I help courageous managers lead
high-performing teams.
I offer a range of services to meet your needs:
Professional development training for teams and organizations:
To increase team and organizational capacity I offer a range of workshops on topics such as: emotional intelligence, navigating conflict, enhanced collaboration, employee wellbeing, leading inclusive teams and more. I am happy to combine and customize for maximum impact.
Leadership coaching:
I work with leaders and managers who are invested in their own personal growth. Leadership is exciting and challenging. As a coach I support you to achieve your goals, expand your sense of possibility, deepen confidence and invest in your well-being.
Team building:
We spend so much of our lives at work, and the quality of our relationships has a profound impact. If you want to foster a culture of trust and connection where creative synergies and high performance abound, reach out.
Facilitation of strategic meetings:
An experienced facilitator ensures that all voices are heard and helps a group to do its best thinking. I design and lead meetings that people enjoy. Please reach out for assistance with agenda design and facilitation support.
Customized service:
I am more than happy to create a package that includes a combination of the above services. I can also adapt to virtual offerings when beneficial.
More about my work…
Leading with an equity, diversity and inclusion lens:
Leaders set the tone for their teams. It is critical that as leaders we reflect on our social identities and those of our teams. Awareness of identity and power is necessary to create more inclusive workplaces. As a PhD student I explored women’s leadership, and for the last 20 years I have been steadily learning about whiteness, systemic racism, sexism, and the ongoing impacts of colonialism on Indigenous peoples. Dynamics of marginalization occur in so many of our social contexts and interpersonal relationships. It takes deliberate and courageous work for leaders to foster teams, organizations, and systems where everyone is valued and empowered to succeed. I am deeply committed to ongoing learning, and have led programs dedicated to inclusive leadership.
Previous Accomplishments
At Western University I conceived and co-taught a 6-hour 'Becoming an Inclusive Leader' EDI program that equipped 150 people-leaders to foster psychological safety in diverse teams.Emotional Intelligence.
At the University of Toronto’s Troost Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering, I designed and co-taught an 8-day leadership program for a large public utility company. Three cohorts of engineers were supported to increase their effectiveness and promotability.
At Western University I designed an Emotional Intelligence program that helped numerous cohorts of people-leaders to improve self-awareness, empathy, and relationships with team members.
For Women in Capital Markets, I designed and led sessions on Compassionate Leadership for WCM’s SOAR program to expand their offerings and grow the reach of their national program.
At Western University I led individual 360 Reviews, including 9 hours of group sessions, with over 150 people-leaders to harness their strengths, identify training gaps, and create high-performing teams.
For the University of Toronto- Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering I Taught a 2-day Emotional Intelligence program that increased 160 PhD students’ (4 cohorts) self-reported ability to manage conflict and reduce stress.
At the University of Toronto’s Institute for Leadership Education in Engineering I designed a sought-after course called 'The Power of Story: Discovering Your Leadership Narrative. I taught the course 4 times to 200 students and garnered international attention.
With Leading Full Circle, I co-hosted a 2-day multi-generational women's leadership program to empower embodied knowing, authentic leadership, and intergenerational wisdom.
Testimonials
“Thank you, Annie, for delivering one of our most highly attended and well-received webinars “Self-Compassion for Difficult Times” as part of our HUB Community Learning series. After a year of so much change and pandemic fatigue, Annie skillfully created a space for wisdom, practice, and practical positive actions grounded in leading research on emotional intelligence and self-compassion. Her webinar was exactly what our front-line professionals needed, and I highly recommend her to any organization looking to adapt and evolve.”
-Alison Burkett (she/her), Manager, HUB
“What truly sets Annie apart is her extraordinary emotional intelligence. Her ability to understand and respond to the emotional and varying needs of our leaders is unparalleled. She demonstrates a keen awareness of the challenges faced by leaders in our academic community and addresses these with empathy and insight. This skill has been instrumental in creating a supportive atmosphere where all leaders feel valued and understood. She understands the need to connect to purpose and to make room for autonomy and mastery in a way that respects each individual on their own learning journey.”
-Professor Kathy Hibbert, Associate Dean of Education, Western University
“Annie - you are the key element that makes our experiences so positive. Your active listening skills are superb, even though you must have heard a similar discussion on this topic many times, you listened to our discussion like it was your first time. You were so very welcoming and inviting to our responses. You effectively articulated what we were trying to say, in a way that was much better than we put it. You were also extremely skillful in guiding us in unpacking our thoughts, and probing us with questions. Frankly, you are better than the psychotherapists that I have encountered.”
-Director, Western University
“Annie Simpson is a magnificent facilitator that brings a wealth of knowledge on leadership development and emotional intelligence. She thoughtfully leads learners to develop greater self-awareness and foster psychological safety in their teams. Annie has facilitated several multi-day Search Inside Yourself sessions for graduate students that are highly impactful and leave learners wanting more. She is an absolute pleasure to work with!”
-Teresa Didiano, Manager, University of Toronto
