Testimonials

Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, Legal Nonprofit

  • Human -Centered Practices
  • Values Excavation
  • HR Transformation

 

“When we first started working with Leverage to Lead, we were stuck. It felt like there were no options forward. It was hard to see our way out of conflict. Fundamentally, they helped us focus on relationship building and how to navigate difficult conversations, which is what we needed to run a big organization and do hard things.

We had fallen to the point of feeling like we could write people off, but Leverage to Lead gave us tools and learnings that grounded our work in relationships, restored civil conversations, and let us finally start working together. Those relationships reestablished respect.

Our REI steering committee really came together after working with Leverage to Lead. The group experienced a deep shift to feeling safe enough to be a committee, own the work, and do the work. It’s so easy to become entrenched in your position or a single conflict. Leverage to Lead helped us invest time and practice patience with a vision—with a plan forward.

We’ve been so blessed to be able to partner with Leverage to Lead. They’ve been vital to our organization’s stability and future. Our work together came at a time when we needed help driving alignment with our values. Leverage to Lead brought the level of training and a path forward we needed, and in a way that included different perspectives and experiences.” 

–Alison Brunner, CEO, Law Foundation of Silicon Valley 

 

“Bringing Leverage to Lead’s Human-Centered Practices to our teams is our commitment to creating psychological safety-not just talking about what our culture should look like, but really doing something to make it what we want.

At Google, innovation is important. By creating psychological safety for our teams, we create spaces for them to speak up, share ideas, and take risks. Human-Centered Practices aren’t just professional development, it’s directly supporting and aligning with our organization-wide values.

The most impactful part of Leverage to Lead’s ANCHOR Certification program was transitioning from session participant to facilitator, and now running the sessions myself. I’m excited to spread L2L’s amazing program and knowledge while creating a safe space for people to learn, make mistakes, and be vulnerable.

As a certified Leverage to Lead facilitator, I’m most looking forward to owning the facilitation process from beginning to end. I’m excited about coaching, one-on-one sessions with participants, and having a front-row seat to our learning together.”

– Seema Daryanani, Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion CORE, Google

“I’ve learned that I am more comfortable facilitating than I thought I would be. My strategic thinking skills carry over to my facilitation, allowing me to thread together different experiences, examples, and conversations to make participants feel connected and engaged.”

– Carlita Lett-Blades, Organizational Innovation & Enablement Lead for Privacy, Safety & Security, Google

“In my role, I work with people from underrepresented groups and we’re dealing with heavy topics like bias at work. Before ANCHOR, I didn’t bring my experiences as a Black woman or a Liberian-American to my facilitation. I was always afraid of sounding like a victim or making others feel bad.

One of the things my instructors helped me see is that it’s okay to put yourself into your training. Participants relate to their facilitator and they appreciated seeing that my career has not been perfect and knowing that their leader experiences issues too. My personal stories hit home for people who needed to hear them.

A big takeaway from the ANCHOR program is that it’s helpful to pause. Even as an experienced public speaker, ANCHOR helped me grow into a more patient presenter so that I could meet people where they are on their DEI journey. Before, if I put a question out there and no one spoke up, I would jump in with an answer or an example. But I can now sit through the uncomfortable wait time and let it get painfully quiet while people sit with something that might be heavy for them. And if I give it time, people come forward with what they’re thinking or what they’re going through. 

ANCHOR training shows us that we’re human, we all make mistakes and we can all grow. The instructors were so open and vulnerable about themselves or their struggles. They talked openly about their identities and their emotions. They made the material relatable.”

For new facilitators, the ANCHOR program offers a lot of practice and one-on-one help. There’s no need to be nervous about facilitation if you’re not a practiced speaker. Your trainers give you plenty of feedback and can be there if you want help during your facilitation. There’s more support and resources beyond just the length of the program.”

– Jayhèa Mathews, Human Resource Program Manager, CORE, Google

Google, Fortune 100 Tech

  • ANCHOR Certification in Human-Centered Practices

 

Hanna Andersson, Retail

  • Human-Centered Practices

 

“After supporting our cultural transformation and guiding us into a new era at SFMOMA, it was a no-brainer to bring Leverage to Lead to Hanna Andersson. Our new People Strategy brought a lot of change–a new department, reporting structure, and me as the first person in the role of Chief People Officer. We needed to identify our values and create a sense of continuity and cohesiveness within our executive team. We were going through so much with rebalancing our budget and creating a new performance journey. As executives, we needed to coalesce to lead the change. The session on Inner Agility equipped us with the capacity to build relationships. It was instrumental in helping us manage through change.

“Human-Centered Practices are not exclusive to DEIB. They are far more profound, taking people on a deep journey of exploring change, emotions, and their human experiences. Everyone–leaders, employees, and organizations–needs help managing change and navigating everything we are facing today. We need all the tools we can get. Human-Centered Practices are a set of life-altering skills that elevate your thinking so you can grow, expand your mindfulness, relinquish your ego, and embrace vulnerability.

“As a Black woman, I can struggle with imposter syndrome. Our leadership team worked through power struggles, having control, and needing to relinquish it. In the Power Dynamics session, Leverage to Lead gave us the tools to name what was going on, name what we need to co-create equity, and reminded me to own my agency to navigate the complexities of our identities and relationships.”

 

– Davida Lindsay-Bell, Chief People Officer, Hanna Andersson

“The sessions and learning with Leverage to Lead helped me shift my thinking. I broke out of the mold of what I believed corporate life had to be. I know now it can be engaging, full of care for your teammates, and about putting the person before the work. It’s reversing what we’ve all been taught to believe, and it makes teamwork so much better.

I used to believe that you couldn’t do much about conflicts at work, but my belief system has changed. I believe now that we can absolutely make things work together, even when we don’t see eye to eye. Many firms may not think values and empathy are important, but they have become integral to even the smallest tasks at our company. I wish everyone could experience working with Leverage to Lead.

I loved one-on-one processing sessions with MJ. We started every conversation acknowledging that this is long-term work and that we wouldn’t solve everything in one session. But by the end of the hour, she had taken some very complex issues and helped me move forward. She challenged me to see where I did and didn’t have the power to make a change, and to be vulnerable in expressing what I need. Going forward, I plan to be an example of what I’ve learned, to be the change myself, and to share with others that if you see the human side first, we can do great work together.”

–Sara Olson, Senior Paralegal, Outten & Golden LLP

 

Outten & Golden LLP,  Law Firm

  • Human-Centered Practices
  • Values-Aligned Leadership
  • Organizational Change
  • Core Team Engagement

Eden I&R Inc., Community Resources Nonprofit

  • Human Centered Practices
  • Values Excavation
  • Equity Team Support

 

 

“As a remote team, it was a gift that Leverage to Lead helped us truly be able to listen to each other and put ourselves in our colleague’s shoes for the first time in a long time. I’ve noticed more empathy and active listening in meetings. There’s more openness and sharing. My hope for the future is that the groundwork we laid continues to grow. Leverage to Lead opened up a new world of collaboration possibilities for our team.”

– Bridget Schultz, Development & Outreach Associate, Eden I&R Inc.

Prospect Sierra, Independent School

  • Human-Centered Practices

 

“We are student-centered, but it’s the strength of our adult community that helps us create a safe and loving environment for students. We take teacher-to-teacher relationships for granted because our purpose is in our students. I wanted to take a step back and ask, what are you doing for yourselves? How can we build relationships with each other as colleagues? You need to slow down and think of yourself first, otherwise you’re not going to show up authentically for your kids.

Identity and Deep Listening was fantastic because it allowed people to think about their identity markers and how their identity shows up in the classroom. The practice of deep listening, which Leverage to Lead does so well, was incredible. When you’re an adult listening to kids all day, you don’t think about being listened to yourself. Nick helped us with an important reframe–that we were holding human-centered conversations. Everyone felt the value of being deeply listened to.

After the session, when my teachers set their goals, they included practicing deep listening in their goals. They’ve even created ways to do the deep listening practice with their students now, and have designed ways for their students to tell their identity stories.

[After Power Dynamics] It was freeing for everyone to see an Associate stand up and talk about how vulnerable and scary it can be to talk about your relationship with your Lead. I could see the impact on all the other Associates watching, who felt like, Wow, it’s possible for me to have the ability and the agency to ask for what I need in this working relationship. People feel they can voice their opinions and speak up when something is upsetting them, no matter what their role is.

My teachers want more. They want to know when we can do this again and when we will have more chances to work with Leverage to Lead. We’re hoping to send at least one person to the Educators Community of Practice.”

– Quise Rodriguez, Elementary Division Head, Prospect Sierra School