Whether working with your highest performers or the ones with the most room for growth, smart leaders are constantly contemplating how to motivate and influence their teams to succeed. So often we rely on external rewards – like motivating a horse to run with the carrot on a stick – yet these can only work for so long. In this workshop, we take a deep dive into the psychology of motivation, and explore specific strategies to directly influence your teams to operate at peak performance.
Development Training
Leaders Aren’t Born – They’re Made.
We develop high-impact team + leadership development experiences that cut through startup chaos and drive real results. We work alongside startup teams to strengthen cross-functional collaboration, build foundational trust, and develop resilient leaders who thrive through innovation acceleration, market opportunities, and growth momentum. From teams of product managers and engineering leads to marketing directors, operations heads, and emerging startup leaders, our agile, startup-focused methodology creates immediate impact and sustainable growth practices.
Suggested Leadership Workshops: Startups
The DNA of Engagement & Motivation
Leveraging Motivation to Spark & Inspire Engagement
Learning Objectives:
- Explore the three types of motivation and engagement, taking a pulse on current organization-wide strategies and opportunities for the future
- Experiment with three unique theories to immediately increase intrinsic motivation
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Engagement + Motivation
- Talent Strategy + Development
- Leading with Values
- Active Listening
Learning Objectives:
- Differentiate between the concepts of COACHING and MENTORING in our leadership style
- Experiment with coaching methodologies to enhance our skill set, and determine the strategic questions that inspire others to feel empowered to act
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Coaching for Empowerment
- Asking Strategic Questions + Active Listening
- Talent Development
Coaching to Full Potential
Empowering Others through Coaching Conversations
In making the transition from individual contributor to leader, we rely on a new skill set that focuses on inspiring and motivating the people we work with. In this series, participants will focus on people and project leadership skills, specifically as it relates to the topics of coaching and motivating to inspire those we work with to take action. Through knowledge-sharing and discussion based learning, and an opportunity to directly experiment with coaching methodologies, participants will have the opportunity to learn from and alongside each other, and connect these practices to specific action plans to retain and grow their top talent.
Bouncing Back from a F**k Up
Approaching Setbacks with a Learning Mindset
F**k ups may be inevitable, though staying stuck doesn’t have to be. This workshop helps participants break free from the mental traps that keeps us dwelling on past mistakes, learning how to shift our focus toward growth, resilience, and action. Through a mix of cognitive reframing techniques and practical action-oriented strategies, participants will learn how to bounce back with confidence, reignite our motivation, and turn failures into fuel for future success.
Learning Objectives:
- Explore the five common THINKING TRAPS where individuals get stuck, and discover the ESCAPE ROUTE strategies to help ourselves and others to break free
- ILeverage positive psychology to move from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset
- Inspire a culture of resilience, trust, and psychological safety
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Confidence
- Emotional Intelligence
- Effective Communication
Learning Objectives:
- Define the CURRENT STATE and FUTURE STATE of the team’s collective goals and objectives
- Experiment with design thinking methodology to begin ideation of creative, implementable action plans to fully realize your team’s ideal future state
- Leverage positive psychology to create future-focused, behavior-based outcomes
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Strategic Thinking + Goal Setting
- Creativity + Innovation
- Positive Psychology & Growth Mindset
Mission Possible: Strategic Design Sprint
Designing the Future State of our Team & Organization
As a team, determining key long-term goals and objectives of our vision for the future is the crucial first step to more accurately inform the look and feel of our day-to-day responsibilities. Through this workshop, participants will leverage the foundational principles of positive psychology and design thinking methodology to determine the team’s goals and objectives for an ideal future state, and begin to develop the roadmap to make that vision a reality.
Why Choose Us for Startup Leadership Training?
Looking to maximize team synergy, clear communication, and execution speed within your startup environment? The Leadership Laboratory delivers team + leadership development workshops that are fun, grounded in research, and built to reflect your organization's unique culture. Our data-driven workshops are strategically built and hands-on – elevating your team and leaders to the next level.
Startup leaders possess incredible drive and innovation, and we're here to amplify those qualities for maximum impact. Whether your team includes technical co-founders, growth hackers, sales leaders, or startup executives, The Leadership Laboratory creates focused, research-validated workshops that build on entrepreneurial strengths, increase leadership confidence, and unlock next-level collaboration, product development, and market execution. Built on positive psychology principles, our process emphasizes growth, not gaps, to drive rapid, sustainable improvements across your startup. Our data-driven startup leadership workshops utilize cutting-edge methodologies tailored specifically for high-growth environments to inspire long-term, positive behavior change.
The Leadership Laboratory operates nationwide with both in-person and virtual healthcare leadership development workshops. We proudly serve healthcare organizations around the world and throughout the United States across the country, including Chicago, New York, Austin, and Seattle.
Building tomorrow's leaders today.
The Leadership Laboratory works across multiple industries - including start-up and established technology firms, non-profit and government agencies, finance companies, healthcare organizations and more. We are proud to collaborate with individuals and teams of all sizes.
Contact us and say hello! We're excited to get to know you and share our ideas on learning + leadership development.
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Collaborating Partners
“I laughed harder than I have in a while!”
Our workshop was engaging, informative, rejuvenating and pure fun. I laughed harder than I have in a while! This was a phenomenal way to get more comfortable as a team.
— Director of People, SpotHero
“You made this easy to apply and implement”
You listened to our needs and adapted on the spot to incorporate leadership lessons. Every element was backed up by research, and you made this easy to apply and implement.
— VP / HEAD OF PEOPLE, WARBY PARKER
Meet Jacob Goldstein
Jacob Goldstein is the founder of The Leadership Laboratory, and leverages his experiences in education, the performing arts, and corporate learning & leadership development to his work. As a performer, Jacob has sung as a backup vocalist for musical artists such as Josh Groban, Idina Menzel, and Patti LuPone, as a recording artist for Netflix series Sense8, and at venues including The United Center, The Chicago Theater, and Chicago Symphony Center. In the education space, Jacob has served as an educator for high school, undergraduate and graduate students, and has been a Guest Lecturer at Northwestern University since 2016. As a Learning & Leadership Development Consultant, Jacob has worked as a one-on-one coach and group workshop facilitator to organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies in diverse industries, including technology, healthcare, non-profit, and fashion/apparel. Jacob holds a Bachelor’s degree from The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master’s of Science in Communication from Northwestern University.