Elise Smith

"I’ve learned so much about leadership and how I show up as a leader. My most important work is to build stronger self-skills – to manage my emotions, be adaptive, and take accountability."

"I believe luck shouldn’t be the main contributing factor in one’s outcomes. I also believe that learning and development can be a tool to help everyone lead more inclusively, support more equitable outcomes, and drive more value for us all."

"It’s incredibly hard to be a people leader right now. The expectations of what leaders must navigate are higher–from navigating the socio-political conversations entering the workplace to the technological advances transforming how we work–it can feel like the goalposts keep changing and there are fewer resources to achieve more aggressive goals."

"It’s how do we use technology to help us become even better humans, to help us be able to give feedback across differences, to navigate difficult conversations, to provide performance feedback and expectations with accountability and care in a way that actually serves us all better, that creates more value for everyone, doesn’t cause harm."

"You can't play basketball by just watching a video in theory about passing and shooting—you have to do it. Learning these critical human skills is very similar. You have to do it in a simulated, experiential way that will truly translate to your ability in the moment when it matters."

"We have to connect at a real, personal level, beyond the transactional trust that I think we so often find in workplaces. We are so divided, and yet we have to learn to work with people who think differently than us and believe in different things than us, to achieve outcomes that hopefully better all of us."