Shola Kaye: Culture Speaker
Shola Kaye is a keynote speaker, communication specialist, and author who helps organizations build inclusive workplaces through empathy, leadership, and effective communication
- Highlights:
- International keynote speaker on inclusion, empathy, and workplace communication
- Author of Big Talk, Small Talk
- Former IT consultant for global banking, aviation, and finance organizations
- Former researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Formats:
Keynote Speaker and Workplace Communication Expert
- Audiences:
Corporate leaders, HR professionals, diversity and inclusion teams, STEM organizations, and workplaces seeking stronger communication and collaboration.
- Outcomes:
- Practical communication tools that strengthen teamwork and leadership
- Strategies for building inclusive workplaces where all voices are heard
- Insights on empathy and connection that improve collaboration and performance
- Travels from: London, UK
- **Fee range: $20,001 - $35,000
Keynote Topics
Leadership 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
Choose to challenge: The D.I.V.A. way
This year for IWD, Shola Kaye will share how we can all be D.I.V.A.S. in the workplace, elevating our voices, being more visible 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 seem easier to take a back seat.
Learning objectives:
This 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 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!
Embrace Equity
The Power of Empathetic Communication
The theme of IWD 2023 is all about supporting gender equity. The progress of women and marginalised groups has been hit hard by the pandemic and other economic and political factors. Now, more than ever, we must take steps to redress imbalances and get on the path to creating a just environment for all.
The goal: to show up at work (and in the world) as our best selves, and be treated with respect, fairness, compassion and consideration, regardless of our gender and other identity markers.
Each workplace is unique with its own set of challenges so in this keynote Shola will focus on giving participants the inspiration and tools to rally stakeholders and be catalysts for change.
The keynote will begin by exploring some of the reasons why gender equity is urgently needed in today’s workplaces. We’ll then look at the power of empathy and the impact of creating an empathetic environment. We then explore communication strategies for challenging the status quo so that your attendees walk away with concrete tools for advancing change.
Learning objectives:
- Where are we now? Exploring some priority areas for workplace equity
- The value of empathy and compassion
- The importance of taking an intersectional approach – advancing together, not apart
- Bias-breaking questions to ask whenever we make decisions are made that affect others
- How to speak up, be heard and challenge others respectfully
- Empathetic questioning: techniques for calling out and calling in when you see inequities and bias in action
- How to ask for what you want – it starts with us!
This is a dynamic keynote which incorporates plenty of opportunities for audience interaction as well as moments to reflect.
Break the Bias
Practical and empowering communication strategies to fight bias
You’ll walk away with practical tools and communication frameworks to make a difference when working with colleagues, customers, clients and suppliers. It can often feel challenging to speak up and do the right thing when we witness biased behaviour. In this session we explore the foundations of bias, and we’ll look at bias in action such as microaggressions, as well as ways to challenge others and be heard, whatever our personality type and communication style.
Learning objectives:
- Common examples of 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 examples of microaggressions and strategies for responding to aggressors
- Bystander interventions for allies and anyone who wants to help fight bias
- Recognising and understanding intersectionality: the overlapping of different biases and discriminatory behaviours
Talent Short Bio
Shola Kaye MSc FRSA DTM is an award-winning international keynote speaker, communication specialist, and author who helps organizations strengthen leadership, inclusion, and workplace communication. Her work focuses on building cultures where empathy, collaboration, and open dialogue allow teams to perform at their highest level.
Shola began her career in IT consulting, working with major investment banks in the United States and advising global organizations in aviation and finance in the United Kingdom. During this time she experienced firsthand the challenges of visibility and communication in corporate environments, particularly as an introverted Black woman in technical industries. These experiences inspired her mission to help organizations create more inclusive and supportive workplaces.
Her professional journey has also included time as a scientific researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a successful career as a professional singer performing on stages around the world. Today she combines the analytical mindset of a scientist with the energy of a performer to deliver engaging, highly interactive presentations that provide practical communication frameworks for modern workplaces.
Read Full Bio
Shola Kaye MSc FRSA DTM is a communication specialist, award-winning international speaker and author of two books. She speaks on Empathy in the workplace, Inclusion, Leadership and Communication.
She spent the first part of her career in IT consultancy in the U.S.A., consulting at household name investment banks, and in the U.K for global clients in aviation and finance. Her struggles to communicate and gain visibility in the workplace – as a black woman and an introvert – led her to develop an interest in learning to create inclusive workplaces with open, supportive communication. Shola eventually left the corporate world for a while and built a career for herself as a professional singer, appearing on stages around the world.
Shola Kaye has a unique interactive delivery style that combines the energy and engagement of a performer with the insights and actionable tools and models of a scientist or technical expert; Shola spent time as a scientific researcher at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Today she blends her STEM and entertainment background to share clear, effective communication frameworks that help people work better together. These are delivered in a high impact style. The word most frequently used to describe Shola’s work is ‘engaging’. Clients often comment that her interactivity, and encouragement of the audience to transform during her presentation, makes her a stand-out speaker who gets results and delivers work that will be remembered long after the event is over.
Shola Kaye keynote and masterclass topics include communication for diversity and inclusion, leadership, workplace communication, and workplace empathy. She also speaks about how to create a more inclusive environment for introverts, especially within the technical/data/STEM/healthcare work space.
Shola Kaye has been featured in Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar and on the BBC. Her work has been mentioned in Forbes and she regularly writes for industry publications such as HR Zone, Management Today and People Management.
She’s a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and is also a Distinguished Toastmaster – the highest honor awarded by Toastmasters International.
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