Mary Abbajay

Human beings are social creatures, and the workplace is—at its core—a social system. Understanding the true drivers of human social behavior is becoming ever more urgent if we are to create more inclusive, productive, and positive workplaces. In a world of increasing interconnectedness, diversity, and rapid change, there is a growing need to improve the way people work and engage with each other.

Social neuroscience’s exploration of the biological foundation of the way humans relate to each other and themselves can help us understand and enhance our ability to accelerate high-performance and high engagement workplaces.

In this engaging, high-energy presentation, workplace expert and best-selling author, Mary Abbajay, explores how five key neuropsychological domains of human experience can enrich the human experience in the workplace and explains why this is essential to your success to your workplace relationships.

So maybe your team doesn’t hate you—but you might be driving them crazy without even knowing it. Managing others is hard—and let’s be honest—we may not be as good at it as we think we are. Research repeatedly shows that poor managers remain one of the top reasons why talent walks. Creating a culture of high performance, engagement, and retention requires paying attention to the impact of our leadership behaviors.

In this engaging and fast-paced presentation, best-selling author and workplace expert, Mary Abbajay, shares the top ten managerial behaviors that disempower, demotivate, and diminish organizational productivity and positivity—and how to avoid them.

Whether we like it or not, our bosses have enormous influence over our ability to succeed, thrive, and advance in our organizations, in our careers and in our own leadership journey. Establishing strong, productive working relationships with those above us is the single most effective way to accelerate success in any organization. Whether you are reporting to a supervisor, middle manager, VP, top executive, or a board of directors, managing up is a skill that we all need.

This lively and interactive presentation provides proven strategies and techniques to increase cooperation and collaboration between those who have different power levels, perspectives, and personalities. Learning to effectively manage up is good for you, good for your boss, and good for your organization.

Recent research shows that organizations with high levels of psychological safety simply perform better. According to data from the PEW Research Center, 89% of employees say that psychological safety is essential and that business leaders are responsible for creating it. Organizations with robust psychological safety can magnify the contributions of talent at all levels.

Colleagues who feel psychologically safe at work are more willing to exhibit behaviors that contribute to greater organizational engagement and innovation—like speaking up, asking questions, sharing unspoken reservations, and respectfully disagreeing. They trust that their co-workers and leaders value honesty, candor, and truth-telling. This ultimately creates a more robust, dynamic, innovative, and inclusive climate and culture.

In this high-energy presentation, workplace expert and best-selling author, Mary Abbajay shares key strategies to create and sustain psychological safety in teams, groups, and organizations.