Renowned Behaviorist and Bestselling Author of the Surrounded by Idiots
Thomas Erikson: Biography at a Glance
- Thomas Erikson is a Swedish behaviorist and bestselling author of the Surrounded by series, including Surrounded by Idiots, which has been translated into nearly 60 languages and sold over 7 million copies worldwide.
- Surrounded by Idiots categorizes people into four personality types based on color to help people understand their own behavioral style and how to communicate with others.
- His mission is to help people improve their daily lives by fostering self-awareness and understanding what it takes for effective communication and relationships.
- As a highly sought-after public speaker, Thomas delivers 120 keynotes annually on topics such as human behavior, communication, leadership, narcissism, manipulation, and self-awareness.
- He serves as a coach and mentor to high-level executives and entrepreneurs across Europe, providing guidance on personal and professional development.
- Thomas lives by the philosophy, "You can't change somebody else, but you can change yourself," emphasizing personal responsibility in growth and communication.
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Biography
Thomas Erikson is a Swedish behaviourist and the bestselling author of the Surrounded by-books, a series about human behaviours and communication. The series, including Surrounded by Idiots, has been translated into close to 60 languages and has sold over 7 million copies. His mission is to make people’s lives easier on a daily level by making them aware of themselves. But also to help them to a better understanding of what it takes to achieve the best possible ground for effective communication.
He is a highly sought-after public speaker and gives 120 keynotes per year on topics such as human behaviours, communication, self-awareness, manipulation, narcissism, and leadership. From his home office, Thomas is a coach and mentor for high-level executives and entrepreneurs all over Europe. He lives by the simple but useful quote: You can’t change somebody else, but you can change yourself.
Fun fact: Thomas is a true anglophile. He is a passionate gardener and loves topiary: if he could wear tweed the full year he would. And he is a collector of old Land Rovers.
Topics
The Idiot-Proof Guide to Workplace Communication
Miscommunication can derail teams, hinder productivity, and create workplace tension. Based on Thomas Erikson’s bestselling book Surrounded by Idiots, this talk offers a simple, actionable framework to enhance workplace communication by understanding four key personality types—Red, Blue, Green, and Yellow.
Tailored for corporate professionals, this session provides strategies to navigate challenging team dynamics, handle conflicts with confidence, and motivate diverse personalities. From managing up to leading teams effectively, attendees will leave equipped with tools to foster collaboration, improve efficiency, and create a more harmonious and productive work environment.
Surrounded by Idiots? Here's How to Get Rid of Them!
Have you ever argued with your partner and felt like your words and feelings did not get understood? Ever had a colleague you don’t get along with, regardless of how accommodating you are?
In this lecture, Thomas helps you understand those incomprehensible situations, conversations, and people. Just because we’re all different doesn’t mean we can’t function together in both social and professional situations. Thomas wants to help you manage the people you don’t get along with, but he also wants you to leave the lecture with a heightened self-awareness regarding your own behaviour and what it communicates beyond your words.
With the help of models from the world of behavioural science, Thomas’s own experiences and a dash of humour will give you and your organisation an introduction to how to think, get through, and get results with behavioural archetypes. Thomas wants you to be able to take his lessons beyond the lecture and use them at home, in the office, or while you mingle.
The lecture can be customized to fit the specific needs of your organization and shift focus on e.g.
leadership, sales, service, customer relations, conflict resolution, etc.
Surrounded by Setbacks: How to Turn Setbacks into Success
When the heavens open over your daughter's graduation party. When the bank's savings tip went completely wrong. When your presentation that will kickstart your career is on the other USB stick. Or when your worst enemy at the company got the promotion, you thought you had in the bag. In short: when everything goes to hell.
Dealing with life's inevitable adversities is an art far from being mastered by everyone. And of course, it can hurt sometimes when nothing goes your way. Sometimes you don't want to accept that these things had to happen to you. Why can’t things just work?
But all is not just doom and gloom. There are a lot of bright spots if you just learn to look in the right place. And the facts actually state that pretty much nothing works the first time you try it.
During the lecture Surrounded by Setbacks, Thomas shows how you find the right attitude to the fact that sometimes life does not follow the path you would really like, but also how you lay the foundation for what you really want - success.
No matter how you choose to define success, that feeling is among the most valuable things there is. The starting point is that even small steps can be very important. Because this isn't just about thinking positively - although that's a good basic attitude. The main focus of the lecture is instead on what you can concretely do to get out of the mess. You will be presented with a series of very concrete tools that will create a structure for your path forward.
The goal? Achieving the inner peace that says you are on the right path. Based on real studies and personal experiences, Thomas shows how you can lay a solid foundation to achieve more success in your life. Join us on a real rollercoaster over mountain peaks, down into deep valleys, through dense forests, and back out into the sunshine again.
Leadership: Why Become a Leader? And Why is the Job So Difficult?
A boss can never do everything right in the eyes of one’s employees. The boss is either invisible and uncommitted or breathing down the employees’ necks. One exaggeration takes turns with another. In the worst of worlds, the relationship suffers to the extent that a dialogue between leadership and manpower is non-existent. How did it end up so bad? What can you do as a leader or employee?
Thomas has trained over 4500 executives in his career. Regardless of what problems exist between leadership and the workforce, no Excel sheet, sales goal, or kick-off meeting can impact the relationship as much as the core of it – the communication.
During this lecture, Thomas wants to give you – the leader, future leader, or employee who wants to improve the relationship with your boss – the tools to manage your relationship with your executives or employees in the best possible manner. How does your counterpart function? How does your counterpart respond to your behaviour? How can you use these insights to make the relationship work for you and not against you?
Thomas will go through this and much more, with the help of cases from his experience in training executives, findings in behavioural sciences, and hopefully your stories as well.
