What does it truly mean to be resilient? In times of uncertainty and change, how can we cultivate an environment that empowers individuals to adapt, persevere, and move forward with confidence? This workshop explores the key mindsets, behaviors, and communication strategies that strengthen resilience at every level—within leaders, teams, and ourselves. By fostering trust, adaptability, and a forward-thinking culture, participants will gain the tools to navigate challenges with clarity and create a foundation for sustained success.
Development Training
Leaders Aren’t Born – They’re Made.
We develop team + leadership development experiences that surpass standard professional development models. We support education teams in strengthening collaborative practices, deepening mutual trust, and empowering adaptable leaders who excel through curriculum changes, resource challenges, and diverse learning environments. From teams of department chairs and curriculum coordinators to teams of principals and assistant principals, student services directors, and aspiring educational leaders, our hands-on, meticulously-tailored process ensures practical relevance and sustainable growth.
Suggested Leadership Workshops: Education
Resilience Through Change
Creating a Culture of Trust in Times of Uncertainty
Learning Objectives:
- Define the concepts of positive psychology, trust, and resilience, and explore the building blocks that allow this to prosper in an individual level and within a team environment
- Explore the five common traps where individuals get stuck, and practice the escape route strategies to help ourselves and others to break free
- Design a team environment where trust can thrive, and open dialogue is encouraged
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Emotional Intelligence
- Adaptability
- Effective Communication
Learning Objectives:
- Experiment with interactive exercises to enhance active listening, setting others up for success, challenging the status-quo, and confidently stepping outside of our comfort zones
- Embrace the concept of “YES, AND” to build upon the ideas of others in an effort to strengthen interpersonal, team, and organizational relationships
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Collaboration + Trust
- Effective Communication
- Openness to Change + Innovation
IMPROVing Team Collaboration
Embracing “YES, AND” to Foster Leadership & Build Trust
Understanding the fundamentals of improvisation enhances core communication in personal and professional settings. Improvisation requires participants to think on their feet, be in the moment, and use enhanced active listening skills, all of which play a role in our success in the work we do on a daily basis. In this workshop, participants will gain an understanding of how to fully embrace “YES, AND” and other core principles from improv for increased collaboration, trust, and enhanced team dynamics.
The DNA of Engagement & Motivation
Leveraging Motivation to Spark & Inspire Engagement
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.
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:
- Leverage feedback conversations to transform and inspire performance of peers, direct-reports, and other frequent collaborators
- Identify the theories behind three common negative reactions when receiving feedback
- Discover the three types of feedback to more effectively inspire peak performance
- Develop an action + implementation plan for positive, long-term behavior change
Key Themes & Leadership Behaviors:
- Giving + Receiving Feedback
- Navigating Conflict Conversations
- Positive Psychology + Trust
Thanks For The Feedback
Inspiring Performance through Effective Feedback
We are constantly receiving feedback. Through formal and informal words and actions, each dinner invitation, speeding ticket, book recommendation or annual performance bonus says something about who we are and how we are perceived by others. This workshop introduces us to key strategies for both giving and receiving feedback, taking a deeper dive into understanding the types of feedback, discovering why and how we react, and how to more effectively deliver feedback in the future.
Why Choose Us for Education Leadership Training?
Looking to improve teamwork, communication, and instructional leadership within your education organization? The Leadership Laboratory delivers team + leadership development workshops that are engaging, research-based, and designed to reflect your institution's distinct mission. Our data-driven workshops are purposefully developed and participatory – completely free from outdated group activities.
Education professionals possess incredible dedication and expertise, and we're committed to elevating those qualities to outstanding levels. Whether your team includes grade-level coordinators, academic deans, special education supervisors, or district administrators, The Leadership Laboratory creates focused, science-backed workshops that strengthen existing capabilities, increase leadership confidence, and drive enhanced collaboration, student outcomes, and organizational effectiveness. Grounded in positive psychology principles, our approach emphasizes growth-oriented development rather than deficit-focused training to foster meaningful, lasting transformation across your educational community. Our research-based education leadership workshops utilize proven strategies developed specifically for educational professionals, delivering tangible results that far exceed conventional staff development sessions.
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, Los Angeles, and Washington DC.
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.