Start 2021 with new tactics and strategies to achieve your goals and making lasting impacts on your organization.
Alison Fragale is passionate about sharing her knowledge of how humans think, feel, and act to help you tackle your biggest challenge — understanding and managing the people around you. Alison’s unique style harnesses her 15 years of experience as a researcher, educator, and big stage speaker.
She gives audiences actionable, evidence-based advice in a relaxed, relatable way. Alison is a trusted advisor and partner to numerous high-performing private sector organizations, as well as military leaders; her instruction on the psychology of power is part of the required general officer curriculum in both the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force. She also has unique expertise and interest in women’s leadership, and regularly speaks on negotiation, advocacy, and advancement for women in organizations.
TOPICS
Negotiation – The Swiss Army Knife of relationship management
No matter our title or industry, all leaders have the same challenge: we want to achieve our goals, while building (not burning) our relationships.
The secret? Negotiate like a pro! Negotiation is the process through which two or more people “give and take” in a relationship, and is therefore an essential part of a leader’s toolkit. Yet, the concept of “negotiating” strikes fear in the hearts of many. Alison discusses what the best (and worst) negotiators do, and the top strategies that enable leaders to solve everyday challenges, both big and small, through negotiation.
Drawing on the science of psychology, Alison presents negotiation research from multiple domains, including real estate, professional athletics, law, and corporate boardrooms. She combines this science with stories from current events and politics, interjecting some humor from the fictional negotiators of the sitcoms. Alison delivers practical, actionable advice that can help anyone achieve their goals and build stronger relationships through negotiation.
Being Your Own Best Advocate – Challenge & strategies for women in negotiations
The bad news: An overwhelming body of evidence suggests that, relative to men, women are disadvantaged at every stage of the negotiation process.
The good news: None of these disadvantages are rooted in biology or personality. Women can negotiate as effectively as men, they just need to employ different strategies.
Alison discusses the science of gender at the bargaining table – the false assumptions women make about advocating for themselves, and research-based strategies for correcting these assumptions and being a confident advocate for one’s self interest. As both a negotiation expert and a woman with a long career history in male-dominated fields (mathematics, consulting, and academia), Alison is able to speak from both the head and the heart in a session that is equal parts education and inspiration.
Equipped with the right strategies, women can harness their unique skills to achieve their goals while strengthening their relationships.
The Psychology of Power – Why you’ve had bad leaders and how you can be a great one
Lord Acton said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
We know what he means. Gather around the water cooler, and everyone has a Bosszilla story to share. Although we may chalk up our managerial misfortune to our leader’s poor disposition or training, and vow that we would never submit others to the same mistreatment, evidence from psychology suggests that this is hubris. The experience of being “in charge” changes how individuals think, feel, and act, often for the worse.
Combining science and stories, Alison explains how power affects all of us, and provides tips for how leaders can lead better than they were once led, as well as how organizations can create cultures that foster excellent leadership.
A customized version of this keynote is presented as part of the required leadership curriculum for general officers in both the U.S. Army and Air Force.
Leading from Where You Are – Women’s power, advocacy and influence
What strategies can women use to be strong, confident advocates for their own careers and their own ideas?
This is the key question Alison addresses in this interactive session. She presents strategies that all individuals, regardless of seniority or title, can use every day to increase their influence while building their relationships. Although these strategies apply to everyone, they are particularly useful to women leaders who often struggle with how to speak up and influence productively, without being labeled “aggressive” or “self-promoting.”
Among other things, Alison discusses the importance of setting long-term, ambitious, career goals, becoming a rockstar performer and an “other-promoter,” developing one’s own narrative, building liking and trust, cultivating personal sources of status and power, and making strategic decisions about saying yes and no to discretionary opportunities.
Alison ensures participants leave the session more confident and inspired than when they entered, armed with strategies to maximize their contributions to the organization while also successfully managing their own path.