Biography
By day, Kendra Elaine serves as the Senior Executive Development Partner for MGM Resorts International where she manages the leadership programs for the executive leadership across the enterprise. By night, Kendra does her dream job as an entertaining tell-it-like-it-is keynote speaker who passionately speaks about how people leaders can connect, inspire, and retain high-performing teams. She's a dynamic keynote speaker, an engaging breakout session leader, and a skilled training facilitator. Companies and meeting planners hire Kendra to equip their people leaders with the tools and strategies they need to effectively lead their teams. Kendra has personally trained over 1,000 managers on the strategies that she's now bringing to your leaders. She prides herself on leaving audiences with actionable strategies that can be implemented immediately. If you want a program that moves the needle on performance and leaves your audience not only inspired but equipped to take action, Kendra Elaine is the person you want on your main stage!
Passion
Equipping people leaders with the skills they need to build trust, effectively coach, and increase productivity and retention of their teams. People don't quit jobs or companies, they quit bosses. We all know that phrase but companies have yet to realize how to apply it. By investing in equipping your managers to properly lead people, you are investing in the well-being of your people, and ultimately your company. This is my passion because we spend the majority of our time at work, and when that's a toxic place it affects the rest of our lives. I'm passionate about creating positive change in the workplace so more people feel safe, inspired, and valued in Corporate America.
Featured Video
I am willing to travel
More than 100 miles
When it comes to payments
Everything is negotiable
Topics
Best Story
Before the age of 30, I had over 40 jobs. Yes, you read that correctly. I accumulated that many by having my main corporate job and sometimes having multiple part-time jobs in addition to that. Whenever I tell people this they always say, "Wow Kendra, you couldn't keep a job!" Funny thing is, I've NEVER been fired. I was that high-performing minority millennial who had horrible managers, who didn't feel included, and couldn't see a career path with the companies I was with. Out of those 40 "jobs", in many of those roles, I worked alongside colleagues who saw those same positions as their careers. I give insights into why so many millennials and Gen Z see positions as jobs and what that means for their leaders. I share specific examples from those 15 years of work experience to highlight how leadership could have handled things differently to retain high-performing talent.
Origin Story
After working 10 years in corporate and accumulating a large work history, I decided to pursue my passion for public speaking. I started sharing my experience as an unmotivated, job-hopping millennial by branding myself as the Recovering Job-Aholic. As a result, other millennials began reaching out to me asking me for help because they were currently experiencing what I had already worked through. So I began coaching them. Through those conversations I gathered so much information about what motivates them and what keeps them with a company. After our coaching sessions, they would leave motivated for the role they were in and with an action plan for their growth in the company. Months later, I would follow up with and without fail, they had started a new job with a new company. The main cause of this was always their manager. That's when I realize, I can coach your teams all day long but if your managers aren't in the right mindset and aren't equipped to lead properly, I'm basically coaching them to quit. So I shifted my focus to training people leaders on how they can do what I did with their own teams. I share my crafted coaching framework, help them understand empathy at work, and give them actionable strategies to connect with their teams. I love what I do because I make better workplaces for everyone.
Example talks
It’s Not You, It’s Your Managers
Does your company keep getting dumped? You’ve heard the adage, “people don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses.” But companies don’t understand the implications. People are dumping their companies in staggering numbers and employers are left stammering trying to figure out why. People leaders are reflections of their company values, the catalysts to the culture, and the direct cause of employees’ experience. In this dynamic, transformational presentation, your audience will learn why the development of their managers has the highest ROI and shift their mindset to turn their company into a keeper.
Your audience will leave this session knowing:
- how to invest in your people leaders
- the true impact of bad managers
- strategies to be better people leaders
Building a Culture of Trust
Trust is the foundation of any relationship. All the leadership techniques in the world won't be effective if there's no trust. So how do you build a culture of trust? It starts with your leaders. Your people leaders are a direct reflection of your company values and are the biggest factors to building trust with your employees. When a company has a culture of trust its employees flourish in their roles because they feel safe enough to express themselves, try new ideas, and be fully engaged. In this keynote, Kendra covers the fundamentals of trust and gives your leaders actionable strategies to build a culture of trust.
This keynote teaches
• understanding how people trust
• building trust through coaching
• how to effect culture change
Why You've Never Seen Coaching That Actually Works
We've all heard the statistics and sat through presentations about the power of coaching, but how often have you seen coaching that works? All those statistics are useless if you don't have the actionable strategies on how to effectively coach your teams. In this session, Kendra shares her proven strategies that she has trained over 1,000 managers on. Your leaders will leave this keynote with pages of notes on how to give feedback and provide coaching that will move the needle on your employee’s engagement, productivity, and company loyalty.
Audiences leave this keynote with:
• an empowering feedback formula
• coaching conversation frameworks
• awareness of all the situations coaching can be applied
The Intersection of Engagement & Motivation
How does your company view engagement? Is it annual surveys, virtual happy hours, and other activities that don't measure or facilitate engagement? Studies show that true engagement fosters creativity, increases productivity and retention. But so many companies miss the mark on engagement. They hold on to the old mindset about engagement and think a survey is still an effective way to engage employees. News Flash: it's not! The key ingredient to engagement that companies miss is motivation. There is a direct correlation between engagement and motivation. In this keynote, Kendra will highlight the intersection between motivation and engagement by giving you actionable tips.
This keynote teaches audiences how to:
• empower true engagement
• shift their mindset around engagement
• how to hack motivation through the coaching code