Sara Ross

What would be possible if leaders could unlock the full potential—the expertise, creativity, and energy—already within their teams?

As workplaces are reshaped by AI, competition for talent intensifies, and pressure runs high; that question has never mattered more. Drawing on data from over 10,000 people, Sara Ross’s three-step LeadFULL™ framework for leading others provides the way forward. In a world of rising complexity, Sara uses compelling stories and science to deliver clarity and instantly applicable tools that help leaders strengthen human-centered EQ and apply these skills in game-changing, vitality-fueling ways elevating their leadership and collectively multiplying excellence in their teams and across cultures.

THIS KEYNOTE IS BEST FOR AUDIENCES WHO:

• Are leaders facing compounding pressures—AI transformations, organizational shifts, rising customer demands, and critical talent challenges.
• Excel technically, but recognize the need for deeper levels of emotional intelligence.
• Aim to transform siloed, exhausted, or disengaged teams into high-performing collaborative powerhouses—in-person and virtually.
• Seek practical strategies to elevate their leadership impact and overcome the invisible barriers holding them and their teams back.

***This keynote can be customized for more general and mixed audiences to focus on selfmanagement, connection, and collaboration.

AUDIENCES WILL LEAVE ABLE TO :

• Lead by Example — Apply a personal accountability framework that strengthens self-awareness, regulates emotions, and activates curiosity for better agility, focus, and impact.
• Redefine Empathy as a Performance Catalyst — Identify the perspectives that unlock or block excellence, enabling better collaboration across teams and deeper connection between people to support bold goals.
• Unlock Potential and Empower Growth — Infuse confidence and motivation in others by embracing a balanced support-stretch coaching approach.
• Cultivate a Vitality-Fueled Culture — Use the LeadFULL approach to create more energized, enthusiastic, engaged cultures that drive sustainable and scaleable success.

What would be possible if leaders could unlock their full potential in a way that lights them up, fills them up, and lifts those around them up, all without lowering the bar on success?

Chief Vitality Officer Sara Ross has the research—and the roadmap—to make it real. Drawing on her three-year Workplace Vitality Study and her bestselling book Dear Work, Something Has to Change, Sara introduces the LeadFULL Way™, a science-backed blueprint that helps leaders operate from a vitality-fueling state. From here, excellence doesn’t just become more sustainable—it becomes more energizing. In this inspiring and actionable keynote, Sara shows leaders why strengthening their internal capacity to thrive is the ultimate competitive advantage at work and the catalyst for fulfillment in life.

THIS KEYNOTE IS BEST FOR AUDIENCES WHO:

• Are leaders caught in an exhausting cycle of reactivity despite hard work.
• Want to achieve career success without sacrificing well-being, happiness, or relationships.
• Need practical strategies to sustain performance and create high-performing cultures.
• Feel disconnected from their original spark and want to reignite purpose and passion in their work and joy in their life.

AUDIENCES WILL LEAVE ABLE TO :

• Apply the Regenerative LeadFULL Approach — Intentionally shift into the Vitality State to
expand their energetic capacity to meet complexity with resiliency, agility, and sustainability.
• Transform Firefighting into Potential Amplification — Create space in their mind and day with an empowerment framework to extend ownership of problem-solving.
• Apply the Activate 20 Principle — Understand why traditional work-life balance strategies often
backfire and how to activate a deeper sense of aliveness across the full spectrum of work and life.
• Embrace their Role as a Chief Vitality Officer — Replace “rest guilt” by treating renewal as a
leadership responsibility, modeling the behaviors that empower teams to recharge, refocus, and rise stronger.

What would be possible if change wasn’t perceived as something to get through, but as something to grow through?

In today’s dynamic world, there are two human operating states from which we can approach change: the Scarcity State, where we’re reactive, stressed out, frustrated, and change-fatigued, or the Vitality State, where we’re strategic, energized, resilient, and future-ready. With 73% of organizations expecting significant change in the next year—leading change from the Vitality State isn’t just an option; it’s a competitive advantage. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience researching, coaching, and advising leaders through change, Sara shares how operating from the Vitality State transforms resilience from a reactive response in moments of crisis into a proactive practice strengthened daily. From here, change becomes a catalyst for energy, momentum, and growth to shape the future.

THIS KEYNOTE IS BEST FOR AUDIENCES WHO:

• Are working at any level and see signs of stress, change fatigue, fear and disengagement.
• Recognize the urgent need to strengthen future-readiness, particularly around AI integration.
• Want practical approaches to embrace uncertainty, influence buy-in, and overcome resistance.
• Wonder if focusing on vitality means ignoring challenges, forcing positivity, or lowering standards (it doesn’t).

AUDIENCES WILL LEAVE ABLE TO :

• Activate the Vitality State — Navigate change from the Vitality Operating State by working with their brain’s negativity bias to activate a growth-oriented possibility mindset.
• Become Genuinely Future-Ready — Apply behavioral science-based insights to better work with stress, boost uncertainty tolerance, harness energy to fuel resilience from a place of resourcefulness.
• Master the Emotional Landscape of Change — Channel the full spectrum of change emotions— including fear and resistance—into powerful drivers of connection, collaboration, and performance.
• Dismantle FAUX Resilience — Replace toxic positivity, isolation, and exhaustion with the LeadFULL Resilience framework rooted in realistic optimism, connection, and well-being

What would be possible if you could pursue your boldest goals without running on fumes? If you didn’t feel caught between choosing ambition or well-being? Or if you had more clarity on why the very strategies that once fueled your success no longer seem to be working?

In a world where exhaustion is too often accepted as the price of excellence at work, Sara Ross has the data to prove otherwise. Based on her bestselling book, Dear Work, something needs to change, Sara shares how a letter to work evolved into a research-backed mission to redefine our relationship with work by shifting the focus from how work needs to change, to how we change the way we work. In this inspiring and fun keynote, she shares mindset shifts and science-backed strategies to help people bring their best, most vitality-fueled selves forward to do what matters to them, in way that fills them up and lifts those around them up without lowering the bar of success.

THIS KEYNOTE IS BEST FOR AUDIENCES WHO :

• Are ambitious professionals at any level working in high-demand environments who are starting to feel signs of burnout
• Want to grow in their success without sacrificing health, happiness, or relationships.
• Feel disconnected from their original spark and want to reignite purpose and passion in their work.
• Struggle to disconnect from the “always-on” work culture and create the space and energy for what truly matters beyond it.

AUDIENCES WILL LEAVE ABLE TO :

• Break Free from the Excellence-Exhaustion Trap — Learn to recognize when they are operating from the Scarcity versus Vitality State and master simple shifts to break the burnout cycle, boost happiness, and bring their best forward.
• Decode Their Brain’s Hidden Saboteurs — Uncover the two deceptive negotiations the brain uses to lure high performers into “success traps” and how to shift them, turning sustainable excellence into an achievable reality.
• Harness Stress as a Superpower —Transform how they engage with stress, converting it into a source of meaning, motivation, and momentum where possible.
• Revolutionize Their Self-Care Strategy — Integrate strategic renewal to fuel performance, embrace guilt-free rest, and reignite authentic vitality across every dimension of their life.