Encore The Empathy Advantage: Leading the Empowered Workforce

Atif is the author of Decision Sprint The New Way to Innovate into the Unknown and Move from Strategy to Action, Atif Rafiq has blazed trails in Silicon Valley and the Fortune 500 for over 25 years. After rising through digital native companies like Amazon, Yahoo!, and AOL, Atif held C-suite roles at McDonald’s, Volvo, and MGM Resorts. He oversaw thousands of employees as a global P&L, transformation, and innovation leader. Rafiq was the first Chief Digital Officer in the history of the Fortune 500, a pioneering role he held at McDonalds, and he rose to the president level in the Fortune 300. He currently sits on the Boards of Flutter / Fanduel ($25bn public company); Clearcover (a fintech provider, ranked on the Fast 500); and KINS Capital ($300mm SPAC). Previously, he’s served on the client council for Snapchat (SNAP), as advisor to Slack (acquired by Salesforce for $20bn) and national board member of Defy Ventures (non-profit serving the formerly incarcerated). While leading business units, teams, and growth for companies, Atif has built a large following as one of today’s top management thinkers. Over half a million people follow his ideas about management and leadership on LinkedIn, where he is a Top Voice, and his newsletter Rewire has over 100,000 subscribers. He’s advised and invested in over 30 startups including Headspace, SpaceX, 23&me, Callisto Media, Bullet Proof Nutrition, CONBODY, Byte Mobile and Salad & Go. He is an active speaker at conferences including MIT Artificial Intelligence Summit, Fortune Reinvent, Cannes Lion, SXSW, CES, Google I/O, Twitter Flight, Web Summit, and more. His work has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Mashable, Forbes, CNET, Tech Crunch, and Fast Company. Atif is passionate about helping companies push boldly into the future. He accomplishes this through Ritual, a software app revolutionizing how teams innovate and problem-solve, and through his work as keynote speaker, Board member, and CEO advisor.

Katie McCleary is the co-author of BRIDGE THE GAP: Breakthrough Communication Tools to Transform Work Relationships from Challenging to Collaborative with Jennifer Edwards. They show how to use the social psychology of human connection and curiosity to drive meaningful communication and collaboration at work. Packed with practical and replicable techniques, the book reveals how to: • Master your biological reactions to connect, even amid pressure, anxiety, and stress • Lead with curiosity and engage more authentically • Embrace diverse opinions and cultural backgrounds • Communicate and collaborate more effectively • Converse with others and reap the rewards of better communication Katie is the host of “The Drive” podcast on NPR’s CapRadio. She is also is an entrepreneur and storyteller who trains leaders, creatives, and humanitarians to launch big ideas by leveraging their social and cultural capital. Katie is the founder of 916 Ink, a nonprofit that has transformed over 4,000 vulnerable youth into confident authors.

Chris Shipley has documented, influenced, and predicted the impact of technology on business and society for more than 30 years. As a journalist, she covered the tech industry for leading publishing companies. As an analyst, she identified innovative startups and gave them a stage to launch their market-making products. As a catalyst, she has advised hundreds of early-stage companies on positioning, business modeling, and innovation practices. Today, Chris focuses her work on the human and organizational challenges in the face of technology-and economically-driven disruption. https://www.cshipley.com/

Brad McLain, PhD, author of DESIGNING TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCES: A Toolkit For Leaders, Trainers, Teachers, And Other Experience Designers, is the founder of Designing Transformative Experiences LLC. He is a social scientist interested in the nature and psychology of identity development, learning, and leadership, with over twenty years of experience working with organizations and leaders of all stripes. McLain is on the faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder and serves as the Director of the Center for STEM Learning and Director of Corporate Research at the National Center for Women in Information Technology. He routinely works closely with companies including Apple, Google, Morgan Stanley, and dozens of others on the subject of identity, inclusive culture construction, and change leadership. Prior, he served two terms on the Board of Directors for the Jane Goodall Institute and was the United States Chair of Dr. Goodall’s Roots and Shoots Leadership Committee. In addition, he was an educational researcher at the Space Science Institute and worked at NASA in the Space Shuttle Program McLain lives in Boulder, Colorado with his two children. For more information, please visit www.designingtransformativeexperiences.com

Hi Nguyen is a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer with 14 years of experience in patrol, close protection, counter-terrorism and undercover operations. He is currently the Director of Protection Services for a large Canadian university. In his 20 years of experience in this industry he’s witnessed the impact of poor leadership at all rank levels: Burnouts, depressions, suicides. This is why he now spend all of my energy coaching the next generation of leaders. Showing them how to successfully lead teams, be recognized for their work and get promoted fast.

Oscar Trimboli is on a quest to create 100 million Deep Listeners. He is an author, host of the Apple award-winning podcast Deep Listening and a sought-after keynote speaker. He is passionate about using the gift of listening to bring positive change in homes, workplaces, and cultures worldwide. He has interviewed over 100 of the most diverse workplace listeners, including Air traffic controllers, deaf and foreign language interpreters, hostage negotiators, and spies as part of researching world-class listeners. Over 14,000 people have contributed to his research about what gets in their way when it comes to listening Oscar is a marketing and technology industry veteran working for Microsoft, PeopleSoft, Polycom, and Vodafone. He consults to American Express, AstraZeneca, Google, HSBC, Montblanc, PwC, Salesforce, Sanofi, and Siemens. Oscar loves his afternoon walks with his wife, Jennie, and their dog Kilimanjaro. He will be playing Lego with one of his four grandchildren on the weekends.

Brad Deutser is known for coaching and leading leaders through his company, Deutser, an innovative consultancy that designs a human approach to change. Brad works where most people feel uncomfortable and try to avoid. He is known for actively seeking out challenging and charged environments, as well as societal and politically sensitive ones. Creating spaces for belonging and initiating constructs to expand leadership in a more human, connective way has been the focus of his work for decades. Brad’s clients and coaching take him to amazing places—in athletics, aviation, education, entertainment, energy, finance, health care, and nonprofit—with incredibly thoughtful leaders around the world. He takes on the most high-level challenges, forging through them with creativity and grace to design and bring to life the most original solutions. Brad has been called on to define and transition the culture for NFL teams as well as supporting the transformation of a Division 1 football program, while serving as a leadership and performance coach to the players as well as executives across the world. He serves as the architect of the three-time recognized #1 entrepreneurial program in the United States. A leading university selected his approach to navigate complex social and cultural issues. And countless leaders have brought the Deutser team in to navigate generational transitions and conflicts within families and complex companies, to facilitate cultural integration post-merger/acquisition, and to support the health, well-being, and safety of tens of thousands of employees across too many businesses to name. Brad is sought after as an expert on belonging and an innovative thinker on matters of organizational change and complexity in leadership. He is the bestselling author of Leading Clarity: The Breakthrough Strategy to Unleash People, Profit, and Performance, and his latest book Belonging Rules: Five Crucial Actions that Build Unity and Foster Performance debuted at #3 on the Wall Street Journal’s Bestseller list.

Catherine Allen is Co-founder and Chief Impact Officer of AO People Partners, a Leadership Development and Culture Transformation firm dedicated to inspiring and supporting the conscious practice of people development in the workplace. Catherine specializes in helping executive leaders and teams Own, Model and Drive business and people development integration in their organizations. Skilled in conflict resolution, communications, business strategy and change management, Catherine has a 30-year track record in organizational leadership and management consulting helping executive leaders and their teams design strategies and work through the messy human realities of organizational life. Catherine is a sought-after executive coach to executive leaders seeking to take their business to the next level of conscious growth and senior leaders transitioning to executive roles. As AO’s Chief Impact Officer, her focus is on guiding her team to build and deliver the full suite of service capabilities to help leaders lead effectively, develop their people and design and build integrated and holistic people development cultures that are sustainable, practical and cost efficient. She also guides AO’s thought leadership and commitment to helping clients achieve their desired results and impact. Catherine holds an M.S. in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University and is a board-certified professional coach. Catherine is co-author with Ed Offterdinger of the book: Conscious, Capable and Ready to Contribute: How Employee Development Can Become the Highest Form of Social Contribution. Catherine is also a contributing author to the recently published book from the Association for Talent Development: Organizational Development Handbook. Her chapter is titled: A Holistic Approach to Developing a Leader’s Soft Skills Catherine writes and speaks regularly on leadership and people development integration and why people development in the workplace should become a recognized and incentivized form of social contribution. Catherine lives in Rockville, Maryland with her husband and two children. More Info: https://aopeoplepartners.com/

Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal (pronounced Stay-skull) is recognized by USA Today as the #1 international expert on resilience, mental health, and wellbeing, and she is the Founder of the Resilience Leadership Institute (RLI). Her mission is to positively impact the lives of 1 billion people, by enhancing hope, along with overall health and wellness through the practices of resilience. Her book entitled The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People: Why some flourish when others fold is a #1 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Bestseller and was endorsed by Arianna Huffington, Daniel Pink, and Kathy Ireland. Global Gurus has recognized Dr. Taryn Marie as a Top 30 Thinker in Leadership, she is a Marshall Goldsmith Top 100 Global Executive Coach, and a finalist for the Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) Award, the founder of Zappos, focused on people who are leading progressive and innovative change in human capital. Her work has been featured by Fox, NBC News, The Tamron Hall Show, Bloomberg Business, Ny Weekly Magazine, Thrive Global, and Forbes. Her TEDx talk entitled “How Resilience Breaks Us Out of Our Vulnerability Cage” has been viewed over 1.3 million times! LA Progressive magazine calls her “the go-to person” and “a secret weapon” for CEOs and leadership teams who want to find their edge as well as rise above the competition. Learn more about Lori at lorimicheleleavitt.com. USA Today named Dr. Taryn Marie as one of the Ten Top Entrepreneurs to watch in 2023, and she believes that The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People is the key to personal leadership, thriving through change, along with organizational growth and acceleration. Prior to founding RLI, she served as the Head of Executive Leadership Development & Talent Strategy at Nike, as well as Head of Global Leadership Development at Cigna. Dr. Taryn Marie earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, along with master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Maryland, College Park, and completed pre- and postdoctoral fellowships in neuropsychology at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center. She is the host of the chart-topping, top 1% acclaimed podcast entitled “Flourish or Fold: Stories of Resilience”, where well-known people tell their lesser well-known story of facing challenge to remind us that adversity is a necessary ingredient in life. She is honored to serve as a sought-after trusted advisor, executive coach, and board member to amplify resilience, engagement, and talent strategy. Her two sons, Samson and Sawyer, are always teaching her about resilience!

Lori Michele Leavitt, also known as “The Pivot Catalyst,” will guide you in each book to your best next steps toward extraordinary momentum, in business and life. Just as she coaches leaders around the world, with this book she will coach you. Lori Michele Leavitt, “The Pivot Catalyst”, has coached, consulted, and trained hundreds of leaders around the world to achieve their objectives and generate extraordinary momentum. She speaks globally on catalyzing momentum, leading, pivoting, and workplace culture change. When she’s not writing in one of her favorite locations conducive to deep thought and creativity, she’s supporting orchestration of Pivots, decision-making, and judgment calls for business leaders and their teams around the world. Her favorite role is as Emily’s Mom. What she hopes leaders who are listening get most from our talk is helping managers lead better, which is necessary for strengthening alignment, gaining momentum, and always being ready to change (even Pivot).