Rita E.
Positivity Influencer at Ignite Your Extraordinary
Management Consulting
Education: BA, Psychology (Business minor), Mary Baldwin University - MS, Organizational Psychology, Clemson University
Louisville, KY, USA
Biography
Rita Ernst specializes in interactive and engaging keynotes and workshops that increase participant energy while delivering immediately actionable content. Her consulting and coaching work with businesses of various sizes and types provides a continuous source of current and relatable stories and experiences that resonate with audiences. She has been featured as a culture and change management expert by Forbes, MSNBC, and over 30 podcasts worldwide since the June 2022 release of her first book on workplace culture, "Show Up Positive." Rita's most recent accolades include Top Influential Leader of 2022 by TAP-In Magazine and Most Positive Management Consultancy of the Year 2023 - USA by Acquisition International's Influential Businesswoman Awards. Rita holds an advanced degree in Organizational Psychology from Clemson University. She owns Ignite Your Extraordinary, an organizational consulting practice emphasizing the convergence of happiness and productivity to create positive, committed, high-performing organizations. Her professional credits include adjunct professor for graduate and undergraduate classes and article contributor to various national magazines. Her first co-authored book, "Culture Impact: Strategies to Create World-Changing Workplaces," releases on June 9th of this year.
Passion
Culture & workplace well-being; Positive mindset and well-being; Human-centered leadership & change management
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
I generally get paid for speaking but make exceptions
Topics
Best Story
Susan was a pot stirrer. She was highly critical of her teammates and company management and loved to spread her discontent through whispered conversations. She saw herself as the heroic truth-teller, rallying others. However, her impact was only sometimes beneficial. Her behavior soured attitudes, initiated gossip, and stoked distrust.
As the dissatisfaction of individuals grew, it spread like a disease, and unhappiness settled over the workplace like a thick fog. Passivity, self-centeredness, and defensiveness became the new norm. A rapid decline in the team's performance followed. They felt trapped in a downward spiral from which they felt helpless to escape. This intelligent, capable, caring group had unwittingly engineered a toxic culture.
When I met Susan and her teammates, they were suffering. They recalled who they used to be and longed to turn back the hands of time. They spoke of their desire to restore their happiness, fulfillment, and productivity but failed to see the path that would get them there.
People are unreliable narrators. Your stories reflect your thoughts and experiences, which contain misinterpretations, confusion, and erroneous conclusions. These accounts form assumptions and beliefs that dictate how you interpret the world around you and frequently cause you to skip the step of critically challenging yourself. You express conviction as you speak your conclusions, act from your beliefs, and persuade others to agree with you. And it is this cycle that led to the derailment of Susan's company culture.
The self-perpetuating cycle of negativity holding Susan's organization hostage is likely to be familiar to you:
Disruptive change catapulted people into the habit of complaining.
Over time, the content of the complaints broadened to include statements about co-workers, which were received as personal attacks and resulted in defensiveness and distrust.
As trust deteriorated, community and connection followed suit.
Everyone was waiting for someone else to change, which stoked resentment and feelings of powerlessness.
Perceived powerlessness diminished people's sense of autonomy and competence, deepening their disconnection and discontent.
More discontent resulted in more complaints.
So if people's thoughts are the root of the problem, it only makes sense that the place to start repairing the culture is deconstructing and reforming the thought-behavior relationship.
Origin Story
My only professional career has been using my coaching and consulting skills to build workplaces that invite teamwork, ownership, personal growth, and outstanding results for all stakeholders. Work is essential to our identities, our need to earn a living, and our ability to contribute to something greater than ourselves. It only makes sense that workplaces should leverage our shared strengths to create extraordinary outcomes for everyone involved. My mission is to replace old command and control operating modes and create new conversations that enable us to envision and enact people-first workplaces that achieve greater success.
Example talks
WORKSHOP: Positively Resilient Cultures
AUDIENCE: management -- this session is popular for executives, intact management teams, regional leadership meetings, pre-conference bonus events
INTEREST ADDRESSED: navigating difficult change, leadership actions during change, cultivating healthy workplace cultures, reviving low team morale, increasing team performance & engagement
PARTICIPANT TAKEAWAYS:
> The 6-step model for cultivating resiliency
> The leadership actions that encourage resiliency
> The skills that support resiliency
SUMMARY: Resilience during change has less to do with the individual resilience of the people impacted and more to do with the organization's ability to manage change effectively. Rita delivers her 6-Step process for building organizational resilience for faster and more sustainable change.
DESIGN: 2.5-3 hour workshop; also available as a 1-hour concurrent session
WORKSHOP: Show Up Positive Leadership--reconnect, repair, and replace the 3 lies keeping you stuck
AUDIENCE: people managers -- this session is popular for intact management teams, regional leadership meetings, pre-conference bonus events
INTEREST ADDRESSED: cultivating healthy workplace cultures, reviving low team morale, increasing team performance & engagement
PARTICIPANT TAKEAWAYS:
> Uncover & replace the myths and practices depleting you and your organization
> Use the 3 Rs of Show Up Positive Leadership to sustainably increase engagement
SUMMARY: Historic management practices are no longer effective. Workers want leaders who inspire and motivate and meaningful work in which they contribute to a purpose greater than the sum of the tasks they perform. Engagement plummets When these needs are unmet, toppling quality and performance while increasing costs. In this highly interactive workshop, Rita Ernst (author of "Show Up Positive") reveals the three inherent lies in the traditional management job description and the corresponding essential pivots required to lead the modern workforce effectively.
DESIGN: 2.5-3 hours
KEYNOTE: Embrace the Messy Middle
AUDIENCE: general -- this session is popular for company leadership meetings, professional organization meetings & conferences, business organizations & conferences
INTEREST ADDRESSED: navigating change, reviving low team morale, resilience during change, increasing team performance & cohesion
PARTICIPANT TAKEAWAYS:
> Change always looks like a mess in the middle
> Change resembles the metamorphosis of the butterfly
> Change has three predictable stages
> Emerging from your change inferno requires three things
SUMMARY: Welcome to the 'messy middle.' You are right where you are supposed to be if you are experiencing frustration, doubt, confusion, longing, or exasperation. And, don't shoot the messenger, but it is likely to get worse before it gets better. But take heart, you are on your own version of Dante's journey to Paradise, and now that you've passed through the gates of Hell inscribed with the words, "All hope abandon ye who enter here," the only way forward is through. Luckily, the road is known and well-traveled, and Rita shares three essential tips to guide you on your journey.
DESIGN: This Keynote can be adapted to fit 25-50 minute sessions.
KEYNOTE: Show Up Positive Starts With You
AUDIENCE: general -- this session is popular for all-employee meetings, professional organization meetings & conferences, business organizations, & conferences
INTEREST ADDRESSED: workplace culture, reviving low team morale, empowering individual change, increasing team performance & cohesion
PARTICIPANT TAKEAWAYS:
> Differentiate the workplace culture you have from the one you desire
> Assess your relationship bank accounts and learn to grow them
> Interpret complaints through the filter of longing to discover shared purpose
> Recommit to the behaviors aligned with creating what you want
SUMMARY: Remember when teamwork and camaraderie made your workday fun and fulfilling? Negativity bias is real, and unchecked keeps you stuck in a depleting cycle of discontent. Positivity Influencer Rita Ernst reveals how to intentionally cultivate positive thoughts and behaviors to restore the positive, soul-filling workplace you deserve. You'll learn how to use your agency to spark change that attracts others to join you.
DESIGN: This Keynote can be adapted to fit 25-50 minute sessions.