Margie Warrell is a bestselling author, leadership advisor and global authority building courage for leadership and life.
The titles of Margie’s five bestselling books – Brave, Stop Playing Safe, You’ve Got This! and Find Your Courage – reflect her passion for empowering people to lead braver lives with greater impact.
Recently relocated back to Washington D.C. after a decade in Singapore and Australia, Margie’s diverse international experience coupled with her background in Fortune 500 business, psychology, coaching, and leadership development bring cross-cultural insights to address the complex challenges facing of leaders and organizations today.
Trusted by enterprises such as NASA, Salesforce, Dell, Google, UN Foundation, Johnson & Johnson, and Amazon to lead transformative programs foster more human-centered ‘cultures of courage.’
A member of the advisory board of Forbes School of Business & Technology, Margie has lectured at Columbia, Georgetown, USC, SMU and regularly shares her insights and interviews with leaders in her Forbes ’Courage Works’ column.
Recognised as a LinkedIn Top Voice, Margie is a sought-after speaker and media commentator (CNN, CNBC & Bloomberg) whose expertise in human behaviour, workplace and women’s leadership has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Inc. to name a few.
Nominated as Australia’s first Ambassador for Women in Global Business and a Women’s Economic Forum Honouree, Margie’s PhD in human development inform her work with Global Courage in creating more inclusive environments that nurture diversity and advance more women to top tables.
Since her childhood in rural Australia, Margie has developed a passion for adventure travel. Most recently summiting Mt Kilimanjaro with her husband and their four children.
Talking Points
The Courage Gap
THE ‘X FACTOR’ TO TAKE THE SMART RISKS FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU CAN BEThe Courage Gap
Growing up in rural Australia, Margie learned that ‘Growth and comfort can’t ride the same horse.’ It turns out there’s hard science behind closing the ‘courage gap’ between who we are and who we can be. Margie’s remarkable story of breaking ranks with comfort will help your audience reset their understanding with risk and empower them with practical skills to bring their bravest selves to their boldest vision.
Learning objectives and audience outcomes:
- Why courage is a skill, not a born trait, and how it can be mastered
- Build self-awareness of where your play-it-safe instinct is keeping you small, stuck, and scared
- Learn to rescript what scares you
- How to embody courage, transforming your relationship with discomfort
- Identify fear traps and dismantle ‘courage crushers’
- Adopt a play-to-win mindset to risk more intelligently for faster success
- Embed atomic ‘courage habits’ to tame your inner Chicken Little
Everyone needs courage, making this a ‘must-hear’ message for all audiences.
Lead with Courage
YOU CAN’T LEAD FROM YOUR COMFORT ZONELead with Courage
No organization can outperform its leaders over time. It’s why the #1 threat is never external but the fear that drives smart employees to play it too safe. Leaders who invite candor and encourage innovation without demonstrating vulnerability, normalizing dissent, and derisking ‘smart failure’ will fall short every time. Margie will embolden your leaders to lead from the inside out, building a ‘culture of courage’ that unlocks collective creativity and discretionary effort across your enterprise.
Learning objectives and audience outcomes:
- Research into a ‘courage mindset’ and why it’s a force multiplier of talent
- Harness ’emotional contagion’ to galvanize employees behind a bold vision with a big “Why”
- What we get wrong about risk that makes us more vulnerable
- Three ways to foster loyal dissent and harness constructive conflict
- How to lead from self-certainty to make more effective decisions amid the unknowns
Identify the invisible ‘timidity tax’ of excess caution in your team/business
- Accelerate learning and incubate innovation by scaling a play-to-win mindset
This program is ideal for leaders at all levels, from emerging to those at the top.
Women Daring
DOUBT YOURSELF LESS, BACK YOURSELF MORE!Women Daring
Feminine leadership strengths improve decisions. Yet, despite progress, the gender gap persists. Drawing on her doctoral research and decades of experience empowering women across the globe, Margie weaves personal stories as a working mother raising four children while relocating around the world, her doctoral research in women’s leadership, and proven strategies to help women make the difference their difference makes and place the ultimate bet… on themselves!
Learning objectives and audience outcomes:
- Reset your relationship with power; take care while taking charge
- Understand why courage trumps confidence and learn how to behave your way into believing
- Reclaim the power previously given to self-doubt and imposterhood
- Navigate feminine double-binds to manage the backlash effect
- Speak with authority and build executive presence for impact
- Amplify the voice of other women to lift as you climb
- Secure the right sponsors advocating for you when you’re not in the room
- Get off your own back and lower the perfectionist bar that’s holding you back
- Create a plan to immediately step into your courage gap
Can be customised for all women’s groups plus mixed audiences, championing men to lift women!
What Tests You Most, Teaches You Most
TURN EVERY PROBLEM INTO A WIN THAT SERVES YOUR HIGHEST GOODWhat Tests You Most, Teaches You Most
No one is immune to life’s hardships and heartaches, yet some people handle them better and emerge better off. This powerful keynote draws on research in positive psychology, well-being, and spiritual traditions to help you reframe how you are viewing your circumstances and processing your biggest problems, expanding your bandwidth to handle them better and turn your biggest challenges into your greatest catalysts for growth and personal transformation. Weaving her own hardships and heartaches – including losing a brother to mental illness and supporting another to adjust to life with paraplegia – Margie will help your audience expand their capacity for life and find the opportunities for growth that our toughest challenges always hold.
Learning objectives and audience outcomes:
- Understand why your stress is all in your head and learn how to short-circuit stressful thinking
- Discover the four pillars to activate post-traumatic growth and can-do optimism
- Apply BE-BEFORE-DO to thrive under pressure and align with your True North
- Establish daily resilience rituals, including taking a sacred pause to turn stressors into cues for courage
- Rescript the stories holding you victim to the past and fueling anxiety
- Learn micro-habits that build capacity to grow through change and use setbacks to bounce forward better off
This program is for broad audiences, from faith groups to business groups.
Video
Margie Warrell - Bestselling Author, Keynote Speaker & Leadership Authority
Margie Warrell is an internationally renowned thought leader, speaker and brave leadership expert. She has has empowered millions globally to overcome their fears and unlock their true potential to live more purpose-driven lives that make a greater impact for others.Inspiring Change - Rethink Risk: Margie Warrell keynote
Margie Warrell gave a keynote address at the 2018 FWD Insurance conference, offering her insights and inspiration on risk and leadership. A bestselling author & international thought leader in human potential, Margie draws on her background in business, psychology and coaching to help individuals and organisations globally.Richard Branson's wisdom on 'Failing Fast & Falling Forward'
Highly successful people from Sir Richard Branson to hotelier Bill Marriott can quickly recount plenty of mistakes. What sets them apart is that they don't drag out their miss-steps... they fail fast and fall forward. As Richard Branson advises, Don't be embarrassed by your failures. Learn from them and start again.Great Leadership requires Brave Leadership
What does it take to be a great leader? The willingness to lay your vulnerability on the line for a cause more important than your own status and success. Every single one of us has the capacity to act with courage and to leave a unique mark on the world and on the lives of those we share it with.Choose Growth Over Comfort
If we only do what we're comfortable with, we'll never do what we're capable of. Margie Warrell is a best-selling author and international speaker.Vision = Power. Dare to pursue goals that inspire you (the bolder the better!)
When it comes to making a change or doing something different - going after a big goal that maybe you've been procrastinating on because it is so overwhelming - it's important to really connect with something that's a core value for you. Something that really gives you a deep sense of meaning and purpose so that you will have the courage to get out of comfort zone and get into action.Climbing Kilimanjaro with four kids: How daring boldly unlocks untapped potential, grit & courage
Margie Warrell is an internationally renowned thought leader & keynote speaker who inspires people and organizations to expand their vision, embrace change and unlock their full human potential. She is also the mother of four children and author of four bestselling books.Margie Warrell | Introduction | Saxton Speakers Bureau
Margie Warrell is an expert in overcoming personal adversity and a passionate advocate for gender equality and inclusive leadership. Margie draws on her background in Fortune 500 business and the latest research to equip people with the mindset, strategies and skills essential to lead themselves and others to better outcomes.Margie Warrell | Power has No Gender | Saxton Speakers Bureau
For women who want to do more & be more but too often doubt they can Despite the compelling case to have more women seated at decision-making tables, too few still are. The reasons for the 'leaky pipeline' are many and the solutions complex, yet one thing is certain: empowering women to challenge gender norms and step into their power as change makers is not just the right thing to do, it's commercially smart.Margie Warrell | Embracing Change | Saxton Speakers Bureau
Over 40% of what university students are learning today will be obsolete ten years from now. In a rapidly changing workplace, embracing change is increasingly vital to being successful. Margie discusses importance of being proactive in the face of change and embracing discomfort in order to make the most of it.Margie Warrell | Building a Culture of Courage | Saxton Speakers Bureau
The greatest threat to organisation is not coming from the outside, its coming from within. Fear as an emotion is contagious and fear of change is dangerous. Margie discusses the steps that leaders can take to create a culture of courage within their workplaceMargie Warrell | Brave Leadership | Saxton Speakers Bureau
MHow exceptional leaders harness the potential in themselves and others Empower your leaders with a deeper sense of purpose, passion, courage and confidence. Drawing on the latest research in leadership and neuroscience, plus interviews with some of the world's most respected change makers, Margie will get to the heart of what undermines leadership effectiveness, sharing science-based strategies to embrace disconfort, rethinl risk and lead from possibility.If you are looking for a powerful yet practical message to inspire our team to take action, Margie is the speaker for you! The audience feels the positive and personal message she delivers w ... keep reading National Instruments
Margie is a true expert in her field who immediately captivates an audience.
Margie facilitated an outstanding program with my Asia Pacific leadership team. She connected immediately and had everyone fully engaged and participating. Even the skeptics in my team were very impressed with her approach and style and we all left inspired to execute action plans to improve their leadership effectiveness. I recommend Margie to any company seeking to up the ante on their leadership capability.
Margie's insights and ability to deliver thought-provoking and empowering sessions for leaders of all levels from diverse backgrounds is impressive. I've since engaged Margie for many leadership events, always with incredible feedback.
Margie's keynote on creating a culture of courage was dynamic, passionate and thought provoking. The feedback from our top 100 leaders was overwhelmingly positive. We will all go forward a little bolder and braver than before!
Margie is a truly sensational speaker. She had our audience hanging off her every word - her thought provoking, engaging and professional presentation style along with her unique ability to be down to earth was truely refreshing and motivating. I would recommend Margie as a keynote speaker anytime.
I've been meaning to write to thank you very much for your wonderful presentation. The room were highly engaged and the content was relevant to both genders. I know we will be reaping the positive rewards from this event and your words of wisdom for a long time!! I often hear around the office, when someone is delaying doing something, now come on, be courageous Thank you very much for delivering perfectly what we discussed and giving the team the courage and push they needed to be brave.
Margie sets herself apart with a powerful and inspiring message, paired with her energetic, down-to-earth, and disarming delivery. Inviting her to speak here at the United Nations Foundation helped me bolster my personal vision for a candid, collaborative, and forward-leaning workplace. Margie reminds us about the hidden costs of inaction while offering a refreshing and realistic perspective on how we can challenge ourselves and others to be more courageous, take more risks, and find more success. Feedback from her program was overwhelmingly positive and enthusiastic. We would welcome her back any time!
