Bio:

Libby Wagner is a poet, speaker, former college professor, and trusted advisor who has spent more than twenty years helping leaders and organizations create high trust, high performance, and conversations that matter.

Her work has shaped organizations including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Keurig Dr Pepper, Diageo, Philips, Boeing, STMicroelectronics, and many others. Bringing together the perspective of a poet with the pragmatism of an experienced business advisor, Libby offers practical and immediately useful approaches to leadership, communication, change, and the human dynamics of work.

Libby was a founding faculty member of the Institute for Conversational Leadership with internationally renowned poet David Whyte and was honored as a Nellie Cashman Woman Business Owner of the Year. She works with senior leaders and teams through executive coaching, leadership development, strategic retreats, and keynote speaking, and leads writing and leadership retreats in Ireland and the Pacific Northwest.

She is the author of The Influencing Option: The Art of Building a Profit Culture in Business, What Will You Do With Your 90,000 Hours? The Boardroom Poet’s Thoughts on Work, and five collections of poetry. In collaboration with Irish musician and composer Owen Ó Súilleabháin, she created the audio collections Harvest and Now Just This, blending spoken word, poetry, and original music.

Libby has been quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review. Her TEDx talk, “Own Your Voice,” reflects a theme at the heart of her work: helping people find the courage and clarity to participate fully in the conversations that shape their work and their lives.

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Speaking Topics:

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Leading in the Threshold Times: Finding Your Footing in Times of Change

Some of the hardest moments in work and life happen when the old way is clearly ending, but the new way has not yet fully arrived. Poet and leadership advisor Libby Wagner explores how people can navigate these threshold moments with greater courage, attentiveness, and imagination—and how organizations can create steadiness without pretending to have all the answers.

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What Will You Do With Your 90,000 Hours? Creating a More Meaningful Relationship With Work

We spend an extraordinary portion of our lives working. What do we want those hours to mean? Drawing from her book What Will You Do With Your 90,000 Hours?, Libby invites audiences to reconsider success, contribution, ambition, and what it means to create work that is both useful and worth doing.

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The Future Is Human: What Matters Most in a Changing World of Work

As technology changes how we work, distinctly human capacities become even more valuable: imagination, discernment, empathy, courage, curiosity, and the ability to connect meaningfully with others. Libby explores what people and organizations will need most as the future of work continues to evolve.

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The Power of Attention: What We Notice Changes What Becomes Possible

Poets are trained to notice. So are great leaders, teachers, innovators, and creators. Libby explores attention as a powerful human capability: noticing patterns, listening for what is not being said, recognizing what matters, and becoming more deliberate about where we place our energy.

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A Place to Stand: Finding Clarity When Everything Is Moving

When circumstances are changing quickly, people often search for certainty that simply is not available. Libby offers another possibility: finding a place to stand. Through story, poetry, and practical reflection, she explores how values, attention, courage, and connection can help us move forward without needing to know exactly what comes next.

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The Courage to Notice: Seeing What We Have Learned Not to See

Organizations and individuals become accustomed to patterns, habits, and assumptions that eventually disappear from view. Libby explores what becomes possible when we slow down enough to notice what we have normalized, what we are avoiding, and what may be asking for our attention.

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Own Your Voice: Bringing More of Yourself to the Work That Matters

Voice is not about being the loudest person in the room. It is about knowing what matters, trusting what you see, and being willing to contribute something true. Drawing on her experience as a poet, professor, and advisor, Libby explores courage, expression, influence, and what it means to participate fully in our work and lives.

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The Human Side of Change: What People Need When the Future Is Unclear

Change plans usually focus on structures, strategies, and timelines. People experience change differently. Libby explores the human realities of transition—loss, uncertainty, identity, possibility, and hope—and offers a practical, compassionate way to help people move through change without losing connection or momentum.

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Useful Work: Rethinking Contribution, Purpose, and What Matters

What does it mean to be useful? Not busy. Not impressive. Useful. Libby invites audiences to reconsider their relationship with contribution, purpose, and achievement and to explore how meaningful work can emerge from greater clarity about what matters most.

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Poet Pragmatist: Seeing Differently. Working Differently.

What can poetry possibly teach us about business, leadership, and the future of work? Quite a lot. Libby brings together two worlds rarely found in the same room: the observational depth of a poet and the practical experience of a longtime organizational advisor. This keynote explores how language, imagination, attention, and human connection can help us see familiar challenges differently—and respond with greater creativity and courage.