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Michelle Ison

Consistency Through Change

Michelle is a multi-award-winning Learning & Development executive focused on driving true business impact through innovative talent development initiatives. With over 25 years of experience in the sales, IT, business leadership, and HR roles at large enterprises such as SAP, TELUS, and Xerox, Michelle joined WEX, a global leader in financial technology solutions, in 2019. Since joining, she has successfully transformed learning and changed her organization’s mindset from using learning as a tool to “fix” problem employees to an advantage in recruiting, developing, and maintaining high potential employees.Michelle is a member of CTDO Next, the Association for Talent Development’s exclusive group of top talent development executives shaping the future of the profession, and authored a chapter, “Doing More with Less,” in Forward-Focused Learning, edited by Tamar Elkeles and published by ATD Press in 2020. She also serves on ATD’s Senior Leader and Executive Board and the Reworked Digital Workplace Experience Board. She is continually asked to speak at industry events and write for industry publications. Recent awards include Chief Learning Officer’s Gold Learning in Practice Trailblazer and Gold Strategy Awards in 2022, the 2022 and 2023 Top 50 OnCon Icon awards, 2023 Most Innovative Talent Development Leader by Slate Advisers, and Silver for 2023’s Stevie Awards HR Executive of the Year.Michelle has an MBA, with a leadership and change specialty, and a BA in Management and Business Communication with a minor in Information Technology.

Michelle Braden

Michele C. Green is Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at Prudential. She is responsible for leading and supporting all diversity and inclusion initiatives for the company, and for ensuring ongoing compliance with federal and state equal employment opportunity/affirmative action laws and requirements. Green joined Prudential in April 2010 as Vice President and Counsel in the Employment and Labor Law Group. Prior to joining Prudential, Green served as General Counsel of the Waterfront Commission of New York Harbor and has served as an employment attorney in prior roles. Green graduated from Seton Hall University and served as Law Clerk to the Honorable James H. Coleman, Jr. of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Green is on the Boards of GLSEN, Inc. (The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), the National Organization on Disability, and the American Conference on Diversity. She is also an active member of several professional associations. Recently, she made the Black Enterprise List of Top Executives in Corporate Diversity, and has also been honored as one of the "Most Powerful & Influential Women of the Tri-State Area" by The Tri-State Diversity Council. Green is married to Markus and is the proud mom/stepmom of five teenage children.

Michele Green

As a sales trainer or enablement professional, you’ve likely faced this scenario: You’ve designed what you believe is an excellent sales training program, but when it comes time to justify the investment or secure budget for expansion, you’re met with skeptical questions about ROI. How do you prove your training actually moves the needle on business results?The challenge isn’t just about having good training content—it’s about designing programs with measurement in mind from day one and connecting your efforts to tangible business outcomes that leadership cares about.Aligning Sales Leadership and L&DHere’s a truth that might surprise you: Sales leaders and learning professionals actually want the exact same thing. Both groups are focused on developing more productive sales professionals who can drive revenue, shorten sales cycles, and improve win rates.The disconnect often happens in how each side approaches these goals. Sales leaders tend to focus on lagging indicators—the results they can see in their dashboards at the end of each quarter. Learning professionals often focus on training activities, completion rates, and feedback.The key to success lies in bridging this gap through a strategic, measurement-focused approach that supports both objectives.A Strategic Framework for Measurable TrainingThe most successful training programs follow a six-step strategic approach that begins with the end in mind:1. Understand Sales Goals. Start with the business outcomes your organization needs to achieve. This might be a specific revenue target, market expansion goals, or customer retention objectives. These goals become the foundation for everything else you’ll design.2. Assess Skill Gaps Objectively. This is where many training programs fail: They rely on subjective feedback or assumptions about what the team needs. Instead, use objective assessments to understand your team’s current capabilities. Look for tools that can measure both inherent traits (like motivational drivers) and learnable skills (like questioning techniques or objection handling).3. Align With Strategic Priorities. Understand not just what your organization wants to achieve, but how it wants to get there. Is leadership focused on winning new accounts, expanding existing relationships, or improving margins? Each priority requires different skill sets and training approaches.4. Design and Deploy Targeted Training. With clear data on gaps and priorities, you can create training that targets specific deficiencies rather than training that takes a one-size-fits-all approach. This precision dramatically improves your chances of measurable impact.5. Measure Multiple Levels of Outcomes. Track both leading indicators (behavior changes) and lagging indicators (business results). This gives you real-time insights into what’s working while also building the case for long-term ROI.6. Learn and Refine. Use your measurement data to continuously improve your approach and inform future training initiatives.Building Your Measurement StrategyThe key to gaining support from senior leadership is understanding what their priorities are and designing your training to address those specific issues. There are several ways to present objective results rather than subjective opinions about team needs.Pre- and Post-Training Assessments: Use the same assessment tool before and after training to demonstrate skill improvement with objective data.Performance Dashboards: Leverage CRM data to track before-and-after performance on key business metrics. Compare trained groups with untrained groups when possible.Application Surveys: Gather feedback on how often participants use new skills and which concepts have the biggest perceived impact on their performance.Attribution Analysis: Ask participants to estimate what percentage of their improved results they attribute to the training. This helps qualify the connection between training and outcomes.A Measurement-Focused Approach to Sales TrainingThe most successful sales training programs aren’t just about great content—they’re about creating measurable behavior change that drives business results. Remember: What gets measured gets managed. When you can show clear connections between your training investments and improved business performance, you’ll find that budget conversations become much easier—and your programs become much more effective.Ready to transform your approach to sales training measurement? Start by identifying the top three business outcomes your organization needs to achieve this year, then work backward to determine what skills and behaviors need to change to make those outcomes possible.

Sales Training ROI: How to Prove Your Program’s Value With Data-Driven Results

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly. The danger? Most of our systems are still running on their default settings with flawed data, pre-programmed values, outdated assumptions, and invisible biases woven into the code.As technology continues to accelerate, learning and development (L&D) leaders need to embrace a different kind of leadership that meets the demands of the future of work. We need leaders who are both tech-savvy and people-first. We need inclusive leaders. Inclusive leadership values diversity, encourages collaboration, and fosters an environment where everyone feels empowered to contribute in unique ways. While AI systems learn from the past and are optimized for speed, inclusive leaders learn from feedback and will gradually shape the future. Inclusive leadership requires three essential components:Time to pause, challenge assumptions, and avoid rolling out biases at scaleUnderstanding of how exclusion shows up in data, tools, and organizational cultureAccountability for when automation misses the mark, create systems of oversight, and fix issues transparently before trust erodesThese aren’t just soft skills; they’re survival skills in the age of intelligent systems. Inclusive leadership isn’t just for those with C-suite titles. It’s for everyone bold enough to question whether the current ways of operating the business are harnessing the full potential of a diverse workforce. This might look like asking:Is this resume screening tool filtering out candidates from nontraditional backgrounds?Did we include perspectives from ERG members in the rollout’s design?What assumptions were made in assessing “high potential” at scale?Leading with purpose doesn’t require authority. Culture starts to shift when people at every level challenge automation, audit biases, and demand better conditions with intention.Inclusive Leadership Means Resetting the DefaultsThe thing about default settings is they’re fast, familiar, and almost always designed by someone else. The tools we rely on were trained on historical data. That means the “default” settings often serve the past, not the future. If the past was exclusionary, how can we ensure that we’re not making the future exclusionary, just at a faster rate? Inclusive leaders notice when defaults are outdated, inequitable, or just plain wrong and have the courage to change them.If your organization’s leadership programs aren’t preparing people to lead through ethical uncertainty, tech disruption, and cultural complexity, they’re not future-ready. Here are five ways to lead the change and develop inclusive leaders in the age of AI at your organization:1. Make inclusive leadership the default, not an add-on. Make it the foundation of your leadership development curriculum, not in a bonus module. Do this by incorporating: Case studies on exclusion in AIExercises that uncover unconscious bias in tools and decisionsScenarios that challenge “default” thinking2. Train leaders to spot what’s missing. Help leaders recognize where exclusion shows up in systems, data, and decisions. Arm them with the right questions, including:Who is benefiting from implementing this and who might it harm?Who is being left out and how can we include them?Do we have the tools and systems in place for oversight?3. Build in accountability. Redefine and model what “good” leadership looks like with the following actions:Own unintended impacts from exclusive practices.Create feedback loops with ERGs and cross-functional teams.Lead transparently when automation stumbles.Adjust or remove tools that do more harm than good.4. Make psychological safety a leadership imperative. Train leaders on how to foster environments where teams feel safe questioning automated decisions and voicing concerns. Creating a “speak-up culture” is the foundation for ethical and effective tech use.5. Partner with DEI, tech teams, and legal not in silos. The future of leadership doesn’t live in a single function. When inclusive leadership and ethical AI implementation are developed together, they stop being a few people’s jobs and start becoming everyone’s responsibility.Lead With IntentionAI is changing how we work, but how we lead will determine for whom we innovate, and with what consequences. The future doesn’t need faster leaders; it needs wiser, courageous, self-aware, and empathetic ones. Let’s develop leaders who pause for people, listen for bias, and build for belonging. That’s how we lead beyond the algorithm: with time, understanding, and healthy doses of accountability. And maybe a little less trust in the “default settings.”

Resetting the Defaults: Developing Inclusive Leaders in the Age of AI

Michelle Tillis Lederman, CSP, is known for her energetic, engaging, and authentic presentations. An expert on workplace communications and relationships, Michelle's mission is to help people work better together and advance their individual impact. She is an accomplished speaker, trainer, coach, and author of four books including the number one new release the Connectors Advantage and the internationally recognized 11 Laws of Likability.Michelle, named one of Forbes Top 25 Networking Experts, is a connection creator and CEO of Executive Essentials, which provides customized communications and leadership programs for Fortune 500, nonprofit, university, and government clients. She has worked with JPMorgan Chase & Co., Johnson & Johnson, Deutsche Bank, Michigan State University, MetLife, Sony, Ernst & Young, the Department of Environmental Protection, and Madison Square Garden. Passionate about education, Michelle served as an adjunct professor at NYU, on the faculty of the American Management Association, for the Lehigh Executive Education, and for Rutgers Executive Education.A former finance executive and NYU professor, Michelle is a regular in the media, appearing on CBS, NBC, Fox, NPR, CNBC, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Working Mother, US News & World Report, MSNBC, Forbes, and USA Today among many others.Michelle spent a decade in finance with positions in audit, M&A, financial consulting, VC, and hedge fund investing. She received a BS from Lehigh University, an MBA from Columbia Business School, and a coaching certification from iPec. She holds the PCC certification from the International Coaching Federation. Executive Essentials is a certified Women Business Enterprise.

Michelle Tillis Lederman

 By 2025 Millennials, individuals between the ages of 20 and 35, will comprise 75 percent of the global workforce. Organizations are justifiably concerned about attracting and retaining them. Many articles on Millennials often focus on their desire to find purpose in their work and to collaborate. But to truly understand Millennials requires a broader perspective. Longing to Connect When the global marketing firm McCann WorldGroup surveyed 7,000 Millennials in 2011, it found that more than 90 percent of those surveyed rated “connection and community” as their greatest need. As the researchers put it: “To truly grasp the power of connection for this generation, we can look at how they wish to be remembered. It is not for their beauty, their power, or their influence, but simply for the quality of their human relationships and their ability to look after those around them.” Connection is a bond that promotes affection, trust, and cooperation. Connections can be tight, as with family members and close friends; or connections can be loose, as with acquaintances. The opposite of connection is to feel unsupported, left out, or lonely. Feeling Disconnected Despite their avid use of social network sites and cell phones, whether for calls or text messaging, there is evidence that Millennials actually experience less connection these days. While it may seem counter-intuitive, increased media use is a contributor. Excessive media use has been shown to diminish connection. Research by Norman Nie at Stanford concluded that an hour spent on the Internet reduced face-to-face contact by 23.5 minutes. The lack of meaningful connection makes individuals vulnerable to stress, anxiety, depression, and addiction. Connection is one of the most effective ways human beings cope with stress. Feeling connected to others reduces the levels of stress hormones, including cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. Without connection and other healthy means of coping, stress has been shown to produce emotional and behavioral disorders, including anger that leads to a fight response, fear that leads to a flight response, and depression that leads to the body shutting down. Many people deal with their stress by self-medicating with the use of alcohol, mood-altering legal or illegal drugs, binge eating; cutting; or promiscuity. These behaviors provide short-term relief by stimulating the brain’s reward centers, but they eventually rewire the brain with a negative-reward reaction so that cessation exposes the addicted individual to unpleasant sensations of withdrawal. Creating Connections  Employers are wise to help Millennials experience the connection they desire so they perform at the top of their game and avoid negative coping behaviors. Here are three ways for employers to connect with their Millennial workers.Communicate an Inspiring Vision—and Live It. Millennials want to work for a cause greater than themselves. Being part of an organization that has a mission that serves others helps. Meaningful core values also connect Millennials to the organization, especially if they see leaders living them out. I recommend identifying and consistently communicating simple and memorable phrases that reflect your organization’s mission and values. Here are a few examples: The most useful and ethical financial services in the world (The Charles Schwab Corporation) Connecting People with HealthCare (Beryl Companies) Opening the Highways for All Mankind (Ford Motor Company) The Change Agency (FCB New Zealand) Making Cancer History (M.D. Anderson Cancer Center) Learning to Change the World (TCU) Don’t Be Evil (Google) Strive for perfection, settle for excellence (Alpha International) In the spirit of straight talk (Pfizer)  Value Them. Valuing people is the heart of connection. Take time to get to know Millennials, including their career aspirations, past work experiences (ask what fired them up and what burned them out in past jobs), their strengths, the skills they want to develop, and even what there interests are outside of work. Encourage and mentor them so they learn and grow. A 2014 IBM Institute Study showed that Millennials prefer face-to-face contact when they are learning new skills. When you give Millennials projects to complete, don't micromanage. Be clear about what you want them to deliver, and let them know you are available if they run into obstacles or would like your advice or assistance. This gives them autonomy and conveys your respect for their competence. Give Them a Voice. Many Millennials want to be in the loop and have a voice in decisions that affect them. This isn't always possible when time is of the essence. However, if the situation permits, explain what you are thinking about an issue and ask them what is right, wrong, or missing in your analysis and perspective. Consider their opinions and ideas, then implement those that make sense—giving them credit it’s when due. Communicating an inspiring vision and living it, valuing people, and giving them a voice engages Millennials (and the rest of your employees as well). You’ll find that engaged employees put greater effort into their work, align their behavior with the leaders’ and organization’s goals, and more fully communicate so that decision makers have better information to make optimal decisions  These advantages provide a powerful source of competitive advantage. Editor’s Note: This post is adapted from Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work.

3 Ways to Connect with Millennial Employees

It’s ironic that successful self-leadership has more to do with others and less to do with self. I learned this later in life. The sooner you see it, the better for your career. Following are three lessons I learned from personal and professional experiences.Surprise #1: Serve a Cause Greater than SelfThe first surprise about self-leadership is that working for money, power, and fame is an unfulfilling pursuit. Frances Hesselbein says it succinctly: to serve is to live.Choose a career that helps others by bringing truth, goodness, or beauty into the world and you will find greater career satisfaction and contentment. From time to time, you will experience the joy that comes from seeing the efforts of your work directly improve the lives of others. Here are a few examples:The teacher who helps a student learn to read brings greater truth and goodness to the world.The landscape architect who designs aesthetically pleasing outdoor environments brings greater beauty to the world.The journalist who helps the public see both sides of a story brings greater truth to the world.The salesman who helps a customer find the right product or service to meet a real need brings greater goodness into the world.You should seek to serve others in these ways, too.Surprise #2: Get a Coach or Mentor(s)No world-class athlete gets to the top without the help of a coach or multiple coaches. We need other people to help us achieve our potential.For instance, each of us has blind spots. Your blind spot may be that you are argumentative or perhaps you don’t speak up when you should. Some people have a blind spot when it comes to not knowing when to end a conversation or meeting. Some managers have blind spots of being over-controlling, and others don’t interact enough with the people they are responsible for leading.The need for coaching and mentoring goes beyond needing to address our blind spots, though. We need experts to help us develop skills. When I left Wall Street to write a book and begin public speaking and teaching, I needed the help of Twyla Thompson, a top acting coach at the Actors Institute. Twyla taught me how to emotionally connect with an audience.On Wall Street, I had learned to turn off my emotions when communicating and I needed Twyla’s help to turn my emotions back on. She had me do exercises that included speaking to a group of acting students. I had to make eye contact with one student at a time and maintain eye contact until the student raised his or her hand to signal that he or she felt connected to me.Twyla’s colleague Gifford Booth would stand at the back of the room and yell, “Louder, louder,” as I spoke. He helped me see a blind spot I had: I was too soft spoken. I could never have learned these things on my own and I’m grateful that Twyla and Gifford helped me become a more effective speaker.#3: Be Intentional About Connecting With PeopleI learned the hard way that all people are hardwired to connect. Connect with God.  Connect with one another. When we don’t connect, we become dysfunctional. We feel lonely, which makes us more vulnerable to stress, anxiety, and depression.  Connection makes us healthier, happier, and more productive. It helps us grow in competence and character. It gets us through the inevitable difficult seasons we all experience in life, a lesson I learned as our family and friends helped us get through the three bouts of cancer my wife Katie experienced. Today, she is cancer free and thriving.Bottom line: You can be more successful in your career and life if you serve a cause greater than yourself, get coaches and/or mentors to help you learn and grow in competence and character, and be intentional about connecting with God, family, and friends. As you experience greater peace, hope, and joy that comes from having an abundance of connection in your life, you will discover wealth of even greater value.Is your workplace culture supporting your success with self-leadership? Join Michael Lee Stallard for the June 23 webcast, “Your Workplace Culture: Life-Giving or Draining the Life Out of You?” to learn about three predominant relational cultures in the workplace—and how each affects your productivity, health, and happiness.Editor’s Note: This post is adapted from Connection Culture: The Competitive Advantage of Shared Identity, Empathy and Understanding at Work. Read more on the Connection Culture website.

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