Member since April 2026
Olga Valadon is a strategic advisor, executive education facilitator, and speaker with 30 years of experience in global financial and professional services, leading teams and advising senior executives, including Boards of Directors. She is the founder of Change Aligned, a leadership advisory and development company helping leaders improve strategy execution by harnessing the overlooked driver of performance: the emotions that shape how people respond to change. Because strategy executes at the speed of emotion.
Through her proprietary SPEED framework, Olga translates emotion from a "soft skill" into a hard business lever, revealing how it impacts costs, speed, risk, and growth. Known for her sharp insight and calm authority, Olga works with boards, executive teams and senior leaders to build emotional fluency, strengthen trust, enhance psychological safety, and design the emotional systems that drive strategy forward.
Olga is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership, and she is currently studying in a one-year executive program at Stanford University. Her insights have been featured in media such as Harvard Business Review, Forbes, and Fast Company. She is a speaker at universities, a mentor, a charity trustee, and she was recognized as a UK Top 50 Female Leader by Santander in 2026.
Most strategies don’t fail because of bad planning. They fail because of emotional friction. Fear slows decisions. Disconnection weakens alignment. Lack of trust stalls execution.
In this keynote, Olga will show you why strategy executes at the speed of emotion™and how leaders can design the emotional systems that turn intent into impact. Drawing from her work with global organizations, Olga reframes emotion from a “soft skill” into a hard business lever – the hidden driver of costs, speed, risk, and growth.
Learn how to:
When leaders harness emotion intentionally, they unlock the speed, trust, and focus every successful execution demands.
Even the most accomplished leaders have moments when they feel like frauds. But what if imposter syndrome isn’t a flaw to fix but feedback to interpret?
In this keynote, Olga reframes self-doubt as a form of emotional intelligence; a sign that you’re aware, reflective, and striving for growth. Drawing from neuroscience and leadership psychology, she explains how to distinguish between useful doubt that sharpens performance and toxic doubt that stalls it.
Confidence is the ability to move forward despite the presence of doubt. When leaders learn to listen to their emotions instead of silencing them, imposter syndrome stops being an obstacle and becomes a compass.
Your imposter voice isn’t proof you don’t belong but rather proof you care about doing things that matter.
Trust doesn't happen by accident. Teams may share goals but not emotions; they exchange updates but not understanding. The result? Silos, blurred accountability, and slow execution.
In this keynote, Olga explains how emotional fluency (the ability to read, regulate, and respond to emotions with clarity) is the missing ingredient in high-performing, high-trust teams. She explains how leaders can move beyond surface collaboration to build emotional infrastructure that sustains accountability and connection across locations, functions, and cultures.
Through real examples and numerous insights, Olga demonstrates how trust becomes the multiplier of performance when it’s deliberately cultivated, not assumed.
Trust in teams doesn’t just happen. It’s engineered through emotion, clarity, and accountability.
Every leader says they want people to speak up… until they do. The truth is, psychological safety starts with emotional safety, and that begins with you, the leader. If your team senses that honesty will cost them, innovation dies quietly. If emotion is dismissed as weakness, toxicity fills the silence.
In this keynote, Olga unpacks the emotional mechanics of psychological safety showing you what really happens inside teams when trust and emotional regulation collide. She explains why leaders must first master their own emotional fluency before they can expect openness from others. Drawing from neuroscience, leadership practice, and real organisational stories, Olga will enable you to see that safety isn’t about being “nice” but about building an environment where people can challenge, question, and contribute without fear.
The safety to speak up doesn’t come from policies or posters. It comes from leaders who manage their own emotions first and lead from calm, not control.
Before your team feels safe to speak up, they need to feel safe with you.
Leadership demands more than competence; it demands congruence. When who you are, what you stand for, and how you lead don’t align, people feel it. And when they feel it, trust breaks, results slow, and teams drift.
In this keynote, Olga explores what it really means to lead authentically, not by oversharing emotions or abandoning professionalism, but by aligning values, clarity, and presence so your leadership becomes unmistakably real.
Through stories and practical insights, Olga helps leaders uncover the perception cages that distort how they’re seen, and replace them with intentional presence that earns both respect and trust. She reveals how clarity of values translates into clarity of action and how truly knowing your team allows you to align strengths with strategy, not just sentiment.
Authentic leadership is about being transparent with your intent. When values, clarity, and connection align, results follow naturally.
Most strategies don’t fail because of bad planning. They fail because of emotional friction. Fear slows decisions. Disconnection weakens alignment. Lack of trust stalls execution.
In this keynote, Olga will show you why strategy executes at the speed of emotion™and how leaders can design the emotional systems that turn intent into impact. Drawing from her work with global organizations, Olga reframes emotion from a “soft skill” into a hard business lever – the hidden driver of costs, speed, risk, and growth.
Learn how to:
When leaders harness emotion intentionally, they unlock the speed, trust, and focus every successful execution demands.
Even the most accomplished leaders have moments when they feel like frauds. But what if imposter syndrome isn’t a flaw to fix but feedback to interpret?
In this keynote, Olga reframes self-doubt as a form of emotional intelligence; a sign that you’re aware, reflective, and striving for growth. Drawing from neuroscience and leadership psychology, she explains how to distinguish between useful doubt that sharpens performance and toxic doubt that stalls it.
Confidence is the ability to move forward despite the presence of doubt. When leaders learn to listen to their emotions instead of silencing them, imposter syndrome stops being an obstacle and becomes a compass.
Your imposter voice isn’t proof you don’t belong but rather proof you care about doing things that matter.
Trust doesn't happen by accident. Teams may share goals but not emotions; they exchange updates but not understanding. The result? Silos, blurred accountability, and slow execution.
In this keynote, Olga explains how emotional fluency (the ability to read, regulate, and respond to emotions with clarity) is the missing ingredient in high-performing, high-trust teams. She explains how leaders can move beyond surface collaboration to build emotional infrastructure that sustains accountability and connection across locations, functions, and cultures.
Through real examples and numerous insights, Olga demonstrates how trust becomes the multiplier of performance when it’s deliberately cultivated, not assumed.
Trust in teams doesn’t just happen. It’s engineered through emotion, clarity, and accountability.
Every leader says they want people to speak up… until they do. The truth is, psychological safety starts with emotional safety, and that begins with you, the leader. If your team senses that honesty will cost them, innovation dies quietly. If emotion is dismissed as weakness, toxicity fills the silence.
In this keynote, Olga unpacks the emotional mechanics of psychological safety showing you what really happens inside teams when trust and emotional regulation collide. She explains why leaders must first master their own emotional fluency before they can expect openness from others. Drawing from neuroscience, leadership practice, and real organisational stories, Olga will enable you to see that safety isn’t about being “nice” but about building an environment where people can challenge, question, and contribute without fear.
The safety to speak up doesn’t come from policies or posters. It comes from leaders who manage their own emotions first and lead from calm, not control.
Before your team feels safe to speak up, they need to feel safe with you.
Leadership demands more than competence; it demands congruence. When who you are, what you stand for, and how you lead don’t align, people feel it. And when they feel it, trust breaks, results slow, and teams drift.
In this keynote, Olga explores what it really means to lead authentically, not by oversharing emotions or abandoning professionalism, but by aligning values, clarity, and presence so your leadership becomes unmistakably real.
Through stories and practical insights, Olga helps leaders uncover the perception cages that distort how they’re seen, and replace them with intentional presence that earns both respect and trust. She reveals how clarity of values translates into clarity of action and how truly knowing your team allows you to align strengths with strategy, not just sentiment.
Authentic leadership is about being transparent with your intent. When values, clarity, and connection align, results follow naturally.