About me

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Contact me:
+61 (0)410 642 052

Download my Press Kit for more information about me (zip file; opens in new window).

“Lee Hopkins is a management psychologist with over 20 years experience of helping businesses communicate better for better business results. An internationally sought-after speaker, Lee combines his passion for employee and online business communication with his dynamic presentation skills to create ‘once seen, never forgotten’ live experiences.”

My background
After many years working within organisations at administrative and desktop publishing levels, I trained (and with a business partner practiced) as a management psychologist in England, reading Applied Psychology and Sociology at Surrey. Whilst reading at Surrey I bumped into the internet and immediately felt at home - this was in the days of gray backgrounds, Mozilla 1.0 and no tables to help layout pages. Formatting consisted of centred text and making it blink (ahh, those were the days!).

I worked at one of Rupert Murdoch’s companies in London, first sub-editing his newspapers as we got them online, then producing my own small business media channel. The internet was still very wild and exciting (and it’s still exciting, but thankfully a lot less wild) - it was the era of the advent of Flash, of a bizarre program that people gave away free called Winamp 1.0 (who ever heard of giving away stuff?), a time where ‘browser war’ was unthinkable - there was really only Internet Explorer, which Microsoft put onto every cd in every magazine and Sunday newspaper they could find.

On the death of my father a few years ago I returned to Australia to look after my mother. I was fortunate to be offered a job in Sydney, working for one of Rupert Murdoch’s Australian companies doing as I did in London, but my mother is in Adelaide so I declined. I project managed, introduced and internally marketed a new web-based database application for a national recruiter but due to various internal structural and business challenges it was decided by both parties that they could no longer afford to keep me on staff. I consulted to them until they were purchased by a much larger group and all of the internet responsibilities moved to the group’s IT department, based in Brisbane.

So I set up my stall and consult to businesses on communication issues, predominantly internal communication but also web-based external communication. I leave PR to my PR colleagues.

How I work

There are two things you can expect from me:

• a commitment to the successful completion of your project
• a commitment to your satisfaction

In return, I ask for the following from you:

• a commitment to the successful completion of your project
• a commitment to meet your deadlines for content supply, attending meetings as arranged, and working with me to ensure that your own internal and external customers are delighted with the result

First steps
If you are thinking of contacting me and seeing if I can help you take your business communication to the next level (and I’m confident I can), please read some of my articles on business communication to give you a feel for my style and philosophy.

Then check out my pricing structure.

After that, please don’t hesitate to contact me and arrange a no-obligation discussion over a cup of coffee.

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Effective communication is the single most important skill any business person must master if they are to survive. It is also the joint most important activity of any organisation, alongside it’s sister discipline, Marketing.

Do not underestimate how powerful a tightly focused and accurately directed communication can be. Contact me now.

“Effective communication needs to be built around this simple foundation and realization: communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. In fact, communication is more concerned with a dual listening process.” Dr. Heinz Goldmann, Chair, Heinz Goldmann International Foundation for Executive Communications, Geneva.

“It is vital for the success of our companies that businessmen and women emerge as real leaders and demonstrate their ability to communicate effectively, internally and externally.” Sir Colin Marshall, chairman, British Airways

“Communication in stressful change situations requires sustained and extensive interpretation and reinforcement. Competent, high-trust firms are in a position to communicate the same basic messages to all levels, from middle management to shop floor, with nothing left out on the grounds that those below would not understand it.” Tony Eccles, London Business School

“No manager can be effective in his job unless he is able to communicate. It is the most essential single skill. I hope that managers everywhere will seek to improve their ability, for it is one that can be learned.” Sir John Harvey-Jones, former chairman ICI and renowned European ‘troubleshooter’

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Some comments that my clients have kindly made:
“Your facilitation was well prepared and held our interest and enthusiasm while delving into the things needed to take our business to the next level of success.”
George Hallwood, Effective Consulting

“Making a connection to Lee Hopkins through a mutual business associate was a real breakthrough for me, & my newly formed media company. The timeline was tight on my project, so was the budget, but Lee came through on both counts, on time & on budget! He’s number one with me. Now we’re working on other projects as part of an even bigger “televisionary” marketing campaign.”
David Kingham, TalkingClassifieds

“…a small expression of our thanks for your excellent presentation to our NEIS small business management participants. The group was unanimous and highly positive in their response. Feedback included such comments as ‘excellent presentation’, ‘inspirational’, ‘really knows his stuff’ and ‘knows how it is in small business’. So once again our warm thanks for your assistance.”
Joanne Chamberlain, ANETS NEIS, Eastside SA Inc.

“Thank you for preparing the Invisage presentation for our recent International Conference. This was a fabulous presentation for our internal relaunch and rebrand of our business. It really created a powerful impact, got our message across and we received many compliments about this production. We are looking forward to working with you on future presentations.”
Julie Manuell, CEO, Invisage Australia

 

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Some of my clients:

ANZ, BT Financial Services, Powerlink Queensland, Supreme Education Council – Dohar Qatar, SageCo, UniSA, Walkleys, Public Relations Institute of Australia, Dymocks, Clements HR and Management, Addeco, the RSPCA of SA, Effective Consulting and Rehabilitation, Whittle & Skok Financial Services, Fusion Design Consultants, myebusiness.com.au, moneybags.com.au, yourwealthinc.com, Invisage, Michael Lenthall & Associates, Clusters Asia Pacific, AdviserWorks.com.au, ANETS NEIS Eastside SA Inc., River Strategy & Design, Stirling Family Church.

 

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Some more comments that my clients have kindly made:
“We found Lee to be highly competent in the areas he specialises in with the addition of understanding the commercial nature of a business and the driving forces behind achieving returns for stakeholders. He also has a solid knowledge of marketing involving the internet and has used this knowledge to develop our sites with the customer in mind. Lee is also a delight to have in a team as his enthusiasm is contagious and he truly believes and is passionate about his work.”
Dominic Virgara, Director - Finance & Administration, Clements HR Consultants

“Lee has been invaluable to us. Not only has he helped us market our own business more effectively, but also helped our clients with their online brand positioning and marketing. We have absolutely no hesitation in recommending him for his copywriting, site design & build and marketing skills.”
Eric Priebe, Managing Director,
AdviserWorks.com.au

“Lee Hopkins has been advising us in our on going development of our Website. Lee has a wealth of understanding in Web development and marketing that is absolutely necessary if you are serious about on line business. I personally have found Lee to be a real gentleman who has always responded quickly and effectively to any request that I have made of him. I can thoroughly recommend Lee and his services.”
Andrew Aitchison, www.bulldogmarketing.com.au

“As a result of a referral from two of my industry colleagues, I approached Lee for advice on our online marketing strategy. Within a short time of meeting him and using some of his ideas, our business profited - comments about our online newsletter were very flattering.”
Les de Wit, Marketing Director, Moneybags.com.au

“Having worked with Lee I can vouch for his commitment to his clients, the project and to his contractors. He always seeks a ‘win-win’ for all parties and believes it to be the only way for long-term business prosperity for both his clients and his industry colleagues. His knowledge of online marketing is extensive and has helped us tremendously in our own business! He fully complements our focus on the technology fitting the business plan, the business operation and the bottom line.”
Ian Fry, Global Gamma Systems

“We would advise any new business builder to get a hold to the eBusiness tools as soon as possible. We believe it is minimal outlay for the business it can generate. We are living in a computer orientated world - let’s meet people where they are at and show them the professional, wonderful and outstanding business opportunity we have. Follow up is crucial - but hey! Email is free!
…We really are excited about the avenues that have opened up to us since we purchased the eBusiness tools - simply a MUST for any business focused person!”
David & Fiona Coleman, IC Environmental Systems

“I found Lee to be an excellent and effective facilitator and communicator, and an empathic listener. I have no hesitation in recommending him for any assignment that would use his considerable talents and would be pleased to provide additional information on request”
Chris Bell, SVP Global Sales, Adecco Inc

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Contact me now for a discussion on how I can help you communicate better for better business results.

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My publications and conference papers

Hopkins, L. (2008). The virtual society: collaborative, 3-dimensional and full of furry foxes. Invited presentation and paper, ‘History and Future of Social Innovation Conference’, Adelaide, 19-21 June.

Hopkins, L. (2008). Using social media to communicate with hard-to-reach groups. In Melcrum, How to communicate with hard-to-reach employees: How the world’s leading organizations engage their virtual and non-wired teams. Melcrum, London, pp. 26-28, 119-120.

Hopkins, L. (2007). What makes Australians click? Presentation at 8th Annual Public Affairs Convention, Sydney, May 10-11.

Hopkins, L. (2007). Social Media and the evolution of communication. Journal of Employee Communication Management. Jan/Feb, 23-25

Hopkins, L. (2006). Communication that can lead to conflict. In Wood, Zeffane, Fromholtz & Fitzgerald, Organisational Behaviour: core concepts and applications, Wiley, Sydney, pp.462-463

Hopkins, L. (2006). Oral Vs Written Communication. Audio presentation in Buch, Elsing & Steveling, Focussing on Real Estate, Hammonia, Hamburg

Millward, L.J., & Hopkins, L.J. (1998). Organizational Commitment and the Psychological Contract. Journal of Social and Applied Psychology. 28(16) 16-31

Millward, L.J. & Hopkins, L.J. (1997). A psychological contract and identification model of risk ownership. International Journal of Project and Business Risk Management. July, 111-120

Hopkins, L.J., & Millward, L.J. (1997). Measuring Information Performance. Invited paper presented at the Maximising Information Performance (Euromapping) Conference, June 2-3rd, 1997, London

Millward, L.J., & Hopkins, L.J. (1997). Organizational Commitment and the Psychological Contract. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference at The Edinburgh Conference Centre, April 1997

Hopkins, L.J., & Millward, L.J. (1997). Perceptions of the employment contract: core and peripheral workers. Paper presented at the British Psychological Society Annual Conference at The Edinburgh Conference Centre, April 1997

Millward, L.J., & Hopkins, L.J. (1996) Organizational Change and the psychological contract. Interactive poster presentation at the XXVI International Congress in Psychology, Montreal, August 16-21, 1996