Nice to meet you!
I'm Leilani, an expert in leadership and communication.
Dr. Leilani Carver-Madalon is a Communication Strategist, Leadership Expert and Professor who seeks to empower others through pragmatic communication strategies and effective leadership tactics. Leilani is an Associate (tenured) Professor of Strategic Communication and Leadership at Maryville University. She has served as an expert on sites such as Forbes.com, The Hill.com, Parentology.com, FoxNews.com and on KSDK TV 5 News in Saint Louis. Leilani was awarded Maryville’s Women of Distinction Award in 2017 and in 2018 was a recipient of the Maryville Faculty Academic Spotlight Award for empowering women at Maryville through her work with the Women’s Leadership Mentorship Committee.
Before earning her Ph.D., Professor Carver worked for eight years in prestigious communication roles in varying industries, such as Banking, Consulting and Mobile Technologies. Additionally, Dr. Carver-Madalon has lived and worked abroad in both Taiwan and China and has taught university courses in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Switzerland, England, Australia, France and Italy. Leilani has also earned an international certification through the Hofstede Institute in Finland in Organisational Culture.
This past summer Dr. Carver-Madalon created and led a study abroad program with graduate students in London and Paris where they conducted interviews with women executives. Additionally, she delivered a Tedx Gateway Arch talk last December titled: Scripts that Ignite your Power. Based on her research findings and her own experiences, Dr. Carver is now writing a book on leadership and empowerment.
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LeadHERship Workshop Resources
A last word (for now!) ...
Connection. If you recognize, honor, and follow the points of connection in your life, you'll find greater purpose and a path of flourishing.
That's one way to summarize what my life's work has proved, over and over again. I've seen it in my academic career, communications research, and work with thousands of students. I've seen it with so many of the participants in my professional workshops. I've seen it with my executive coaching clients. I've experienced it again and again in my own life.
I'm so glad we had the chance to connect at the Commerce Bank and Commerce Trust LeadHERship event. Please download the takeaways below and feel free to share them with a friend or colleague. And let me know if I can plan for a future workshop with your group — or if you want to start a one-on-one conversation with me.
LeadHERship workshop resources
Did you hear something in my presentation you'd like to keep thinking about? You can download my slideshow here.
Was there a follow up question you didn't get to ask during our time together? Drop me a note!
My shortlist of favorite recommendations
There are so many helpful resources out there that can help you continue to sharpen your executive presence. Here's an abbreviated list of some of my favorites that you can explore.
Join me for a free virtual workshop
Did you miss the Commerce Trust LeadHERship event? Were you there but want to keep exploring topics around empowerment and better communication?
I will be offering a free virtual workshop early this summer (likely in June) that recaps some of the highlights from the LeadHERship Executive Presence workshop — and extends some of those concepts! I'd love for you to join us for that.
Simply enter your email below and I'll be sure to keep you in the loop as I set the date and finalize the material for that event!
In case this is for you ...
I want to offer a quick word of encouragement that so many of my clients and students don't always know they need to hear ...
It's okay if your path feels completely convoluted. Or (seemingly!) incoherent. Or like it's been going in pointless circles forever.
What feels random, heartbreaking, or disappointing about your journey, your career, your choices — all of it — still contains some essential things to point you in a healthful direction. And I know you have what you need within yourself to pursue that with courage and confidence.
My own development and journey has, at times, been meandering, devastating, hilarious, and like I was driving in a very, very heavy fog.
I left for college and had no idea what to major in. I officially changed my major nine times!
One of my dearest friends (still) likes to call me "intellectually promiscuous" because I’m interested in everything.
I pursued jobs in corporate America, consulting, and the nonprofit sector; I even lived overseas in Asia along the way in my search for the perfect work to do.
I was promoted and promoted. I jumped from opportunity to opportunity. I had many, many wonderful points of connection ... that didn’t make sense to me until much, much later.
Before I was 30, I made a calculated leap that looked anything but strategic when I left a lucrative (and safe!) position ... for a full-time PhD program.
Why did I give up a promising path to the success I had worked hard for and risk so much on the rigors and uncertainty of teaching?
One of the biggest reasons I made this leap of faith was because I had an amazing coach who knew me — who sat with me, who listened long and well, and who knew to look for things in my life I hadn't even considered. And she recognized possibilities already in me that I could never have imagined on my own.
None of my journey was wasted. Everything I learned has helped me to be a better coach and professor. She recognized more than just my potential or strengths and weaknesses. She could sense and articulate what I would need to flourish and find a better kind of success than the one I had been chasing along with all my driven peers.
Then she helped me discern my own path — and the connections I would need to nourish and draw from to pursue it.
It turns out that she was my pivotal point of connection at that time in my life.
I want to be that coach and point of connection for you.
On one level, my work seems simple. I help people deepen their authentic connections to themselves and others. This helps them confirm — or find — their path.
Then I bring the resources and frameworks I've found and refined that empower them to become more powerful, persuasive, and confident in their worth and abilities.
I'm not a guru. I'm not inviting you to dabble in an esoteric practice with me. I'm not talking about a fluffy, abstract way to muck around in feel-good ideas.
My workshops and executive coaching center the academic research and evidence-based practices that help women thrive and find their place in a culture and workplace that so often dismisses, devalues, and does harm to women.
Together I'll help you identify and step into practical strategies, tactics — and sometimes the shrewd hacks — that will improve your life. We'll strengthen those connections that help you flourish at every level: with yourself, with family and friends, and within your community.
As my clients honor the right connections and sharpen their skills for communication in today's professional milieu, they find the empowerment they've wanted in their work and their life. You will, too.
What's next for you?
One of the reasons my teaching, workshops, and coaching are all so life-giving for me is because I'm endlessly curious about people!
When you decided you wanted to invest the time and energy to come to our LeadHERship event, you were following an impulse, desire, or felt need to connect with others as you keep pursuing growth.
I'm SO curious about what you'll do next — and I hope you'll keep me in the loop. Here are two practical ways to do that.
Let's do another workshop!
In my recent presentations I've covered a lot of ground adjacent to our Executive Presence LeadHERship event. I can easily adapt those materials to cover topics such as:
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fostering better connection at work
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persuasion tactics for every career stage
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increasing influence & impact
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delivering effective, compassionate feedback
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building and maintaining your tribe
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compelling nonverbal communication strategies
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crisis communication best practices for organizations
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leading and communicating with Millenials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha
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dispelling those "nice" and "likable" stereotypes for women through confident, powerful leadership qualities
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overcoming the motherhood penalty in the workplace
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power scripts for navigating difficult conversations
Get in touch with me directly to talk about the particulars for any of these offerings — or to discuss another idea you have in mind! I've worked in very small groups and run huge workshops for large corporations. We can find a way to bring your group something meaningful and compelling.
And, if you simply want to support my work by helping me spread the word about my workshops, I would love that. Thank you! Drop me a note and I'll let you know some of the ways that would be especially helpful to me.
Explore executive coaching ...
I would be so honored to connect with you and see if there's a good fit for us to work together one-on-one to pursue your goals at this point in life.
The process is easy to pursue with zero pressure. Let's save time soon for a 20-minute call. I'll answer any questions you have and give you a brief overview of the five stages I built into my approach to executive coaching:
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Identifying and prioritizing your goals
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Clarifying some meaningful milestones and how you'll be able to recognize and measure your success
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Taking stock of your relevant past experience (which always contains surprising connections!) and current skill levels
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Personalized coaching that focuses on cultivating or enhancing your communication skills, psychological practices and tactics, and the art of offering audience-centered content that builds rapport and trust
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Celebrating the specifics of your success and growth as you make refinements, new goals, and continue on your path
Reach out to schedule your introductory call with me or to ask a quick question. There's no charge for that meeting, or pressure to sign on. We'll just get to know one another a little and see if we both feel good about our connection and working together!