2024 Leadership Academy Sessions

Wednesday, December 4th

Recognize & Thrive
Emily Edelman, The Perk
In this dynamic & impactful discussion, you will immerse yourself in the exploration of one of the vital components of exceptional leadership: Recognition! Discover the profound significance of recognition in fueling employee engagement, retention and overall well-being, while also gaining practical insights on how to put it into action. You will be able to implement genuine & authentic recognition strategies to foster meaningful connections, a sense of belonging, & exceptional outcomes among your team members

Transformative Problem Solving
Sarah Tilkens, The KPI Lab
In this dynamic bootcamp, participants will embark on a transformative journey towards becoming adept problem solvers and effective leaders. This session offers a unique blend of leadership development and skill enhancement.

Thursday, December 5th

Work Life Balance: An Inside Out Approach
Allison Garner, Thoughtly
For most of us who are currently leading people, it is likely we are working long hours, doing lots of work inside the business, and constantly adapting to conditions on the ground. It is possible we are blurring work-life boundaries and feeling overwhelmed. We may even be able to defend and justify having to do everything. However, like the proverb says, all work and no play makes John a dull boy.

Many times, we look outward at the forces that are exerted upon us, like demanding employees, technology glitches, or convoluted systems. We can feel like work is happening TO us. In this presentation, we will put ourselves back into empowerment by exploring inward.

We will start by distinguishing time versus energy and then follow up with an energy audit where participants can score themselves on how well they are managing their own energy. We will then explore how to overcome common barriers that get in our way. Finally, we will walk through a few case studies so participants will have real life approaches to draw upon.

In this presentation, participants will:
· Increase their self-awareness of how they manage their own energy levels.
· Discover the role they are playing in their work-life experience.
· Shift into an empowering perspective around balancing both work and life.

It’s no secret that a healthy team creates a healthy business. By focusing on how we are creating our own imbalances, we put ourselves back into the driver’s seat of producing health, wellness and sustainability personally and professionally.

Critical Conversations
Vicki Updike
Why is it when the conversation is important, we get it wrong? When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong we miss the mark? We often try to force our perspective or not allow others to have a perspective or worse, stay silent. This workshop will introduce powerful skills to help you speak up, directly and effectively when it matters most.

Elevating the Employee Experience – Leadership Moments that Matter
Shawn Gulyas
An interactive workshop focused not on leadership grand gestures, but rather the small moments in organizational culture that have long-lasting impact on employee engagement and retention. How can leaders build sustainable practices and habits that lead to cultural belonging and a renewed sense of mattering for every individual as we embrace the “future of work?” Shawn will share tools and tactics that will jumpstart your efforts and provide direction for any role that truly cares about elevating the employee experience.

Friday, December 6, 2024

Strengthening your “Innerview” – Building Confidence for Strong Leadership
Shawn Gulyas
An interactive workshop focused on strengthening confidence and the ability to leverage one’s unique leadership style. Participants will build their individual leadership inventory including personal values and three parts of the mind understanding and application.

2024 Speakers

	Emily Edelman Emily is a Leadership Coach, Culture Consultant & Organizational Trust Expert. As a coach, she loves working with emerging leaders to help them grow in their leadership skills, discover their leadership brand, & indulge in their culture journey. She is passionate about advocating for people to see themselves as a leader at any level in their career & truly helping The Perk live out their just cause, to build a world in which everyone wakes up inspired & excited about life!
	Sarah Tilkens Sarah Tilkens is a dynamic leader with a career rooted in excellence. As an executive coach with credentials from the International Coaching Federation, her objective is to build problem solvers rather than simply solve problems. As the CEO of The KPI Lab, Sarah empowers teams through coaching, problem solving methodology and Kaizen facilitation, fostering personal and professional growth.
	Allison Garner Allison Garner is the owner of Thoughtly and supports her clients to master leadership and create high performing teams. Her clients value her ability to hold a safe space for exploration and discovery. Because she is a gritty stand for what may feel impossible, she supports her clients to continue moving towards their big, compelling visions. She uses her devotion, brilliance, and strength to invite her clients to shine a light on their blind spots and interrupt their unproductive patterns. Allison specializes in executive coaching, leadership development, and business consulting. Her extensive formal training in executive coaching paired with her engineering and business degrees help leaders and leadership teams to better understand themselves as well as tie their transformational behavioral changes to the bottom line. Her work includes launching startups, navigating turnarounds, overcoming dysfunction within the executive team, and challenging assumptions around leadership with owners, CEO’s, presidents, and executive directors.
	Vicki Updike Prior to consulting, Vicki’s corporate leadership journey included various marketing and executive positions. Her last corporate position was president of Silver Star Brands. Having been a president and c-suite executive gives Vicki a unique perspective in coaching and business advising. She brings experience in the areas of strategic planning and execution, organizational development, and leadership coaching. Vicki is passionate about helping create strong, effective leaders and leadership teams. She loves a good challenge and leans on her knowledge and experiences to help build results-minded leadership qualities in each person or group she gets the privilege to work alongside.
	Shawn Gulyas After a career filled with growth and learning with The Mark Travel Corporation (TMTC) as Vice President of Human Resources, Shawn decided to venture out and get his hands dirty with other organizations in need of bringing their work to life through championing people. Shawn and his team have guided organizations in discovering what is at the core of their reason for being, developing unique performance management practices, enlivening their talent discovery process, establishing clarity in strategic planning and helping individuals add their greatest value through understanding their natural instincts and unique abilities. Think of Shawn as a “jump-starter” of energy and ideas around the belief that everyone matters and as a leader who creates cultures and communities where values, natural instincts and well-being are the essence of success. Other things Shawn believes in: Peace, Wonder and Yoda.