How well do your people give difficult feedback to colleagues and clients clearly, just in time, and with observable results?

How many times have you been in a crucial meeting where you knew that the “real meeting” was going to happen afterwards, because your culture is too nice for conflict – or your leaders are dismissive of other people’s perspectives?

What if you could take the skeptical audience you’re pitching and convert them from “I’m not sure…” to “I’m in!” through your persuasive storytelling?

If any of these are keeping you up at night, I’m here to help. And while improving your personal ability to communicate effectively is critical, but it doesn’t do a lot of good in a vacuum. Through my interactive keynotes, workshop, programs, and retreats, I can help leaders at all levels of your organization navigate big presentations and difficult conversations with both courage and care.

I have helped transform the communication and presentations skills of leaders and teams ranging from Amazon, American Express, and BlackRock to Intel, PepsiCo, and The United States Army. And I can do it with your leaders and teams, too.

Presentation Skills

Whether you and you colleagues need to get better at thinking on your feet, making pitches to clients, selling ideas internally, balancing data with stories, or doing all of these things in a virtual environment, you’ll find a program below that will get you from good to great – or from great to phenomenal!

Making a presentation is about more than having the right words—it requires a powerful, poised delivery. In the workshop, you’ll learn strategies to minimize anxiety in advance, and you’ll gain tools to portray confidence when you address the room. I’ll cover the importance of cultivating presence, including how to move, when to pause, vocal variety, thinking on your feet, and much more, so you can engage every audience you address.

To keep people’s interest, your presentation needs to follow the right structure. This involves a balance of ethos (credibility), pathos (emotion), and logos (logic) – the three crucial elements of a persuasive pitch. You’ll learn how to set up your presentation based on your goal and audience, including the importance of framing, powerful introductions and closings, storytelling, use of data and statistics, and more.

Some audiences are more difficult than others, but you can learn how to win over any group. Whether you are facing a hostile group, a non-technical audience, or a bunch of busy professionals who have better things to do, you can gain and keep their attention. You’ll learn to create engagement, use Q&A, read the room, adapt your presentation style to re-engage lost listeners, and diffuse difficult situations with poise.

Effective storytelling engages customers, increases sales, rallies the troops, sells ideas internally and externally, recruits talented staff, and shares the key messages about your company and the services it provides. You’ll learn to plan, organize, and craft strategic stories, and then practice delivering those stories in a way that drives listeners to think, feel, and to take action.

This interactive, blended workshop (using both online and in-person opportunities) teaches and models how to run a productive, engaging, and creative online presentation or meeting. This session takes participants through the critical pre-planning, facilitating and follow-up steps needed to accomplish an effective meeting—without letting time zones and technology stand in your way. You’ll learn when to have an online presentation and when not to; different types of online meetings; pre-meeting activities; how to build a bell-based, outcome-driven agenda, effective techniques for facilitating and group processing; creative techniques for engagement, and how to follow up to keep the momentum going.

Nonnative English speakers face unique challenges when trying to get their ideas across in a presentation. Considering the language barriers they need to overcome, the cultural norms they need to learn, and the anticipatory anxiety associated with public speaking, nonnative English speakers have it harder than most. This workshop makes it easier — and helps professionals for whom English is their second (or third or fourth) language improve their confidence, competence, and cultural comfort when presenting in English.

Gravitas helps professionals at all levels earn attention, engagement, and respect when they speak — and when they don’t. Gravitas is both internal and external, and I’ll help participants understand how their internal mindsets drive their external, visible behaviors. In this interactive workshop, participants will learn how to communicate with composure, confidence, and courage in any setting.

Giving and Receiving Effective Feedback

Feedback is how we get better at our work, serve our clients more effectively, collaborate more productively, and impact the bottom line with greater success. But feedback is only as helpful as someone’s ability to deliver it well, and as their colleague’s ability to receive it without defensiveness, and act on it.

Giving Effective Feedback

Delivering feedback is an essential part of being a people leader, but nobody said it was easy. With real-time practice and coaching, you’ll learn how to give feedback to your team members in a way that is most likely to be heard and received without defensiveness from them – and with less anxiety for you. The session includes activities and exercises that make skills immediately and easily applicable.

Receiving and Taking Action on Feedback

Research shows that feedback seekers excel in their jobs. It makes sense: After all, they’re getting helpful information about how to make a more powerful, positive impact. So why isn’t it easier to hear and act on constructive criticism? Whether you’re an individual contributor, a mid-level manager, or the boss, this workshop will teach you how to work with everyday feedback, as well as formal performance reviews; so you can boost your career and credibility.

Navigating Conflict and Tricky Conversations

Once leaders understand their communication strengths and weaknesses, and how best to connect with and address others, they’ll feel more confident and capable addressing tricky topics – and even everyday conversations.

Navigating Conflict and Tricky Conversations

Leaders at all levels need the courage to address and navigate conflict and tricky conversations directly, immediately, and consistently. But it takes more than just courage–it takes bringing the right mindsets, skills, and strategies to every relationship and conversation at work. You’ll learn how to approach difficult conversations with skill and confidence, get a new perspective on the difference between productive and unproductive conflict, identify the root causes of common workplace conflicts, and take away simple, effective language that can improve (almost) any conversation.

Leading with Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

As you develop greater empathy and a better understanding of the emotions of others—and yourself—you’re able to build stronger relationships. EQ helps you increase impact and influence, make smarter decisions, manage time more effectively, and grow a meaningful career. In this reflective, energetic and interactive workshop, you’ll learn what EQ is and why it matters, how EQ differs from IQ, and gain concrete strategies to develop self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.

Improving Interpersonal Communication using DISC

If the Golden Rule says we should treat others the way we want to be treated, the Platinum Rule says we should treat others the way they want to be treated—and it’s the essence of successful interpersonal communication. Professionals who understand their own communication styles, strengths, and challenges are better prepared to effectively adapt to others’ communication styles, and therefore, be more effective in getting things done. This workshop helps professionals understand their communication strengths, and what happens when strengths are overused; recognize what motivates themselves and their teams; identify and manage sources of conflict and reduce unproductive conflict; and implement strategies for creating positive, proactive relationships.

(Prior to the workshop, participants complete a short online assessment to generate a detailed personal DISC profile, which reveals their preferred communication styles.)

Communicating With Impact and Influence

Build trust, accountability, and develop your team through proven communication strategies that bring out the best in others – and yourself.

Coaching Skills to Build Capacity and Commitment

Henry Kissinger once commented, “The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.” Most leaders think that you do this through problem-solving, advising, teaching, telling, training, and more. And while those strategies can work, taking a coaching approach is more successful at helping people become self-directed, self-motivated lifelong learners. Learn to apply tried-and-true principles that leadership coaches use to guide their clients in this interactive session, including listening, asking powerful questions, getting clear about desired outcomes, creating commitment and accountability, and more.

Creating a Culture of Trust

Culture and trust are so much more than buzzwords. Studies have shown that high-trust environments increase productivity and engagement, while reducing burnout. In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn the behaviors and attitudes that inspire or erode trust (interpersonally and organizationally), how to develop a healthy “relationship bank account” with others, as well as how to repair relationships that have suffered a breach of trust.

Navigating Stress at Work and in Life

Help your colleagues, team members, and yourself navigate and mitigate anxiety, stress, overwhelm, boundaries, and burnout with helpful, practical strategies.

Self-Help Stress Strategies for Those of Us Who Don’t Like Asking for Help

Experiencing stress and anxiety at work and in life is expected. In fact, healthy levels of stress can help us set clear goals, prioritize our work, and improve our overall performance. However, when we experience too much stress, it can lead to physical illness, poor performance, and burnout. It is also contagious, spreading between people who work together – even virtually — and can quickly become “baked into” a culture.  And while mostof us are more than willing to help others — colleagues, team members, family — but we’re reluctant to request help for ourselves. If this sounds familiar – especially in these difficult times – then this session is for you.  In this interactive workshop, you will learn 5 concrete strategies to help you change your thinking, create new action plans, and connect to others so you don’t feel overwhelmed by stress, and underwhelmed by options for taking care of yourself.

How to Talk about Mental Health at Work: Creating Critical Connections with Employees and Colleagues without Overstepping

When it comes to experiencing stress and mental health challenges at work, many people aren’t talking about it. Why? Because they often feel embarrassed, concerned about the stigma of asking for help, or anticipate that things will never get better. And their managers and colleagues can make this easier – or harder. We have a shared opportunity to start (or continue) a more helpful, healthy conversation about it, but only if your team members have the skills. In this session, you will learn how to be a colleague that others confide in, what to say and what not to say to someone with a mental health challenge, and how to create an inclusive environment and reduce the stigma around mental health.

Embracing Uncertainty using Appreciative Inquiry

In times of constant change, uncertainty can feel overwhelming. Appreciative Inquiry offers a strengths-based approach to navigating challenges by focusing on what is working, identifying opportunities, and building confidence for the future. In this interactive session, participants will explore practical Appreciative Inquiry techniques that can help individuals and teams remain resilient, adaptable, and forward-thinking during periods of transition. Attendees will leave with actionable tools to foster collaboration, innovation, and positive momentum, even when the path ahead is unclear.

Stress Strategies for Busy Women: How to Help Yourself While You're Busy Helping Everyone Else

Research shows that women are almost twice as likely to suffer from anxiety as men. And when faced with life stressors, women are more likely to ruminate about them rather than engage in active, problem-focused coping strategies. Why do women leaders struggle more? Because, in the face of an “always on” work culture, their work-life balance takes a backseat, whether that’s raising children or caring for aging parents. And the last year has made this significantly worse. Furthermore, women leaders are concerned that requests for flexibility will negatively impact their reputations, promotability, and career growth – regardless of whether their manager is a man or a woman. Women report spending more time meeting the needs of others rather than nurturing their own needs — and a certain point, they may not even recognize what their needs are, perpetuating their stress and anxiety. In this session, women will learn to challenge the sense of failure they may feel in not being able to meet expectations for themselves and others, as well as develop new mindsets and strategies for setting boundaries, preventing burnout, and taking care of their needs with a sense of pride.

Here We Go Again…Managing Chronic Uncertainty and Stress

Periods of uncertainty, change, and disruption can take a significant toll on individuals and teams. Whether navigating organizational shifts, economic pressures, evolving workplace expectations, or personal challenges, many people find themselves managing ongoing stress, decision fatigue, and emotional exhaustion.

When uncertainty becomes a constant rather than a temporary disruption, resilience requires more than simply “pushing through.” Leaders and team members need practical strategies to maintain well-being, support one another, and create environments where people feel safe discussing challenges and seeking help.

This session is designed for leaders and teams who want to build a culture of trust, inclusion, and support while navigating both expected and unexpected setbacks. Participants will explore ways to manage chronic stress, foster meaningful connections, and move forward with greater confidence and adaptability in an ever-changing world.