Dr. Shawn Andrews is the pioneer of the Rhythm of DEI, a breakthrough approach to help businesses enhance their leadership effectiveness, culture, and talent management. Through her 4-pillar system, Dr. Andrews helps organizations eradicate biases and microaggressions, drive inclusivity, tap their talent, and cultivate great leaders.

Given her life-long experience as a drummer, music serves as a fun, relevant, and unifying theme throughout. A drum is not meant to be hit once and done, it's meant to be played. DEI is the same. It should not be a one and done activity, but a continual engagement where people, purpose, and performance are all in rhythm.

Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and Gender (Book Topic)
Organizations that want to perform at the highest levels and be competitive in their industry must effectively leverage their leadership talent. Yet, in nearly all companies, a leadership gender gap persists. Pervasive and systemic barriers often keep women from advancing.

In addition, research has identified an individual's emotional intelligence (EQ) as a key aspect and driver of leadership effectiveness. EQ assessment have found men and women to be strong in different areas. These differences often advantage men and disadvantage women at work and can lead to very different outcomes.

Finally, men and women are raised in different cultures. It begins at birth and carries into the workplace as adults. As a result, we approach virtually every aspect of business differently. Different approaches result in different perceptions, which have a significant impact on promotion.

Understanding the power of perception can dramatically improve your career advancement and help men and women work better together. Building on her best-selling book, The Power of Perception: Leadership, Emotional Intelligence, and the Gender Divide, Dr. Andrews will address the latest research on these topics and share practical strategies you can apply to boost your career.

Inclusive Workplace Strategies
As a global society, we are becoming more diverse every day. Today, many companies are striving to be more diverse and inclusive but are falling short. Why? Because most companies are not doing the right kinds of activities, not doing enough activities, or are only addressing one piece of the issue.

DEI initiatives can be compared to Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Diversity awareness starts at the bottom and sets the foundation, then as organization's progress they move to active diversity management and evolve to become inclusive at the top of the pyramid. If an organization sets out to be inclusive and equitable from the start, then diversity will naturally follow.

This presentation is focused on helping organizations leverage inclusion to get the benefits of diversity. Neuroscience aspects to creating inclusion and building safe teams will be discussed, as well as helping people understand the power of microaggressions.

By now, most of us know that unconscious biases affect the workplace. These hidden, reflexive preferences shape our world views and can profoundly affect how welcoming and open a workplace is to different people and ideas. These predispositions shape the decisions we make by affecting the way we interpret information and how we interact with others—significantly impacting a whole host of organizational processes from recruitment to retention.

At the same time, we are experiencing significant shifts in global demographic trends which impact age, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and LGBTQ employees. There is no doubt that our workplace is becoming more diverse, which increases the potential for more biases towards our colleagues and clients.

Customized bias scenarios (based on your audience) and real-world cases and examples will be discussed. Several individual and organizational strategies to minimize bias will be provided.

EQ and You: Building Success Through Emotional Intelligence
Did you know that a leader's ability to manage emotions and interact successfully with colleagues at all levels of an organization is directly linked to that leader's ability to achieve the highest performance potential?

Research has identified an individual's EQ as a key aspect and driver of leadership effectiveness. But it does not just stop at leaders. EQ has been shown to be a key differentiator between good and great performance for both individuals and teams, and unlike IQ, EQ can be improved.

A systematic and committed approach is necessary to build emotionally competent organizations. A strategic cycle of assessment, learning, practice, and feedback over time will enable employees to build competencies that can help develop high-performing teams and leaders.

The 7 Superpowers of Men and Women at Work
Want to thrive in your career? Be promoted? Be in a leadership role? Turns out, there are 7 key qualities distinct to each gender that serve them well. These skills or superpowers stem from how our brains are hard-wired and how we're socialized to behave as men and women in society.

These 7 superpowers can help men and women bring the right skills and mindset to the job - and help power your career. Fortunately, most of these skills are innate. Even if some are not your strong suit, the good news is that all can be developed and leveraged.

We know that the best leaders use both sets of skills to create psychological safety and gender inclusion.

However, biases can significantly impact how we perceive these skills in ourselves and others – and can hold us back in our careers.

Join leadership and gender expert, Dr. Shawn Andrews, as she explains the 7 superpowers specific to each gender, how to address biases in each, and how to leverage these skills to be a more inclusive leader.