DT | Creating a Courageous Culture Workshop

Do you have the skills to be a daring leader and build a courageous culture?

The one thing that 150 C-Suite leaders can agree on is that we need braver leaders!

The good news is that the skills for brave leadership can be learned and honed. Upon completion of this workshop, you will be Dare to Lead Trained; this distinction demonstrates that you understand the value of vulnerability, trust, values, and resilience in brave leadership and courageous cultures.

Brave leaders not only model the skill sets necessary for courage but create a culture that allows for innovation, growth, and creativity while constructively addressing challenges along the way. There are four skill sets that courageous leaders share: the ability to rumble with vulnerability, an understanding of trust and its characteristics, how to rise in the face of adversity, and an understanding of their personal values. Each of these skill sets are teachable, observable, and measurable and require self-awareness. This workshop, based on 20 years of Dr. Brené Brown's research, 500,000 pieces of data, and exclusive videos, we will lead you through exercises to increase your self-awareness, build your courage skill sets, and allow you to take practical tools back to your teams.

In fact, you do not need to read the book before the class. We will give you a guided tour of the book, we know just how to highlight the pertinent points straight from Brené.

"Leaders must invest a reasonable amount of time attending to fears and feelings or squander an unreasonable amount of time trying to manage ineffective and unproductive behavior." - Brené Brown

Choose to invest in your time in leadership rather than squander it. Reserve your space today to be braver in your life, work, and leadership.

For more information, please visit our webpage!

Save your spot by November 25th!

Facilitated by Kara Hanak & Courtney Thomas:

Over the past 20 years, Kara Hanak has specialized in transforming teams from out-of-tune garage bands into harmonious orchestras. Her ability to maximize a teams strengths has transcended across many industries and business units, having navigated through the finance, healthcare, and consulting fields while leading teams in product development, process improvement, operations, data and analytics, and technology. A couple of Kara's biggest leadership successes include guiding a team of program managers to successfully launch over 100 innovation initiatives within three years, and leading a 120-person cross-functional team through successful integration of 1500 clients and over 34 million customers. Along the way, she has successfully coached and grown the skill level of her teams, peers and leaders - from interns to executives. Her passion for leadership stems from her desire to identify and accelerate the growth of untapped talent, and a firm belief that people will forever be the #1 differentiator among organizations.

Kara is a Brené Brown Certified Dare to Lead Facilitator and holds both a Master of Business Administration and Master of Information Management from Washington University in St. Louis. Kara is also co-author of the book, Hear Her Now, where she shares her personal leadership philosophy, 'the five ships', through the reflection of a milestone birthday party. When she's not helping people become better than their best leader, you can find Kara playing unofficial team photographer at youth sporting events or crossing things off her ever-expanding bucket list.

Courtney Thomas is a native of North Carolina and holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Bryan School of Business and Economics at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In September of 2002, Courtney moved to the Kansas City community and began her journey as an executive leader at Wayside Waifs, focusing on Marketing, Public Relations, Fundraising and Operations.

Following eight years of delivering an innovative vision and strategic focus to significantly expand Wayside’s financial position and mission impact, Courtney led the merger of two Kansas nonprofits to form Great Plains SPCA, where she served as President & CEO for over six years. Great Plains SPCA is Kansas City’s largest animal welfare organization, serving over 35,000 pets every year. As President & CEO, Courtney led a staff of 160 at bi-state campuses and managed a budget of $7M. During her tenure, she grew the organization’s mission impact by over 350%, budget by 290% and established new facilities on both sides of the state line. As the top executive, she set the vision and strategy for Operations, Marketing, Fundraising and Business Development, while leading agency Culture, Human Resources and Finance activities.

In February of 2017, Courtney took the helm at Central Exchange to enhance and execute a new strategic plan to advance the organization through 2020. Courtney’s leadership is centered around goals to Enhance Brand Equity, Grow Membership, Focus and Elevate Programming, Upgrade Technology and Improve the Agency’s Financial Strength. In her first six months of service at Central Exchange, financial performance improved six figures to budget and she led a complete organizational revitalization campaign, unveiling a new vision, mission, logo, website and membership model.

In 2017, Courtney received the Silver Stevie Award for “Female Executive of the Year” in the nonprofit sector. In 2015, Courtney was featured on the cover of HerLife magazine, highlighting her successful career path. KC Magazine named Courtney one of Kansas City’s Top 100 influential people in Kansas City in 2013, and that same year Courtney received the 2013 Rising Star Award from Nonprofit Connect. Courtney also serves on the board of Newhouse, a Kansas City domestic violence shelter, as President of the Board for Changing Leads Equine Rescue, Vice-Chair for Big Shifts Foundation, Greater Kansas City Chamber’s Executive Women’s Leadership Council, YMCA’s Global Diversity & Inclusion Council, Advisory Board Member for Camp Fire Heartland and is a member of the Helzberg Entrepreneurial Mentoring Program (HEMP). Courtney was also the Founder and President of the Pet Animal Coalition of Kansas (PACK) and represented the state of Kansas on the Companion Animal Advisory Council for the Humane Society of the United States. She is a Certified Animal Welfare Administrator, a prestigious designation of less than 150 across the country, acknowledging excellence in leadership, financial and operational acumen, public relations and veterinary medicine.

Courtney is the mother of three beautiful children and has been married to her husband Jeff for thirteen years. She loves spending time with family, riding horses, photography, supporting our hometown teams and participating in civic activities that make Kansas City a better place for all of us to call home.