FLAGSHIP LEADERSHIP KEYNOTE

Your Default Is Showing

Courageous Curiosity℠ for Leaders Brave Enough to Lead Differently
React. Manage. Repeat. Or lead by design.
Designed for senior leaders building greater ownership, capability, and performance across the organization, and for mid-level leaders expanding their influence and impact.

Cheryle Hays turns human dynamics from a hidden organizational cost into leadership capacity and business performance.


Your Default Is Showing


TEDx Speaker | Amazon Best-Selling Co-Author | Executive Coach | New Book Coming Fall 2026
The longer book information can remain in Why Cheryle.

About the Keynote

Most leaders see disengagement, inconsistent ownership, and teams that wait to be told and assume they have a team problem. But the team problem, and even the leadership problem, may be symptoms of the same protection-driven wiring.

In this keynote, Cheryle reveals how that wiring can push leaders toward speed, certainty, and control while teams retreat into caution, withdrawal, or dependence.

Through storytelling, purposeful humor, and one immediately usable leadership choice, audiences discover how Courageous Curiosity℠ moves leaders from reactive default to design and teams from managed compliance to active, aligned contribution.

Different reactions. Same programming. Shared responsibility for what happens next.


What changes when leaders and teams stop reinforcing the same pattern?

From Default

Leaders direct every move; teams wait to be told.


To Design

Leaders clarify the goal; teams take initiative.

From Default

Leaders rescue; teams surrender ownership.


To Design

Leaders develop capability; teams own outcomes.

From Default

Leaders project certainty; teams withhold what they see.


To Design

Leaders seek the fuller truth; teams speak up earlier.

From Default

Leaders push for speed; teams grow cautious.


To Design

Leaders create space; teams bring options.

    

The shift is not better compliance. It is active, aligned contribution.

Greater ownership. Stronger alignment. Better follow-through. Less dependence on constant management.


The real proof of leadership isn’t what people do while you’re watching. It’s what they choose when you’re not in the room.

Is This Keynote Right For Your Room?

A quick planner-friendly snapshot to help you decide if Your Default Is Showing is the right fit for your audience, event format, and leadership goals.

Who It’s For

The right audience fit

  • Senior leaders building ownership and capability.
  • Mid-level leaders expanding their influence.
  • Mixed leadership audiences needing shared language and stronger execution.
What Your Audience Leaves With

Immediate value they can use

  • Recognition of default programming.
  • Understanding of the leader-team dynamic.
  • Courageous Curiosity℠ as an immediate leadership choice.
  • Shared language that strengthens ownership, accountability, and follow-through.
Built for Your Event

Flexible for planners

  • 45- or 60-minute keynote.
  • In-person or virtual.
  • Customized by leadership level, industry, organizational priorities, and event goals.
  • Expanded workshop available.

Need bios, headshots, AV requirements, or an approved introduction? Visit Event Planner Resources.

Event Planner Resources

See Cheryle In Action

Through relevant stories, purposeful humor, and audience reflection, Cheryle helps leaders recognize themselves in the pattern without assigning blame. She makes complex human dynamics practical, giving audiences shared language and a leadership choice they can use immediately.

“I watched the crowd leaning in, laughing, nodding, doing that ‘yep, that’s me’ half-smile. She didn’t just hold the room; she owned it, rented it out, and left everybody a little better on the way out.

She’s flat-out funny, but the humor isn’t just for giggles. It’s how she sneaks past your defenses so the real message hits you before you have time to say, ‘I’m fine, I don’t need this.’”
— Frank King, Speaker and Comedian



Why This Keynote Is Different

Many leadership efforts focus on what people should do differently. This keynote reveals what keeps capable, well-intentioned leaders and employees returning to the same reactions, even when both want a better result.

Courageous Curiosity℠ helps leaders interpret what is happening differently, surface what may be missing, and choose what should happens next, that unlocks potential, alignment, and buy-in. That is how human dynamics become leadership capacity and business performance.

Leaders move from reactive default to design. Teams move from managed compliance to active, aligned contribution.


The audience leaves with more than inspiration: recognition, shared language, and one immediate leadership choice.
Explore Courageous Curiosity



Addresses the programming beneath the behavior.

Rather than adding more tactics on top of recurring reactions, this keynote reveals what keeps producing them.

Examines both sides of the leadership dynamic.

Leaders and employees may react differently while reinforcing the same unproductive pattern.

Creates accountability without assigning blame.

Leaders see where their influence matters, employees retain responsibility for how they contribute, and neither side is automatically cast as the villain.

Cheryle Hays speaking
Speaking Photo
Why Cheryle

A leader who has lived the challenge she teaches

Cheryle Hays, The Human Potentialist™, is a leadership keynote speaker, executive coach, and author with more than 25 years of experience across academic, technology, service, and manufacturing environments.

Promoted above her own boss into her first leadership role without training or a roadmap, she understands what it means to carry responsibility before receiving the operating system to lead it.

Today, she helps leaders turn human dynamics from a hidden organizational cost into leadership capacity and business performance. Her book, Courageous Curiosity: For Leaders Brave Enough to Lead Differently, publishes in Fall 2026 through Maxwell Leadership.

TEDx Speaker | Amazon Best-Selling Co-Author | Executive Coach | EMBA, Texas Christian University

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this keynote appropriate for both mid-level and senior leaders?
Yes. Your Default Is Showing is designed for senior leaders building greater ownership and capability across the organization, mid-level leaders expanding their influence and impact, and mixed leadership audiences that need shared language and stronger execution.
Does this keynote blame managers for disengagement or weak ownership?
No. Leadership strongly influences the environment, but employees retain responsibility for their assumptions, reactions, choices, and contribution. The keynote examines how leaders and employees can reinforce the same unproductive pattern without casting either side as the villain or victim.
Is this keynote only for struggling leaders or teams?
No. This keynote is designed for capable leaders and organizations that want to strengthen judgment, ownership, alignment, and performance. Even experienced, well-intentioned people can return to automatic reactions that limit what they and their teams contribute.
How is this different from a communication or emotional-intelligence keynote?
Communication and emotional intelligence often focus on skills and behaviors. This keynote examines the protection-driven programming beneath those behaviors and helps leaders interpret what is happening differently, surface what may be missing, and choose what happens next.
What can attendees use immediately?
Attendees learn to recognize when default programming is shaping the moment and use Courageous Curiosity℠ to test assumptions, keep the larger goals in view, and choose a more intentional response.
Can the keynote be customized for our industry and event goals?
Yes. The keynote can be customized by leadership level, industry language, organizational priorities, event goals, and relevant stories or examples.
What is the difference between the keynote and the workshop?
The keynote creates recognition, shared language, and an immediate leadership choice. The expanded workshop provides more time to apply the concepts to real situations, decisions, team dynamics, and organizational priorities.
What keynote formats and event-planning resources are available?
Your Default Is Showing is available as a 45- or 60-minute keynote, delivered in person or virtually. An expanded workshop is also available. Visit the Event Planner Resources page for Cheryle’s bios, headshots, approved introduction, AV requirements, and other planning materials.

Bring this keynote to your audience -



and turn human dynamics into leadership capacity and business performance.

Invite Cheryle Hays to speak on Your Default Is Showing at your conference, leadership meeting, or organizational event, and give leaders a practical way to move from default to design.