelligence - the Science of Emotion and Psychological Fitness
EI is familiar, but organisations need to equip their people with this skillset with an urgency not seen before.
Overwhelm, anxiety, stress, lack of engagement and motivation, and increased conflict is becoming the norm for workers instead of the exception. The daily challenges facing most of us are at an all-time high intensity.
Emotional Intelligence is the most critical skill set required for successfully navigating work and life.
When we increase the amount of Emotionally Intelligent Behaviour displayed in the workplace, psychological safety is a given, collaboration is the norm, and KPIs take care of themselves.
Mel unlocks the science of emotions and EI making it accessible and doable like no other EI Practitioner.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand why EI matters more than ever
- Understand how our brain organises emotion
- Increase awareness of our emotions' impact on performance, decisions and behaviour.
- Learn the common mistakes made by organisations that have tried but failed to improve EI in their organisations.
- Strategies for understanding current levels of EI
- Strategies for building individual and organisational EI
Presented as a keynote, series of half-day or full-day workshops
Creating a burnout-free workplace - identifying, recovering from and preventing burnout
There are enormous financial and human costs associated with burnout. There is a steady drumbeat of increased successful actions taken to redress accidents, suicides and stress-induced illnesses attributed to poor employment practices.Creating a burnout-free workplace - identifying, recovering from and preventing burnout
The World Economic Forum puts the estimated cost of burnout to the global economy at U$332 billion annually and growing.
Mel presents the latest empirical science of burnout. Why is it increasing? How do we identify it and help people recover?
Key Takeaways:
- Increase your awareness of what burnout is and isn’t
- Understand the causes of and how to recognise and diagnose burnout
- Strategies for Overcoming and recovering from burnout
- Strategies for preventing burnout
Presented as a keynote, half-day or full-day workshop
Positive Leadership - creating high performance using Strengths
‘When is the best time to plant a tree? - 20 years ago, what is the next best time? NOW’. It couldn’t be more true of ‘Leadership’ as a concept.Positive Leadership - creating high performance using Strengths
We needed to make wholesale changes to Leadership Development many years ago. Those that did have had a very different experience over the last five years than those that didn’t.
The quality of leadership an employee experiences directly impacts their levels of engagement, goal attainment, the decision to leave or stay, physical and psychological health, impact on others, and the quality of their daily contribution.
This enormous responsibility can be overwhelming for leaders busy managing arms and legs and not focussing on nurturing hearts and minds. We must equip Leaders with the skills to inspire and motivate their employees. And that means we need to move on from ‘Leadership Styles’ and Quickly!
Every person has, on average, eight strengths that they take to work every day, don’t get to use, and then take them home again. Multiply that by the number of employees you have, and that is the existing resource available to you right now that you are not tapping into.
Mel presents the science of Positive Leadership and a Strengths-Based approach to personal and professional development in the workplace.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand what Positive Leadership is and isn’t
- Learn about the science of Strengths
- Empirical benefits of unleashing Strengths for individuals and teams
- Impact of a Strengths-Based Approach to strategic planning
- Strategies for integrating a Strengths-Based Approach at every touchpoint of the employee life cycle
Presented as a keynote, series of half-day or full-day workshops
Authentic Mindfulness - the most powerful tool in every human's toolkit
Mindfulness has come into prominence in the last few years. Presented as a cure-all for every potential and existing problem, it has become a buzzword and the latest fad.Authentic Mindfulness - the most powerful tool in every human's toolkit
The modern scientific discoveries of mindfulness's benefits have led to a mainstream acceptance of a practice that has existed for more than 2500 years. However, in our all-too-common pursuit of the fastest and easiest methods of solving problems, many of the real benefits of mindfulness practice have been lost in watered-down programs.
What makes humans resilient under stress?
Stress occurs when the demands of a situation outweigh the resources available to meet them. We often create or increase stress beyond the actual demands put on us. E.g. worrying about what might or might not happen.
Mindfulness changes people’s brains and physiology, changing their experience and improving their health over time. It takes some hard work to change our brains, and it also requires using authentic practices.
Mel combines ancient practices with modern science in an accessible and practical way.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn what Mindfulness is and isn’t
- Benefits of mindfulness practice
- How to identify if a practice is not authentic and how to fix it yourself
- How to get started with your practice
- Strategies for integrating mindfulness at work
- Free resources you can use and experience positive results immediately
Presented as a keynote, short workshop
Video
Mel Neil | Saxton Speakers | Showreel
For over 15 years, founder and CEO of Mind Insurance, Mel Neil has facilitated education and application opportunities for individuals and corporations to apply change and realise their full potential. In her extensive career, she has educated many thousands of individuals in Applied Emotional Intelligence, focusing on presenting the empirical science and current research to lead others to an understanding and application of human flourishing. Mel’s unique approach is driven by a desire to empower people of all backgrounds to make a life-long change that is relevant and sustainable.Mel’s session was the most well-attended session with standing room only. Participants were captivated and really challenged to rethink their understanding of Emotional Intelligence. ... keep reading Gartner
Mel’s emotional Intelligence training has not only made me a better leader but also a better parent and partner. Truly life changing.
Due to the overwhelmingly positive feedback, Mel was engaged to work with us to develop our first leadership program for our mid-level leaders. Over 12 months, Mel delivered three programs to 110 leaders, designed around emotional intelligence, positive leadership and using a strengths-based development approach. The leaders all found Mel to be very engaging and the content was relevant to enhancing their work lives and all facets of their lives. It was common to hear our leaders wanting more ‘Mel time’.
Someone who listened and who I felt genuinely had my interests at heart. And then, the advice and learnings, built around the science, letting me work it out and guiding me through it when it wasn’t clear. I want you to know how important you and our work together have been to me, my sense of who I am, and wherever I go next. I am finally at the dawn of what I hope will be a better year globally, I want to thank you again from the bottom of my heart for everything that you did to help me. I will never forget it. Thank you.
Engaging our leaders has always been a challenge, and finding learning opportunities that really resonate with our people has never been easy. I had never seen our senior leaders as mesmerised and fully attentive as when Mel spoke to them. She connected with them all on a very personal level and gave real practical help, not just another lecture about how to be a better leader. ‘She is just so real and tells it like it is’ was some feedback we got.
We are a tough crowd when it comes to addressing mental health issues. Our members were amazed at how much they learned that not just helped them on the job but in their personal relationships as well. Mel had their respect in the first 5 minutes and kept them fully engaged for the entire presentation.
Just wanted to say thank you, Mel. I am sure you have heard this before, but you have really changed my life! I feel so much clearer and, may I say, mindful. Had an incident yesterday that would usually send me into overdrive, but I stood back, thought of the 90% of the other person (whom I did not know) and walked away. Love ya work, Mel.
