Empowering audiences to see work differently.

From keynotes to retreats and workshops, bring Dr. Karlyn Borysenko to speak at your event or work with your team at your organization.
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“In the many presentations that I have witnessed Karlyn deliver over the years, she has always given me thought provoking takeaways to apply in my professional life. Karlyn is extraordinarily passionate about her subject matter. This passion is evident through her content’s high quality and superb delivery to her audiences.”

– Jake Dolan, Founder & Chief Technology Officer at Cascadin

An inspiring, original speaker.

Dr. Karlyn Borysenko is an award-winning keynote speaker, author, facilitator, and trainer. She’s delivered talks to audiences large and small, inspiring people to look at work in a way that emphasizes personal empowerment, self-mastery, an  unapologetically optimistic outlook, and highly practical mindfulness. 

Karlyn is available for the following types of engagements: 

  • Conference keynotes and sessions.
  • Corporate professional development talks.
  • Half-day, full-day and multi-day workshops and group/team trainings.
  • Corporate team retreats and facilitations.

 Karlyn speaks on a variety of subjects, including: 

  • Practical ways to practice mindfulness at work
  • Creating real employee engagement
  • Building highly resilient teams
  • Establishing influence and navigating office politic
  • Understanding different communication and work styles
  • Training specifically for managers and team leads.

A more in-depth list of her talks and programs with audience takeaways is available below. Reach out to have a conversation and she’ll customize a talk and experience specifically for your audience. 

See for yourself

Here are a few sample videos of some of Karlyn’s most popular keynotes. A complete list of topics and workshops is available below. 

Playing Politics: The Psychology of the Human Workplace

Creating Real Employee Engagement Without Spending A Dime

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“‘Awesome’ feels like it’s the only thing I can say, yet it doesn’t actually express just how great this talk was. I love the frankness of being told how to do things better in a refreshing and funny way.” 

–  From a conference evaluation of Playing politics

What type of talk are you looking for?

Karlyn speaks on a variety of topics, and is always open to customizing a talk, workshop or retreat specifically for your audience. Here are a few of her most popular talks and programs. If you don’t see what you’re looking for reach out anytime and she’ll work with you to customize an experience for your specific audience.

Playing Politics: The Psychology of the Human Workplace

Options: 45-90 minute keynote | Half-day workshop

When most people think of office politics, they have a visceral negative reaction. But here’s the thing: When you learn to navigate the unspoken rules of the workplace, you can achieve more than you ever dreamed! Playing Politics offers five concepts you need to know based on the science behind how human beings make decisions at work. This is Karlyn’s most popular talk. It’s a crowd-pleaser, a talk that will entertain, inspire, and offer practical advice for improving your office effectiveness.

Key takeaways:

  • Understand the psychological drivers of how people make decisions at work.
  • Build better relationships at work with people at all levels in your organization.
  • Inspire you to think differently about the dynamics of your organization so that you can be an influencer and change agent, using “politics” for good rather than for evil.

Zen Your Work: Create Your Ideal Work Experience Through Mindful Self-Mastery

Options: 45-90 minute keynote | Half-day and full-day workshops | 3-6 month ongoing training series and book clubs for your team

Success at work oftentimes has less to do with the context you’re operating in as it does with how you approach each person and situation. This talk will teach you how to change the way you work from the inside out by bringing simple and practical mindfulness strategies into your day. Grounded in psychological and mindfulness research, it will inspire audiences to empower themselves to create their own best work experience.

Key takeaways:

  • Understand how to integrate mindfulness into your day to increase your focus, amp your resiliency and confidence, reduce your stress, and access the areas of your brain that drive creativity and innovation.
  • Learn to build better relationships with people throughout your organization, even the most difficult and challenging people to work with.
  • Gain highly practical tips and tricks to that you can use to create a better work experience for yourself and for your team members, simply by changing your perspective.

Creating Real Employee Engagement Without Spending a Dime

Options: 45-90 minute keynote | Half-day and full-day workshops 

No one will ever turn down extra money in their paychecks or additional resources, but if you want real employee engagement, you have to connect with people on a human level. This presentation will teach you the psychology behind employee engagement and offer highly practical tips and tricks you can use to increase morale, drive productivity and creativity, and create a culture your people love coming to work in every day.

Key takeaways:

  • Understand the psychological drivers of employee engagement based on how the brain is hardwired to work.
  • Learn what holds employees back from engaging with their job and their organization, and what you need to do differently to drive productivity on an intrinsic level.
  • Come away with highly practical tips that you can take back to your job and begin applying them immediately.

Building a Highly Resilient Team

Options: 45-90 minute keynote | Half-day and full-day workshops 

Less than 2% of teams working in organizations today are highly resilient teams. Those who are have a distinct leg up on their competition – they are the ones that prevail over the long term. Resilient teams are able to engage with adversity, persist in the face of significant odds, bounce back quicker than average, and learn from their experiences. But what makes a team resilient? This talk will discuss the five dimensions of team resilience – direction, connection, alignment, performance, and attitude. It will explore data collected over 15 years from Fortune 100 companies, and provide highly actionable steps that you can take to develop resilience on any team of any size in your organization.

Key takeaways:

  • Understand the attributes that lead to a highly resilient team, and the difference between teams that are evolving and those who are resilient.
  • Explore what the data from Fortune 100 companies tells us about team resiliency.
  • Discuss the committed actions you can take with any team of any size to help them become highly resilient.

10 Things Managers Need To Know

Options: 45-90 minute keynote | Half-day, full-day, and multi-day manager training workshops 

We’ve all heard the saying “you don’t quit your organization – you quit your boss.” If you want your people to do their best work, you have to provide them a work experience that will support their success. There is a science to being a great boss that starts with human psychology. This presentation will explore 10 things every manager needs to know about driving productivity and setting their team up to do their best work on a psychological level. 

Note: The workshop version of this talk goes in much greater depth than the top 10 things. Learn more about the framework in my Manager Mastery program.

Key takeaways:

  • Understand the psychological drivers of performance, and why adaptation to your team is key for driving productivity, enhancing morale, and getting results.
  • Discover how to empower your people to bring our their most creative and innovative work through effective feedback and goal setting.
  • Gain highly practical tips that every manager needs to know based on the psychological drivers of performance and motivation.

Looking Inside For Leadership

Options: 2 hour minimum for the baseline talk | Half-day and full-day workshops 

Anyone with any title at any level can be a leader. This work will teach you how to grow your leadership muscle by providing a highly practical framework that will fit for any job. You’ll learn how to rally the people you work with around a common goal (even if they don’t report to you), when to speak out versus when to seek counsel and collaborate, how to create buy-in for your vision from stakeholders across the organization, and what to do to inspire your colleagues to see the plan through to reality.

Key takeaways:

  • Learn a practical leadership framework that you can use in any type of role, regardless of if you have a team reporting to you or not.
  • Understand the psychology behind why people buy into a decision, and how to rally others around your goals.
  • Discover practical things you can do to build and sustain momentum when you execute projects or change initiatives.

DISC Training Workshops and Facilitation

Options: Half-day and full-day workshops 

Effective teamwork comes when you can effective adapt to the people you’re working with. DISC is your magic bullet to working together more effectively. It empowers each individual to understand their own unique work style, how they are similar or different than their colleagues, and how to adapt to each other to work better together. This workshop starts with each individual completing their DISC profile. From there, we’ll explore the different DISC types and do practical exercises to bring the team together with a new understand of the strengths that every person brings to the table.

Key takeaways:

  • Gain an in-depth understanding of your unique work style, and the work styles of your colleagues.
  • Discover different strategies for communication and effective team work based on the work styles on the team.
  • Work through practical challenges that help you understand how to bring out the best in the team and create a better experience for all.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of talks do you do? Who’s your audience?

The talks I do generally fall into two buckets: 

  • I work with organizations to do in-house trainings, retreats, workshops and facilitations for their staff from 60-minutes talk to a full-day and multi-day facilitations. This is great for an HR training series or staff retreats.
  • If you’re a conference or an event organizer, we can talk about my leading a pre or post-conference workshop, giving a keynote, or a facilitating a breakout session. 

As for my audience, I’ve worked with all types of groups! Human resources, marketing/creative folks, start-ups and entrepreneurs, traditional corporate environments, higher education, non-profits, and more. 

You say you’re not a typical trainer. What does that mean, exactly? 

It means that if you’re expecting someone to show up in a suit and give a boring, stuffy presentation, I’m not your woman. My messages are grounded in psychological research and data, but they are also bold! I’m going to push the perspective of your audience in a way they probably haven’t experienced before. I believe that how content is delivered is just as important as the message and do my best to put on an entertaining show, no matter the size of the group I’m presenting to.  

What are your speaker requirements?

I’m pretty easy to work with. I just need a laptop hookup and a functioning projector. I’ll even bring my own clicker! If you want me for a conference or event, I don’t really care what my time slot is and will want a lav mic for larger rooms. I’ve never flaked on a speaking commitment, so you know you won’t be left in the lurch unless it’s an absolute emergency. 

Will you interact with my event attendees before and after the talk?

Yes! I love attending conferences and learning from everyone there! I’ll go to your breakout sessions, your happy hours, and mingle with your attendees to answer their questions. 

If I bring you out for my event, will you do more than one session? 

If that’s what you want, we can probably work that out! This works especially well if I do a keynote and then a follow-up session to help attendees take that inspiration and make it practical.  

How much do you charge? 

Cutting right to the chase, huh? Sorry to disappoint but the answer is “it depends.” 

On what? Well, the length of the talk, how customized it is, the size of the audience, the type of organization you are (I love non-profits and have flexible options for them). I’m willing to work with you to craft an arrangement that will meet both our needs. 

Like what you see? Let’s connect to to discuss specifics.