Shola Richards Headshot

Shola Richards

Shola Richards is a dynamic keynote speaker, best-selling author, and in-demand workplace civility expert.

Meet Shola Richards

Shola Richards is the CEO and Founder of Go Together Global™, the best-selling author of Making Work Work and Go Together, and a prolific civility writer with a passionate worldwide following. His articles and wildly popular “Go Together Movement” email series have impacted people in over 160 countries. He is also well-known for his keynote and motivational speaking. Shola Richards is available to be booked for corporate and private events. Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group today to inquire about Shola Richards’s fees. 

Want to book Shola Richards for an event?

Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group at 215-510-6607 to book Shola Richards for corporate or private events, keynote speeches, workshops, fireside chats, motivational speaking, or virtual appearances. Our agency will work directly with your organization and our keynote speakers to create an unforgettable event. 

The Mollie Plotkin Group is the leading keynote speakers agency and entertainment bureau bringing excitement to audiences, clients, and employees. We represent subject-matter experts in every possible field, so whether we’re your partner in creating a memorable meeting, or your meeting planner’s secret weapon in securing the perfect keynote speaker, we’re in this with you.

Biography

“Brother Teresa”

Shola Richards is a leading authority on workplace happiness and engagement. As CEO and Founder of Go Together Global® and best-selling author of Making Work Work and Go Together, he leads a worldwide movement to change how we treat each other at work. Shola’s work has been featured on the Today Show, CBS This Morning, Forbes, Black Enterprise, Complete Wellbeing India, and Business Insider Australia among many other outlets worldwide. His tireless efforts to make the world a kinder place have earned him the well-deserved nickname “Brother Teresa.”

Shola’s mission to create a kinder world began with a near tragedy. During Shola’s previous career, his mistreatment at work drove him to attempt suicide while driving to work. After sharply veering towards the guardrail, he survived the crash and committed himself to ensuring no other person would be pushed so far from workplace incivility again.  

Shola Richards Keynote Speaking

As a speaker, Shola has shared his transformative message with leading hospitality organizations, Fortune 50 companies, top universities, the motion picture industry, the TEDx stage, and more. In his greatest honor to date, he was invited to testify in front of the House of Representatives to share his expert recommendations on how to bring more civility to Congress in September of 2021. He’ll be the first to tell you that they could use a refresher course and perhaps some divine intervention. A self-professed “kindness extremist,” Shola will not rest until bullying and incivility are extinct from the American workplace.

How to Hire Shola Richards

Find out how to hire Shola Richards to appear at your next event. Contact the Mollie Plotkin Group to inquire about Shola Richards’s availability and cost. When booking Shola Richards for an event, we need to know the type of venue and location the event will take place. Shola Richards is a popular choice for corporate events, private events, and virtual events. So, you can click the Check Availability button or contact us and an MPG Shola Richards booking agent will get back to you within 48 hours.

Shola Richards Booking Price

How much to book Shola Richards depends on the type of event. So, the cost to hire Shola Richards for corporate or private events is available by contacting a Mollie Plotkin Group Agent. Notably, Shola Richards is available for conferences, festivals, private parties, and events. Just contact the Mollie Plotkin Group and tell the booking agent the proposed date, time, and location.

Contact For Availability

Fill out the form to find out when Shola Richards is available.

Upcoming Engagements

Our speakers are in high demand! View their upcoming events.

Sep 18 - 19 2024

SIDO Lyon – Keynote Speaker Keren Elazari – Paris, France

Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris
Sep 18 2024

Greatest Moments in Philadelphia Sports History – Keynote Speaker Ray Didinger – Ardmore, Pennsylvania

Ardmore Music Hall
Sep 19 - 21 2024

2024 International Window Film Conference & Tint-Off (WFCT) – Keynote Speaker Gary Vaynerchuk – Orlando, FL

Orange County Convention Center
No event found!

Key Audience Takeaways

Hire Shola Richards

Shola customizes his stories and deliverables based on his audience’s profile so if you would like to discuss tailoring his keynote further, schedule a Zoom call with Shola and the MPG team.

 

The Courage to Go Together™

Three Questions to Change How You Work, Live, & Lead

Shola Richards’ mantra is a simple, but powerful one: we are defined by how we treat each other. In his inspiring flagship keynote, Shola will reinforce that key point by introducing the transformative concept of Ubuntu. This Ubuntu philosophy (pronounced, “00-BOON-too”) and Shola’s three powerful questions, will provide the audience with actionable strategies to transform their work culture, amplify team civility, and inspire themselves and others to consistently bring their best to their work.

Perfect for Individuals, Leaders, & Teams Who Are:

  • Searching for proven strategies to strengthen team cohesion, civility, and togetherness to maintain a healthy workplace culture and optimal business results.
  • Struggling to keep themselves engaged, positive, and solution-oriented when managing the nonstop challenges and complexities of life (both inside and outside of the workplace).
  • Feeling as if they do not have the influence, professional title, or education to make meaningful positive change on their work team, or in their organization.

Key Takeaways:

  • The three key questions you need to ask yourself to increase the likelihood of a civil, engaged, and productive work culture.
  • The answers to the most common objections to beginning the important and challenging work of positively transforming your work culture.
  • The self-awareness to become mindful of how your words, actions, and behaviors affect others.

 

Unstoppable Resilience™

The Keys to Staying Strong During Any Challenge

This is a uniquely difficult time for leaders and individual contributors in workplaces all over America. We are still managing the aftereffects of battling a deadly pandemic for over four years (and counting). There are deep divisions that have been exposed within our country. Parents are overwhelmed as they balance their careers with raising their kids in this exhausting new reality, employees are feeling increased anxiety and mental health challenges, and according to recent studies, Americans are the unhappiest they have been in the past 50 years.

Needless to say, navigating all of the aforementioned challenges can have a significant impact on your overall well-being, mental health, and resilience.

The Unstoppable Resilience ™ keynote provides the audience with highly practical strategies to build unshakable strength within themselves and their teams.

Perfect for Individuals, Leaders, & Teams Who Are:

  • Feeling overwhelmed with the multiple competing priorities (both at work and at home) that are draining them mentally and emotionally.
  • Experiencing heightened stress levels as they manage the seemingly nonstop onslaught of incoming unpleasant news happening in the world around them, ongoing anxieties and mental health challenges, and the expectation of bringing their best selves to their work, despite their internal or external stressors.
  • Unsure of how to support their colleagues who may be struggling.

Key Takeaways:

  • The keys to creating a resilient mindset, regardless of the circumstances.
  • The strategy to apply the aforementioned keys to any challenge that the attendees are currently facing(professionally, personally, or otherwise).
  • Personalized commitments that the attendees will use to build their resilience, and a strategy to stay accountable to their new commitments.

 

Courageous Civility™

Creating a Culture of Equity, Diversity, & Belonging

Creating and sustaining a culture of equity, diversity, and belonging can be challenging and exhausting work. Not only does it require the willingness to actively work against inequities, bias, and discrimination in the workplace, but equally as important, it requires the courage to actively take part in uncomfortable (but, necessary) discussions.

The highly engaging Courageous Civility™ keynote provides the audience with the key tools, strategies, and information necessary to engage in this important work, while also ensuring that the commitment to this work remains long after the keynote ends.

Perfect for Individuals, Leaders, & Teams Who Are:

  • Interested in creating a culture of equity, diversity, and belonging, but don’t know where to begin.
  • Concerned about the current climate of divisiveness in America, and its impact on marginalized communities’ mental health, safety, and overall well-being.
  • Unaware of how to effectively engage in difficult conversations with colleagues and others about bias and inequities.
  • Ready to address harmful mischaracterizations about equity, diversity, and belonging initiatives.

Key Takeaways:

  • Strategies to recognize bias, prejudice, and/or microaggressions in the workplace, and how to address it immediately and strategically.
  • Powerful data that shows that diverse teams are better at making decisions, more attractive to potential clients,consistently outperform competitors, and more!
  • The education and the inspiration to stay committed to the ongoing work of equity, diversity, and belonging.

Client Testimony for Shola Richards

Books

Go Together - How the Concept of Ubuntu Will Change How You Live, Work, and Lead Book Cover
Go Together: How the Concept of Ubuntu Will Change How You Live, Work, and Lead

A slim volume that could become the new at-work reference.” - Booklist

Workplace positivity expert Shola Richards explores a radical new concept for rethinking our personal, professional, and social lives: togetherness.

The illusion that we are separate from each other, more different than similar, is eroding our ability to work, live, and lead effectively. What if we all focused on the powerful idea of ubuntu instead? This transcendent African philosophy embraces the belief that we are universally connected to each other—and Shola Richards suggests it could transform the way we treat others, making us kinder and more respectful to others, on and off the job. Without ubuntu, he argues, we cannot truly live a productive and satisfying life. Go Together is a thought-provoking read that could change our own behavior . . . and the world around us.

Making Work Work - The Solution for Bringing Positive Change to Any Work Environment Book Cover
Making Work Work: The Solution for Bringing Positive Change to Any Work Environment

In Making Work Work, an internationally recognized leadership consultant offers solutions for creating a more positive professional environment using kindness and mutual respect.

Shola Richards had reached the end of the road: after nearly two years at a toxic job, he felt numb and suicidal. So he quit and focused on inspiring current and future leaders in all stages of their careers to start a workplace movement around positivity.

This empowering guide presents Richards’s strategies along with actionable plans. His keys to success include banishing blame and excuses, relentlessly respecting ourselves, maintaining work - separation, recognizing the benefits of having true and lasting friends at work, taking the time to appreciate our colleagues, and dealing with difficult people like bullies. A series of exercises will help you move toward meaningful action.

This encouraging book is a call to action built on a foundation of positivity.

Contact For Availability

You're Our Priority