Amy Cuddy

We are performing more often, for more people, under more pressure than ever before. The presentation. The interview. The pitch. The difficult conversation. The meeting that gets recorded and replayed. But the pressure doesn’t stop at work. The athlete stepping onto the field. The musician walking onstage. The creator going live. Modern life has become intensely performative—and intensely evaluative. Yet most advice about peak performance still treats performance as a private act of confidence, discipline, or talent. In this talk, Dr. Amy Cuddy—whose work on the psychology of performance appears in The Athletic Peak—reveals a radically different way of understanding what allows people to perform at their best under pressure. We are carrying more social load than any generation before us: the pressure of constant evaluation, invisible audiences, recordings that live forever, comment threads, past failures, and the internalized voices we carry into every room. And most performance training hasn’t caught up to that reality. Blending groundbreaking research, powerful storytelling, and insights from sports, music, leadership, and media, Amy shows how the social environment around us shapes what our bodies and brains are actually capable of accessing when the stakes are high — and why connection, trust, and presence are often the hidden forces behind extraordinary performance.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand how social pressure and constant evaluation affect performance
• Recognize the role of connection, trust, and presence in high-stakes moments
• Rethink performance as a social experience rather than a private act of confidence or talent

In a workplace shaped by constant disruption, uncertainty, burnout, and rapid technological change, trust has become one of the most important leadership capacities—and one of the fastest-rising areas of demand in leadership development. As work becomes more uncertain and pressure intensifies, trust becomes harder to build, easier to lose, and more essential to performance, resilience, and effective leadership. In this talk, Dr. Amy Cuddy explores what happens to human behavior under pressure—how stress and uncertainty affect the way people think, connect, communicate, and perform—and why trust becomes even more important when the stakes are high. Drawing on decades of research in social psychology and human behavior, she explores why, as she argues, “trust is the conduit of influence,” how leaders build trust in moments of uncertainty and change, and why the leaders who do this well are better equipped to guide people through challenge, transformation, and sustained pressure.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand how stress and uncertainty affect communication, connection, and performance
• Learn why trust becomes more important as pressure intensifies
• Explore how leaders can build trust during uncertainty and change

At a time when toxic workplace cultures are a leading driver of turnover, burnout, and lost performance, Dr. Amy Cuddy offers a timely and practical framework for leaders that want to do better. In this program grounded in the research and case studies in her forthcoming book, Bullied, Dr. Cuddy shows how individuals and organizations can interrupt harmful dynamics, rebuild trust, and create environments where people can do their best work. She explores:

• The concept of social bravery
• Why bullying, mobbing, and fear-based norms spread in otherwise “good” organizations
• The social and psychological dynamics of bystanders, allies, and “bravehearts” who change the script
• Practical tools for leaders to spot early warning signs, disrupt harmful behavior without creating new fear, and build environments where people feel safe to speak up and contribute

There once was a time when toxic workplaces were the norm. Screaming bosses, non-existent boundaries, high stress, low morale. Today, employees have much higher expectations for psychological safety and accountability and are quick to leave workplaces that don’t meet their needs. In this program, social psychologist Dr. Amy Cuddy presents her “brave cultures” framework and teaches leaders how to foster an environment where employees can thrive. She explores:

• How cultures of fear and disengagement quietly drain performance and innovation—and why disengagement now represents trillions in lost productivity globally
• The levers leaders can pull to shift norms from silence and cynicism to trust, psychological safety, and shared courage
• Simple, research-backed practices to make “brave behavior” visible, rewarded, and contagious across teams