Dr. Margie Warrell

A bestselling author, leadership advisor, keynote speaker and ‘courage catalyst’, Dr. Margie Warrell brings deep insight into human and organizational behavior to foster braver leadership and better outcomes.

Expert on

  • Change
  • Motivation
  • Leadership
  • Women in Business

Fee Range

$20,000–$30,000

Travels from

VA, USA

Biography

Margie has gained profound insights on managing fear, navigating risk, and embracing change since her childhood in rural Australia. Thirty years of living and working around the world—from Papua New Guinea to Singapore—have provided her with a globally grounded perspective on navigating risk and overcoming the barriers that stifle potential in individuals and organizations.

Drawing on her doctoral research and experience in coaching and Fortune 500 consulting, Margie is a trusted advisor across private and public sectors, helping to embolden braver leadership and cultivate forward-thinking ‘cultures of courage’ that counter change resistance, foster learning, and accelerate growth. Organizations such as NASA, Dell, Morgan Stanley, SAP, Novartis, the UN Foundation, HP, Google, and Johnson & Johnson have sought her expertise.

Soon to release her sixth book, The Courage Gap (January 2025), Margie is renowned for her ability to bridge the ‘head and heart’ as a writer and speaker. She has also co-authored two other books with Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, and Jack Canfield. Her interviews with leaders and luminaries—including Bill Marriott, Richard Branson, and Amy Edmondson of Harvard Business School—inform her thought leadership, which she shares through her Live Brave podcast, Forbes column, and leading media outlets such as CNN, Bloomberg, and the WSJ.

Margie’s commitment to ‘braver leadership for a better world’ extends to advising US Congressional Chiefs, McCain Global Fellows, and emerging female leaders in burgeoning democracies. A passionate advocate for women in leadership, she has served on numerous government roundtables, co-led Korn Ferry’s Power of All initiative to advance more women to C-suite and board tables, and and been Senior Partner in their CEO & Leadership Institute.

Margie lives in ‘Old Town’ Alexandria, Virginia. Outside of work, she is an aspiring barista and lifelong hiker. Her passion for adventure inspired her to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro with her husband and their four children.

Speaker Videos

The Courage Gap:

A sought-after speaker on leadership, mindset, and resilience, Margie’s powerful new keynote weaves compelling storytelling with cutting-edge insight to engage, educate, and empower action to close the ‘courage gap’ in your organization.

Key learning includes how to:

Rethink Risk: Discern smart from foolish risk taking amid complexity and uncertainty

Identify Fear Traps: Counter cognitive biases that hinder learning, stifle innovation, and block crucial conversation

Fail Right: Leverage a play-to-win mindset to embrace intelligent failure, accelerate learning and find the treasure when you trip

Lead With Courage: Reframe discomfort and use fear as a catalyst for growth

Cultivate Courage: Create a culture that supports ‘loyal dissent’ and unites purpose around a bold vision for future

 

Everyone needs courage, making this a ‘must-hear’ message for all audiences.

Lead with Courage:

No organization can outperform its leaders over time. It’s why the #1 threat is never external but the fear that drives smart employees to play it too safe. Leaders who invite candor and encourage innovation without demonstrating vulnerability, normalizing dissent, and derisking ‘smart failure’ will fall short every time. Margie will embolden your leaders to lead from the inside out, building a ‘culture of courage’ that unlocks collective creativity and discretionary effort across your enterprise.

 

Learning objectives and audience outcomes:

  • Research into a ‘courage mindset’ and why it’s a force multiplier of talent
  • Harness ’emotional contagion’ to galvanize employees behind a bold vision with a big “Why”
  • What we get wrong about risk that makes us more vulnerable
  • Three ways to foster loyal dissent and harness constructive conflict
  • How to lead from self-certainty to make more effective decisions amid the unknowns
  • Identify the invisible ‘timidity tax’ of excess caution in your team/business
  • Accelerate learning and incubate innovation by scaling a play-to-win mindset

 

This program is ideal for leaders at all levels, from emerging to those at the top.

Falling Upward:

No one is immune to life’s hardships and heartaches, yet some people handle them better and emerge better off. This powerful keynote blends research in psychology, well-being, and spiritual traditions to reframe how you view and process your biggest problems, expanding your bandwidth to handle them better and transform them into catalysts for growth.

Weaving personal stories – including losing a brother to mental illness and supporting another to adjust to life with paraplegia – Margie brings evidence backed strategies to expand your audiences capacity for life, find the opportunities for growth, and grow into the highest that our toughest challenges always hold.

 

This program will teach you how to:

  • Mine the lessons failure holds to improve the future
  • Short-circuit stressful thinking, turning the psychology of fear into the physiology of courage
  • Four pillars to activate post-traumatic growth and can-do optimism
  • Lead from ‘self-certainty’ to thrive through change
  • Build micro-habits to turn stressors into cues for courage
  • Rescript the stories to get unstuck and bounce forward stronger

 

This program is for broad audiences, from faith groups to business groups.

Brave Women Rising

When women are empowered to bring the full quota of their feminine leadership strengths to the table, it improves the decisions being made.  Yet, despite progress, the gender gap persists. Drawing on her doctoral research in women’s leadership and decades of experience empowering women from diverse backgrounds, Margie weaves relatable and entertaining personal stories as a ball-dropping working mother raising four children amid multiple global relocations. This session provides actionable strategies to help women get off their own backs and make the difference their difference makes.

 

Learning objectives and audience outcomes:

  • Reset the relationship with power to ‘take charge while taking care’  
  • Why courage precedes confidence and how to’ behave your way to believing’
  • Counter self-doubt and turn ‘imposterhood’ into a catalyst for growth
  • Navigate feminine double-binds to manage the backlash effect
  • Speak with authority to win followers and ignite action
  • Amplify the voice of other women, lifting as you climb

 

Can be customized for all women’s groups plus mixed audiences, championing men to lift women!