Jessica Gendron Williams
Jessica Gendron Williams
With over 15 years of experience working in leadership development and coaching, human resource consulting, business leadership, and fraternities/sororities, Jessica is a respected and sought out speaker for campus communities and national organizations.
With over 15 years of experience working in leadership development and coaching, human resource consulting, business leadership, and fraternities/sororities, Jessica is a respected and sought out speaker for campus communities and national organizations.
Jessica Gendron Williams is the President of The Center for Leadership Excellence. She has spent most of her career coaching women and individuals to grow and thrive professionally, but more than anything, she is a fierce advocate for advancing women in the workplace and in leadership. She is an award-winning curriculum designer and in 2018 was honored for her contributions to the Fraternity and Sorority Community with the Jack L. Anson Award from the Association of Fraternity and Sorority Advisors.
She received a B.A. from Eastern Illinois University and a M.S. in Education from Indiana University – Bloomington.
Follow Jessica
PROGRAMS
Navigating the Hard Stuff: Reset Your Mindset for Leadership Success
Keynote | Workshop | Virtual
There are no trophies for who has it the hardest. Successful leadership, for everyone, is a process of perseverance that will test your nerves, heart, and spirit.
But what if there was a method, combining psychological strategies and practices, to make it a tad easier?
When Jessica Gendron Williams was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, she learned pretty quickly how much her mindset impacted her ability to navigate the journey successfully. As leaders, we’re often confronted with challenges we aren’t prepared or trained for, much less knew would be part of the job. Learning how to control and harness your mindset is paramount in navigating these challenges successfully.
The last several years have been filled with unpredictability, redirections, and way too much grief. These facts cannot be disputed. But what’s also true is great leadership has never been more important. Your communities, organizations, chapters, and teams need you to show up in extraordinary ways and step one is learning how to navigate the hard stuff.
Audience members will…
Explore the relationship between mindset and effective leadership
Practice gratitude, breathing, and mantras as a means of enhancing perseverance
Consider how embracing the “hard stuff” is essential to leadership success
Ideal Audiences
- Fraternity/Sorority Life
- Leadership Development
- Women’s Empowerment
Audience members will…
Identify the ways in which traditional constructions of women’s leadership and empowerment are incomplete
Consider the distinct challenges women face when assuming leadership roles
Develop a mantra for how to compete and achieve success in leadership while maintaining personal values
Ideal Audiences
- Leadership Development
- Sorority Chapters/Organizations
Every Single One: A New Mantra for Women's Leadership
Keynote | Virtual
So much of college women’s leadership programming is about building empowerment – encouraging young women to enter the world with confidence. Strong, bold, and able to break every glass ceiling.
And, that is important. Women need to be told they are valuable and that their talents and perspectives matter.
But, when do we tell them how difficult it is?
When do we tell them that the battle for women’s equality and their place at the highest levels of business and culture is part of an ongoing, uphill fight? When do we prepare them to handle concerns that men might feel “uncomfortable” working with them? How do we prepare them to handle wage gaps? How do we prepare them for critical comments that their “communication style” causes problems for the men already sitting at the tops of most companies? How do we prepare them for the gender bias and discrimination they will face around every turn?
Jessica Gendron Williams has had to learn a lot of these lessons the hard way, stumbling into challenges and roadblocks, elbowing her way to the table, wondering how she could have better prepared for the realities challenging executive women every single day. She’s fought the battles of being “too much” for leaders and “not enough” for leadership. Jessica is a first generation college graduate, a proud sorority woman, a leadership executive, a mother, wife, and friend.
Some even call her a “girl boss.”
She prefers to just be called boss.
In this groundbreaking signature program, Jessica reveals the reality that having a “girl boss” social media brand shouldn’t be the ultimate goal. Instead she shows how, through practical lived-examples, developing a network of allies, mentors, and sponsors is far more important. She shows how women can go toe-to-toe with their male counterparts, aspire for the same opportunities and achievements, and still remain true to their greatest ideals.
You Can't Have it All: Real Balance in College
Keynote | Workshop | Virtual
Overachievers, consider yourself seen. Jessica has been paying attention to you and your struggles.
You want to be a leader, get good grades, land an internship, date someone cute, volunteer, make some money, find your crew of close friends and all while making a million amazing memories that will last forever. Yet, you spend much of your time stressing out because you have hundreds of emails, a mountain of homework, a significant other you haven’t talked to in days, a to-do list the size of Indiana, and you can’t help but be glued to your Insta Stories while you watch all the fun you’re missing back at school.
Sound familiar?
Turns out you can’t have it all. Let’s look at what you really want from college and do a little of editing to get you to the college experience you really want. In this dynamic, honest program, Jessica works to not only identify the need for sustainable balance in college, but also to equip audience members with the tool to achieve it.
Audience members will…
Critically examine how they are spending their time in college
Examine the construct of “balance” and whether it is truly attainable
Develop a plan to prioritize what is truly important in their lives
Ideal Audiences
- Leadership Development
- Sorority Chapters/Organizations
- Community Colleges