Erica Dhawan

Speaking topics

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

• Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence

  We live in a world of endless meetings, emails, and constant cross-team dysfunction, duplication, and delays. Our collaboration skills aren’t always working to unlock better value in our business. As radical a concept as Emotional Intelligence was in the 90s, Connectional Intelligence is turning people into superconnectors who accelerate innovation, break down silos and foster breakthrough bottom line impact by harnessing the power of networks. In this presentation, Teamwork and collaboration expert Erica Dhawan will show you how to harness this powerful new idea.

  Learning Outcomes:

  • Learn successful tactics to address communication overload and foster authentic, innovation-driving relationships.
  • Discover tools to break down silos and keep teams aligned, accountable, and motivated both in-person and online.
  • Gain specific actions to foster loyalty, respect, collaboration, and innovation across stakeholder networks, regardless of physical distance.

• Digital Body Language: Collaborate Faster and Further, Together

  Email replies that show up a week later. Video chats full of “oops… sorry no you go” and “can you hear me?!” Ambiguous text-messages. Is it any wonder communication takes us so much time and effort to figure out? How did we lose our innate capacity to understand each other?

  Humans rely on body language to connect and build trust, but with most of our communication happening from behind a screen, traditional body language signals are no longer visible – or are they? In this presentation, Erica Dhawan combines cutting edge research with engaging storytelling to decode the new signals and cues that have replaced traditional body language across genders, generations, and culture. In person, we lean in, uncross our arms, smile, nod and make eye contact to show we listen and care. Online, reading carefully is the new listening. Writing clearly is the new empathy. And a phone or video call is worth a thousand emails. Dhawan will supercharge your teams with collectively understood rules that foster connection, build trust and drive innovation.

  Learning Outcomes:

  • Understand your collaboration style and the digital body language signals you may be broadcasting (even if you don’t intend to!)
  • Create cultures of clarity across email, phone, IM, text, video and even live meetings.
  • Develop a collaboration strategy that fosters valuable relationships, both in-person and online.
  • End cultures of useless meetings, missed deadlines, and digital misunderstandings.

• Concrete Empathy: A Playbook for Leading Modern Teams to Innovation

  We live in a culture defined by a distinct empathy deficit: The boss who expresses displeasure without giving valuable feedback. The mansplaining colleague who has no interest in the opinions of others. The team member who spends most of the meeting texting and answering emails. Why is empathy today at such a low point? Fewer face-to-face interactions, an ever-accelerating pace of change, and an increasing number of matrixed teams working remotely.

  In this presentation, attendees will learn practical ways to activate Concrete Empathy to create cultures of psychological safety, employee engagement, well-being and innovation.

  Learning Outcomes:

  • Discover simple ways to signal understanding and empathy across difference and distance.
  • Learn rules of thumb to avoid misunderstanding, ambiguity, and conflict.
  • Gain tools to foster innovation and create lasting relationships both within your organization and with clients, customers, and other key stakeholders.

• Maniacal Clarity: Reimagine Leadership to Drive Impactful Innovation

  We used to think of leadership as constant hustle and grit — the leader that never slept, sent profits through the roof, and embodied the classic rags-to-riches story. But this tired playbook doesn’t seem to work as well as it once did. What changed? What makes a 21st century leader and a great team now? Is it their ability to tell stories? Their decision-making skills? Their communication style?

  The critical missing factor is maniacal clarity. This is when leaders give their teams exactly what they need to do their absolute best work and enable them to be empowered to influence anyone, anytime, anywhere. Without it, even skilled, motivated, and effective teams languish, with cross-team dysfunction, duplicative work, and unhealthy internal competition. Maniacal clarity in our modern world delivers the ability to spark overarching optimism, inspirational imagination, continuous courage, and fast focus.

  In her new keynote, bestselling author and world-renowned speaker Erica Dhawan constructs a new framework for truly shifting minds and changing hearts, in the office, across any distance, and with customers. Based on years of research and advising respected companies around the world, this keynote promises a ground-breaking look into the science, frameworks, and stories of how to inspire anyone, anytime, anywhere to deliver their best results.

  Learning outcomes:

  • Conduct your own clarity audit of your workplace and assess your own maniacal clarity habits.
  • Learn the four foundations of maniacal clarity and how to bring it to everyone around you with optimism, imagination, courage, and focus.
  • Assess your strengths and opportunities to become a maniacal clarity change agent.
  • Develop an action plan to inspire your teams, customers, and the world around you to drive performance, teamwork, and innovation.