Steven Foster

A recipient of more than 15 top industry leadership awards, Steven has been named one of the most influential people in Meetings and Events, and in 2009 was inducted into the Meeting Professionals International (MPI) Community of Honorees. In 2000, Steven and Wendy Foster became the first husband/wife business team to earn the Certified Meeting Professional (CMP) designation; and both were profiled in 2010 by CNN/Fortune as a Small Business Success.

Steven is Past-Chairman of the Travel, Exposition and Meeting Management Advisory Board at Richland College in Dallas, TX, and has served on the Board of Directors for both the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau and the Hotel Association of Tarrant County. In 2011 he was named to the North Texas Super Bowl Host Committee as Vice-Chair of the Volunteer Services Action Team for Super Bowl XLV.

An avid motorcyclist and a Harley Davidson LIFE member, Steven rides with the American Eagle HOG Chapter, where he is known as “The Fun Boss,” Since 1999 he has ridden approximately 10,000 miles annually on one of two Harley-Davidsons

The Leadership Compass

What makes a great leader?

Misconceptions have caused many organizations to choose leaders based on stage performance, charisma, passion for personal achievement, and other personality characteristics.

In almost every instance, those individuals failed and the reason is simple: personality traits are a poor indicator of leadership capability.

Leadership has nothing to do with what you “might do” (based on your personality). It has everything to do with what you “will do”. This is a learned process of initiating and managing change.

Understanding this fundamental difference is the tipping point when it comes to identifying effective leaders.

“The Leadership Compass” examines the failures associated with traditional personality models. It offers instead a fresh, adaptable process focused on effective decision-making which resolves conflict and targets individual leadership capability, with regard to desired team objectives.

The Leadership Compass positions you to lead and succeed “when the house is on fire.”

Bring Your A Game: Three A’s to Win BIG!

Don’t let what you “can’t do” influence what you “can do.”

Most organizations and individuals know what they want and where they want to go. That’s easy, because they all want the same thing. They want to win.

In 2011, The Sporting News named Dallas the number one sports city in the US, citing two significant firsts in the city’s history; the Texas Rangers ride to the 2010 World Series and the North Texas region hosting Super Bowl XLV. It was the first time Dallas ever made the No. 1 spot and Steven Foster was right in the middle of all the action.

Working with a team of “A Game” event professionals assembled over a 20-year career and in a span of just three months, Steven produced some of the biggest events in all of sports; including the Texas Rangers/Major League Baseball World Series Gala and the FOX Sports Super Bowl XLV Party.

In his presentation, “Bring Your A Game,” Steven Foster will detail the challenges, opportunities and strategies he employed to win on some of the biggest stages in sports marketing. In addition, he also will discuss his leadership role on the North Texas Super Bowl XLV Host Committee where, as Vice Chair of the Volunteer Services Action Team and working alongside former Dallas Cowboy and NFL Hall of Fame running back Tony Dorsett, Steven was part of the team that recruited, trained and deployed almost 10,000 volunteers during Super Bowl XLV in 2011. His experiences on the Road to the World Series and the Super Bowl will challenge your perception of what you can do, NOW, to start winning consistently in your personal or business arena of influence.

“Bring Your A Game” means you are committed to winning through resourceful and unwavering determination, consistently delivering your best in ATTITUDE, ABILITY and ACTION. It requires personal excellence and no excuses. It is being your best in the present moment.

Your Team Sucks: Top 10 Dysfunctional Team Behaviors

As any skier knows, a few harmless flakes working together can unleash an avalanche of destruction.

The perfect team doesn’t exist. The reason? Teams are made up of fallible, flawed folks with everyday failings. Still, most of the time, teams get their work done.

But in some cases, the dysfunction is so bad the team produces more problems than solutions. Those teams SUCK, creating lack of trust, unresolved conflict, no focus and ZERO commitment. Welcome to the Team from Hell, where the likelihood of anything remotely resembling a positive process or improvement of any kind is highly doubtful.

Nothing ever changes.

In his presentation, “Your Team Sucks,” Steven Foster will help you identify the behaviors which are present in all dysfunctional teams; power struggles, passive resistance, factions, mediocrity and indecision. His Team Suckification Report Card will assist you in dealing effectively with your group’s issues (and there are always issues), and to focus on behaviors, reinforce repairs and create accountability.

Participants will learn to “Break on Through” by examine their own contributions to the team dynamic; and begin rebuilding trust and getting your team moving again.

A TIME of Influence

Influence is a powerful force that commands attention.

Influencers change people’s ideas, opinions and actions. They redirect the flow of thought, and alter outcomes. They make us take notice.

Each year since 1927, Time Magazine has featured a person, group, idea or object that “for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the events of the year. Individual people, classes of people, the computer, and Planet Earth have all been selected for the special year-end issue. Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only person to have received the title three times. Albert Einstein was named the Person of the Century in 1999. Controversial figures also have made the list, including Adolf Hitler in 1938, Joseph Stalin in 1939 and again in 1942, and the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979.

In his presentation, “A TIME of Influence,” Steven Foster will detail some of the 85 individuals who made it to the cover as a Time “Person of the Year” and examine Influence in all its forms, raw skill, amazing talent, unique insight or ground-breaking perspective. People are very selective about acknowledging “who influences you” and participants will have the opportunity to discuss those personal influencers – spiritual teachers, literary greats, masters of their craft and closest social connections – to determine a “Network of Influence.”

It all begs the question: what’s your influence score?