Connection Isn’t a Soft Skill. It’s the Strategy.
Most companies try to fix disconnection with another engagement survey, another platform, or another off-site. None of that works if your leaders don’t know how to see their people. Rachel Mahoney (formerly Rachel DeAlto) gives leaders and teams the behaviors that actually build trust, belonging, and the kind of connection that changes how work gets done.
Here’s what leaders keep getting wrong about human connection: they treat it like a culture perk. A Slack channel. A happy hour. A DEI panel in Q3. That isn’t connection. That’s decoration. And your team can feel the difference.
The tools aren’t the fix either. Remote and hybrid didn’t create disconnection — they just exposed it. You can’t Zoom your way into trust, and you can’t engagement-program your way out of a leader who doesn’t make people feel seen. The false fix is always the same: add a tool, run a survey, hope it works. It doesn’t.
Rachel’s approach is different because it’s built on behavioral science, not inspiration. With a Master’s in Psychology and a JD, she translates decades of research on connection, trust, and belonging into behaviors your leaders can actually repeat on a Tuesday afternoon. Her RELATABLE and SEEN keynotes aren’t lectures — they’re interactive working sessions that send leaders back to their teams with a playbook, not a pep talk. Human connection isn’t a feel-good theme. It’s a leadership skill and a business strategy, and it’s trainable.
ATTENDEES WILL LEARN HOW TO:
Recognize the daily leadership behaviors that signal “I see you” — and the ones that quietly shut people down.
Build psychological safety through consistency, not charisma, so teams speak up before problems become turnover
Use communication patterns that turn everyday check-ins into trust-building moments
Translate human connection into measurable outcomes: retention, engagement, collaboration, and performance
Best For
Leadership conferences, culture summits, HR and people-ops events, sales kickoffs, hybrid and distributed teams, industry associations navigating change.
Key Outcomes
Stronger trust. Higher engagement. More candid teams. Leaders who know exactly what to do differently on Monday morning.
WHY RACHEL ON HUMAN CONNECTION
•Certified Speaking Professional (CSP) — held by fewer than 2% of speakers worldwide
•JD and Master’s in Psychology — behavioral science, not inspiration
•Author of The Relatable Leader and relatable
•Named a Global Guru in Communication
•TEDx speaker, featured on TED.com
•Quoted and featured in 200+ media outlets
69% of U.S. employees are not engaged at work. (Gallup, 2024)
1 in 5 employees worldwide feels lonely at work. And only 18% of highly lonely employees say their manager is doing enough to support their relationships at work. (Harvard Business Review, 2024)
Loneliness increases the risk of premature death by nearly 30% — and it’s draining workplace performance. The U.S. Surgeon General’s 2023 advisory names loneliness a public health crisis that diminishes productivity, performance, and engagement inside organizations. (U.S. Surgeon General, 2023)
