Speaking & Workshops
Overview
Jessica offers leadership development keynotes, talks and workshops on finding meaning and growing through challenges at work. She adapts her material to each group, communicating to hosts so that her work supports the goals of a meeting or conference. Drawing on narratives from her books, as well as on social-psychological research, she engages participants through improv-inspired exercises, brief reflective writing prompts and conversation. Participants leave with new mindsets and methods for professional resilience and growth. Jessica has offered presentations and workshops for:
| 92nd St. Y | Bank Street College | Barnard College |
| Bay Path University | Bayer | Carleton College |
| Hampshire College | Siena College | |
| SUNY Stony Brook |
Sample Session Topics
Re-thinking Rejection - Being Let Down & Turning It Around
Rejection at work is hard for everyone -- even the UPenn professor, Angela Duckworth, who studies “grit” as a job but says that rejection often makes her cry. Begin the practice of normalizing rejection through hearing stories. Learn what the research says about how to keep from ruminating, and reframe your own rejection story so that it becomes useful to you and to others.
Mistakes at Work - What You Can Get Out of Getting It Wrong
Your response to making a mistake at work is rooted in your identity, your upbringing, and your approach to learning. In this session, you’ll do a bit of writing and engage in brief, low-stakes conversation about when things go well at work, and when they don’t. Your reflections will enrich a conversation about mindsets for resilience, and you’ll leave with new strategies for dealing with mistakes at work.
Getting More From Risks and Challenges
After managing a crisis or challenge, work and life usually demand that we move briskly onward -- no time to consider what we’ve learned. In this workshop, you will stop and think about small and not-so-small risks that you have taken. Then you will learn and practice Generative Knowledge Interviewing (Peet, M.R. 2010), a technique for uncovering strengths and capacities. This is a powerful way to build confidence in yourself and to communicate your value to others.
Participant Feedback
“Jessica was was delightful and discerning in her insights about how to take our own mistakes and ‘failures’ as a group and not just learn from them but own them — which is especially important for women in professional fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).”
“The amount of enthusiasm of our team after the session was really inspirational! They appreciated the ‘workshopping’ approach and how you created a safe place to be vulnerable together.”