Margie Warrell - Motivational Keynote Speaker

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Dr. Margie Warrell: Keynote Speaker, Courage Expert, Leadership Authority

Margie Warrell Promo

Lead Bravely Through Uncertainty, Change & Disruption

Speech Topics

A sought-after speaker on leadership, mindset and resilience, Margie’s powerful new keynote weaves compelling storytelling with cutting-edge insight to engage, educate, and empower action to close the ‘courage gap’ in your organization. Key learning includes how to:

Cultivate Courage: Harness the two key levers for cultivating courage – a learnable skill – regulating fear and emboldening ourselves to move forward anyway
Rethink Risk: Discern smart from reckless risk-taking amid complexity and uncertainty and identify longer term vulnerabilities created by ‘courage gaps’
Fail Right: Leverage a play-to-win mindset to embrace intelligent failure, accelerate learning, and harness the value in setbacks.
Lead With Courage: Anchor in “Self-Certainty” to reset discomfort and transform fear as a catalyst for growth.
Unleash Collective Courage: Build a culture that supports ‘loyal dissent’ and galvanizes common purpose around a bold vision for the future.

Embedding the value of courage in your organization’s culture is critical to unleashing the ingenuity and diverse potential in your enterprise. This keynote will embolden your leaders to show up with more authenticity, empathy and vulnerability, cultivating a ‘culture of courage’. Drawing on research and insights from Stop Playing Safe, equip your leaders to:

Get ‘on purpose’, leading with the passion essential to rally teams behind a ‘Big Why’ and overcome the gravitational pull of the status quo
Foster psychological safety across hybrid teams that fuels disruptive thinking and crucial conversations
Activate ‘emotional contagion’ to normalize courage and build collective resilience and change-agility
Adopt inclusive leadership practices that harness the full value of diversity
Unlearn to relearn, identifying blind spots to counter rigidity and confirmation bias
Reframe risk to counter short-sighted decision-making and ensure peripheral risk-taking that protects the core

No one is immune to fear or self-doubt but everyone can learn to reclaim the power we too often give it. Drawing on her bestselling book, You’ve Got This! The Life-Changing Power of Trusting Yourself, Margie provides science-backed strategies to bring your bravest self to your boldest dreams and biggest challenges. Learn to:

Quiet your inner critic and defy the doubts that have been holding you back
Activate post-traumatic growth, nurturing your innate resilience to turn bounce forward stronger, braver, better
Operationalize ‘self-compassion to become your greatest champion, not loudest critic
Identify blind spots and play from your strengths
Use language to elevate your perspective and thrive under pressure

Prioritize what empowers, practicing ‘self-fulness.’

Harnessing the human capital in your organization has never been more critical. Yet, its greatest threat is the fear that stifles ingenuity and drives capable, creative people to play it safe and make short-sighted decisions. Embedding the value of courage in your organization’s culture leads to competitive edge, greater agility, and stronger outcomes. Drawing on the latest research and fresh insights, Margie will equip your leaders with practical strategies to:

Nurture psychological safety to unleash disruptive thinking & fail forward, faster.
Create unconscious inclusion that harnesses the full value of diversity.
Foster ‘loyal dissent’ to upgrade outdated paradigms that stifle innovation.
Activate the ‘rally effect’ toward a shared mission critical.
Unlearn to relearn, embracing a ‘risk ready’ mindset.
Counter the unconscious forces that sabotage change and undermine crucial conversations and quality decision-making.

Empowering women to ‘own their power’ and embrace their feminine leadership strengths is a vital lever to unleashing the vast potential in women and advancing more to decision-making tables. Drawing on her doctoral research and 20+ years emboldening women globally, Margie will share her personal stories as a ball-dropping mother of four coupled with proven approaches to:

Conquer the imposter syndrome and close the confidence gap
Speak powerfully, using your authentic voice to grow authority & impact
Counter ‘think male, think manager’ bias & ‘backlash effect’
Enlist allies and get the right champions in your corner
Lower the ‘perfection’ high bar, ditch the guilt & get off your own back
Build micro-habits that expand your capacity to thrive under pressure
Lift as you climb, amplifying the voice of other women

Biography

Dr. Margie Warrell is a globally recognized expert in leadership and human behavior, renowned for her ability to help leaders and organizations unlock untapped potential by countering the underlying dynamics that inhibit bold thinking, decisive action, and transformative growth.

Growing up in rural Australia instilled in Margie a deep understanding of resilience and the courage required to navigate uncertainty. Over the past three decades, she has lived and worked across five continents, gaining a globally grounded perspective on overcoming the forces that stifle innovation and limit performance in individuals and organizations alike.

Drawing on her doctoral research in leadership and coaching, as well as extensive experience consulting for Fortune 500 companies, Margie has become a trusted advisor to boards and leaders across the private, public and government sectors. She specializes in cultivating courageous cultures that strengthen decision-making, elevate team performance and accelerate transformative change.

Her expertise has been sought by leading organizations such as NASA, Dell, Morgan Stanley, Novartis, Google, and Johnson & Johnson. Her insights also extend to policy influencers and emerging global leaders, including U.S. Congressional Chiefs and McCain Global Fellows.

As a sought-after speaker and thought leader, Margie bridges the gap between strategy and human behavior, weaving insights from her collaborations with luminaries like Bill Marriott, Richard Branson, Ken Blanchard, and Amy Edmondson.

Through her Forbes column, Live Brave podcast, and appearances on CNN, Bloomberg, and in The Wall Street Journal, she inspires audiences to rethink fear, lead with purpose, and embrace the courage to drive meaningful impact.

A passionate advocate for advancing women in leadership, Margie has contributed to government roundtables, spearheaded initiatives to elevate more women to decision-making roles, and co-led Korn Ferry’s Power of All program during her tenure as a Senior Partner in their CEO & Enterprise Leadership Institute.

Margie’s book, The Courage Gap (Jan ‘25), distills her decades of research and experience, providing a roadmap for closing the gap between potential and performance.

Based in Alexandria, Virginia, Margie balances her professional endeavors with her love of adventure. A lifelong hiker and aspiring barista, she finds inspiration scaling mountains, including summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro with her husband and four children.

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