A Voice of Influence is Heather Winandy's speaking and facilitation work: leadership, workplace equity, and the operational systems that hold a team together, built on decades of actually doing the job, not just studying it.
The Perspective
I've spent decades training on operational improvement and systems integration, not just the theory of it, but from the user's seat: the person actually logging into the new software, following the new process, or absorbing the reorg. Add years spent analyzing what different types of systems actually need to work for the people using them, and that's the lens I bring to every stage and every workshop room.
Whether I'm speaking to a room of two hundred or facilitating a working session for a team of eight, the goal is the same: give people something they can actually use Monday morning, not just something that felt good to hear.
Good systems and good leadership solve the same problem: they stop good people from having to guess.
Speaking Topics
Every topic below can flex into a keynote, a panel, or a hands-on workshop, whatever the room actually needs.
Leadership
What it actually looks like to lead through change, lead without a title, and lead people who don't think or work like you do.
Equity & Empowerment
Making room for the professionals who get overlooked: the ones doing more than their title says, and the ones whose brains work differently than the room expects.
Operations
How to build systems that make a team run without living in one person's head, the same thinking behind Make Mondays Better, drawn from decades on the operations side of the business.
Career Development
Reframing "what job am I qualified for" into "what problems do I know how to solve," the same conversation at the heart of Designed, Not Assigned.
Workshops & Facilitation
Workshops run one of two ways, depending on what your team already has.
Self-developed material, or your own. I can facilitate using my own frameworks and content, or step in as a hired facilitator running material your organization already has. Either way, the job is the same: keep the room engaged and moving toward something useful.
Check AvailabilityThe Daily Work
This is where the career development conversation never really stops. Every day, not just Mondays despite the name, I'm talking through real career moments with real people: no corporate script, no generic advice, just the same "what problems do you know how to solve" thinking that runs through all of my coaching and speaking work.
The Books
The stage isn't the only place this shows up.
Volume 4 · compiled by Jen Loving
Heather's first formal publication. She's a featured contributing author in this anthology of speakers writing on leadership, voice, and the moments that changed how they show up.
Get It On AmazonReclaim Your Strengths, Rewrite Your Story, and Build Work You Love
Heather's own book (part memoir, part workbook), built on the same idea that runs through all of her coaching and speaking: you were never assigned a career. You're allowed to design one.
The Podcast
A weekly, unscripted conversation about the real side of work: leadership, workplace culture, and the human stuff that never makes it into a performance review. Heather co-hosts, and yes, it's actually unfiltered.
Boards & Affiliations
Board of Directors · Graphics Manager
Board Member
Secretary, Board of Directors
Board Member
Salt & Light Coalition, Chicago. Beyond board work, Heather volunteers directly as a mentor to staff and "Thrivers": resume development, interview prep, and helping people rebuilding their lives see the transferable skills they already have.
Visit SiteLooking for Heather's professional bio? Board leadership, speaking, advisory work and media inquiries.
Download Executive BioTell me about your event, team, or organization, and let's figure out what makes sense.
