Skip to content

Keynote

The Confidence Advantage: Building Better Teams, One Human at a Time


Margie DuBois, The Thirlby Company, LLC


Confidence is one of the most overlooked skills behind high-performing leaders and healthy, thriving teams. It shapes how we communicate, handle feedback, make decisions, and support one another under pressure.

When confidence is strong, collaboration improves and trust grows. When it’s shaky, even the most talented organizations can struggle with hesitation, conflict, and disengagement—and their ability to achieve their mission suffers. Simply put, confidence isn’t a personality trait; it’s a lifelong skill that directly impacts performance and culture.

This interactive session introduces the 7 Habits of Confident Humans, a behavior-based framework for building emotionally intelligent, self-led individuals at every level of an organization. Grounded in research, the tool helps us identify how our current habits—and the behaviors we observe in others—are influencing team dynamics, shaping culture, and driving results.

You will leave with:

  • A framework for recognizing The 4 Confidence Masks™—the personas insecure employees adopt at work, and how to spot them
  • A clear understanding of the 7 Habits of Confident Humans™ and how they build emotional intelligence at every level
  • Tools to grow your own confidence and coach others on theirs
  • New language to bring into performance conversations and team discussions
  • Access to the Confidence Quiz—a free, behavior-based self-assessment to take home and use with teams

Whether you are a staff member, people leader, or simply curious, this session offers a powerful shift: confidence as a skill you can build—and the foundation for creating healthier, more effective teams. When a room full of nonprofit leaders builds confidence together, we move forward together.

About the presenter

Margie (Thirlby) DuBois helps organizations build confident leaders, emotionally intelligent teams, and cultures where people want to stay.

As a leadership trainer, facilitator, and confidence coach, she blends research-backed tools with practical strategies to teach the human behaviors that drive belonging, performance, and retention. Margie is the creator of the 7 Habits of Confident Humans™ and The Five Star Manager™ frameworks, used by individuals, people leaders, and HR professionals to develop self-led employees who strengthen workplace culture through everyday leadership behaviors. Her trainings, retreats, and coaching programs are known for being interactive, emotionally resonant, and immediately applicable.

With 12 years of executive leadership experience, including leadership roles at Rebuilding Together Seattle and Reading Partners, and with lived experience navigating workplace bullying and cognitive diversity, Margie knows what it means to lead with resilience. Her experiences sparked a lifelong commitment to helping others lead with courage, not fear. Today, she partners with companies across industries to make confidence and human-centered leadership teachable skills and cultural advantages.

You can follow Margie on LinkedIn or on Instagram @margietdubois. Learn more about The Thirlby company at www.thirlbyco.com.