Member since September 2024
Carol Enneking is a speaker, author, and advisor whose work explores a challenge facing nearly every organization today: how do we continue to perform in a world that keeps asking us to absorb more?
For more than three decades, Carol has worked with leaders and organizations around the world, building a career that spans executive leadership, HR, consulting, and advisory work. As a former corporate vice president responsible for talent management and leadership development in a multibillion-dollar organization, she experienced firsthand the pressure to deliver results amid competing priorities, constant change, and finite human capacity.
Today, Carol helps leaders improve the decisions they make about priorities, people, and performance, challenging the assumption that doing more is always the answer. She combines business experience, behavioral insight, practical tools, and candor to help organizations recognize when systems and expectations have become overloaded and make better choices about what matters most, what their organizations can realistically absorb, and where attention and resources will have the greatest impact.
Carol is the best-selling, award-winning author of The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom from Working Women for Success that Matters. Drawing on interviews with more than 70 people across industries and generations, the book explores why so many high achievers feel overwhelmed and how to create a more fulfilling life. Her ongoing research and writing expand that work into the organizational arena, examining how leaders can improve decision quality, respect human and organizational capacity, and create sustainable performance amid constant pressure and change.
Her Oxford Talk has reached more than 2.2 million viewers worldwide, and her ideas have been featured on NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX, in National Business Journals’ BizWomen, and across numerous global publications, podcasts, and media interviews. In 2025, she was named a Houston Business Journal Women Who Mean Business honoree.
Whether she is speaking to senior executives, HR leaders, front-line employees, or professional and community groups, Carol brings a rare combination of executive experience and human insight to her work. Her goal is simple: to help people and organizations thrive in a world that never slows down.
My greatest delight is my family – my husband Eric, children Bradley, Bethany, my bonus daughter, Alyssa, and the world's best dog, a Great Pyrenees named Molly. Favorite things (in no particular order): family, live music, chocolate, dogs, 70s and 80s song lyrics, gathering with friends, mahjong, ice cream, traveling, trivia, faith, and history.
It was my daughter’s first day of kindergarten. My youngest child was headed to real school, ushering out our preschool era and ushering in a new phase for our family. I marked my calendar a year in advance to be sure I would have the day off from work. I had the batteries charged in my good camera, outfits were laid out, school supplies had been purchased, and everything was in order. We headed to the bus stop with plenty of time to capture the perfect 1st day of school photo for my two kids. I tried my best to get both kids looking at the camera and smiling at the same time, with eyes open, which was no small feat! I snapped one single photo that captured this momentous occasion just as the bus arrived so I could document this important, scrapbook worthy moment forever! I downloaded the photo and passed it on to my extended family. It wasn’t until my niece called me that I noticed there was a problem with my perfect photo. Jasper, our family dog, had decided to poop and was doing a big NUMBER TWO right behind the kids! Talk about a photo bomb! My perfect photo was ruined!
But isn’t life just like that sometimes? You have everything under control, the best laid plans, and then despite your best efforts, things turn into a big pile of crap. I know many mothers who would have hit the delete button immediately on a photo like this, but not me. I am glad I didn’t delete it because despite the imperfections in the photo, that single photo has given our family and friends more laughs over the years than I can count! And laughter is one thing that has kept me sane throughout the incredibly challenging years of juggling all the roles us working women play.
I spent the first several years of my career working in corporate roles, and then became an “accidental entrepreneur” after my first child was born. I expected to work on contract for a few years and then go back to corporate but ended up traveling the world and working with over 100 companies over 18 years through my own company. After my divorce, I went back to a corporate role, which was not easy after being on my own for so long. But the learning and growth that followed were incredible! My role grew over the years, and I ascended to a Vice President role, leading Talent Management, Learning & Diversity in a large company. I loved my role, but always dreamed of writing a book and focusing on public speaking.
There were several reasons I left my corporate role, but basically, it was time. I had built a solid foundation and hired a team that could carry on without me. I needed to focus on my health as well, after successfully battling breast cancer. I did not want to keep working long hours and carrying a high level of stress. That said, I was approached about a few corporate jobs that were tempting, but I kept praying for discernment that would lead me toward the right path. I had never, ever had the luxury of being able to just “be” and think through what I wanted to do next. I relished this time to reflect on what I really wanted to do. More importantly, I focused on the legacy I wanted to leave once I stop working, move on from this stage of life, or leave this earth. This led me to fully concentrate on public speaking and writing. My first book, The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom from Working Women for Success that Matters, was released in September 2024 and debuted as a best-seller on Amazon that day. I am focused on fulfillment - for myself, for my loved ones, and for my vocation - and focused also on my legacy.
Organizations rarely set out to create unnecessary complexity. It accumulates. A new priority gets added, another process is introduced, another layer of approval seems necessary, and yesterday’s work rarely goes away when something new arrives.
Carol Enneking has experienced this challenge from multiple perspectives: as an executive inside a large, complex organization, as an advisor to leaders across industries, and as someone who has designed and implemented enterprise-wide processes herself. She has learned that even well-intentioned systems can become barriers when complexity begins to outweigh the value they were created to deliver.
In this practical keynote, Carol challenges leaders to question the assumption that more process creates better outcomes. She shows how accumulated complexity can slow decisions, dilute accountability, consume capacity, and pull attention away from the few outcomes that matter most.
The answer is not eliminating structure or rigor. It is becoming more disciplined about what deserves to exist, what can be simplified, and what the organization should stop doing altogether.
Carol helps leaders shift the focus from activity and process to outcomes and impact, creating simpler ways of working that people can understand, use, and sustain.
Executive presence is often treated as something people need to perform: project more confidence, polish their image, command the room, or adopt someone else's version of what a leader should look and sound like.
Carol Enneking offers a different perspective.
Drawing on decades of experience working with leaders and her own journey into executive leadership, Carol reframes presence as something that begins on the inside. Real influence comes from knowing who you are, understanding how you affect others, and communicating with clarity and confidence without relying on ego, perfectionism, or performance.
In this engaging keynote, Carol explores the qualities that make people want to listen, trust, and follow. She helps participants strengthen their presence while remaining authentic to who they are, replacing the pressure to look like a leader with the confidence to genuinely connect and lead.
Organizations rarely struggle because they lack ambition. More often, they struggle because priorities continue to accumulate without anything being removed. In this talk, Carol Enneking explores how the same patterns that overwhelm high achievers can scale across entire organizations. Drawing on her experience as an executive and advisor, she shows why sustainable performance requires leaders to think more deliberately about what matters most, what should stop, and what they must let go.
Success can look very different from the inside than it does from the outside. Carol Enneking knows that firsthand.
After years of building a demanding career, leading at the executive level, raising a family, and trying to meet the expectations she had set for herself, Carol began questioning whether doing everything well was really the same as living well. That experience ultimately led her to interview more than 70 people across industries and generations and write her best-selling, award-winning book, The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom from Working Women for Success that Matters.
In this candid and engaging keynote, Carol challenges high achievers to examine the assumptions, expectations, and default behaviors that keep them saying yes, carrying too much, and postponing what matters most.
This is not a message about abandoning ambition or achieving perfect balance. Carol helps audiences recognize that priorities change as life changes and that rebalancing requires intentional choices about where time, energy, and attention belong now.
Through personal stories, research, and practical reflection, participants begin creating their own Rebalancing Blueprint for success that reflects the life they actually want to live.
Organizations are moving faster than ever. Priorities multiply, initiatives stack up, and leaders face constant pressure to respond quickly. But faster does not always mean better.
Drawing on more than three decades working with leaders and organizations, including experience as a corporate vice president in a multibillion-dollar enterprise, Carol Enneking explores what happens when capable leaders continually add priorities, programs, and expectations without considering what their organizations can realistically absorb.
In this practical keynote, Carol challenges the assumption that more activity creates more progress. She shows how competing priorities, initiative overload, and constant urgency can erode focus and undermine performance, even in strong organizations.
Through three leadership plays, Sequence Before You Stack, Reward Sustainable Performance, and Lead with Clarity, Not Constant Urgency, Carol helps leaders make more deliberate choices about what happens now, what happens next, and what should not happen at all.
Leaders leave better equipped to improve decision quality, protect organizational capacity, strengthen focus, and create performance that can be sustained.
Working women have an equilibrium problem. We have more options for what to do with our lives than at any time in history, but too often that abundance of choices leads us on a mythical quest to “have it all.” As we try to excel in the many roles
Learn MoreIt was my daughter’s first day of kindergarten. My youngest child was headed to real school, ushering out our preschool era and ushering in a new phase for our family. I marked my calendar a year in advance to be sure I would have the day off from work. I had the batteries charged in my good camera, outfits were laid out, school supplies had been purchased, and everything was in order. We headed to the bus stop with plenty of time to capture the perfect 1st day of school photo for my two kids. I tried my best to get both kids looking at the camera and smiling at the same time, with eyes open, which was no small feat! I snapped one single photo that captured this momentous occasion just as the bus arrived so I could document this important, scrapbook worthy moment forever! I downloaded the photo and passed it on to my extended family. It wasn’t until my niece called me that I noticed there was a problem with my perfect photo. Jasper, our family dog, had decided to poop and was doing a big NUMBER TWO right behind the kids! Talk about a photo bomb! My perfect photo was ruined!
But isn’t life just like that sometimes? You have everything under control, the best laid plans, and then despite your best efforts, things turn into a big pile of crap. I know many mothers who would have hit the delete button immediately on a photo like this, but not me. I am glad I didn’t delete it because despite the imperfections in the photo, that single photo has given our family and friends more laughs over the years than I can count! And laughter is one thing that has kept me sane throughout the incredibly challenging years of juggling all the roles us working women play.
I spent the first several years of my career working in corporate roles, and then became an “accidental entrepreneur” after my first child was born. I expected to work on contract for a few years and then go back to corporate but ended up traveling the world and working with over 100 companies over 18 years through my own company. After my divorce, I went back to a corporate role, which was not easy after being on my own for so long. But the learning and growth that followed were incredible! My role grew over the years, and I ascended to a Vice President role, leading Talent Management, Learning & Diversity in a large company. I loved my role, but always dreamed of writing a book and focusing on public speaking.
There were several reasons I left my corporate role, but basically, it was time. I had built a solid foundation and hired a team that could carry on without me. I needed to focus on my health as well, after successfully battling breast cancer. I did not want to keep working long hours and carrying a high level of stress. That said, I was approached about a few corporate jobs that were tempting, but I kept praying for discernment that would lead me toward the right path. I had never, ever had the luxury of being able to just “be” and think through what I wanted to do next. I relished this time to reflect on what I really wanted to do. More importantly, I focused on the legacy I wanted to leave once I stop working, move on from this stage of life, or leave this earth. This led me to fully concentrate on public speaking and writing. My first book, The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom from Working Women for Success that Matters, was released in September 2024 and debuted as a best-seller on Amazon that day. I am focused on fulfillment - for myself, for my loved ones, and for my vocation - and focused also on my legacy.
Organizations rarely set out to create unnecessary complexity. It accumulates. A new priority gets added, another process is introduced, another layer of approval seems necessary, and yesterday’s work rarely goes away when something new arrives.
Carol Enneking has experienced this challenge from multiple perspectives: as an executive inside a large, complex organization, as an advisor to leaders across industries, and as someone who has designed and implemented enterprise-wide processes herself. She has learned that even well-intentioned systems can become barriers when complexity begins to outweigh the value they were created to deliver.
In this practical keynote, Carol challenges leaders to question the assumption that more process creates better outcomes. She shows how accumulated complexity can slow decisions, dilute accountability, consume capacity, and pull attention away from the few outcomes that matter most.
The answer is not eliminating structure or rigor. It is becoming more disciplined about what deserves to exist, what can be simplified, and what the organization should stop doing altogether.
Carol helps leaders shift the focus from activity and process to outcomes and impact, creating simpler ways of working that people can understand, use, and sustain.
Executive presence is often treated as something people need to perform: project more confidence, polish their image, command the room, or adopt someone else's version of what a leader should look and sound like.
Carol Enneking offers a different perspective.
Drawing on decades of experience working with leaders and her own journey into executive leadership, Carol reframes presence as something that begins on the inside. Real influence comes from knowing who you are, understanding how you affect others, and communicating with clarity and confidence without relying on ego, perfectionism, or performance.
In this engaging keynote, Carol explores the qualities that make people want to listen, trust, and follow. She helps participants strengthen their presence while remaining authentic to who they are, replacing the pressure to look like a leader with the confidence to genuinely connect and lead.
Organizations rarely struggle because they lack ambition. More often, they struggle because priorities continue to accumulate without anything being removed. In this talk, Carol Enneking explores how the same patterns that overwhelm high achievers can scale across entire organizations. Drawing on her experience as an executive and advisor, she shows why sustainable performance requires leaders to think more deliberately about what matters most, what should stop, and what they must let go.
Success can look very different from the inside than it does from the outside. Carol Enneking knows that firsthand.
After years of building a demanding career, leading at the executive level, raising a family, and trying to meet the expectations she had set for herself, Carol began questioning whether doing everything well was really the same as living well. That experience ultimately led her to interview more than 70 people across industries and generations and write her best-selling, award-winning book, The Rebalancing Act: Wisdom from Working Women for Success that Matters.
In this candid and engaging keynote, Carol challenges high achievers to examine the assumptions, expectations, and default behaviors that keep them saying yes, carrying too much, and postponing what matters most.
This is not a message about abandoning ambition or achieving perfect balance. Carol helps audiences recognize that priorities change as life changes and that rebalancing requires intentional choices about where time, energy, and attention belong now.
Through personal stories, research, and practical reflection, participants begin creating their own Rebalancing Blueprint for success that reflects the life they actually want to live.
Organizations are moving faster than ever. Priorities multiply, initiatives stack up, and leaders face constant pressure to respond quickly. But faster does not always mean better.
Drawing on more than three decades working with leaders and organizations, including experience as a corporate vice president in a multibillion-dollar enterprise, Carol Enneking explores what happens when capable leaders continually add priorities, programs, and expectations without considering what their organizations can realistically absorb.
In this practical keynote, Carol challenges the assumption that more activity creates more progress. She shows how competing priorities, initiative overload, and constant urgency can erode focus and undermine performance, even in strong organizations.
Through three leadership plays, Sequence Before You Stack, Reward Sustainable Performance, and Lead with Clarity, Not Constant Urgency, Carol helps leaders make more deliberate choices about what happens now, what happens next, and what should not happen at all.
Leaders leave better equipped to improve decision quality, protect organizational capacity, strengthen focus, and create performance that can be sustained.