Step into Your Moxie

Thank you to the PACCAR Women's Association for the opportunity to deliver the keynote for your International Women's Day celebration. As I shared with attendees best practices for using communication to build stronger relationships, heighten influence, and create an inclusive workplace culture, one of the themes I sought to drive home is that there are few if any conversations, presentations, or negotiations we can't have if we fuse candor with kindness as we have them. Words sever relationships. And heal them. "I'm sorry" is one of the most useless phrases when we apologize for things we have no reason to be sorry for. And yet, one of the most powerful and underutilized phrases for healing relationships and creating more inclusive workplaces. Over the last 2 months, I've experienced my work in ways I'd long abandoned hope for - seeing some important relationships that had gone dormant for far too long come back to life. Being in our bodies as we feel and, at times, communicate scary things, it's a superpower - one that is absolutely worth developing. #internationalwomensday #keynotespeaker #womenshistorymonth

2023 and 2024 (even though we are just a little over 2 months in) have been great years for us, and having the opportunity to participate in Disability:IN's mentorship program has been a huge part of our growth trajectory. Thank you for profiling us and our unique, "speak up" approach to executive coaching, vocal empowerment, and presentation skills development.

The Better Leadership Project, a part of the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL), has identified three pillars of better leadership—compassion, well-being, and belonging. It should come as no surprise that compassionate leadership drives stronger workplace cultures where employees at all levels feel a sense of belonging and experience greater physical, mental, financial, and social well-being. However, the pathway most leadership development programs take is flawed. It’s not enough to focus on presentation skills, assertiveness, influence, and negotiation. It’s equally important to provide ongoing, hands-on training and coaching for leaders to learn how to: ·      Create psychological safety during high-stakes communication ·      Center those experiencing marginalization in communication ·      Recognize and address bias ·      Navigate the myriad of uncomfortable sensations that emerge when doing hard things—and saying hard things! For many organizations (and likely yours!), now is the time to make plans for 2024.   How are you ensuring that your leadership development initiatives actually equip your rising and established leaders with the nuanced leadership competencies they need? Whether you are a current client and Step into Your Moxie is supporting your executive talent and people development, or you simply want to ensure your workplace leaders are set up for sustainable success in the coming year and beyond, here are some recommended MUST HAVES for your people.   Ensure they— 1. Develop tools to manage fear, self-defeating thoughts, and uncomfortable bodily sensations and feelings that emerge in connection with communicating ideas to team members, clients, and colleagues 2. Cultivate the ability to listen keenly to what is and isn’t being said in high-stakes communication moments, how to make others feel seen and validated when conflict emerges, and learn how to heal from negative feedback experiences 3. Utilize a coaching conversation framework in feedback conversations as both the giver and receiver 4. Explore how to transition from a fixed or growth mindset to an innovation mindset – and uncover how doing so allows them to use communication to solve problems and sell timely solutions 5. Boost their personal well-being and mental health—and create cultures where the people they develop do the same What other priorities do you have for your leaders and their talent development next year?

What your rising women leaders want their HR/talent development leaders to know... I have the privilege of delivering keynotes (like the one below at Amazon Web Services (AWS) back in May) as well as implementing executive communication/coaching and vocal empowerment training in companies - often for women's summits and women's leadership development initiatives. Over the last couple of months, as I've done a better job of inviting audience members to complete surveys, two core themes have emerged in the feedback. 1. Gratitude for the opportunity to be in a room with other women and be poured into with inspiration, empowerment, and practical tools 2. Desire for ongoing opportunities to practice the skills (particularly around communication) I discussed The second theme is SO IMPORTANT for every leader looking to champion women's leadership development to read and take action on. While bringing women together for events is important for inspiration, knowledge acquisition, and networking, it is only one piece of the women's leadership development puzzle. Women hold 74.2% of human resource positions, but just under 10% of CEO roles. There's a real opportunity for HR leaders to pair women's leadership development events and experiences with ongoing executive coaching for women director-level and above rising leaders. The way women will continue to move into Senior VP and C-suite level roles is not only to be championed and recruited for these roles, but also to have access to coaching, ongoing development, and role-play opportunities to navigate the unique opportunities that women leaders face so they see themselves as capable, can better advocate for opportunities, and lift other women up behind them. It's been a privilege pairing more ongoing development opportunities, whether that be coaching or training, with keynotes - and I can't wait to see how many more women I meet and work with continue to move into executive and senior-level roles in the coming years! #womensleadership #glassceiling

Over the last 3 years, I've intentionally expanded the focus of Step into Your Moxie's organizational work so that, in addition to supporting rising and established (particularly women) leaders with their presentation skills and thought leadership development, we've focused more and more on helping companies across industries and sectors create "speak up" cultures. Many times a leader will tell me, "Our employees have the space to be able to speak up." Yet, when I begin to talk to employees, they tell me that they might, in theory, be able to speak up, but they don't. Whether somebody is a nurse, a manager, or even an HR leader, the reasons for not speaking up are usually the same. It's because of the -Likelihood that nothing will change -Fear of retribution -Not knowing how to speak up in a way that is both honest and kind And perhaps the #1 reason I/we hear at SIYM- IT'S SO UNCOMFORTABLE, AND I DON'T KNOW HOW TO COMMUNICATE THROUGH ALL THE STUFF I'M FEELING. In one of my keynotes, I talk about what it's costing healthcare organizations (but to be clear, this is not a healthcare-specific issue) when we don't prioritize creating cultures where employees possess the mindset, skillset, and psychological safety to speak up. This short clip is the opening of one of my favorite keynotes to deliver- and I adjust it based on the audience so the examples are super relevant. If you are a conference or event organizer, a team or ERG lead, or you are in HR/learning and development, I'd love to chat with you about how this keynote, paired with experiential training, can support your people. And, I'm excited to share that when I last delivered it, 100% of attendees rated the keynote + companion training as highly valuable! #stepintoyourmoxie #speakup #vocalempowerment #keynotespeaker

Reviewing footage from my Create a “Speak Up” Culture to Increase Safety and Well-Being keynote. Can’t wait to share excerpts from one of my newest keynotes soon!