Shola Kaye

LEADERSHIP: Harnessing the power of empathy to improve inclusion, productivity, and engagement.

Creating a workplace where everyone feels that they belong is more important than ever before, but how can you build supportive, cohesive environments within your organisation?

This inspiring keynote speech will provide you with practical and effective strategies for becoming an inclusive leader. It can be modified for senior leaders, management, and whole-company keynotes. You’ll walk away with the tools and the inspiration to become a more compassionate and effective leader, manager, or individual contributor.

Learning objectives:

Understand the different types of empathy and their impacts on your well-being
Find out how empathy impacts diversity, inclusion, engagement, innovation, and happiness
Walk away with a simple three-step framework for being empathetic in nearly every situation
Optional downloads help you keep the momentum up, providing reminders and prompts to take action
Virtual session? We’ll use chat and other forms of interactivity to encourage engagement.

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION: Create a workplace of respect and belonging. Develop your listening, courage, and compassion to build an environment of trust and inclusivity.

Bring our whole selves to work? How is that possible when we may not be accepted and valued by our colleagues?

This inspiring keynote speech shares stories, tools, and interactive exercises to help you see the value of ensuring everyone feels they belong. You’ll understand the vital components of empathy, how to be compassionate while avoiding burnout, and why skills like emotional intelligence are in high demand.

Learning objectives:

Develop your listening skills so those around you feel supported and encouraged
Build on your bravery and understand why impact matters more than intention
Recognise the damage done by microaggressions, and how to address them
Become a catalyst for the growth of your colleagues Keynote or workshop

LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION: Delivering effective feedback with empathy. Develop the skills to support and co-create your colleagues’ success.

At work and in our personal lives, delivering effective feedback is a valuable skill. Delivered in the right way, feedback can be empowering, inspiring and can drive an individual, and their team, towards fantastic success.

However, delivered in the wrong way, feedback can be divisive, demotivating, and destructive. And when we avoid giving feedback to spare someone’s feelings, the eventual outcome can be just as damaging.

So what’s your intention as a manager? Is it to break or build? To crush or to co-create? Do you restrict your feedback to the obligatory once or twice a year, or do you feedback continuously, increasing the motivation and confidence of your team members?

This interactive, high energy keynote contains insightful stories, impactful data, and valuable tools you can use again and again.

Learning objectives:

Understand the importance of providing ongoing, tailored, empathetic developmental feedback
Explore the repercussions of poor feedback styles such as The Drive-by, The Comparison, The Public Humiliation, and The Wrecking Ball
Discover the four elements required to create psychological safety so that your feedback is well-received
Take away an effective strategy for delivering feedback as an individual contributor
Learn three different feedback frameworks and the pros and cons of each

COMMUNICATION: Powerful under pressure. Communicate with impact and influence during meetings, Q&A sessions, interviews, and other high-stakes situations.

Do you thrive under pressure, communicating with poise and power, or do you crumple into a stumbling wreck?

This practical, inspiring, and essential keynote will help you develop strategies to excel under fire during tough meetings and conversations. You’ll learn frameworks and strategies that will help you stay cool and collected, inspiring trust and respect in those around you. Whether dealing with a difficult customer, handling a question that could trip you up, or putting your best foot forward during an interview situation, these techniques will help you come out on top.

Learning objectives:

Learn to express your opinions with a clarity that stops interruptions in their tracks
Deliver bad news with poise using this simple technique
Quickly analyse various types of difficult questions and assess the best ways to respond
Share your ideas persuasively, encouraging others to take action

COMMUNICATION: Expressing your personal brand at work as a woman or minority – articulate your value, develop your brand story, and shine!

For women and minorities, speaking up in the ‘wrong’ way can lead to the perception that we’re angry or have a chip on our shoulders. This can hamper progress at work, keeping us from reaching our full potentials. In addition, we may be reluctant to share our stories of overcoming challenges out of fear of being seen as too pushy or boastful.

So, how do we communicate our worth in the workplace? How do we convey the important work we do and achieve the recognition we deserve?

This speech shares valuable tools and mindset shifts to help you move ahead with confidence, shoring up your foundations with the understanding that you’re putting your best foot forward and presenting yourself as a person of influence and value.

Learning objectives:

Use your personal and work values to ensure you’re communicating your best self
Tell your brand story in a way that’s powerful, valuable, and inspiring
Understand the impact you have on others and develop the gravitas you need to be taken seriously
Learn to read the personalities of your colleagues and increase your powers of persuasion