Caroline Maguire

No two brains are alike. We think, learn and work in different ways—and neurological differences, whether ADHD, autism spectrum disorders or even dyslexia, offer both challenges and gifts to any organization. There is no doubt neurodiverse people are talented with unique strengths that spur innovation. Neurodiversity offers a new competitive advantage for exceptional performance, but only if employees can thrive in the organization's culture. Building a connected culture requires creating an inclusive, encouraging environment where social norms, communication and daily interactions help nurture people’s unique gifts and create safety to encourage risk-taking. From the break room to zoom meetings, we all make assumptions about each other, but these assumptions are often unfounded and can keep us apart. In this talk, social skills expert Caroline Maguire explores how observing, noticing, pausing and challenging our own assumptions in simple everyday interactions can change the culture of your organization. Caroline offers practical strategies to help each member of the organization gain more understanding about supporting a neurodiverse workforce, foster more thoughtful communication about differences, and share diverse perspectives that can lead to greater collaboration and innovation. 

As neurodiversity has risen in awareness, most schools have worked diligently to support the needs of all students who may be considered “atypical.” Yet the truth remains that learning differences and preferences in a classroom setting can be a lot to manage with limited resources and support staff. The answer to this challenge doesn't lie in giving teachers “one more thing to do.” It lies in teaching students the social skills needed to thrive—how to make friends, communicate with others, and increase their emotional intelligence. Confidence, resilience and belonging stem from student’s belief that they have one caring adult to lean on, they possess the skills they need to strive toward their goals, and that they are connected and supported by their community. Caroline Maguire aims to help educators understand the needs of neurodivergent students, including an understanding of how they see the world and the accommodations needed to nurture this gifted population. In this talk, Caroline will demonstrate simple strategies to teach all students to communicate more effectively, to understand their impact on others, to work more collaboratively, to improve problem solving, and to bolster self-advocacy. Through this talk, educators will learn how to weave improved social-emotional communication techniques for all students into daily lessons without any additional preparations. 

“Why Will No One Play with Me?”—a question every parent fears having to answer, yet one that has become more prevalent with each generation. Whether you are the parent of a child with learning differences, social integration issues, one that is a victim of bullying or even the parent of a child navigating the seemingly simple process of growing up, there has never been a greater need for a go-to resource that provides parents with the tools to help their children navigate the challenges of social interactions. In this talk, Caroline introduces audiences to the tools they need to become their child’s (or student’s) social skills coach. Through step-by-step guidance, parents and educators will learn how to help others build social skills, use positive social behaviors, and become social problem-solvers. Caroline will demonstrate the coaching process for participants, so they can apply coaching techniques at home, in the classroom, or anywhere needed most. By practicing and using open-ended questions, reflective listening, and praise and prompts, the audience will prepare to become their child’s social skills coach.

Let’s face it – it’s frustrating when you witness others, especially your own children, doing and saying things that can make them seem rude or insensitive. In this guided talk, Caroline will present techniques proven to help those diagnosed with ADHD to learn how to recognize other people’s point of view (perspective taking), gain greater social self-awareness, change the messages they telegraph to other people, self-evaluate their behavior, and adapt their behavior depending on the unspoken rules, context, people and situation, in order to develop and improve their perspective taking skills. Participants will leave with step-by-step techniques to address tone, unexpected social behavior, misguided humor, continual monologue, and other common ADHD social challenges that often make individuals seem insensitive or rude.

You keep hiring individuals who excel at the technical aspects of their job, but inevitably leave after 12 to 18 months, taking productivity out the door. Want to know why? Culture fit! 81% of people are fired over soft skills such as emotional intelligence, coachability, social skills and temperament. Emotionally intelligent people outperform employees without soft skills 70% of the time. Retention is costly, and it is crucial that technical contributors succeed. Studies have found that employees with low emotional intelligence have more personality conflicts and have a harder time with organizational change. The costly merry-go-round of losing valuable players who lack interpersonal skills and cannot seem to integrate is a pervasive yet solvable problem that requires a very different approach than HR is historically accustomed to. The traditional “feedback sandwich” of telling someone to “be less direct” or “they may want to think about being softer” is not a one size fits all approach. Caroline Maguire reveals the brain-based reasons why and what you can do about it. In this talk, Caroline introduces the four “Archetypes of Awkwardness” and explains how managers should approach each individual differently. She will give your managers specific tools that they can use to identify the key gaps their employees have and how to coach accordingly. Most importantly, managers will leave with the conviction that they CAN coach employees through these challenges and rescue high-performing but isolated contributors from walking out the door when they just “aren’t the right fit”.