Good work starts with good relationships.
I help leaders strengthen their teams so the relational load gets lighter and the work moves better. Through workshops, programs, and leader support that build the capability to handle complexity, conflict, and change.
Most of the leaders I work with describe some version of the following:
A capable team is not working as well as it should.
Trust has weakened, and people are holding back.
Hard issues are not being addressed directly.
The same problems keep showing up under different names.
Decisions and alignment are taking too much effort.Ownership and peer accountability are uneven.
When leaders bring me in
Every organization tracks operational risk and financial risk as a matter of course. There are functions for it, budgets for it, board reports about it. Relational risk — the breakdowns between people that quietly slow decisions, drain trust, and push good people toward the door — sits outside that frame. It is rarely named. Almost never measured. By the time it surfaces in attrition numbers, missed targets, or a team that has stopped speaking honestly to one another, the cost has been compounding for months. It deserves the same attention the other risk categories already get.
How I help leaders and teams
Team sessions
For teams ready to see how they work together and what becomes possible from there.
A facilitated session built around the Relational IQ Assessment. The team sees its own collective pattern, recognizes where the strengths and the risks live, and leaves with specific practices that make the work move more easily and the relationships hold under pressure.
Main Stage Talks
Maria shifts the way we see work and ourselves in it.
From the main stage to boardrooms she leaves leaders and teams with fresh insight and what’s possible when we love our work.
Leader Support
Exceptional leadership is relational work.
Maria works one-to-one with senior leaders to expand perspective and strengthen presence, equipping them to lead with clarity and steadiness through what is now and what is next.
Meet Maria
Maria deBruijn is an author, speaker, and facilitator who helps leaders move understanding from a value into a practice. With her book Understood and her pioneering Relational IQ framework, Maria works with organizations and women leaders across Canada and internationally. Learn more about Maria.
Testimonials
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I super enjoyed our time together and look forward to sharing my intentional leadership plans/reflections in the months to come. Thank you for all your probing questions and for helping me to lean into my strengths while developing a ton of intention around how I want to continue to show up. I feel like I gained a ton of skills and tools and appreciated all your time and efforts to shift as the moment's called :)
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Maria is an inclusive leader who clearly communicates objectives and facilitates team members to achieve success and thereby leads the team to achieve its goals.
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Last week, I had the privilege of joining our leadership team for a transformative workshop with Maria deBruijn, author of UNDERSTOOD: The Greatest Human Need and the Key to Engagement. It was a stunning fall day—made even more beautiful by the thoughtful conversations, reflective activities, and the incredible people I got to share it with. Thank you, Maria deBruijn , for guiding us through such meaningful reflection.
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We had Maria facilitate a half day session for 12 of our leaders at a company offsite. Maria exceeded our expectations. The session provided helpful frameworks on each person's working style, how to manage conflict, and facilitated a discussion on how we could better work together as a team. I would gladly work with Maria again and would recommend her to others looking for professional support in bolstering your leadership team!