Topics and Audience Takeaways

What Margie Warrell Talks About:

Lead Bravely: Close the Courage Gap to Amplify Impact – From the Inside Out
In times of relentless change and rising complexity, hesitation is costly. It’s not enough for leaders to know what to do—they must become the kind of leaders who can do it. That requires more than strategy. It requires courage. Today’s most effective leaders are grounded in purpose, anchored in self-awareness, and equipped to navigate ambiguity while cultivating collective courage across teams and culture.

In this high-impact keynote, Dr. Margie Warrell delivers a bold recalibration of what’s possible when clarity, courage, and alignment converge. Margie unpacks why the real work of leadership begins where comfort zones end, bridging the gap between inner evolution and outer results. With compelling stories and evidence-based insight, she guides leaders to dismantle the psychological barriers—fear of judgment, risk-aversion, imposter beliefs—that subtly sabotage execution and stall growth and silence candor. This keynote equips leaders to stop operating from insecurity and start leading from conviction—resetting their trajectory for next-level growth and sustained impact.

Key Audience Takeaways

• The Case for Courage: Understand how fear-based leadership exacts a “timidity tax” and long-term vulnerability—and how scaling courage unlocks stronger performance and sustained advantage.
• Lead from Values, Not Emotions: Learn how inner alignment drives outer effectiveness, shifting from insecurity alleviation to purpose-powered action.
• From Groupthink To Generative Thinking: Foster ‘loyal dissent’ and bold thinking that breaks from convention to fuel innovation and resilience.
• Galvanize Shared Purpose: Craft and communicate a compelling “why” to ignite accountability, collaboration, and creative problem-solving.
• Scale a Culture of Courage: Apply four principles that build psychological safety, reduce perceived risk, and create the conditions for bold, aligned action at scale.

Take the Chance: How to Take the Chances That Change Everything

We often know what to do yet we don’t do what we know. Fear is a silent killer of potential, widening the gap between thought and action – stifling initiative, fueling indecision, limiting growth and leaving potential to lay dormant. Everyone misses out.

At a time when 85% of people cite fear of failure as their #1 barrier to action and 70% of employees are afraid to speak up at work, Margie draws on insights from latest book The Courage Gap to help your audience reclaim their agency, reimagine their future and step bravely into the gap between where they are and where they want to be. Your audience will leave with real-world strategies to turn their fears into fuel — igniting passion toward a bolder vision and ready to take the chances s needed to make it reality.

Key Audience Takeaways

• Flip Your Fear: How to turn fear into an ally, and calibrate awkward moments and discomfort as a signpost for growth and cue to speak up and step forward.
• Take Smart Risks: Recognize the unconscious biases that drive over-caution and learn a simple tool to discern smart risks from reckless ones.
• Fail Forward: Recalibrate the relationship with failure to ‘mine its gold,’ applying those lessons to reset more quickly and step forward wiser, braver, and better off.
• Reset and Rescript: Clarify your highest intention to focus on what you want—not what you fear—and rewrite the story that’s been keeping you stressed, stuck and too safe.

Brave the Awkward: The Heart of Human Connection in an Over-wired World
In today’s hyper-connected workplace—where curated profiles, Slack replies, and AI-generated messages dominate—something vital is getting lost: our capacity for real human connection.As it becomes easier to polish our image and harder to have honest conversations, we’re seeing a growing gap between surface-level communication and true belonging. The very technologies designed to bring us closer are eroding the awkward but essential interpersonal skills that build trust, foster belonging, and fuel collaboration. We’ve become masters of impression management but novices at genuine vulnerability.

This timely keynote by Dr. Margie Warrell helps audiences confront that gap—and close it. With warmth, insight, and deeply practical tools, Margie invites your people to brave the awkward: to lean into the moments of discomfort that deepen relationships, transform cultures, and unlock human potential. From giving feedback that lands to asking for help when it matters most, Margie teaches the conversational skills and courageous mindsets that strengthen teams, elevate trust, and make space for authenticity in a world that often rewards performance over presence.

Grounded in research and real-world experience across global organizations, Brave the Awkward equips your leaders and teams with a roadmap for building more human-centered workplaces—where people feel safe to be real, to take smart risks, and to connect beyond the screen.

With belonging and engagement at historic lows, this is not a soft skill. It’s a strategic imperative.

Key Audience Takeaways

• The 3C Model – Clarity, Courage, Connection: A simple model to speak truth with love, navigate sensitive conversations and avoid the costly “timidity tax” of avoidance.
• From Impression Management to Shared Humanity: Tools to move beyond status anxiety and performative behaviors toward mutual vulnerability and authentic connection.
• Braving Silence: How to sit in the discomfort of silence to create space for the conversations that matter most—beneath the surface.
• Disarming Defensiveness: How to amplify authenticity to show up in ways that make others feel safe to lower their guard, trust your intention and connect at the next level.
• Digital Courage in Virtual Environments: Strategies to use tech to connect—not hide—and bridge the emotional distance of remote and hybrid work.