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

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!

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.

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