Andrew McNeill
Andrew McNeill has spent 20 years in senior leadership, most recently consulting on a £7bn national programme. Throughout his career he has led large teams in high pressure environments.
He is also an accredited mindfulness teacher and brought these two worlds together in his book Organisational Mindfulness – a How-to Guide in 2019, which has sold in 4 continents. By integrating his leadership experience and insights from being a mindfulness teacher Andrew has developed a method to help leaders and their teams embed and implement techniques which improve performance, build psychological safety and support their own and their collective wellbeing.
Andrew McNeill co-founded LXLeaders to be able to share these tools with other teams and leaders. He specialises in working with teams enabling them to connect better and listen to each other. Andrew also works directly with leaders, helping them to thrive through the challenges and opportunities of leadership. His techniques have assisted teams and individuals navigate very real challenges and to communicate with honesty and kindness.
Andrew McNeills speaking topics are as follows:
Ethical Leadership – Andrew believes in the need for leadership to be more fully human and uninhibited. In this talk, you will discover what ethical leadership is, why it is needed, particularly in these times when change is the only constant and why attitudes like non-judgment and kindness are so essential to modern day leadership.
Organisational Mindfulness – When he was a Director in the UK Civil Service, Andrew was frustrated by a lack of guidance for those trying to embed mindfulness at an organisational level. So drawing on his own leadership experience and understanding of mindfulness practice he wrote his own guidebook; which has now sold in 4 continents. In this talk Andrew explores how you can introduce mindfulness to processes and products as well as your people.
How to Lead under Pressure – Andrew has faced numerous high intensity leadership situations, from heading up the UK Government’s assurance of the Olympic and Paralympic torches for London 2012 to being a Director on the Building Safety Programme immediately after the Grenfell Fire tragedy. Here Andrew talks about his own personal journey with pressure. What has worked and what didn’t. In this honest account, Andrew shares numerous suggestions that could make a significant difference to the way you lead and the way you can thrive under pressure.
What’s Kindness Got to do with It? – Andrew compares some of the traditional archetypes of leadership with the evidence base of what is needed in today’s organisations. He refers to studies about the value of kindness in the workplace and how it can help your organisation succeed.
Finding our Phoenix – preventing and recovering from burnout
Eleven years ago Andrew realised he was burnt out. He had to step back from work to find techniques that enabled him to move from being overwhelmed, to being able to thrive in high pressure environments. In this talk, Andrew shares his experience of being introduced to mindfulness and other strategies, why he was very sceptical in the beginning and how they have helped transform his life, his leadership and his career.
From this talk you will take away
- Initial neuroscience insights
- An introduction to mindfulness
- Tools to help you integrate these insights into your life
Psychological Safety and why it should matter to you and your team
In this talk Andrew will share powerful examples of how psychological safety can avert risks to your business and enable opportunities to be grabbed. He will also talk about its impact on team culture and how it can enable your team to thrive under pressure. Using evidence based examples Andrew’s engaging talk will give leaders reasons to want to adopt this transformative team mindset and practical tips on how to achieve it.
The key takeaways are –
- Understand why psychological safety matters to the bottom line and your people
- Key indicators as to whether your workplace is psychologically safe
- A pathway to achieving and psychologically safe workplace
“Andrew McNeill had been highly recommended to me at Liberty HR Recruitment as a potential guest-speaker for our monthly HR Leaders’ Forums. After chatting to Andrew and hearing what he had to say, it became apparent that our HR Leaders network really needed to hear from him! He spoke on the subject of ‘Compassion in Leadership’ and he really didn’t disappoint. Andrew delivered his session with an easy style and it was full of engaging subject material. Kindness and compassion are always relevant, perhaps never more so than in our current situation whilst emerging from the Covid pandemic. Andrew ably demonstrated that there is nothing ‘soft’ about kindness.
— Jane Barry, Managing Director of Liberty HR Recruitment.
"Andrew McNeill gave a powerful and inspiring keynote address alongside a panel of business leaders at the launch of the MWC at HSBC's Canary Wharf headquarters in February 2020. This launched the creation of a paid member community. Andrew's keynote left the audience wanting to hear and learn more with many of them signing up to join the Community. Andrew’s incredibly rich knowledge and expertise leaves members inspired, energised and calm. He conducts the flow of webinars effortlessly and his facilitation management allows for a safe space for learning and reflection to take place”
— Theresa Dzendrowskyj, Community Director of The Mindful Workplace Community
