Anne Harbison

Dr. Anne Harbison is an executive leadership educator known for her work with some of the world’s greatest organizations and thought leaders.

She guides audiences, teams, and entire organizations in embracing this truth: Leadership starts with you….but it’s not about you. Especially in times of uncertainty and change, we need each other more than ever.

She helps leaders move from executing to creating; from being the smartest person in the room to having the most curious questions, from solving problems to generating possibilities, from clarifying a shared strategy to building a shared identity. And most important – to not go it alone.

Audiences walk away inspired, with a clear blue-print for investing in creative, collaborative partnerships to elevate their engagement and increase their effectiveness.

Key Speech Themes:

Leadership, Change & Transition, Crisis Management, Women’s Leadership

Ideal Audiences:

Leaders, Teams, Women, Business Owners, HR Professionals

Anne Harbison TEDx Minneapolis.jpg

Meet Anne

Leadership can be lonely, especially in times of uncertainty and change.

It’s easy to get trapped in the myth that to be successful, we have to do it all –Be The Hero or Cowboy – riding in on the white horse to save the day; The Cheerleader – keeping everyone in happy (even when the world is crumbling); The Martyr – carrying the weight on the world, trapped by an overwhelming sense of personal responsibility.

The problem is that those ideas of leadership and success just don’t work in a complex, changing world. We’re left spinning our wheels as the challenges we face seems more overwhelming than ever before. It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, we were never meant to go it alone.

For over thirty years – in her career at Procter & Gamble, Harvard University, and Gallup - Dr. Anne Harbison has worked with smart, talented people who want to make a difference in the world - who often end up discouraged and isolated – overwhelmed by the complexity of the challenges they face.

In the past ten years as the Founding Partner of JourneyLEAD Consulting, Anne has worked with hundreds of world-class organizations – showing them a new way to build rich networks ofthought-partners, truth-tellers, and confidants.

On stages throughout the world (including TEDx, the Academy of Management, and the Brooking Institute), Dr. Harbison guides audiences, teams, and entire organizations in embracing this truth: Leadership starts with you….but it’s not about you.

Anne helps leaders move from executing to creating; from being the smartest person in the room to having the most curious questions, from solving problems to generating possibilities, from clarifying a shared strategy to building a shared identity. And most important – to not go it alone.

Audiences walk away inspired, with a clear blue-print for investing in creative, collaborative partnerships then will elevate their engagement and increase their effectiveness.

Topics & Descriptions

Leadership Keynote (also available as a deep-dive workshop):

The Power of Leading from Within: Building Sources of Confidence, Credibility and Connection

  • As a leader, true power comes from your ability to authentically connect with others and inspire them to action. Instead of ”power over” (which may come from formal authority or a commanding presence), true leadership requires us to cultivate “power with” the important networks, clients, and communities we serve.

    To create lasting impact, influence is just as important as authority for long-term success and career satisfaction. Beyond your title, education, or formal authority, true influence is an outcome of internal confidence with external credibility.

    There’s no “one size fits all” when it comes to being a powerful leader.

    This keynote helps identify your individual “power equation” through the lens of confidence, credibility, and connection.

    Participants learn how to “get out of their own way” as they seek greater levels of leadership effectiveness and reach.

    Inspirational, educational, and actionable, Dr. Harbison’s presentations are specifically tailored to leaders striving to increase their contribution, impact, and legacy within the organizations and communities they serve.

    WHAT PARTICIPANTS WILL EXPERIENCE:

    This highly engaging and interactive session will share best practices and practical guidelines for:

    • Focusing on influence as your key leadership power

    • Recognizing that competence is only the starting point to confidence

    • Embracing the leadership touchstone of “connection” as the anchor to both personal and professional excellence

    Takeaways:

    • Identification of your top three internal and external sources of confidence and credibility

    • Five guidelines for practicing “power with” (rather than “power over”)

    • Personal power equation (confidence+credibility+connection)

    • Individual next steps for putting workshop insights into practical action

Women’s leadership keynote: (also available as a deep-dive workshop):

Women Thriving Together: Naming and Claiming Our Work in the World

  • There are key differences between men and women as organizational leaders, and given the right resources, women pose a future-forward advantage for building more diverse, connected, and mindful winning teams.

    An inspiring, enriching day of diving deep and reaching wide, Anne provides the perfect opportunity for your women's leadership group to elevate its vision, talent, and impact in concrete and actionable ways.

    Anne is an author, Harvard Doctorate, and executive leadership educator for some of the world’s top organizations and thought leaders. She’s known for her real-life stories of dynamic and authentic leadership, and for captivating audiences through the spectrum of full human emotion. She knows the ins and outs of women’s leadership from over 20 years of experience with top organizations, and leads her audiences today with heart, courage, and purpose.

    Key Takeaways:

    • Learn not only how to nurture more women leaders within your organization, but how to have them foster the same down the line.

    • Find out how to provide a culture of stability, risk-taking, and confidence for individuals and teams to push the boundaries of success.

    • Evolve your definitions of success and leadership with challenging exercises on how to lead with courage, compassion, boldness, and honesty.

    • Create your fresh vision for the future, including actionable steps to implement positive change.

Leadership keynote: (also available as a deep-dive workshop):

The Achiever’s Dilemma: Are You Driving Your Achiever or is Your Achiever Driving You?

  • Working harder, longer, faster may be the way to climb the first part of your career ladder. But is there an end in sight? Decades of drive can easily turn into a grueling treadmill of effort and exhaustion. That's a dangerous place to be in the middle of times of upheaval. Now is the time to purposely navigate, not mindlessly execute.

    Organizational leaders and individuals alike will learn vital information about:

    • The different types of Achievers: The Caretaker, The Intellect, & The Hero

    • How we fall back on tropes or expectations that no longer serve us

    • The 3 myths that trap serious Achievers: “Because I can, I should,” “Because I did, I do,” and “If I don't, no one will.”

    • Why tough times are a period for being, not doing. How to better navigate (and even grow through) difficult change and transition

Leadership keynote: (also available as a deep-dive workshop):

Never Waste A Crisis: Growing through Times of Uncertainty and Change

  • Any unexpected change can knock us off our game. The rules that existed before may no longer apply. We may be held to standards of success that we didn’t design or chose. Relationships that used to flourish are shaken; typical strategies for overcoming obstacles are no longer relevant. Yet, we still need to show up with our professional best – even when the ground below us is shaking.

    The good news is that even the most difficult crises can be the catalyst for profound growth and renewal. Change we would never have asked for can force us into new approaches, new depths of understanding our professional and clients, and new confidence in building skills for communicating our value.

    When tough times hit, we have a unique opportunity to look up and reach out, to reinvent ourselves and our organizations.

    In fact, some of the greatest inventions, companies, and stories of personal triumph emerge from tumultuous times.

    Now more than ever, the world needs expert, compassionate guidance on how to not only survive but actually thrive together during difficult times.

    DR. ANNE HARBISON, CRISIS AND CHANGE EXPERT

    For over 20 years, Dr. Harbison has been researching, teaching, and consulting on how to navigate transition and change. As the author of Never Waste a Crisis: Surviving and Thriving Through Life’s Tightropes, Turmoil and Tragedy, Dr. Harbison has helped organizations across the world build hopeful and practical strategies for emerging from crisis stronger than before.

    Dr. Harbison’s clients include Best Buy, Disney, Medtronic, Cargill, United Health, and other Fortune 500 companies. She has been a featured speaker at the Brookings Institute, the Academy of Management, and most recently the stage of TEDx Minneapolis.

    Known for her engaging style and customized approach to each audience, participants walk away informed, inspired, and equipped with a personal road-map embracing and emerging from crisis with greater clarity, connection, and hope.

    KEY TAKE-AWAYS

    Organizational leaders and individuals alike will learn vital information and inspiration for:

    • How to build connection, courage, and perspective to ride tumultuous waves of uncertainty

    • Why creating stability and confidence in yourself and those around you is the first task

    • What myths about crisis create mind-traps that shutdown learning and connection

    • How to confidently establish and communicate your value in a rapidly changing marketplace

    • What it takes to build a growth-mindset for greater resilience and optimism

    • How you can build a “new normal” that will inspire, equip, and sustain you

Videos

Anne experienced the personal loss of her child and in this TED video, she shares why we need each other to survive after loss.

The Achiever’s Dilemma

Full Bio

Dr. Anne Harbison is an executive leadership educator known for helping some of the world’s greatest leaders transform themselves, their teams, and entire organizations through expert coaching, facilitation, and strategic consultation.

Beginning her career in Brand Management at Procter & Gamble, she then served as a management consultant specializing in organizational change and learning. Anne was a Principal Strategic Consultant in Gallup’s executive leadership practice, working domestically and internationally in the healthcare, manufacturing, retail, and government sectors.

She received her doctorate from Harvard University researching and teaching on best practices for leadership success and how we can thrive through times of great change and transition.

  • Anne's been a featured speaker at the Brookings Institute, The Academy of Management and the Association of Talent and Development, as well as Fortune 100 companies such as Best Buy, Cargill, Toyota, Boeing among others.

    A native Kentuckian, Anne lives in Minneapolis with her husband and three children, and continues her work in exploring how to thrive during crisis through her book, Never Waste A Crisis, and her community, Surviving & Thriving Together.

Testimonials

“Anne Harbison has done excellent work for Cargill and has been a coach, confidant, and difference maker for our company. She is easy to work with and takes the time to get to know a company, its culture and people, and I seek her advice and wisdom in making my decisions. She is an asset to the companies with whom she supports and engages. “

  • Chairman and CEO Cargill

“Anne is the utlimate professional. If you or your executive team are looking for a true expert and truth teller, you should consider Anne. She has accelerated my growth as a leader and my team's ability to expand our influence, collaboration, teamwork and effectiveness.”

  • President & CEO Disney Partners

“After holding events for over 15 years, it is challenging to find a speaker with a message that is unique and different for our group. Since Covid-19, we’ve pivoted to virtual events and Dr. Anne Harbison’s very professional virtual presentation “Never Waste A Crisis – From Surviving to Thriving” really resonates with what business owners are going through right now. We received numerous compliments on her presentation and on how well she connected and impacted our attendees. If you are looking for a speaker for an upcoming virtual event your clients will congratulate you for wisely choosing Anne as your featured speaker.”

  • Founder - Royalty Rewards

  • “Thank you so much for joining our meeting to speak with our leaders about the challenges we’ve all experienced during this past difficult year.  We appreciated your insights for surviving and thriving together.   Your  heartfelt delivery created a safe setting for all of us  to pause, reflect and share our own experiences. The session left people feeling grateful for just how resilient  we have become  and  more in tuned with how we can continue to support  ourselves and one another in the days ahead.  One of our leaders wrote later, Anne was a great speaker, bringing just enough emotion into the conversation in a professional way to help us relate at a more personal level.  

    It was wonderful to work with you and Kelly to plan this session.  I hope that we can maintain this new connection as we head into the new year.”

    • National Director of Learning & O.D. - Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health

    I want to thank Anne for sharing her story and honestly, I don’t think anyone could have better captured what we are feeling as a team and what we are trying to achieve here. Thank you Anne, that was amazing”

    • Oncologist, Medical Affairs Leader, Daiichi Sankyo, Inc

    "You will be a better person, professional, colleague and friend by working with Anne. She challenges leadership teams while finding the right dose of nurturing support to push everyone to new thinking and results. I highly recommend partnering with her."

    • President of Stanley Health; former President of Medtronic Advanced Energy

Work with Anne Harbison