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Abilitie

Abilitie

Experiential Leadership Development

Manager/Director Level Programs

  • Rising Leader Program

    Challenging mini-MBA for aspiring leaders

  • Becoming an Effective Manager

    Essential management skills for new managers

  • Developing Business Acumen

    Real-world practice in value creation and analysis

  • Executing in Cross-Functional Environments

    Leadership and influencing skills for decision-making

VP/Senior Level Programs

  • Senior Leader Program

    Practice-based learning for executive leaders

  • Creating Strategic Business Value

    Financial impact and investment analysis skill-building

  • Leading Organizational Change

    Executive-level leadership and enterprise-thinking

For Individuals

  • Open Enrollment Invited MBA

    Learn about our 12-week mini-MBA

Manager/Director Level Simulations

  • Management Challenge

    Build critical people management skills in your people leaders

  • Business Challenge

    Expand the business acumen of your nonfinancial managers

  • Enterprise Challenge

    Develop cross-functional communication skills in a dynamic environment

VP/Senior Level Simulations

  • Finance Challenge

    Hone the strategic financial acumen skills of your executives

  • Executive Challenge

    Offer a world-class leadership simulation to your senior executives

  • Virtual Program Design

    Create virtual training that sticks

  • Certifications

    Extend the reach of our programs and simulations to a global audience using your internal L&D facilitation talent

  • Design Workshops

    Tailor our simulation-based leadership programs to your needs

  • Fluent in Finance

    Offer a comprehensive business acumen primer for nonfinancial managers

  • Enterprise & Executive Summits

    Offer intensive strategy off-sites

  • Case Studies

  • Learn to Lead Podcast

  • Events

  • From the Blog

  • Human Resource Managers Need Leadership Development Too
  • Building Business Impact Throughout the Organization at Holcim
  • Awards & Recognition

  • Who We Are

  • Careers

  • Contact Us

Programs

  • Rising Leader Program

  • Senior Leader Program

  • Becoming an Effective Manager

  • Creating Strategic Business Value

  • Developing Business Acumen

  • Leading Organizational Change

  • Executing in Cross-Functional Environments

  • Open Enrollment Invited MBA

Simulations

  • Management Challenge

  • Business Challenge

  • Enterprise Challenge

  • Finance Challenge

  • Executive Challenge

Resources

  • Virtual Program Design

  • Fluent in Finance

  • Certifications

  • Enterprise & Executive Summits

  • Design Workshops

  • Client Successes

  • Awards & Recognition

  • Learn to Lead Podcast

  • Who We Are

  • Events

  • Careers

  • From the Blog

  • Contact Us

Schedule a Demo
  • Programs
  • Simulations
  • Resources
  • Insights
  • About Us
  • Schedule a Demo

Learn to Lead Podcast

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Learn to Lead podcast is hosted by Matt Confer, VP of Strategy at Abilitie

Why We Started the Learn To Lead Podcast

Learn To Lead is a podcast that explores the world of leadership development and shares stories about the journey we all take learning to lead. On our show, we talk about how people can lead teams more effectively and how organizations can enhance their approaches to developing the leaders of tomorrow. We dig deep and talk to our guests about their own journeys of professional and personal development.

We speak to authors, professors, artists, and business and community leaders about how they developed as a leader and how they are working to develop future leaders.

Latest Episodes

by Matthew Confer on June 15, 2022

Focus On Values Over Goals

Jennifer Brenneman is a Senior Director of Leadership Development at MongoDB. Prior to her work at MongoDB, Jennifer worked in Leadership Development and Instructional Leadership at Teach For All. Thus far, her career has focused on supporting adults to achieve their potential through facilitated experiences, coaching, and leadership development programs. On this episode, we discussed the difference between a career built on a foundation of values rather than goals, why Jennifer isn't interested in "building a career," and why knowing yourself is arguably one of the most important skills to develop. Finally, Jennifer shares a bit about how becoming a parent changed her work and some of the misconceptions folks often carry about work-life balance. 

by Matthew Confer on May 25, 2022

Finding Your Way to Leadership

Morag Barrett is a highly accomplished keynote speaker, leadership development expert, and bestselling author of Cultivate: The Power of Winning Relationships and The Future-Proof Workplace. Morag is the founder and CEO of SkyeTeam, a boutique leadership development firm, and has supported more than 15,000 leaders from 20 countries and on 4 continents achieve outstanding results by improving the effectiveness of their leadership and teams. On this episode, we discuss how she found her way (accidentally) into leadership development, what advice she'd give her younger self, and why it's so important to cultivate a sense of reflection for leaders. Finally, she shares her simple technique for staying focused on the right goals and getting the right work done. 

by Matthew Confer on May 11, 2022

Succeeding As An Outlier

Niiamah Ashong is the Founder of the Outliers' Edge Multiverse, a leadership expert, and a high-performance coach. His work focuses on what you can do when you realize you have a different perspective or don't "fit in" -- when you're an outlier. Niiamah's experiences working at organizations as varied as the leading global consulting firm Deloitte and cutting-edge tech companies have given him a unique perspective on what it takes for leaders to grow and ultimately achieve their goals. On this episode, we discuss why Niiamah believes it is essential that all leaders understand with deep clarity what makes them unique and the importance of differentiating between your Zone of Excellence and your Zone of Genius. Niiamah also shares a story about "the moment [he] became a Black man" and what that moment meant for his life, his leadership, and his career. Finally, Matt and Niiamah discuss how he works with growing leaders to shift from thinking about their productivity to how they can think about managing their energy.

4 Takeaways on Business Leadership from the Learn to Lead Podcast

by Rachel Stacy on May 6, 2022

4 Takeaways on Business Leadership from the Learn to Lead Podcast

In over 80 episodes, Abilitie’s Learn to Lead podcast has inspired listeners to focus on more than metrics, embrace failure as an option, and be more vulnerable leaders.

Continue Reading about 4 Takeaways on Business Leadership from the Learn to Lead Podcast →

by Matthew Confer on April 27, 2022

Building a Career in L&D

Susan Kushnir, co-author of Decoding Executives: What They Say, What They Mean, and What You Should Do, has enjoyed a career in learning and development spanning the non-profit, public, and private sectors with a focus on leadership and people management. She has been the Head of Learning & Development at Sterling National Bank, Director of Lean Six Sigma & Director of Global Learning and Development at S&P Global, and Director of Organizational Development, Learning, Talent and Engagement for the Girl Scouts of the USA. On this episode, we discuss her advice for folks who are early in their learning & development careers, what she wishes people understood about how to get a lot done with few resources, and the lessons she's learned about what it really takes to achieve a goal. Finally, she shares some key insights about interacting with executives and how leaders can better teach these lessons to younger generations entering the workforce. 

by Matthew Confer on April 13, 2022

Developing Mission Driven Leaders

Vaishali Jadhav is a Global Leadership Development Program Designer and Facilitator at the University of Texas at Austin, a Culterati Summit Fellow, an Instructor at the Kendra Scott Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Institute, and an all-around leadership development practitioner. Her career has followed the "red thread" of building conscious leaders in organizations like Gallup, Whole Foods Market, Indeed, and, most recently, Procore Technologies. Throughout all her roles and the time she's spent advancing leadership programs at organizations, she has maintained a focus on growing purpose-driven leaders connected to their organizations' greater missions. On this episode, we discuss how she developed her own ability to connect to heart-led leadership practices, what she means when she says that the best leaders understand their purpose, and what she's learned making the move from professional services to technology. Finally, Vaishali shares how people leaders at all organizations can adjust their practices to uplift their direct reports and connect them to the bigger purpose -- without spending any extra money or drastically upending their organizations. 

by Matthew Confer on March 30, 2022

You Need To Trust Your Teams

Jeff Levin is a National Managing Director at a global consulting firm with over 20 years of experience leveraging passion, technology, and innovative solutions to lead and inspire teams. He was also one of Learn to Lead host Matt Confer's early leaders. On this episode, we discuss the ways that Jeff's leadership has grown and changed since his early years, how he's adjusted to manage a group of over 1,000 individuals, and how he hopes to continue growing into the future. Matt and Jeff also discuss how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has informed each of their relationships with work and how Jeff is working to maintain a strong organizational culture even as more members of his team only know each other through Zoom.

by Matthew Confer on March 16, 2022

Vulnerable Leadership Starts At The Top

Jaimie Krause is a Senior Manager of Learning & Development at Indeed, the world's "#1 Job Site" where she oversees all learning and development initiatives for Indeed’s sales enablement professionals. With a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, Jaimie's works at the intersection of I/O psychology, talent development, and corporate L&D strategy. She designs programs and coaches people to drive personal and commercial productivity helping people who help people get jobs. On this episode, we discussed the tactical challenges and opportunities when developing leaders in a global organization, the importance of encouraging your learners to think about how skills will be applied at work, and why she thinks the senior leadership at Indeed has been successful in modeling vulnerability during COVID-19.

by Matthew Confer on March 2, 2022

Letting the Work Speak for Itself

Bryan Clayton is the Co-Founder and CEO of GreenPal, an online marketplace that connects homeowners with local lawn care professionals. GreenPal has been called the “Uber for lawn care” by Entrepreneur magazine and has over 100,000 active users completing thousands of transactions per day. Before starting GreenPal, Bryan Clayton founded Peachtree Inc., one of the largest landscaping companies in the state of Tennessee, growing it to over $10 million a year in annual revenue before it was acquired by Lusa holdings in 2013. On this episode, we discussed Bryan’s journey into the tech world, what he’s learned about running a rapidly growing company, and being in it for the long haul. Bryan also shared some book recommendations and explained why as the CEO he still spends an hour or two doing direct customer support daily.

by Matthew Confer on February 9, 2022

Co-Creating Growth through Creativity

A senior leadership/board advisor, educator, executive coach, and bestselling author, David Nour is internationally recognized as the leading expert on applications of strategic relationships in profitable growth, sustained innovation, and lasting change. The author of ten books, including bestsellers Relationship Economics, Co-Create, and Curve Benders (Wiley, 2021). On this episode, we discussed David's perspective on collaboration, why he always asks the question "Who else should we involve in this project?", and how he helps companies build cultures of innovation and iteration. Finally, we discuss his best advice for prioritizing the most important work and why he thinks it's important for organizations to understand "prudent risk" if they want to become more creative.

by Matthew Confer on January 26, 2022

What The Chicken Dance Has to Do With Leadership

Erin Diehl is a veteran improviser from the top improvisational training programs in Chicago, including The Second City, i.O. Theater and The Annoyance Theatre. Erin conducts workshops across the country leveraging improvisational techniques to improve employees’ skills in corporate settings. Her work with clients such as United Airlines, PepsiCo, Deloitte, and The Obama Foundation earned her the 2014 Chicago RedEye Big Idea Award and has nominated her for the 2015-2019 Chicago Innovations Award. She is also a proud member of The Chicago Innovation Awards Women’s Cohort and a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program. On this episode, we discussed what improv has to do with the corporate world, how her first client set her on the path to make a leap into entrepreneurship, and her advice for anyone trying to manage their time wisely. FInally, we discussed why she is most proud in her career of successfully coercing over 12,000 professionals to chicken dance.

by Matthew Confer on January 5, 2022

Learning to Lead a Unicorn

Wes Schroll is a serial entrepreneur who started his first company at 14-years old. After two small start up ventures, he wrote a business plan for what would one day become Fetch Rewards during his sophomore year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In March of 2021, Fetch closed its Series D round of financing with $220 Million led by SoftBank. Fetch is a bonafide "Unicorn" with a valuation of over $1 Billion. On this episode, we discuss some of the lessons Wes has learned along the way, how it felt for him to realize the Fetch Rewards app has more daily users than there are residents of New York City, and his trouble with productivity advice. Finally, Wes shares his approach to hiring leaders in his organization and why the two most important things he looks for are how well they understand the product and whether or not they can give and receive feedback. 

See More Learn to Lead PodCasts
Abilitie’s VP of Strategy, Matt Confer, speaks at TEDx event

Learn To Lead is Hosted by Matthew Confer, the Vice President of Strategy at Abilitie

Matt has spoken on the topic of decision making at the TEDx Conference, and on the topic of leadership development at The Learning & Development Executive Summit. His work has been featured by The Association For Talent Development and his recent articles have appeared in Training Industry Magazine.

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201 W 5th Street, Suite 1100, Austin, TX 78701

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Recent Posts

  • Human Resource Managers Need Leadership Development TooJune 23, 2022
  • Building Business Impact Throughout the Organization at HolcimJune 23, 2022
  • 3 Traits You Should Be Teaching Your Organizational LeadersJune 3, 2022
  • Abilitie Launches New Leadership Development Programs to Meet Needs of All LearnersApril 20, 2022
  • 5 Reasons Companies Should Provide L&D Opportunities for Women in BusinessMarch 29, 2022

Programs

  • Rising Leader
  • Senior Leader
  • Becoming An Effective Manager
  • Developing Business Acumen
  • Executing In Cross-Functional Environments
  • Creating Strategic Business Value
  • Leading Organizational Change

Simulations

  • Management Challenge
  • Business Challenge
  • Enterprise Challenge
  • Finance Challenge
  • Executive Challenge

Resources

  • Virtual Program Design
  • Certifications
  • Design Workshops
  • Fluent In Finance
  • Enterprise & Executive Summits

Quicklinks

  • Awards & Recognition
  • Case Studies
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy

© Abilitie | All Rights Reserved |crafted by webplant.media

At Abilitie, we’ve been successfully running our award-winning, cohort-based leadership programs as virtual and hybrid learning experiences since 2015. Through our work with hundreds of global clients, we have learned the key factors that make a hybrid learning experience a success.

To help you make drive the biggest impact possible, we have distilled some of our best practices into a handy Hybrid Learning Guide, available here!

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