Cynthia Fortlage | Leadership Speaker & Author
Cynthia Fortlage is an award-winning leadership speaker, author and former C-suite executive whose talks explore leadership, dignity, disagreement, identity and how people navigate complexity.
Her work combines lived experience, executive leadership insight and thoughtful challenge to help audiences question assumptions and think differently about how they lead.
Speaking That Moves People
Whether opening a conference, moderating a panel, or leading a leadership conversation, Cynthia creates space for audiences to reflect, question assumptions, and engage with difficult topics in a constructive way.
Her sessions are known for their warmth, clarity, and honesty. Drawing on lived experience and leadership practice, she helps audiences explore the realities of power, belonging, and responsibility in today’s organisations.
Speaking Themes
Signature Event: Acceptance without Understanding™
Cynthia’s signature leadership philosophy explores how people can work effectively across difference without requiring agreement, shared lived experience or the same worldview.
At its heart is a simple principle: understanding and agreement are not prerequisites for recognising another person’s dignity and equal humanity.
In this keynote, Cynthia helps leaders examine what happens when difference, disagreement, uncertainty and competing perspectives enter the room. Rather than asking people to force consensus or avoid difficult conversations, Acceptance without Understanding™ offers a practical way to remain clear, accountable and effective while protecting dignity, trust and psychological safety.
Audiences explore how assumptions shape behaviour, how respect can be maintained when perspectives differ, and how leaders can make decisions without requiring emotional alignment from everyone involved.
The result is a more practical way to navigate complexity: one that supports better conversations, stronger relationships and leadership behaviours that positively influence organisational outcomes.
Audiences leave with:
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A clearer understanding of the difference between acceptance, agreement and understanding
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Practical ways to navigate disagreement without withdrawing dignity or respect
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Greater awareness of how assumptions and behaviour influence trust and decision-making
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A framework for leading effectively when consensus is not possible
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Questions they can take back into their own leadership practice
Leadership in Complexity
Modern leadership requires navigating complexity, disagreement, and rapid change. Cynthia’s talks explore how leaders hold difficult conversations, make responsible decisions, and lead with clarity when the answers are not simple.
Power, Dignity, and Belonging
Organisational culture is shaped by everyday leadership choices. Cynthia explores how power, identity, and belonging influence who feels seen, heard, and able to contribute within teams and institutions.
This theme draws on Cynthia’s work across corporate environments, the national women’s movement, and international LGBTQ+ advocacy.
Psychological Safety in Practice
Psychological safety is often discussed but rarely understood in practice. Cynthia’s talks examine the real behaviours and leadership habits that build trust, accountability, and healthy team dynamics.
Gender and Leadership
Gender continues to shape how leadership is perceived, rewarded and experienced. Cynthia draws on more than 25 years of executive leadership, lived experience across gender, regional and national leadership within the women’s movement in Canada, and ongoing engagement with global conversations including the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She explores how assumptions about credibility, ambition, authority and belonging influence who is seen as leadership material, how behaviour is interpreted, and whose contributions are recognised.
What Audiences Take Away
Cynthia’s talks combine lived experience, leadership insight, and thoughtful challenge. Audiences consistently say they leave with new ways of thinking about leadership, culture, and responsibility.
Audience Outcomes
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Think differently about the assumptions shaping leadership decisions
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Navigate disagreement and difference without withdrawing dignity
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Recognise the behaviours that strengthen or undermine trust
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Leave with practical ideas they can apply immediately
Who Cynthia Speaks For
Cynthia speaks with audiences navigating leadership, culture, and complex social change.
Typical audiences include:
• Executive teams and senior leaders
• Boards and organisational decision-makers
• HR and people leaders
• Employee resource groups and internal leadership networks
• Global conferences and professional associations
• Organisations navigating change, trust, difference, and performance
Workshops and Leadership Conversations
Not every conversation needs a stage. Cynthia also facilitates smaller sessions designed to help leaders explore complex questions in a practical way.
These sessions can include:
• inclusive leadership in practice
• navigating difference and conflict
• gender and leadership conversations
• psychological safety in real teams
Each session is tailored to the audience and organisational context.
Invite Cynthia to Speak
Cynthia speaks at conferences, leadership forums, corporate events, and global conversations on leadership, trust, dignity, and organisational performance.
Speaking engagements can also connect to advisory work, leadership programmes, and organisational development through The Fortlage Collective.
For availability, fees and speaking enquiries, contact Cynthia’s representatives at Chartwell Speakers.
Contributing as a “Human Book” with The Human Library, facilitating open, real-world conversations that challenge assumptions and deepen understanding.
