Workshops

This workshop is an incomparable experience for leaders and teams who are cracking open possibilities in innovative ways. Participants engage in a unique and powerful hands-on experience, pulled from an age-old practice, to accelerate the art of recognizing and building strength from our unique attributes and skills, reflecting on how we interact with our own teams, customers, and other stakeholders. Plus, it’s a sure-fire way to instantaneously connect and bond with others in the organization. We’ll borrow from the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi – each person breaking a bowl and mending it with golden glue - for an experience that engages head, heart, and hands. The activity - customized for each group, based on goals and specifics explored in advance - empowers each participant to reflect upon what makes us, our teams, and even our world, whole, what the individual components create, and how the cracks let the light in. We explore how unique shards, bonded together, create strength. The workshop leader leverages coaching and facilitating skills to invite and draw out ah-hahs while ensuring a ripple effect of fun throughout the room. Participants from early-stage professionals to c-suite officers who’ve taken part have called the experience “profound” and “deeply impactful.”

One’s “executive presence” often gets the credit when it comes to winning a room, nailing a presentation, developing strong relationships, or even closing a sale. It’s also named as a factor in promoting a team member or leader. Yet, few professionals, even at senior levels, can precisely define executive presence, much less be sure how to develop, and consistently demonstrate it. In this interactive workshop, we establish an understanding of that elusive set of qualities that have mystified many. Participants engage with expert guidance, peer-to-peer discussion, and powerful exercises rooted in a proven framework, to cultivate executive presence, be that in a real or virtual setting. The facilitator calls upon experience as a former media professional, national-level public speaker, and prolific presenter to boards of directors and other high-level stakeholders in guiding the group through a deep understanding and even playful exploration of the art and science of executive presence, particularly in today’s environment.

Professionals with extraordinary communication skills – both inwardly and outwardly - not only win the day, but they also have the power to win the hearts and minds of stakeholders and clients. Yet even though we spend 80% of our professional time communicating – verbally, in writing, and sometimes with a silent reaction (knowingly or unknowingly) – we are not the experts we might think. Our peers, customers, teams, and partners don’t always experience us as clear, concise, respectful, or effective. This is particularly relevant in a world where the people with whom we’re communicating have increasingly less bandwidth, shorter attention spans, and are coping in an anxious world. The workshop facilitator taps into a deep bank of experience leading teams, serving corporate boards, and producing television to explore with participants the secrets of next-level communication which creates positive cultures and leaders who people want to follow. We unpack how intent and impact can differ, and how responding and reacting are not the same thing.

We’ve all heard that coaching can be one of the most effective ways to lead. We can probably recall a leader in our own career history who made a significant impact on us, our development, and our trajectory by effectively coaching us – whether we knew it or not at the time. The challenge: leaders do not necessarily receive training around how to effectively coach direct reports. And who has the time to research or get certified in coaching? This interactive workshop, led by a facilitator who is an experienced, certified leadership coach and former corporate executive, features key coaching frameworks and provides opportunities for participants to put them into action through guided skills practice. It helps to instill in leaders a coaching habit that has the power to transform their leadership, and the development of their teams.

It is no secret. Even the most pleasant, collaborative workplace cultures experience points of disagreement and conflict along the way. It’s virtually unavoidable when humans work together, particularly under the pressures imposed by deadlines and budgets, competing priorities and other organizational realities. Such tensions, when managed productively, can be healthy. After all, an orchestra cannot play a symphony without inherent tension in the strings or between the notes. And we know that an airplane doesn’t take off and reach cruising altitude without some pressure being formed. The question therefore becomes not how to avoid workplace conflict, but how to enter and go through it with diplomacy, grace, and conscious choice around how one faces it. Stakeholder influence requires awareness and intentionality around adjusting one’s approach to meet the moment.

We are leading in an era that’s been dubbed both VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) and BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible). This new reality impacts not only strategy and operations, but also how we relate—to our teams, our customers, and ourselves. This interactive, science-informed workshop explores how these conditions affect our nervous systems beneath the surface, influencing behavior, decision-making, and connection. Grounded in the basics of polyvagal theory, we’ll build awareness of what drives our reactions and those of others—and how we can respond with greater clarity and intention.

In business, relationships drive reputation, opportunity, and influence. Yet for many, networking can feel awkward or transactional. This session takes the fear and guesswork out of connecting with others—online and in person—by offering practical strategies to approach networking with confidence, purpose, and authenticity. Designed for professionals at all levels who operate in the current environment that is a mix of hybrid and in-person, office based and client meeting, this session helps participants maximize opportunities, whether at industry events, corporate gatherings, or conferences.

In any fast-paced, demanding industry, success depends on not merely clear strategy and a strong brand. It also increasingly hinges on human connection. The Hand Project is an extraordinary, immersive workshop that invites corporate teams to reconnect with their own humanity, build deeper self-awareness, and lead with presence, empathy, and purpose, all while collaborating on a project with unparalleled impact. In this unique, hands-on session, participants assemble prosthetic hands for people in need, restoring not only functionality but also dignity and hope. Divided into groups of 3 or 4, each team will literally build a hand for an unknown individual across the world. Along the way, participants strengthen collaboration, communication, problem-solving, empathy, and pride in shared purpose. It’s a rare opportunity to align values with action and walk away knowing your work had real-world impact.

Gone are the days of creating lasting impressions through in-person meetings or the mailing of a resume. Our current environment demands that our online presence is a currency that's instantly traded on whether we've intentionally crafted it or not. Bright Spots Coaching helps clients to stand in their best light online in the form of expertly polished LinkedIn profiles, clear, clever website content, and/or seamless personal branding. Leverage our expertise, flexibility, and a bit of a magic touch to ensure your best self appears on the page, and on the screen. We ensure we understand you, the highlights of your experiences, and your personal brand...and we help you effectively tell your story so you shine online.