Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal

Speaking topics

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

• Why Resilience is No Longer a “Soft Skill” in the Age of AI and Beyond

  As AI and technological advances continue to be cornerstones in our world of work, with machines taking over many “hard skills” formerly carried out by humans, skills previously considered “soft”, such as leadership, communication, and empathy, are and will continue to separate organizations that flourish from those that flounder. In a business landscape characterized by “technologification”, for the first time, humanity will be in shorter supply than technology, meaning that investments made in leadership and deepening human connection will become an even more significant differentiator.

  Therefore, resilience is no longer a “soft skill”, it is the key ingredient for those who wish to amplify their change agility, enhance their personal leadership, and are looking for an edge when navigating disruption and uncertainty. Yet, how do we identify, let alone cultivate resilience for leaders, teams, and enterprise culture?

  “The 5 Practices of Highly Resilient People” provides the blueprint. It is based on two decades of empirical research on identifying, developing, and amplifying resilience to enhance the quality of relationships and engagement inside organizations. It also provides the skills necessary to empower individuals, leaders, and teams to sustainably and effectively navigate large-scale change and uncertainty.

• The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People: Why Some Flourish When Others Fold

  What are the attributes that determine whether a leader, team, or organization will flourish or fold? After conducting 20 years of research to understand how people effectively face challenge, resilience has emerged as the key differentiator that sustains people in moments of difficulty, ambiguity, and adversity.

  In this signature keynote, Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal shares the myths that have clouded our understanding of resilience and invites audiences to look within themselves, rather than outside of themselves for resilience. She inspires audiences with the practical, tangible, and evidence-based framework, “The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People”, based on her #1 Wall Street Journal bestselling book, where attendees will identify and adopt practices that will enhance their well-being and sustain their resilience.

  Attendees will:

  • Learn the five practices of highly resilient people.
  • Understand the importance of empathy and authenticity in leadership.
  • Understand the pervasive myths that often block their ability to access resiliency.
  • Increase resilience and reduce stress, exhaustion, and burnout.

• Resilience is a Team Sport: A Model for Transformation, Team Engagement, and Retention

  Resilience is not an individual pursuit — it’s a team sport. The commonality amongst the most effective leaders and teams is a commitment to developing a culture of resilience, along with empathy. By fostering resilience and developing the whole person, team members move from a mentality of “crossing the finish line first” to “how we cross the finish line together”.

  “The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People” is a proven method to help your team enhance resilience and transform their leadership while boosting productivity, engagement, and retention, along with deepening relationships.

  Attendees will:

  • Learn the five practices of highly resilient people.
  • Build a culture of team resilience and have a renewed sense of trust and purpose in their work.
  • Understand how to amplify positive team dynamics that enhance productivity and engagement.
  • Reignite their commitment to team and organization.

• From Burnout to Balance: Practices to Restore and Optimize Engagement

  The world is changing faster than we ever imagined, leaders and teams get to dig deep within themselves to break through and find opportunity in uncertain times. Instead of bouncing back, we’re bouncing forward, drawing on the wisdom and growth of our recent experiences to go forward in our careers, lives, and the pursuit of our dreams and goals.

  While we don’t get to choose our experiences, we can choose the meaning we make of our circumstances as well as how we respond, rather than simply reacting. To continue developing resilience, we must focus on cultivating courage, curiosity, and creativity — the antidote to immense challenge, change, and complexity. Rather than bouncing back, we get to enhance our resilience to bounce forward.

  Before becoming the #1 expert on resilience, mental health, and well-being, Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal suffered from crippling PTSD. After committing to a series of positive life changes, she had a shift in perspective that changed her outlook on life and opened herself up to endless possibility. She is now committed to helping others unlock the power of their inherent resilience. Stejskal’s life-changing message has opened up audiences around the world to cultures of greater authenticity, gratitude, and endless potential.

  As a result of this program, attendees will:

  • Recognize that all aspects of their life impact their work, life, and performance.
  • Harness the five practices that increase well-being and mental health during times of stress and uncertainty.
  • Learn how small acts can create a large-scale impact in their team, organization, and community.
  • Understand how to transform their perspective to optimize performance.

• The Not-So-Surprising Link Between Resilience, Innovation, and Creativity: Making the Impossible, Possible

  How can organizations and leaders foster cultures that leverage innovation and creativity as fuel? While organizations have sought to understand the secret sauce that allows their people to effectively address challenge and pursue innovation, they often overlook a key ingredient that fosters innovation — resilience.

  In this talk, Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal reveals how individuals, teams, and organizations can harness and enhance resilience through her proven framework “The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People”. It helps eliminate fear of failure and take action towards amplifying innovation to make the seemingly impossible, become possible.

  Attendees will:

  • Understand how psychological safety forms the foundation for creativity and innovation.
  • Learn how the five practices framework makes the seemingly impossible, possible.
  • Appreciate the meaningful relationships between resilience, creativity, and innovation.

• Harness Resilience to Advance the Future of Work: Navigating Uncertainty and Ambiguity

  As the landscape continues to shift at lightning speeds with economic and digital advancements such as AI, leaders and teams have a golden opportunity to dig deep and uncover new ways to advance the future of work by harnessing courage, conviction, and candour.

  In this insightful talk, Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal takes the audience through a proven framework to find grounding in times of high-stress and uncover opportunities that exist to propel the team and organization forward. Developing a culture of resilience is the antidote to the immense challenge, change, and complexity we find ourselves in today.

  Attendees will:

  • Learn how the five practices of highly resilient people can support organizations and teams in times of high stress.
  • Recognize how to find opportunity in times of uncertainty.
  • Hear the key mindset hack leveraged by top leaders all over the world that optimizes performance.
  • Understand why perceived failure hits women and girls harder and how to avoid paralysis.

• Harnessing Resilience in the Age of AI

  In this keynote presentation, Dr. Taryn-Marie Stejskal delves into the transformative landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) and its evolving role in leadership.

  Gone are the days when AI was merely considered a supplementary skill. Today, it’s a cornerstone of effective leadership. Stejskal will explore how resilience and the “Five Practices of Highly Resilient People” are the key ingredients for leaders looking to best navigate this rapidly changing terrain.

  From adapting to technological disruptions, to fostering innovation in AI-driven environments, AI is no longer a soft skill; it’s a hard skill necessary to empower leaders to thrive amidst uncertainty. Stejskal will share strategies to embrace resilience as a core competency while cultivating the AI acumen needed to lead confidently in the digital age.

• Women, Wellness, and Worthiness: How to Achieve the Seemingly Impossible

  As a former executive at Cigna and Nike, Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal has a unique ability to support women with their ambition and desire to accomplish big goals without sacrificing personal life, well-being, or sanity. Her message of radical possibility, combined with “The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People” framework, leaves audiences inspired and equipped with practical tools.

  Stejskal gives audiences a candid look at ways well meaning women sacrifice wellness, sabotage themselves and others, and feel unworthy. She provides insight to uplift not only themselves, but those around them, with the ability to find a flow in both work and family life, while believing more deeply in their inherent enough-ness!

  Attendees will:

  • Learn how the five practices framework allows them to accomplish big goals.
  • Identify the #1 thing that holds them back from accomplishing their goals.
  • Uncover how to live a life with less stress and more meaning.
  • Appreciate proven methods to amplify confidence and banish feelings of unworthiness for good.

• Close the Confidence Gap: Three Proven Secrets to Boost Confidence and Eliminate Procrastination

  You’ve totally got this. If you don’t believe that you’ve got this, you may think that mastering confidence something for other people. This inspirational and interactive talk will allow everyone to understand how to harness their confidence, once and for all!

  Drawing from her work as Marshall Goldsmith’s Top 100 Coach and her empirical framework, “The Five Practices of Highly Resilient People”, Dr. Taryn Marie Stejskal shows audiences how to apply key strategies high-level leaders and athletes use to amplify confidence. Because people aren’t born confident, confidence is developed through dedication and intentional practice!

  Attendees will:

  • Uncover the three hidden beliefs that diminish their power.
  • Learn the secrets to beat procrastination, overcome perfectionism, and step into new level of productivity.
  • Understand the power of regret and uncover how to effectively boost confidence personally and professionally.