Skill Builder Topics

Change isn’t an event, it is a state of existence.  When life chronically feels volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) as a result of constant change, our resilience is diminished.

How do we combat VUCA? Self-leadership is the basis for this interactive and action-oriented discussion.  Qualities of emotional intelligence help us manage our well-being and increase resilience.  Using emotions as data and having a clear sense of our motivations allow us to increase our sense of control and choice when things feel chaotic.  This workshop in self-leadership provides a simplified framework to identify and manage complexities encountered when we experience change.

 Increase your resilience by:

– Understanding VUCA
– Identifying how your values and motives reflect emotionally intelligent responses to complexity
– Expanding your capacity for self-leadership through a simple tool for managing dynamic tensions

Are you curious about AI but unsure where to start? Join this 30-minute introductory workshop designed for individuals who need a foundational understanding of AI tools. Anca Platon Trifan will demystify AI, showing how it can save valuable time and enhance productivity. Learn how AI can provide marketing tips, offer strategies for content creation and repurposing, and manage tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and Perplexity effectively. You will also walk away with the free ebook: Mastering ChatGPT: A Guide to Prompting Frameworks.

Outcomes and Takeaways:

– Foundational AI Knowledge:Understand the basics of AI and how it can be applied to everyday tasks.
– User-Friendly Tools:Explore beginner-friendly AI tools that require no technical background to implement, including ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, and Perplexity.
– Practical Examples:Discover how AI can assist with content creation, marketing, and repurposing content across different mediums.

This session will equip you with the knowledge to recognize AI opportunities and the confidence to begin exploring AI tools in your organization.

Do you get stuck in conflict going back and forth over claims and demands that escalate into entrenched positions?  In this session we will explore how to get past claims and demands to underlying needs and interests to find common ground for solutions.  The technique is called, interest-based negotiations, which can be used in your professional or personal life. This is different from transactional negotiations that you use when buying a car.  We’ll walk through the steps of separating positions from interests, brainstorming options for mutual gain, reality checking on your BATNA and WATNA, identifying criteria to separate people from the problem and developing SMART agreements.  You will walk away with a few tools in your pocket to try next time you’re in a pickle!

As a society, some financial conversations are still very taboo. However, if we’re not talking about our finances, then how are we finding best practices or ideal solutions to optimize our own situations? In this session we’ll discuss savings strategies and key investment options. We’ll also spend time diagnosing your unique money personality and discovering how leveraging it can help you achieve your financial goals sooner.

Unlock the full potential of AI with advanced strategies tailored for business owners and leaders. Anca Platon Trifan will guide you through the creation of an automated workflow, enabling you to automate everyday tasks efficiently. Learn how to leverage AI for data-driven decisions, personalize cold emails at scale to significantly increase response rates, and implement strategies to optimize lead generation.

Outcomes and Takeaways:

– Advanced AI Applications:Master the creation and implementation of MAKE automation workflows to streamline tasks.
– Data-Driven Decisions:Utilize AI and Google Analytics for simple data analysis to make informed decisions.
– Personalized Outreach & Lead Gen: Develop strategies to automate lead gens and personalize cold emails at scale, boosting response rates.

This session will provide you with actionable strategies to leverage AI effectively, helping you stay ahead in a competitive landscape and drive your business toward future success.

Mastering mental performance is the secret weapon to unlocking peak performance and enhancing wellbeing for you and your talent! In this engaging session we will identify and talk through how to manage your stressors, understand mental performance hurdles (MPH) impacting your life, and implement practical tools to enhance your overall wellbeing and effectiveness personally and professionally. Through various activities and discussions, you’ll gain actionable insights and leave with a Mental Performance Toolkit to support your journey towards more effective and fulfilling leadership.

Here’s what we’ll be exploring:

– Impacts of acute and chronic stress on our health
– Common MPH’s such as imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and burnout.
– How MPH’s are costing your organization (i.e., time, talent, and resources)
– What you wear as a badge-of-honor
– Take-home tools for harnessing both stress and MPH’s

There is an elusive yet essential ingredient for getting work done well: trust. Leaders are often challenged to articulate the distinct actions and behaviors that allow them to generate higher trust relationships. They need a roadmap for how to understand and assess trust more concretely and to intentionally choose trust-generating behaviors. Trust is a primary building block for powerful leaders and teams. If you’ve experienced trust, then you know it brings joy and connection. And, it accelerates results. This workshop explores a powerful framework — The Three Dimensions of Trust — and strengthens your ability to create the changes you seek in relationships and work. Through this experience, you will increase your skills in assessing, building, and re-building high-trust relationships.

Creating with confidence is crucial for any woman striving for success in the business world. However, even the most driven professionals can face obstacles like writer’s block, procrastination, or a lack of seemingly good ideas. These challenges can stall progress and shake your self-assurance. In this “Create with Confidence” session, you’ll learn how to overcome these common hurdles and build the confidence needed to keep moving forward. Discover how to turn setbacks into opportunities, generate fresh ideas, and create with conviction in every aspect of your professional life. Join Rhea as she shares practical strategies to help you harness the power of confidence and consistently create with purpose, no matter the challenge.

As a facilitative leader, your job is to help groups work through conflict by addressing underlying interests and needs.  Facilitative behavior requires communication skills such as listening to understand and speaking to be understood.  We will discover how to lower the temperature when you’re feeling stuck in a heated conflict.  Use collaborative communication skills to disarm the other side.  Shift from shaming, blaming and complaining to reframing (using I-statements) so you will be heard.  Practice active listening techniques such as open-ended questions and paraphrasing to build a bridge to the other side.  Stand at the balcony and create the third-side of the conflict where parties can look objectively at the situation and create solutions that will work for everyone.

Since a young age, we often receive messages that we are not supposed to have wants and needs and we are discouraged from saying “no.” How many of your friends (maybe you?) are exhausted and burnt out because they can’t seem to say “no” – to their boss, their partner, or their family? The solution is finding ways to set boundaries that protect your space, time and heart in a respectful way for the situation and, most importantly, keeping those boundaries. In this skill builder session you will learn:

– The science and sociology behind why it can be so hard to set and keep boundaries
– How to create and set a boundary
– How and why to keep that boundary
– How to respect others’ boundaries

Attend this session if you want to reduce the crazy that seems to drain your energy and create more peace and joy in your life.

We are living and working in an unprecedented time of never-ending change, financial and political uncertainty and increasing demands in work and life. The result is increasing rates of burnout and stress. How can we, not only survive, but grow and thrive during times of stress and burnout?

In this interactive presentation, we will:

– Define burnout and stress
– Learn the ways it can show up in our thoughts, emotions and behaviors
– Learn practical skills we can use to disrupt stress, in the moment and long-term

“What do you value and why?” This simple question has led to deep, sometimes life-changing understanding between surprisingly diverse people. Join this session and discover values-based storytelling and its power to heal division. After a brief orientation, participants will begin a guided process of identifying a central value and tracing its evolution throughout their lives. Come back for Part 2 (below) for the full experience where volunteers will share their stories!

In this enriching skill builder, we will explore the vital differences between sympathy, empathy, and compassion. Some of the things explored will be: 

– Delve into the eight common empathy misses and how to recover from them
– Discuss the importance of compassion and ways to foster a compassionate leadership style in the workplace
– Learn how to set and maintain compassionate boundaries and enhance your personal and professional relationships

We will also be drawing insights from Brené Brown’s Atlas of the Heart and leave with a deeper understanding and practice of leading with compassion!

What do private and public sector boards and commissions have in common? They are filled by men. Women need to be paid what we are worth, including having seats on decision-making corporate boards and being named to the public commissions creating our public policies. What is the impact of gender-equity on boards and commissions? How do we intentionally identify and practice the necessary skills and then take action to target and access the board selection committees? It’s never too early to start learning and practicing your management and networking tools. Let’s start now! Come and join us!

This is where the magic happens! Volunteers from Part 1 (10:45 am session) will share stories behind their central values. As participants, we’ll practice careful, “reverent” listening as we allow for a range of perspectives. We’ll finish by reflecting on our shared experience and discussing ways you can apply this approach in your personal, professional and political lives.

What if the story of who you are was actually written by someone else? What if this script was designed to keep you boxed in, contained, and playing a part that keeps you from who you can actually become? Many of us are familiar with the call to ‘flip the script,’ but what does it truly entail beyond merely turning to the next page?

This session is a profound exploration into breaking free from the restrictive myths we’ve been fed and the self-limiting stories that hold us back. We’ll unpack the power of language, interrogate the structures that shape our narratives, and engage in the audacious act of rewriting your next chapter on your terms

Gain actionable strategies to start redefining the stories you tell about yourself and kickstart a transformative journey of liberating yourself from the person you were conditioned to be, to the person you truly aspire to become.