Melissa Majors
Leadership and Inclusion Speaker, Author, Consultant and Coach
Melissa Majors has spent 25+ years of her career optimizing the business impact of education, innovation, inclusion, and leadership. She started Melissa Majors Consulting to drive better strategic decision-making in these areas and works with organizations across the country to effectively measure their inclusion and diversity performance. She has extensive experience at Meeting Professionals International, Ellucian, and other organizations in improving profitability, boosting organizational performance, and optimizing inclusion strategies. Melissa is the author of The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders. In this book, she reveals how great leaders enjoy superior team performance and drive much higher profitability by incorporating inclusive practices.
Melissa Majors has spent 25+ years of her career optimizing the business impact of education, innovation, inclusion, and leadership. She started Melissa Majors Consulting to drive better strategic decision-making in these areas and works with organizations across the country to effectively measure their inclusion and diversity performance. She has extensive experience at Meeting Professionals International, Ellucian, and other organizations in improving profitability, boosting organizational performance, and optimizing inclusion strategies.
Author
Melissa is the author of The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders. In this book, she reveals how great leaders enjoy superior team performance and drives much higher profitability by incorporating inclusive practices.
Keynote Speaker, Consultant, and Coach
Melissa Majors is a crowd-pleasing speaker who masters brain-friendly talks that engage her audiences and spark not just inspiration but action as well. Founder of Melissa Majors Consulting, creator of in’klooded®, an inclusive strategic planning method that ensures all voices get heard, and Community Keynotes an inclusive process that draws out game-changing ideas ® a coaching program. She is an innovator and optimizer of education, inclusion, & leadership strategies. She has dedicated her career to maximizing the business impact associated with these areas of focus.
Entrepreneur
Her firm, Melissa Majors Consulting, has extensive experience and a proven reputation for driving better business outcomes through innovative and inclusive strategic planning. She brings deep expertise in improving profitability and innovation, boosting team and organizational performance, and optimizing inclusion strategies.
Game-Changing Leader
Melissa has been a force of change throughout her professional career. She has served on the board of The Propel Group DFW, as the Director of Global Education at Meeting Professionals International (MPI) where she used executive leadership to drive global education strategies and develop excellence in teams. She revamped the educational division to effectively serve 500k+ clients and strategic partners as the Director, Global Education Services at Ellucian.
Media
Melissa has been featured in publications such as Forbes Magazine, Smart Meetings, The Meeting Professional, NorthStar Meetings Group's Eventful Podcast, The Event DR, and on the keynote stage at events such as Meeting Professional's International's WEC, Matthews Asia, Orthofix, Blue Shield of CA, State Street, Institute for Internal Auditors, and many more.
Education
Melissa has a Bachelor of Business Administration and studied strategy and innovation at Harvard University.
Personal
Melissa lives in the DFW area with her husband and two young sons. She loves the outdoors, including freshwater fishing and camping.
The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders
What do inclusive leaders do? What specific actions do they take to demonstrate a commitment to inclusion?
Inclusive leadership expert Melissa Majors is an innovator and optimizer of inclusion, leadership, and education strategies. In The 7 Habits of Inclusive Leaders, she reveals how great leaders enjoy superior team performance and drive much higher profitability by incorporating inclusive practices.
These behaviors fall into seven categories: Business Process, Collaboration, Mindset, Leading Self and Others, Decisions, Values, Empathy
This discussion is for all leaders; leaders of self, people, initiatives, and organizations.
Learner Outcomes:
-
Identify and describe concepts such as intellectual humility, tactical empathy, and intersectionality.
-
Gain insight into the habits and tactics used by inclusive leaders.
-
Unlock access to social posts, job aides, and toolkits to help build inclusive habits.
Help Her Win: Leadership Strategies for Women’s Success
Women commonly experience unique workplace challenges due to covert competition, microaggressions, lack of sponsors and mentors, balancing authenticity and assimilation, gaining and retaining power, being heard, increased scrutiny, etc.
However, women’s success is not just a woman’s issue. Without the avid support of men, often the most influential stakeholders in many large corporations, significant progress toward ending gender disparities are unlikely.
During this talk, Melissa of Melissa Majors Consulting examines research, scenarios, and best practices for leveraging ethical leadership to mitigate barriers to women’s success. This discussion is relevant for both men and women in manager and non-manager roles.
Learner Outcomes:
-
Articulate the case for integrity-based
-
leadership as it relates to mitigating common challenges women face in the workplace. Describe specific leadership tactics that can be used to overcome these issues.
-
Gain access to resources (infographics and pre-defined social posts) that can be used to continue the conversation with your network.
Busy Bosses: Leadership Lessons for Leaders Who Don’t Have Time for Leadership Lessons
Want to be an even better leader? Of course! But really, who has time to invest in leadership training? Not the leaders who need it; they’re too busy leading!
Some of the trends covered include: Prioritization, Intellectual Humility, Overcoming Fear of Conflict, Fostering Trust Across Difference, Virtual Collaboration, Tactical Empathy, Empowering Others, Inclusion, Maintaining Mental Clarity, Servant Leadership.
During this talk, Melissa Majors, CEO of Melissa Majors Consulting, synthesizes best practices for evolved leadership into a comprehensive course that you actually have time to take! This discussion is relevant for leaders of people and initiatives.
Learner Outcomes:
-
Demonstrate tactics associated with relevant leadership trends and best practices.
-
Describe the need for evolved leadership. Gain access to resources (infographics and pre-defined social posts) that can be used to continue the conversation with your network.
“Looking at inclusive leadership through the lens of empathy is what makes Melissa’s training so effective. The Seven Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders provides tools for identifying blind spots and provides a framework for intentionally creating a welcoming environment that builds collaboration and sparks innovation. Simply put, Melissa is outstanding.“
— President, Visit Loudoun
"WONDERFUL PRESENTATION!!! Melissa I am so glad I was able to experience your presentation and get a first hand understanding on why you are SO in demand! So well done! I was blown away and so were many of my cohort members. You are getting RAVE reviews on the Zoom chat and in our Cohort Slack channel and I am absolutely beside myself. Thank you for sharing with us today, and also for your guidance throughout the program...it has been life changing.”
— Event Planner, Johns Hopkins University
“Over my many years in association management, few speakers have made as big an impact on audiences as Melissa Majors. Texas Nursery & Landscape Association (TNLA) had Melissa speak twice in 3 months. The TNLA Board of Directors engaged her regarding a diversity message that could be carried forward to the membership. Because of the overwhelming strength of her message and delivery, the Board participated in, understood, and celebrated her message of inclusiveness. The messages resonated beyond their roles as Board members but also as small business owners and their relationships. Of course, we had her back!! Two months later, she keynoted a session at our Hort Forum. We continue to get feedback that her essential message was heard and will change how some look at their world forever.”
— President/CEO, Texas Nursery & Landscape Association
“Melissa offers a refreshing perspective on inclusiveness. Her stories and examples really hit home with our board and members. Too often we try to tackle the issue of DEI in a very intimidating way, Melissa makes it much more approachable.”
— President, Virginia Restaurant, Lodging & Travel Association
"Melissa Majors's inclusive leadership sessions are some of the best in the industry. Her warmth and honesty create a welcoming environment where leaders can learn, examine and grow in a judgment-free environment. Her sessions were eye-opening, and thought-provoking and provided leaders with practical tips and strategies on how they can build an inclusive culture today."
— Board Member and Chair of the Compensation Committee, Salsify
“Everyone is raving about Melissa's presentation!!!!! She is walking in her truth, skill, and talents!!! We are already talking about making sure we use her for some programs in the next year.”
— Events Content Director, EnsembleIQ
“Melissa Majors is a dynamic speaker, coach and consultant who specializes in inclusive leadership and empowerment! Her powerful presentation skills will leave learners on the edge of their seats! I was blessed to hear Melissa speak for the very first time at the HR Southwest conference. The actionable take-a-ways that she shares in her 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders resonates well with her audience. The resources that she’s shared have already empowered me, and the teams I lead to be more inclusive leaders. Investing in Melissa as a guest speaker or consultant for your organization will undoubtably reap dividends.”
— Senior Manager, Human Resources, 7-Eleven
"It was such a delight to meet you Melissa – you officially have earned the status of BEST RCE LEADERSHIP LUNCHEON SPEAKER EVER! Seriously, your message was very timely as you can tell by the number of AEs that spoke to you following the luncheon."
— Manager, Professional Development | Engagement, National Association of Realtors®
“Grateful! As for the MB, I just got off a zoom call with Stephanie and we were both singing your praises. She mentioned that she is grateful for the support I have given to our DEIB efforts and the reception this has all received from our leadership team – very much mirroring the comments you shared below. It’s great to hear from both of you that we are on the right path and to know that our leaders believe that we’ll need continued focus/investment in order to get the results we seek.”
— CEO, MindBody
The 7 Simple Habits of Inclusive Leaders
