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Kathryn Preston
Dr. Kathryn Preston helps organizations uncover the hidden perception errors that stall team communication and decision-making. A TEDx speaker on team dynamics and leadership, Kathryn draws on her healthcare background and has been featured in Fortune and Fast Company.
Dr. Kathryn Preston is a TEDx speaker, corporate leadership strategist, and workplace communications consultant who helps teams spot the hidden assumptions that shape how they talk, work together, and make decisions.
Kathryn began her career as a special needs healthcare provider in complex hospital care teams and went on to teach at university level before moving into full-time speaking, training, and coaching. She now researches, trains, and publishes on team dynamics, and her insights have been featured in Fortune and Fast Company. Her audiences span healthcare, home appliances, human resources, technology, and logistics.
Kathryn's work starts from a simple premise: people respond to their perception of reality, and those perceptions are often wrong. Drawing on social science, she shows leaders how perception errors such as pluralistic ignorance decide whether people speak up, which ideas get shared, and what gets decided. She pairs that with critical thinking techniques teams can use straight away, alongside her work on confident communication, motivation, and navigating fear during change.
Audiences leave able to recognize the perception errors in themselves and their teams, challenge assumptions before they drive decisions, and create conditions where people communicate openly. Event planners often mention how closely she tailors each session to their organization and how much time she spends with attendees.
Book Kathryn for a frank, interactive session that gives leaders tools they'll keep using long after the event.
Topics, sessions and talks
Clear communication underpins high-performing teams and strong client relationships, yet many professionals hold back ideas or struggle to land them with confidence. Kathryn Preston shares practical strategies for building confidence and clarity, drawing on her research into team dynamics to show leaders and teams how to articulate ideas persuasively, invite collaboration, and speak up when it matters. Audiences leave with tools to communicate with authority, build trust, and turn conversations into meaningful action.
Conventional motivation techniques rarely create lasting engagement. Kathryn Preston breaks down common misconceptions about what motivates people at work and replaces them with evidence-based strategies that drive performance and strengthen team culture. By looking at what leads individuals and teams to excel, she gives leaders practical methods to boost engagement, improve retention, and build an environment where people thrive. Organizations come away with a clearer, more reliable approach to motivation that holds up long after the session ends.
Fear holds individuals and teams back from innovation and growth. Kathryn Preston explores the psychological impact of fear on workplace culture and leadership, and offers strategies to navigate uncertainty, build trust, and strengthen resilience. Through storytelling and actionable insights, she helps professionals embrace change, find sustainable motivation, and create conditions where creativity and collaboration drive long-term success. Audiences leave ready to treat obstacles as opportunities for growth, both in themselves and across their teams.
Workplace relationships between women can shape career progression and leadership opportunities, yet the dynamics at play are rarely discussed. Kathryn Preston examines how competition, unconscious bias, and workplace culture affect collaboration and professional growth within female teams. Taking a direct, practical approach, she gives women strategies to break unhealthy patterns, build genuine support networks, and create environments where collective success takes priority over rivalry. Audiences leave with a clearer view of what it means to champion each other at work.
People respond to their perception of reality rather than reality itself, and those perceptions rest on assumptions nobody stops to check. Based on her TEDx talk, Kathryn Preston shows how pluralistic ignorance and other perception errors form inside teams, shaping who speaks up, which ideas surface, and what gets decided. This interactive keynote or workshop uses practical critical thinking techniques so leaders and teams can challenge assumptions, communicate openly, and reach stronger solutions together.
Testimonials
often considered together
Amy Eliza Wong
Trust
Change Management
Dealing With Pressure
Andy Edwards
Behavioural Science
Relationships
Company Culture
Pamela Barnum
Communication
Effective Leadership
Influence
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Dr. Kathryn Preston pairs frank, relatable storytelling from her years in hospital care teams with interactive critical thinking exercises, and tailors each session to the client's brand and objectives through planning conversations beforehand.
Dr. Kathryn Preston specializes in perception errors and team dynamics, critical thinking, confident communication for teams and leaders, motivation and high-performing team culture, and navigating fear and change. She is a TEDx speaker and former healthcare provider in complex hospital care teams whose insights on team dynamics have been featured in Fortune and Fast Company.
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The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
