profile-photo

Dr. Margie Warrell

Add to wishlist

Book Dr. Margie Warrell

Dr. Margie Warrell brings sharp insights and a global lens to inspire bolder thinking and braver action for stronger outcomes. With her sixth book The Courage Gap set to release in January 2025, Margie gets to the heart of what holds people back, distilling research into actionable advice to bridge the know/do gap between what people do and what they’re capable of doing. 

 

A leading expert on courageous leadership, Margie's insights stem from her diverse life experiences spanning her childhood in rural Australia to living in Asia, Europe, Papua New Guinea, and the USA, where she resides. Margie’s dynamic presence and deep insights have led her to speak in over 25 countries and inspired thousands of audiences to embolden braver leadership and equip teams with practical skills to bring their bravest selves to work. She served as a Senior Partner at Korn Ferry in the CEO Succession and CEO Institute. She also co-authored Korn Ferry’s Women CEO’s Speak study.

 

Margie serves on boards focused on education and female empowerment, including the Women’s Democracy Network and Forbes School of Business & Technology, and has been recognized as a Top 200 Leadership Voice and Women’s Economic Forum Honoree. She also advises US Congressional Chiefs and women who aspire to lead change in emerging democracies. Her expertise in leadership, women, and workplace issues is regularly sought by media including CNN, Bloomberg, TODAY, and The Wall Street Journal. She also writes for Forbes. Leading organizations such as NASA, Google, Johnson & Johnson, Mars, Deloitte, and Morgan Stanley, have engaged Margie to foster courageous cultures that drive innovation, embrace change, and unleash human potential. 

 

Throughout her life, Margie has consistently chosen courage over comfort, including summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro with her husband and their four teenage children and, most recently, running her first marathon.  

Speaking Topics

The Courage Gap

A sought-after speaker on leadership, mindset, and resilience, Margie’s powerful new keynote weaves compelling storytelling with cutting-edge insight to engage, educate, and empower action to close the ‘courage gap’ in your organization.


Key learning includes how to:

  • Rethink Risk: Discern smart from foolish risk taking amid complexity and uncertainty
  • Identify Fear Traps: Counter cognitive biases that hinder learning, stifle innovation, and block crucial conversation
  • Fail Right: Leverage a play-to-win mindset to embrace intelligent failure, accelerate learning and find the treasure when you trip
  • Lead With Courage: Reframe discomfort and use fear as a catalyst for growth
  • Cultivate Courage: Create a culture that supports ‘loyal dissent’ and unites purpose around a bold vision for future


Everyone needs courage, making this a ‘must-hear’ message for all audiences.

Lead With Courage

No organization can outperform its leaders over time. It’s why the #1 threat is never. external but the fear that drives smart employees to play it too safe. Leaders who invite candor and encourage innovation without demonstrating vulnerability, normalizing dissent, and derisking ‘smart failure’ will fall short every time. Margie will embolden your leaders to lead from the inside out, building a ‘culture of courage’ that unlocks collective creativity and discretionary effort across your enterprise.


Learning objectives and audience outcomes:

  • Research into a ‘courage mindset’ and why it’s a force multiplier of talent
  • Harness ’emotional contagion’ to galvanize employees behind a bold vision with a big “Why”
  • What we get wrong about risk that makes us more vulnerable
  • Three ways to foster loyal dissent and harness constructive conflict
  • How to lead from self-certainty to make more effective decisions amid the unknowns
  • Identify the invisible ‘timidity tax’ of excess caution in your team/business
  • Accelerate learning and incubate innovation by scaling a play-to-win mindset


This program is ideal for leaders at all levels, from emerging to those at the top.

Falling Upward

No one is immune to life’s hardships and heartaches, yet some people handle them better and emerge better off. This powerful keynote blends research in psychology, well-being, and spiritual traditions to reframe how you view and process your biggest problems, expanding your bandwidth to handle them better and transform them into catalysts for growth. Weaving personal stories – including losing a brother to mental illness and supporting another to adjust to life with paraplegia – Margie brings evidence backed strategies to expand your audiences capacity for life, find the opportunities for growth, and grow into the highest that our toughest challenges always hold.


This program will teach you how to:

  • Mine the lessons failure holds to improve the future
  • Short-circuit stressful thinking, turning the psychology of fear into the physiology of courage
  • Four pillars to activate post-traumatic growth and can-do optimism
  • Lead from ‘self-certainty’ to thrive through change
  • Build micro-habits to turn stressors into cues for courage
  • Rescript the stories to get unstuck and bounce forward stronger


This program is for broad audiences, from faith groups to business groups.

Brave Women Rising

When women are empowered to bring the full quota of their feminine leadership strengths to the table, it improves the decisions being made.  Yet, despite progress, the gender gap persists. Drawing on her doctoral research in women’s leadership and decades of experience empowering women from diverse backgrounds, Margie weaves relatable and entertaining personal stories as a ball-dropping working mother raising four children amid multiple global relocations. This session provides actionable strategies to help women get off their own backs and make the difference their difference makes.


Learning objectives and audience outcomes:

  • Reset the relationship with power to ‘take charge while taking care
  • Why courage precedes confidence and how to’ behave your way to believing
  • Counter self-doubt and turn ‘imposterhood’ into a catalyst for growth
  • Navigate feminine double-binds to manage the backlash effect
  • Speak with authority to win followers and ignite action
  • Amplify the voice of other women, lifting as you climb


Can be customized for all women’s groups plus mixed audiences, championing men to lift women!

Dr. Margie Warrell's Experiences

EXPERIENCE DETAILS

*
Virtual In-Person

Experience Details

Virtual In-Person
I'm prepared to move to contract immediately if my offer is accepted.

Payment Terms

+
=
I understand that submitting this firm offer form is a legally binding offer to contract with the talent on the terms above, should the talent accept them within 5 business days of when this form is submitted. I further agree to Engage's standard booking terms & conditions.

Testimonials

“If you want to embolden your teams or leaders to raise their sights, reframe risk and take more courageous action amid fear and uncertainty, Margie is the perfect adrenaline-like shot of inspiration you need. A global thought leader on courage, and wonderful storyteller, Margie will have you laughing all while empowering you with practical strategies to enjoy greater professional success and personal fulfillment.”

“Margie’s authentic style and memorable story-telling captivated and inspired our 400 sales leaders. I highly recommend her for any organization wanting to empower their teams to take bold risks and ‘play to win’!”

"Margie’s opening keynote at our annual conference was nothing short of spectacular! She has my highest recommendation for any event – in fact, her message is one that everyone should hear in their lifetime!”

"Margie knows how to push us to question ourselves, and to find ourselves. We discover we are more than our fears, we can go beyond our comfort zone and make our life more meaningful. She is a true leader. I will remember forever that we should replace a "future by default" by a "future by design" that our talents and skills should meet with our inner needs and causes, and respond to the problems and requests of the world out there."

"As keynote speaker at a recent Deakin University alumni event, Margie's presentation was engaging, heartfelt and thought-provoking. Having spent many years in events management I have rarely seen such an engaged and delighted. audience on the night. Margie is a wonderfully inspiring and energetic presenter and I recommend her very highly. Her latest book "Brave" is also a great read!"

X