Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• The Resilience Plan: Sustaining Performance in Times of Relentless Change

  In this keynote, which complements her award-winning book The Resilience Plan, Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier combines her expertise in leadership psychology, workplace mental health, and business to reframe resilience as a strategic capability rather than a personal trait. This session goes beyond recovery to focus on how leaders and professionals sustain performance, health, and judgment under continuous pressure and change.

  Pelletier debunks common myths that limit effectiveness during demanding periods and introduces her evidence-based Resilience DNA™ model — a practical, systems-based way to understand how demands, values, and context interact to shape performance and mental health over time. This approach provides leaders and teams with a clear, actionable roadmap to protect performance while adapting to complexity and uncertainty.

  Key takeaways include:

  • Approaching resilience as an intentional leadership and performance strategy, not a reactive response.
  • Designing a personalized resilience plan aligned with professional demands and values.
  • Leveraging organizational, team, and personal context to sustain effectiveness during change.

• Human Performance and Resilience in Complex Leadership Environments

  Leaders are currently navigating significant change, rising complexity, emerging technologies, and increasing pressure to perform. These demands intensify pressure on attention, judgment, communication, and decision-making.

  In this keynote, Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier explores what leaders need in order to sustain high performance, sound judgment, and resilience in increasingly demanding environments. Grounded in psychology, leadership, and organizational resilience, this session provides practical, evidence-based strategies to help leaders have even more visibility on the impacts of this uncertainty and adapt effectively to support both performance and well-being across their teams and organization.

  Key takeaways include:

  • Understand the impacts of ongoing change, complex leadership environments and emerging technologies on resilience, adaptability, and performance.
  • Identify how to protect decision quality, focus, and critical thinking in fast-moving, high-pressure environments.
  • Identify ways to strengthen the human capabilities that remain essential alongside AI and evolving technologies, including judgment, trust, communication, and emotional intelligence.

• Psychological Safety and High-Performance Teams

  High-performing teams are not defined by the absence of challenge, pressure, or disagreement — they are defined by their ability to speak candidly, learn quickly, and adapt effectively in complex environments. Psychological safety is a critical condition that enables these outcomes, yet it is often misunderstood or oversimplified.

  In this keynote, workplace psychologist and leadership advisor Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier draws on current research and her experience working with senior leaders and teams to clarify what psychological safety actually is — and what it is not. She positions psychological safety not as a “soft” concept, but as a strategic enabler of decision quality, execution, and resilience, particularly in periods of change and uncertainty.

  Key takeaways include:

  • Understand psychological safety as a performance and risk-management capability.
  • Identify leadership behaviours and team conditions that support learning, accountability, and adaptability.
  • Strengthen team resilience by embedding psychological safety into everyday work.

• Igniting Curiosity: Driving Growth Through Creativity and Innovation

  In today’s environment of rapid change, evolving technologies, and increasing complexity, organizations need more than technical expertise to stay competitive. They need people who can think creatively, adapt quickly, collaborate effectively, and remain engaged under pressure.

  This keynote equips leaders and professionals with evidence-based strategies to strengthen curiosity, innovation, agility, and high performance across teams and their organization.

  Drawing on insights from psychology, leadership, and organizational resilience, Dr. Marie-Hélène Pelletier explores how to create a work climate where people can navigate uncertainty, generate new ideas, and sustain performance even in the most demanding environments.

  Key takeaways include:

  • Understand the impacts of ongoing change and emerging technologies on innovation, problem-solving, and engagement.
  • Identify how to build agility and adaptability to navigate rapid change while sustaining performance and productivity.
  • Identify ways to strengthen the human capabilities and curiosity organizations need to thrive in increasingly complex and AI-influenced environments.