Ciara Ungar

As Future Focused leaders, we’re always thinking about a Strategic Direction that directly ties to how we create and build Culture. Building a culture that creates a sustainable workforce and business growth, however, starts and ends with cultivating purpose. Although a trending discussion among leadership circles in today’s landscape, cultivating purpose is vastly misunderstood in both its potential lasting impact and deep rooted activities. Cultivating purpose within your organization and among your leaders is a critical foundation to create for any business looking to grow. This presentation discusses the core components of cultivating purpose to contribute to your bottom line, across three layers: Behavior, Culture, and Accountability. We will explore the different attributes and impact of traditional leadership compared with purpose-based leadership and how we can employ effective approaches to cultivating culture.

Bringing your startup into the world is exciting as a Founder. The idea of being able to share our world with THE world is thrilling and being able to tell others about the potential impact of your business is what gets you out of bed in the morning. The problem? Humans are attracted to stories, not numbers. When pitching their idea to partners and investors, Founders make the mistake of focusing on the numbers too much, which makes them less memorable. This talk explores an impactful approach to developing your brand story and pitch. The most successful businesses in the world over index on storytelling and it's time to learn the art so you can experience greater success in your journey.

How we interact in the day-to-day is a reflection of internal biases, motivators, beliefs, and values that create our behavior. As leaders, we often quiet these internal elements and interact with our teams through best practices and tools we’re given. While we can activate various tools and methods, this approach alone is not sustainable. To be effective empathy-based leaders, we must deconstruct the different dimensions of what makes us a leader and reprogram from the inside out. This presentation is an introduction to a three-part training of the same name and will explore each layer of a leader: Attributes, Behaviors and Skills. Based on the book, Leadership Lessons from a Team Captain, we explore the belief that effective leadership is more than learning how to successfully resolve conflict, delegate, organize or communicate. It’s about understanding our biases, motivations, and cultural differences that impact team dynamics.