Margie Warrell

Global Leadership Authority
Bestselling Author

Dr. Margie Warrell brings sharp insights from her diverse global experience in Fortune 500 business, coaching, and leadership development. Yet it’s her ability to connect at the most human level getting to the heart of what holds people and organizations back that sets her apart as a speaker on the world stage.

Margie’s down to earth style and humor coupled with her hard won wisdom of the human condition enable her to distill theory into practical advice that emboldens braver decision making to build value, accelerate growth and strengthen outcomes.

The titles of Margie's bestselling books - Find Your Courage, Make Your Mark, Stop Playing Safe, Train the Brave and You've Got This! as well as her podcast, Live Brave - reflect her passion for emboldening people to lead braver lives with bigger impact. Margie’s walked her talk countless times since growing up in rural Australia. Her intrepid adventures - from hiking Kilimanjaro with four kids to living in Papua New Guinea - combined with her research equip her with deep insights for unlocking human potential.

Margie’s expertise in human behavior and rising to today's complex challenges is widely sought by media outlets such as CNN, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. A Senior Partner in the Board, CEO & Leadership Advisory practice at Korn Ferry, Margie also sits on the advisory boards of the Women's Democracy Network and Forbes School of Business & Technology and is a Women’s Economic Forum honoree.

Videos: Watch Margie Warrell Speak >>
Topics: Talks & Conversations with Margie Warrell >>

Past Hosts Include:

WorkForce
Automotive News & Women in Auto Conference
Connect Conference
Harvard Program on Negotiation
Marriott International

Salesforce
Illumina
Medical Society of Virginia
AT&T
Shell Aviation

Rave Reviews About Margie Warrell

“

Margie’s opening keynote at our annual conference was nothing short of spectacular! She has my highest recommendation for any event – in fact, her message is one that everyone should hear in their lifetime!

- WorkForce Software

”

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Keynote - How to be brave | TEDxButler [16:58]

Talks & Conversations with Margie Warrell

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The Courage Gap: The 'X' Factor To Take The Smart Risks From Where You Are To Where You Can Be

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 ...

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 Zone

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!

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 customized 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 Good

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.

Books by Margie Warrell

The Courage Gap: 5 Steps to Braver Action

You've Got This!: The Life-changing Power of Trusting Yourself

Make Your Mark: A Guidebook for the Brave Hearted

Brave: 50 Everyday Acts of Courage to Thrive in Work, Love and Life

Stop Playing Safe: Rethink Risk. Unlock the Power of Courage. Achieve Outstanding Success

Find Your Courage: 12 Acts for Becoming Fearless at Work and in Life

Press & Media

From America to Afghanistan, Hope Is A Risk That Must Be Run - Forbes

Courageous Living: Margie Warrell on Embracing Challenges - Jewish Journal

Practice Self-Certainty: Lead From Values, Not Emotions - Forbes

Embracing The Play-to-Win Mindset: Leading With Courage In Business - Chief Executive

IWD24: Repair The Broken Rung To Accelerate And Elevate More Women - Forbes

Biography

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.

Recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice, Margie is a sought-after speaker and media commentator (CNN, CNBC & Bloomberg) whose expertise in human behavior, 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 Honoree, 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.