Kick off the new year with our three-month personal growth bootcamp
aimed at transforming you into a more impactful leader!
Over the course of three modules, we will be:
1) doing the mental groundwork required to make you a better leader,
2) deep-diving into self-leadership,
3) looking at best practices for managing teams.
You will get access to a dedicated pool of Leadership Academy mentors to help you achieve your goals. You may also choose to be part of an Accountability Group - more details below.
This program is for you if you are looking to invest in your personal growth & leadership skills in 2021 - no matter where you're at in your career. Check out the detailed curriculum and our FAQ section below!
Registration Deadline: January 14, 2021, end of day in your time zone
Program Start: January 19, 2021 | Program End: April 8, 2021
1-hour sessions on Tuesdays & Thursdays at 9am PT/ 12pm ET/ 6pm CET (unless otherwise marked)
Session recordings will be available on the WeWork Labs Member Portal.
Portia Asli, P.Eng., MBA is the Founder of OptimyzedBrain.com, a digital training ground for entrepreneurial founders to achieve unprecedented heights by hacking their brain performance.
As a four-time founder with an exit, she has tackled the immense challenges of building and scaling businesses by keeping her cognitive skills optimized. Portia's mission is to show you a better way to build and grow your business by taking a ‘brain-first’ approach.
As an experienced lawyer, strategic advisor, and senior executive, Kate has 11+ years advising public and private companies, C-suite executives, and investors on corporate legal matters, business development strategies, relationship building, reputation/crisis management, and team building.
Since founding her own company, K8 Carney Consulting, she provides business and leadership coaching and legal counsel to entrepreneurs, founders, creatives, technologists, and innovators.
Sweta Chawla PharmD, MS is a Speaker, Author and Life & Leadership Coach for highly-driven professionals and groups who want to step further into their potential without compromising their integrity.
Since 2013 she has guided professionals and budding creatives & entrepreneurs to recognize what holds them back from playing full-out in work & life. Sweta has published articles and essays in several journals and has spoken on many stages, including the White House.
Carrie Collins, JD, PhD, is an innovative and inspirational change agent who crafts order from chaos and solves problems for people and organizations. A consummate connector of individuals and ideas, Carrie
creates structures and processes that result in greater efficiencies.
As the Highly Organized Woman, she has taught thousands of people how to find time by thinking strategically about productivity, performance, and leadership progression. With boundless enthusiasm, Carrie has helped teams at private, public, small, and super-sized organizations show busy who’s boss.
Nicole Coustier is the creator of The DART Method®️ of deliberate planning and the Founder of Aurelian Coaching. She is a veteran Silicon Valley medical technology consultant, business coach, career strategist, and leadership mentor for both private individuals and corporate entities.
Nicole has over 15 years of experience in mid- and executive-level management positions in the high intensity medical device and biotechnology fields, and over 25 years total in disease management and government policy arenas.
Nir is the bestselling author of "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products" and "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life." He has taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
His writing on technology, psychology, and business, appears in the Harvard Business Review, The Atlantic, TechCrunch, and Psychology Today.
A creative catalyst for business leaders and entrepreneurs who sees personal growth as the way to professional success. He uses creativity and his experience with international media groups to help high growth clients propel themselves to greater success.
Gary is dedicated to tapping into inner wisdom to transform lives and celebrating success along the way. He is a presenter, writer & artist. He has BAs in Psychology and Literature as well as an MA, English Literature and an MBA with a focus on organizational behavior.
Barbara Fonti is the chief business coach at Big Dream Life Coaching where she works with entrepreneurs and executives to help them achieve astonishing results. Barbara is a sought after speaker who has trained and mentored thousands of professionals and is the trusted advisor to her impressive list of corporate clients.
Barbara has held management positions at several Fortune 100 Companies where she won awards for management excellence, customer service, and training.
At the intersection of business, design, and behavioral psychology, GG has developed a unique approach, incorporating a wide range of fields, including organizational development, neuroscience, entrepreneurship, and sustainability.
She coached and mentored hundreds of founders, as the contest director for the Extreme Tech Challenge, and as a mentor for Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator, Innovation Norway, Parsons Venture Lab, Stanford Center for Professional Development, among others.
Alexis is a time management and productivity coach who helps people do more and stress less through coaching, workshops and online courses. Her pragmatic, yet fun, approach helps people easily integrate practical, realistic strategies into their lives so that they can do more of what they want and less of what they don't.
Alexis has taught thousands of individuals to take control of their time and her clients include Google, Lyft, Workday, Capital One, Upwork, Silicon Valley Bank and more.
As a coach, Amy uses mindfulness, psychology, and neuroscience to help founders unlock their superpowers. She is also the co-creator and co-host of the Straighten Your Crown podcast.
In the past, Amy led business development at Google, including the successful international launch of Google Pay across Europe. Prior to that, Amy was an award-winning Account Executive for OpenTable, where she helped build the company's revenue towards its 2009 IPO.
Renita is an executive coach who’s worked with 1,200+ high-performers in 40+ countries, from Fortune 500 executives to Inc 5000 entrepreneurs. Tapping 10+ years of working with Special Forces and future Navy SEALs, she specializes in helping visionary leaders build loyal A-teams and great companies. Renita is also a Juilliard-trained concert pianist and a martial arts black belt.
Based in New York and Paris, Renita lived and worked in Europe and Japan for over a decade, and is fluent in Japanese.
Trained as an anthropologist who has traveled and worked in more than 40 countries, Susan understands culture and how to communicate across industries and boundaries. She is an Innovation Storyteller dedicated to helping innovators and disruptors to create stories that get them the resources, runway, and recognition they deserve.
Her award-winning strategies have gotten 10 companies acquired. Susan has spoken to startups, innovators, and top executives from 60+ countries at Fortune 100's like GE, PwC, Deutsche Bank, and Capital One.
Larry is an experienced sales leader with a demonstrated history of success in SaaS sales. He is passionate about coaching and has a proven track record of hitting goals and helping sales professionals take their game to the next level.
Larry is currently the Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamworks in downtown Durham. He has worked at some of the top tech companies in the triangle including Pendo, ChannelAdvisor and Sageworks. He is passionate about helping people achieve 'best-they-can-be' results.
Ariel is a career coach, entrepreneur, and public speaker in Tech. She is the Founder and CEO of Knac, a hiring platform that helps companies better manage and track applicants so they don't miss out on great talent.
Ariel has over a decade of recruiting experience, has helped companies like Spotify, Uber, Google, Nike, Ebay and more build great teams and has been featured in publications like CNBC, Forbes, FastCompany, Refinery29, and BusinessInsider.
A meditating business-building Brit with a fierce passion for real growth in real life. Inspired by tech and consciousness in equal measures, as comfortable in lotus position as in the boardroom.
Neo is an author, coach and creative entrepreneur hell bent on being real, raising global consciousness, and transforming lives along the way. He holds a Law degree (London) and also studied at Columbia Business School (NY), IE Business School (Madrid) and THNK School for Creative Leadership (Amsterdam).
Rob is an accomplished trainer, entrepreneur, speaker, business coach, and startup mentor. He brings over 10 years of experience in recruitment, sales, marketing, and training and has worked for and with Fortune 500/Forbes 100 companies. He has also founded two services-based companies and coached 200+ startups on growth and market entry.
Originally from the Midwest, his journey has taken him from his hometown in Kansas City, Missouri to New York City by way of Milan, Italy. Rob has worked with companies and founders all over the world: Asia Pac, South Asia, Middle East, North and South America, Europe, and Africa.
Chris is the Founder and Chief Question Asker of 7:47, which helps companies create meaningful connection through the 7:47 Gratitude Experience — an evidence-based framework that helps leaders build community and strengthen relationships.
Chris is also the bestselling author of "Gratitude and Pasta: The Secret Sauce for Human Connection", chronicling his adventures as one of the most sought-after dinner hosts in the World. Forbes ranks his book as the #2 book of 2020 to create Human Connection, USA Today calls him the "Gratitude Guru", and he's a Founding Member of RollingStone's Culture Council.
Sam currently serves as the Director of Strategic Projects at HubSpot, a global SaaS company focused on helping millions of organizations grow better. In her role, she focuses on projects that advance the strategy and goals for HubSpot and the People Operations teams, which include our Future of Work implementation and regional expansion enablement.
Prior to that, she was a Chief of Staff and Talent Strategy Leader at Wayfair and led senior leadership recruitment for the company’s North American Retail business.
Jennifer Tardy, Career Success Coach, owns and operates JTC which is a diversity and inclusion consulting organization in Maryland. Through her career success coaching programs for job seekers and diversity training programs for recruiters, she is on a mission to make it easy for recruiters and historically underrepresented job seekers to meet and forge career success.
Jennifer has vast industry experience as a Recruiting Thought Leader, Diversity Practitioner, and Career Success Coach with over 14 years of experience in the field of HR and recruiting. She is an official partner to LinkedIn and The Society for Diversity where she serves as a career coach to its members.
Marie-Eve is a Certified Health and Life Coach and founder of TheChitChatRoom. After a life-changing battle with breast cancer, she re-invented herself, which led her to follow her passion for helping others unleash their true potential and overcome challenges by specializing in Habit Change.
Her love of travel has led her to coaching clients from different countries and cultures. She plans to amass her network further around the globe to share her experience and lead others into healthier living, making an impact in all areas of their lives.
As the program name implies, this program is all about leadership! We are aiming to provide value to anyone who is looking to grow as a person, develop their career, and hone their leadership skills - no matter whether you have management experience or not. The curriculum (see below for a detailed outline) is based on the assumption that to be an impactful leader for others, one first has to be a good leader for themselves. Hence, over the course of three one-month program modules, we'll be working our way from the inside out:
Module 1 - "Reset: Doing the Groundwork" ➜ We'll be looking inwards by reflecting on our past in an effort to learn for the future, understand ourselves better, find our purpose and set goals for ourselves.
Module 2 - "Foundations: Leading Yourself" ➜ We will do a deep-dive into self-leadership and learn how we may become better leaders for ourselves by learning about topics such as authentic communications, task management, habit building, and developing a personal & professional brand.
Module 3 - "Management: Leading Your Team" ➜ We'll learn about the potential to evolve from founder to CEO, building deep & trusted relationships, identifying the right people to recruit, building a healthy company culture, conflict resolution and negotiation.
For WeWork Labs Leadership Academy, we are looking to bring together a diverse set of people who are interested in their personal & professional growth and who are interested in joining a community of like-minded people.
This program is exclusive to WeWork Labs members. WeWork Labs is open for free to all WeWork member companies (excluding WeWork On Demand). Interested in learning more or signing up? Click here: www.wework.com/labs
All WeWork Labs Leadership Academy programming is open to our WeWork Labs community from around the globe and will therefore be delivered virtually via Zoom.
WeWork Labs Leadership Academy is a three-month program. Your time commitment will be about 2-4 hours per week and consist of:
- attending the speaker sessions as outlined in the curriculum further below
- meeting with your Accountability Group for 30 minutes per week, if you opt in to this program component
- working with program content, exercises and resources in your spare time (at your discretion)
- booking time with WeWork Labs mentors (at your discretion)
We have recruited mentors who are specifically interested in mentoring participants of this program. We encourage you to book time with them at your discretion through the WeWork Labs Member Portal in order to get support with your own leadership journey, your personal growth, your goals, and challenges you might be facing.
When signing up for WeWork Labs Leadership Academy, you can choose the option to join an Accountability Group. If you do, you'll be matched with a small group of fellow program participants who you'll meet once a week for thirty minutes on Thursdays from 10-10:30am PT / 1-1:30pm ET / 7-7:30pm CET, i.e., right after our Thursday speaker sessions. Together, you will discuss leadership topics, share experiences, and hold each other accountable for your personal development goals.
WeWork Labs is WeWork’s global digital platform connecting and supporting early-stage startups and small businesses. We foster meaningful connections between founders and the educational, mentorship and financial resources needed to drive their businesses forward. Through programs like Leadership Academy, Ready to Raise, and E-Commerce Bootcamp, WeWork Labs aims to inspire WeWork’s global community of entrepreneurs to experiment, collaborate and grow together, no matter where they are. WeWork Labs is free to all WeWork members excluding WeWork On Demand. Join us here: www.wework.com/labs
In our kick-off session, you will get an overview of Leadership Academy, the speakers, the mentors, and the curriculum. We will also dive into how the different program components work, from modules to mentoring and Accountability Groups. Last but not least, there will be a first chance for you to meet other Leadership Academy participants from around the world. We can't wait to see you and start the program together!
with Gokce Gizer
Our past is filled with stories and hints about what we are good at, what we genuinely love, and how we thrived when we did. Discovering these areas, uncovering our possibly untapped talents, and building on them going forward will help us thrive in the future and contribute to us leading a happier and more fulfilling life.
In this session, we are going to work on identifying the areas that truly energize and interest you and explore ways to start incorporating these areas into your life, perhaps taking opportunities to explore your untapped talents.
with Chris Schembra
The 7:47 Virtual Gratitude Experience is a live and interactive 90 minute framework proven to emotionally transform participants. Leadership starts and ends with relationships, and our experience will help you become a better leader. After our 90 minutes together, you will have improved your relationship with yourself, people that have had an impact on your life, and others on the call.
with Barbara Fonti
In this session, High Performance Coach Barbara Fonti will talk about the impact of purpose, passion, and having a strong Why on your life and your business. We'll then learn how we can discover our purpose based on our core values and signature strengths. Barbara will share tangible tips to both define and market our purpose, and explain how it ties in with our vision and goals, which we'll discuss in the upcoming session.
with Barbara Fonti
Based on tangible research and results, we will learn from High Performance Coach Barbara Fonti why goal setting is essential for a fulfilled life. Barbara will help us understand desired outcomes derived from our purpose and shape them into S.M.A.R.T. goals. She'll talk about how we can achieve those by setting intentions and having a daily vision, and how we can navigate challenges throughout this process.
with Amy Jin
Stress is a part of our lives whether we like it or not. Yet how we react to stress, and the role it plays in our physical and mental health, is up to us. What if you could open and close your stress as easily as you open or close an app on your phone?
This session will pack in practical, neuroscience and mindfulness based techniques for engaging with your stress in a way that serves you, rather than hurts you. Amy will lead you through tools and tips to help you separate from the overwhelm of stress, and teach you about an important and powerful mindset shift for changing your relationship with stress. Bring your full self, your curiosity, and an open mind.
with Renita Kalhorn
The secret to life is not to get better at planning or predicting the future: It’s to get better at addressing unexpected challenges as they come. In this session, Renita will present her FASTT model for understanding and managing the brain’s “fight or flight” response — and how to apply it for more self-control and influence in high-stakes situations. Develop a three-step recovery strategy to bounce back quickly, so you can be that calm, confident leader when emotions run high.
with Sweta Chawla
This session aims to inspire you to ignite who you naturally are as a way to step into leadership. Through stories, case studies and actionable tools, this session will show you how you can walk away clear and excited to embrace greater potential without striving to be someone you are not. It's a great way to confidently approach greater impact with integrity.
Task Management IS Time Management:
How to realistically manage your ever-growing task list (Feb 16, 12pm EST)
with Alexis Haselberger
Learn the art of effective task management and how to not rely on memory to ensure that no balls are dropped, and no details are left undone. In this workshop you'll learn:
- Why task management is essential to time management
- How to create and use an effective task management system (using any platform, tool, app, etc.)
- How to use prioritization frameworks to ensure you're working on the right things at the right times.
- How to plan your workload using specific techniques for daily and weekly planning
- Two essential time management "Rules to Live By"
Neurohacking for entrepreneurs (Feb 18, 12pm EST - RSVP HERE)
with Portia Asli
If you are an ambitious entrepreneur with big goals, then join this energizing session led by Portia Asli, Founder of Brain Optimization Bootcamp for Entrepreneurial Founders. You'll walk away with brain-boosting actionable insights to help accelerate your performance and upgrade your productivity in achieving your 2021 business targets. When you power your brain, you power your business.
Surface and Release Your Limiting Beliefs as an Achiever (Feb 23, 12pm EST - RSVP HERE)
with Nicole Coustier
The Art of being indistractable (Feb 25, 7pm EST - RSVP HERE)
with Nir Eyal
In this session, we'll be joined by Nir Eyal, behavioral design consultant, investor, and bestselling author of "Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life" and "Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products". In the first half hour, Nir will teach you techniques to help lead a more focused & fulfilled life - and in the second half you'll be able to ask him all your burning questions during our live AMA. This is your chance to learn from the man who is known for inventing the term "indistractable"!
habit change - how to build better habits (Mar 2, 12pm EST - RSVP HERE)
with Marie-Eve Ward
What are habits and where do they stem from? Let’s move from a state of knowing to a state of doing! Learn more about your own habits, how to build ones that are in alignment with your goals and what to do when struggling with consistency. Put this knowledge into action using the power of habit change.
Mastering & Building Your Personal & Professional Brand (Mar 9, 12pm EST - RSVP HERE)
with Robert Napoli
Social selling/Professional Brand…we hear it…but how do we effectively do it? Does this mean becoming an “influencer”? Does social selling take the place of B2B or B2C sales? There are many questions and variations of social selling and mastering your "professional brand". It is not simply advertising on social media. Social selling creates a message that propels you to stand out amongst the noise and provide value to your networks. Learn social selling skills that will help set you, your brand, and your meeting apart. Understand techniques for utilizing tools like LinkedIn, Twitter, Taboola, and more to maximize social selling, stand out in today’s global market.
This experiential session will engage you to help:
- Understand WHAT Social Selling and Professional Brand is, WHY it is important to do for your brand and business, and the VALUE it will bring.
- Discover what tools and platforms work best for your goals.
- Learn HOW to get started!
impactful storytelling for innovators & Disruptors (Mar 11, 12pm est - RSVP HERE)
with Susan Lindner
Disruption is seismic. It triggers new growth, products and amazing market opportunities. And it offers layoffs, political
infighting, and destruction. How do leaders get customers to follow them in light of massive change and an uncertain future? By cracking the code on history’s greatest storytellers, Susan gives leaders her blueprint for creating your own stories that offer a vision, message, and path that the market can follow – with religious zeal. Whether you’re a corporate innovator or startup disruptor, this talk is the critical link that lets you communicate your ideas and turn a message into a movement that others will follow.
How to transition from founder to CEO
(Mar 16, 12pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Kate Carney
In this session, you will learn how to climb out of the weeds and into your power as CEO. We will talk about successfully going from "it's my baby" to "it's a business". We'll look at what the role of the CEO is and how having a growth mindset and strong time management practices help you make the transition. Finally, we'll discuss the ins and outs of talent acquisition and engagement that you need to get right to build a high-performance culture.
Mastering Relationship Building (Mar 18, 1pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Larry Long Jr
The quality and strength of our relationships have a major impact on both our private and professional lives, and last but not least, on our happiness. In this session, we will hear from an experienced sales leader about how to approach business relationships from a unique, people-centric perspective, covering topics such as: creating a genuine connection, building rapport, EQ vs. IQ, power communication, and what this has to do with your selling skills. Be prepared to walk away with tangible action items to implement that will not just deepen your business relationships, but also help accelerate your business.
How To Connect, Build, AND Foster Growth in Your Early Team (Mar 23, 12pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Robert Napoli
The ART of hiring has changed!
In this “gig” economy, millennial employees are making career moves about every 18-months. Many organizations and companies are struggling to keep up. Top talent does not care about ping-pong tables or free kegs (although they don’t hurt). What do they care about?
Come to grips with millennial needs and expectations. Learn practical strategies (from a millennial speaker/ coach/ entrepreneur!) to help create purpose driven missions, develop programs for growth, and keep the top-talent for the long term.
This experiential session will engage you to help:
- Identify top market trends driving the current hiring market for millennials.
- Understand what millennials are looking for in meaningful work and how to build strategies to connect with and hire this talent.
- Create opportunities for growth and align your practices/culture/mindset to keep millennial top talent for the continued success of your organization.
creating a winning recruiting strategy (Mar 25, 12pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Ariel Lopez
This workshop is designed to teach you tangible tips on how to improve your recruitment process and implement fair and structured practices as the foundation. You will learn:
- How to Develop Sourcing Funnels
- How to Democratize Your Process (Assessing and Qualifying Talent)
- How to Improve Diversity In Your Applicant Pool
- How to Improve the Candidate Experience
- How to Embrace Remote Work
Leaning into Diversity & Inclusion (Mar 30, 1:30-2:30pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Jennifer Tardy
In this keynote, Leaning into Diversity & Inclusion, Jenn Tardy, Career Coach + Diversity Recruiting Trainer, will share real stories of what it feels like to be ambitious + different. In addition, she will guide Leadership Academy participants through four milestones that must be reached to create an inclusive work environment cultivated for diversity. Finally, she will share the key actions that can be taken today (at any level) to move the needle toward inclusion that is equitable, feels authentic, and is sustainable.
Managing Conflict & The Power of Feedback (Apr 1, 12pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Samantha Simmons
strategically setting your company on a path to success (Apr 6, 12pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Carrie Collins
The business plan is polished, an A-team is built, and customers are falling in love with your company. Now what? How do you blaze a triumphant trail towards your vision? Create a strategic plan with clear goals, initiatives that are easily understood, and metrics that will track your progress.
Learn how to:
- Recognize the difference between goals and initiatives, between metrics and tactics;
- Use a step-by-step process for crafting an organized and intentional plan; and
- Measure progress toward strategic goals.
Accelerating towards meaningful success
(Apr 8, 12pm EDT - RSVP HERE)
with Neo Moreton & Gary Fabbri
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