Communications and Leadership Learning – Thursday, October 30
Pressure-Proof: How to Build a Resilient Mindset for Professional and Personal Success
10:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Pressure reveals our patterns — but it doesn’t have to define us. In this session, you’ll learn how to spot your default response to stress and how it may be limiting your performance. You’ll learn how strengths can become blind spots and why even high performers can sabotage their own success. You’ll learn how to build a resilient mindset to stay focused, quiet your inner critic, and lead with clarity whether you’re managing a team, or balancing life’s demands.
Speakers
Monica Chang
Monica Chang is a Certified Executive Coach who helps leaders lead with clarity, build resilience, and succeed—without burning out. With 25 years in leadership development, she has trained over 1,000 leaders and coached professionals from mid-level managers to C-suite executives. Monica takes a whole-person approach, helping leaders strengthen their mindset and emotional agility so they can lead effectively at work and at home. Her neuroscience-backed methods support sustainable performance and high-impact leadership. Her motto: Master your leadership, transform your life.
Creating Positive Change: A Hostage Negotiator’s Steps to Success
12:30 PM – 1:30 PM
Join Scott Tillema, a retired SWAT negotiator and expert in crisis communication, as he reveals the strategies used by elite negotiators to create positive outcomes in the most high-stakes situations. Drawing on years of experience in law enforcement, Scott shares the principles of connection, empathy, and strategic communication that have not only resolved life-or-death crises but also transformed everyday interactions and created powerful teams. Discover the mindset and tools of a professional negotiator, and start leading with purpose today.
Speakers
Scott Tillema
Scott Tillema is an internationally recognized crisis negotiator and professional keynote speaker. Scott has over 20 years of law enforcement experience in the Chicago area and is an FBI trained hostage negotiator. He has spent many years negotiating with one of the largest regional SWAT teams in the United States. Today, as a partner at The Negotiations Collective, an international negotiation and conflict resolution training firm, he educates and develops skill with clients from across the world. These interactions serve to bring the techniques of influence used in life-or-death conversations to help professionals achieve positive personal and organizational change. Educationally, Scott holds a master’s degree in psychology, a bachelor’s degree in behavioral science, and has received negotiation training at Harvard University’s Program on Negotiation and at IMD Business School. Scott was invited to give a TEDx talk titled “The Secrets of Hostage Negotiators,” which has received over 1 million views. Scott is a recognized leader in the field of negotiation, communication, influence, and conflict resolution. His visibility as a speaker and educator through TEDx and other venues has reached global status.