Stephen “Shed” Shedletzky

In his powerful keynote, Speak-Up Culture: When Leaders Truly Listen, People Step Up, Stephen "Shed" Shedletzky explores the essential role leaders play in creating workplaces where people feel psychologically safe and motivated to share ideas, concerns, and even dissent. Drawing from years of coaching and leadership experience, Shed outlines why silence in organizations is dangerous and how fostering open, honest communication leads to stronger performance, innovation, and trust. With engaging storytelling and actionable insights, he helps leaders understand that great cultures don’t happen by accident—they’re built intentionally by those who listen, encourage, and act with integrity. Shed's session is an urgent call to lead with humanity and build workplaces where people and performance thrive. Key takeaways include: • Understand the two fundamental questions of a speak-up culture: Is it safe? And is it worth it? • Learn why encouraging open dialogue benefits both people and business outcomes. • Discover how to encourage and reward candour, especially dissent and critical feedback. • Gain practical tools to cultivate psychological safety and build a feedback-rich environment. • Recognize and avoid leadership pitfalls like gaslighting and toxic positivity that undermine trust.

How can we excel at something if we don’t know or agree upon what it is? In this not-so-conventional, yet highly engaging, practical and impactful talk, Shed transforms common organizational buzz words to definitions, mindsets and actions we can each bring to life. In this talk, we will: • Explore a simple, powerful and modern definition of leadership. • Unpack a concept and leadership assessment tool, the Wheel of Leadership, which outlines the behavioural attributes of leadership. • Share a definition and equation for culture – Culture = (Values x Behaviour) ^ Influence. • Take an imperative yet fuzzy concept like trust and give it definitions, structure and actions we can take immediately to build, maintain and repair it.

If there’s ever one certainty, it is change and uncertainty itself. In our modern era, the rate, pace and volume of change has simply intensified. Shed shares insights from his research, years of client & work experience and partnership with great leaders, like Rich Diviney (Ret. Navy SEAL commander and author of Masters of Uncertainty), to help us use these moments of change and uncertainty as our finest moments. In this talk, we will: • Explore the three connected gears of change: Mindset, Actions & Systems. • Identify your readiness & capacity for change within your team and organization. • Utilize the Law of Diffusion of Innovation and the Partners, Tourists, Prisoners concept to increase your likelihood of implementing successful change. • Learn lessons from masters of uncertainty, the Navy SEALs, on how they process and use uncertainty, change, stress and fear to propel them forward and perform optimally.

Most of us have things to say. The real question is, are we in an environment where it feels psychologically safe and worth it to speak up? In this dynamic, interactive and engaging workshop, we will: • Define what we mean by a speak-up culture and why it matters to cultivate one. • Explore the two main questions of a speak-up culture: Is it safe? Is it worth it? • Unpack important nuances of what a speak-up culture is and isn’t, and how best and when to speak up. • Understand & utilize the virtuous cycle of Encourage & Reward to build and grow a speak-up culture.

Sustainable high-performance isn’t driven, it’s cultivated. Trust acts as the lubricant for that engine. With greater trust, we make better decisions, we move faster, we make fewer mistakes, and we learn from the ones we do make. So, if trust is so vital, how do we better understand it, build, maintain and repair it? In this interactive workshop, we will: • Unpack a definition and business case for trust. • Explore the elements of trust with the 4Cs: Competence, Consistency, Character and Compassion. • End the debate of what is most important – inspiration or trust? • Utilize the Navy SEAL Trust / Performance Matrix and its hiring and promotion implications. • Engage in breakouts and a team dilemma role play to identify your values better and build greater trust.

We all know culture matters, but how do we effectively define, articulate and grow healthy and productive cultures? In this highly interactive workshop, we will unpack the Culture Equation and bring it to life for your team and organization. We will: • Share a definition and equation for culture – Culture = (Values x Behaviour) ^ Influence. • Unpack each of the parts and work in teams to define your values and cast them into actionable behaviours. • Leave the experience feeling clear, inspired and ready to live and be ambassadors of your culture.

It’s hard to be good at a job without an adequate job description. We all know leaders and leadership matters, but do we have a common understanding and appreciation for what leadership is, how to effectively find and select leaders, and how best to support their development? In this highly interactive experience, we will: • Discuss a simple, powerful and modern definition of leadership. • Unpack a concept and leadership assessment tool, the Wheel of Leadership, which outlines the behavioural attributes of leadership. • Identify key nuances of leadership for your team and organization. • Explore how best to interview and select leaders for your teams and organization, and how to develop your pipeline of leaders both effectively and efficiently.

The purpose of feedback is to build relationships and help one another grow. Yet, the very word “feedback” is so charged because most of us are pretty cruddy at delivering and receiving it. So, let’s figure out how to use feedback in a way that can make it your team’s cultural and performance superpower. In this fun, dynamic and impactful workshop we will: • Discover the best use of feedback, when and how it’s appropriate and when a different type of conversation (advice, request, instruction) is better. • Unpack a model to deliver feedback – the Feeling, Behaviour, Impact (FBI) model. • Get practical and try it on, preparing real FBI statements for both acknowledgment and constructive feedback.