Graeme Joy

Graeme Joy is the first Australian to ski to both the North Pole and solo to the Magnetic North Pole.

Applying his first hand knowledge of teams, and how to develop top level performance, Graeme delivers high powered presentations that clearly define the power of leadership, team success and goal setting. His presentations also deliver clear and valuable messages about selecting and building the right team, individual and team motivation, planning and preparation. In addition to his popular keynote presentations, Graeme conducts corporate leadership, teamwork and experiential training. This has included the first trip by water of the Cooper Creek, from Innaminka to Lake Eyre, for a top performing management team.

Importantly, in every presentation or training exhibition, Graeme illustrates the importance of commitment to excellence by each person involved. In the Arctic, if you get it wrong you die!

More about Graeme Joy:

In May 1998 Graeme Joy reached the Magnetic North Pole alone, except for traveling the last one and a half days of the 19 day expedition with Paul Landry of Canada, due to lack of radio communications. He became the first Australian to go unguided and alone to the Magnetic North Pole. Graeme hauled his own sled and ski sailed.

Graeme became the first, and only, Australian to ski to the North Pole as a member of “Icewalk – The International North Pole Expedition”. His roles during the expedition included joint leader and navigator with Russian, Misha Malakov, Canadian Inuit, Angus Cockney and radio operator. His other major role during “Icewalk” was to develop its internationally renowned student expedition and education programmes which were recognised and awarded by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Graeme has led, conducted and participated in some 88,000 participant days in outdoor development training, adventure expeditions and scientific expeditions for adults and students. These have ranged from Australia to the Arctic, Antarctica, Greenland, Africa, Canada, the USA, the British Isles, Europe and New Zealand.

During September 1993, he organised and led a team of business people on a traverse climb of the highest mountain in Africa, Mt. Kilimanjaro, from Kenya to Tanzania. During May and June, 1993, Graeme led an Australian expedition which climbed Mt. McKinley in Alaska, the highest mountain in North America. In December 1991, he co-led a team of business people to climb Mt. Vinson, the highest mountain in Antarctica, stopping 300m below the summit to guide down a client with a knee injury. His clients (including James Strong, then CEO Qantas; Brian Singer, Founding Director RipCurl; Geoff Knight, dentist), described this as “the most committed and selfless act they had seen in a team – you gave up the summit for the well-being of a team member”.

Graeme has sea kayaked the South East Coast of Greenland, he was deputy leader on this expedition and played a major role in its funding and development. As part of the training for this expedition, he, and his team completed the first unassisted sea kayak crossing of Bass Strait – Tasmania to Victoria.

Corporate Management Training and Facilitation Qualifications include: Wilson Learning: Social Styles, Negotiation Skills, Authentic Leader Margerison-McCann: Team Management Systems Pacific Institute: Investment in Excellence

Graeme was the Master in Charge of Outdoor Education at Geelong Grammar School, Timbertop. While at Timbertop he substantially changed Timbertop’s educational programme in the outdoors, environmental science, its’ academic staffing policy re the outdoors and designed and implemented its ground breaking, mid-week weekend programme. Before attending university in England, Graeme won and held class records in most major Australian marathon kayak championships. Some records stood for up to nine years.

Graeme Joy talks about:

• Leading Your High Performance Team – In the fields of corporate speaking and extreme environment achievement, Graeme holds a unique place. His presentations combine the thrills of an inspiring adventure with the management and personal development material that makes his wisdom instantly useable in your business or everyday life. In this address, Graeme looks at the critical role of the leader in the development of quality team performance. He focuses on the qualities of the high performance leader and the implications for the aspiring leader and his/her team.

These include:

• Vision – its creation and developing commitment within your team. Defining success and the measurement of performance.
• Empowerment – creating leaders within your organisation.
• Creating a Sense of Urgency – critical for the leader
• Communication – high performance leaders are excellent communicators. Recognising the m personality types within your organisation and communicating effectively.
• Attitude – the cultivation of a positive attitude which Graeme stresses is more important that a skill base
• Empathy – a quality of the high performance leader and his team; the legacy of the high performance leader.

Importantly, Graeme believes that leadership can be learned and shows how you can become a
high performance leader by concentrating on some simple fundamentals.