From Now to Next

The Leader’s Role in Cultural Transformation

We talk about culture as if it lives in the walls. It doesn’t. It lives in you.

In the decisions you make, the conversations you choose to have and the ones you avoid, and in what you reward, and what you tolerate.  For leaders, this is both the most powerful truth in leadership and the most uncomfortable one –  you define the culture you’re building through your actions.

In this keynote, leadership facilitator and social entrepreneur Alicia Curtis makes the case for visible, intentional leadership as the most underutilised lever in cultural transformation. You’ll leave with a clearer picture of the cultural signals you’re sending right now, the courage to close the gap between your stated values and your daily practice, and a renewed sense of the influence you already have.

Key takeaways

• Why cultural transformation stalls and what the research says about why visible leadership is the missing piece
• How to identify the gap between your stated values and the culture your daily behaviour is actually creating
• How to use your sphere of influence deliberately, at every level of seniority

Best suited: Mid level leaders and senior leaders

Tired, Wired and Still Going

How to re-energise amongst the busyness

You’re not just tired.  The modern leader is being asked to give more — faster, across more channels, with fewer resources and less certainty — than at any previous point in history. And somewhere along the way, “pushing through” became the default strategy.  This keynote isn’t another productivity hack. It offers a proper rethink of where your energy comes from, what’s draining it, and what it actually takes to lead sustainably — physically, mentally, socially, and emotionally.

Energy is pivotal to exceptional leadership.    Alicia Curtis draws the foundations of energy management research to help leaders move from running on empty to leading from strength.  So you can design your work day and weekends for more flow, more active recovery and more energy.

Key takeaways

• An understanding of the dimensions of energy
• Practical, evidence-based strategies for recovery that work within the reality of a demanding leadership role
• How to shift from managing your time to managing your energy
• Practical ways to design for energy in your own leadership practice and within your team culture

Best suited for: Anyone who wants to live, work and lead differently

Leadership Starts with You

Leading From the Inside Out

Most leadership development focuses on skills and strategies. This keynote explores the inner terrain that determines whether any of those skills actually get used.

Understanding who you are is the foundation of your leadership.  Your values, your strengths, your sense of purpose define your unique leadership style.  But what underpins this is whether you truly see yourself as leader.   Otherwise the impact will show you in your team, your decisions and your own sense of whether any of this is worth it.

The keynote explores gap between how you see yourself and the leader you’re willing to be.  This keynote is honest, warm, and often surprisingly confronting.

Key takeaways

• A clear framework for understanding your values, strengths, and purpose as leadership assets
• Practical ways to identify the stories and beliefs that are limit your leadership
• How values, strengths and purpose can be an effective employee engagement strategy.

Best suited for: Can be customised to suit a graduate/emerging leader audience OR a mid to senior leader level

The Connection Gap

Building Connection in a Disconnected Workplace

Something is missing in our workplaces and most of us can feel it, even if we can’t quite name it.

It’s not engagement scores or productivity metrics. It’s something older and more fundamental than that. It’s the felt sense of actually mattering to the people around you. Of being known, not just useful. Of belonging somewhere — to a team, a community, a shared purpose — in a way that makes the work feel worth doing.

We are living through what is now being called a loneliness epidemic. And loneliness is not just a personal issue, it’s bad for workplaces too. Employees who feel isolated are twice as likely to miss work due to stress and five times more likely to leave their jobs.

Drawing on 25 years of building leadership communities, co-founding a collective giving circle, and designing spaces where people connect, Alicia Curtis makes the case that rebuilding community and belonging is the leadership practice we desperately need. One that starts with you — in how you show up for your team and how you invest in your own networks and community.

Key messages

• Why loneliness is not a personal failing but a structural and cultural challenge and why mid-level leaders are uniquely positioned to shift it
• The difference between social contact and genuine connection, and why busy calendars full of meetings can coexist with profound isolation
• Practical ways to build belonging within your team through rituals, presence, and the kind of intentional leadership that makes people feel genuinely seen
• How investing in your own networks and community sustains your energy, purpose and leadership
• How to move your team from colleagues to community and why that distinction changes everything about performance, creativity, and retention

Best suited for: Mid-level and senior leaders