Shola Kaye

Elevating empathy: The power of effective listening

Walk away with the tools and the inspiration to become a more respectful and understanding leader, manager, or individual contributor. During this highly beneficial keynote, you’ll explore the vital components of empathy, how to be a better listener and how to develop compassion. Deepen your relationships and provide support for colleagues, friends and family.

Learning objectives:

• Explore data points that emphasise the importance of empathy and perspective-taking for workplace success
• Participate in powerful self-reflection exercises to learn more about your style of listening and your listening strengths and weaknesses
• Find out how empathy and listening support diversity, inclusion, engagement, retention and innovation in the workplace
• Explore the themes of curiosity, courage and being a catalyst for change

This session will help create an environment of understanding, lower resistance to change, and will prepare your employees for further interventions in the areas of D.E.I., Wellbeing, Emotional Intelligence, Kindness, Leadership Effectiveness and Respect in the workplace. Participants will take away frameworks and tools for approaching others with compassion, and communicating across differences

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Break the Bias with Powerful Communication: Practical Skills for Challenging Bias

In this session, we’ll look at strategies to fight gender bias.

You’ll walk away with practical tools and communication frameworks to make a difference.

What this session covers:

• Common examples of gender bias and the damage they cause
• Strategies for breaking bias
• Calling out vs calling in – and how to decide which is appropriate, given your situation
• Common gender-related microaggressions and strategies for responding to aggressors
• Bystander interventions for male allies and anyone who wants to help fight gender bias
• Recognising and understanding intersectionality: the overlapping of gender bias with other types of discriminatory behaviour

Session duration and format:  40-60 minute virtual keynote OR 60-90 minute virtual workshop with breakouts

CHOOSE TO CHALLENGE: The D.I.V.A. way

For IWD 2021, Shola Kaye shared how we can all be D.I.V.A.S. in the workplace, elevating our voices, increasing visibility, and creating opportunities for permanent change.

Challenging the status quo can be tough, and when we’re under pressure at work, instead of speaking up it can sometimes seem easier to take a back seat.

This celebratory, interactive keynote, with live demonstrations, chat and real-time Q&A,  is designed to support you in being seen, heard and valued. You’ll leave with practical communication tools to help you become more:

*DYNAMIC – Stop being a wallflower and instead, receive the attention you deserve during meetings and high stakes conversations
*INSPIRING – Develop a powerful brand story and use your career challenges to motivate and mobilise others
*VALUABLE – Share your opinion with clarity and precision using a simple but effective communication tool
*AUTHENTIC – Determine your communication values and develop an unshakeable foundation for speaking up
*SUPPORTIVE – Pick up strategies to amplify the voices of your colleagues and peers

Everyone can learn from this talk, not just women. We can all be D.I.V.A.S.