Javier Llerena 🇺🇸🇪🇸

Distinguished Fellow Coach 

I empower leaders to cultivate team dialogues that foster confidence, collaboration, and psychological safety.

Is your team feeling disconnected, stuck in silos, or playing it too safe to innovate?

You’re not alone—and you don’t have to fix it alone.

I’m Javier Llerena, Executive Facilitator and Leadership Coach at Re-Invent Consulting. I help leaders like you build teams that trust each other, communicate openly, and innovate with purpose.

With 30+ years of executive leadership experience, I know how hard it is to align people, manage change, and keep teams engaged—especially in hybrid or high-growth environments. That’s why my workshops are designed with you and for you, blending proven frameworks, real connection, and powerful facilitation that move teams from friction to flow.

Here’s what we’ll achieve together:

🔹 Build trust and open communication
🔹 Strengthen collaboration and decision-making
🔹 Ignite creativity and innovation
🔹 Align your team around a shared vision and clear goals

From nonprofits to Fortune 500s, I’ve helped organizations transform their culture—creating spaces where people feel safe, heard, and motivated to lead boldly.

If you’re planning a leadership retreat, launching a new team, or need to reset your culture, let’s create a transformational experience that sticks.

📩 jllerena@re-invent.consulting
🌐 www.re-invent.consulting
📅 Book a Clarity Call: https://meetings.hubspot.com/llerena/discovery-call-

Professional Development Facilitator ►Leadership and Mental Fitness Coach► Workshop Creator

WHAT I DO: As a Transformational Leadership Development expert and a virtual facilitator experience maker, I help leaders and organizations create positive change! It’s that simple. My objective is to help leaders optimize their mission and maximize their growth by increasing profit, employee retention, ongoing sustainability while creating a positive company culture shift.

WHY IT MATTERS: 💥 Positive organizational change creates internal best practices, bringing together resources that initiate change within an organization. Improving these processes can be the key to unlocking the potential for your organization.

Such changes improve staff morale, levels of engagement, and communication, which all lends itself to a positive environment of productivity, effective processes, and higher retention of employees. This can be applied for the individual level all the way to the system (organization,)

 MY STORY: 👤 I am a passionate and resilient entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in bringing out the best in individuals and driving organizations to exponential growth. I thrive on coaching and facilitating inquiry-based conversations with individuals and groups that lead to endless positive changes in their organization. I am always learning new techniques and partnering with fellow consultants, coaches, and transformational facilitators to create a movement of cutting-edge organizations.

HOW IT WORKS: We start with a complimentary strategic session via Zoom to discuss your needs. We provide a detailed review of your current challenges, opportunities, and aspirations. We offer strategies for exponential outcomes regarding identity, resilience, and peer and systems change.

READY TO TALK? 

☎ Reach out to me directly on LinkedIn or email me at jllerena@re-invent.consulting

Javier Llerena 🪄

Fabletics

Head of Global Learning & Leadership Development

FranklinCovey

FranklinCovey’s flagship “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” and a range of leadership and executive coaching programs are presented internationally through more than 100 world-class leadership consultants. 

I am contracted by the Enterprise Consulting team and am certified to deliver 6 core programs in 1-to-5-day sessions. I have led workshops and sessions for global clients such as the US Navy and US Marines, RedHat, and Texas A&M, and helped generate more than $500K in revenue in my first year.

Senior Leadership Consultant

BetterUp

I began executive coaching by working part-time on the side for BetterUp, and outstanding virtual coaching platform with 3,000 coaches who work with leaders from Fortune 1000 companies such as Meta, Google, Salesforce and others. In my time there, I developed a specialty coaching people of color and minorities.

Executive Coach

Rain

The Chief People Officer (and my former boss) recruited me to Rain, a Series A fintech platform that gives employees instant access to their earned wages before payday, I supported employee onboarding and employee development for 300 people globally in a time of hypergrowth. 

I established and led talent programs, from hiring and onboarding to termination, including coaching our global HR Business Partner teams to adapt for their locations. We built out the global onboarding program, weekly L&D sessions, the performance management ecosystem, and the employee engagement strategy. 

I pioneered weekly masterclass webinars to share cross-team knowledge, attended by up to 250 people every week, worked with senior leadership to co-create the evolution of company culture 2.0, and built the global HR community with bi-weekly meetings across APAC, EMEA, Brazil, and the US.

Director, Global Talent Development

GumGum

GumGum needed an interim head of P&C to take over while the Head of P&C went to Europe for an extended time to manage an M&A. I stepped in and led a team including 3 HRBPs and the HR Center of Excellence. 

I was able to implement high-impact initiatives including establishing an internal community, annual reviews, and DEI, revamped HR metrics and compensation planning, and also served as the HRBP for the 150-person Sales and Operations team.

HR Consultant - Head of People & Culture and HR Business Partner

FabFitFun

When the pandemic changed the world and led to layoffs at FFF, my role shifted to building a value-focused, performance-driven culture for our new smaller team. I was a key member of the Global People Leadership team, and was able to raise our employee engagement Total Motivation rating past the benchmark for the industry. 

I initiated the company’s first 1:1 leadership coaching program, rolled out an on boarding process for 300+new hires, and led the transition to global remote on boarding, with a 100% satisfaction rating.

Director of Performance & Engagement

FabFitFun is a subscription lifestyle and E-Commerce company that was in hypergrowth phase when I was recruited to lead the high-performing Learning and Organizational Development team. 

I co-created FabFitFun Leadership Principles, delivered the first manager development program and an in-person foundational program for first line and aspiring managers.

Director of Learning & Organizational Development

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Digital Ventures

BCG Digital Ventures (aka BCG X) is BCG’s corporate investment and incubation firm that invents, builds, invests in, and launches category-changing digital products at startup speeds for some of the world’s best companies. They recruited me as an army of one to build a Learning & Organizational Development function from the ground up. 

I implemented a transformational, immersive Onboarding Boot Camp for hires across the globe, created the first career and L&D frameworks for the businesses’ key roles, designed a new health-check tool for all venture teams, and launched the first Manager Development Program.

Learning & Organizational Development Manager

Infineon Technologies

Led end-to-end Talent Management and launched a Technical Ladder giving 1,000 engineers a clear vision for development.

Manager, Talent Management

Prior to International Rectifier being acquired by German competitor Infineon, I built a learning culture by analyzing areas in L&D where we could enhance employee performance.

Manager, Global Learning and Development

My first job with International Rectifier had me streamlining the company’s six separate Learning Management Systems and processes globally.

Analyst, Global Learning and Development

People & Culture Executive | Coach | Speaker

I believe that successful and ambitious companies must focus on empowering and developing their people and creating their culture, and the sooner you build the structure for that, the better. 

I build scalable people operations and leadership development programs for fast-moving startups and established companies including BCG X, BCG Consulting’s innovation arm; lifestyle subscription company FabFitFun; and fintech Rain Technologies during a time of global hypergrowth. Today, I’m excited to lead learning and leadership development for innovative lifestyle and sportswear company Fabletics.

On the side, I’m also a senior consultant, coach, workshop facilitator, and speaker for renowned global leadership development company FranklinCovey, as well as an executive coach for BetterUp where I support Fortune 1000 executives one-on-one in being their best and most authentic selves. 

My passion for maximizing human potential was born from a near-death experience while I was surfing, which triggered the realization that climbing a corporate ladder means nothing if you are not helping others be their best, and this has been what drives me since that moment.

With an Executive Masters in Organizational Psychology & Change Leadership from Columbia University and many certifications from PMP to SHRM-SCP (2024), I’m a systems thinker, a builder of collaborative communities, a specialist in organizational effectiveness, navigating change and growth, and performance management, and in using evidence-based frameworks and tools to create lasting impact.

My People Development toolbox is broad, including building and managing high-performing global HR teams, designing organizations and culture for growth, learning and development programs for every level, designing and leading top-rated trainings and workshops, and one-on-one performance coaching for executives and managers. 

On the People Operations side, I do workforce planning and headcount modeling; oversee HR operations, HRBPs, and HRIS; use data to make HR decisions, oversee compensation and benefits; performance management and employee engagement; change management, recruitment, employee relations, succession planning, diversity and inclusion; and HR compliance.

I am always growing my network, so if you would like to connect or if there is any way I can help you, please feel free to reach out.

William Feng

7 Signs of a Healthy Team:

Most teams work hard.

But healthy teams work better.

Healthy teams don’t just happen.
They’re built intentionally, consistently, and with care.

Here are 7 signs your team is on the right track 👇

1️⃣ Psychological Safety
↳ People speak up without fear.
↳ Ideas flow, and mistakes become learning.

2️⃣ Clear Goals & Roles
↳ Everyone knows who’s doing what, by when, and why.
↳ Clarity beats confusion every time.

3️⃣ Healthy Conflict
↳ Debate is welcome.
↳ It’s about ideas, not egos.

4️⃣ Trust in Decision-Making
↳ Alignment beats consensus.
↳ People trust leaders to move forward.

5️⃣ Celebrating Small Wins
↳ Recognition fuels momentum.
↳ Every win counts—big or small.

6️⃣ Continuous Learning
↳ Growth is not left to chance.
↳ Great teams invest in team workshops and offsites to reconnect, recharge, and realign.

7️⃣ Support and Care
↳ Teammates check in, not just check boxes.
↳ Empathy is part of how the team works.

💡 These seven signs are what healthy teams feel like.
They show up at work, in team meetings, and especially during offsites, when people have space to learn and grow together.

Which one does your team need more of right now? 👇comment below.

---
♻️ Repost to spark better conversations about what healthy teams actually look like.
👋 I’m Will—sharing real talk on leadership, team growth, and people-first strategy. Follow for more.

William Feng, SHRM-SCP

Your Growth, My Mission | People & AI Enablement | Keynotes & Team Offsites | Follow for Leadership, Culture & AI at Work

Most leaders think they're good listeners.

They're not.

And their teams know it.

Real listening isn't waiting for your turn to talk.

It's not nodding while mentally planning your response.

It's not checking your phone between sentences.

👉 Real listening is the foundation of psychological safety.

And without it, you're building on sand.

After 18 years of working with teams,
I keep seeing the same pattern:

The strongest teams aren't led by the loudest voices.

They're led by the best listeners.

Leaders who check in regularly.
Leaders who notice what's not being said.
Leaders who get curious instead of defensive.

When you listen well and check in consistently,
you create:

• Early warning systems before problems explode
• Space for ideas that could save months of work
• Trust that makes hard conversations possible

Listening is different than most skills:

It's a practice, not a trait.

Every conversation is a choice.
Listen fully, or signal that speaking up isn't worth the risk.

This week, try this:

Pick one person on your team.
Check in with them.

Ask one simple question:

👉 "What's one thing I should know that I'm probably not seeing?"

Then do the hard part:

Don't fill the silence.
Don't defend your position.
Don't rush to solve.

Just listen.

Because psychological safety isn't built in grand gestures.

It's built when someone speaks up and actually feels heard.

------
♻️ Repost if you believe listening builds better leaders.
👋 I'm Will—sharing practical insights on leadership, team growth, and people-first strategy. Follow for more.

No alternative text description for this image

Most people think leadership is about speaking clearly.

But that misses the point.

That's why so many leaders talk right past their teams.

The most underrated leadership skill isn't talking.

It's listening.

And it's listening to understand, not to respond.

Empathic listening is what makes people feel heard, builds trust, and strengthens connection.

Here are 5 ways to listen empathically (and lead better):

1/ Pause Before Responding
→ Give yourself 3 seconds after someone finishes.
→ Let their words land before you react.

2/ Listen for Emotion
→ Pay attention to what's behind the words.
→ Feelings matter as much as facts.

3/ Reflect What You Hear
→ Repeat back what they said in your own words.
→ 'So what I'm hearing is you're worried about the timeline, not the approach itself.'
→ It shows you're truly listening.

4/ Ask to Go Deeper
→ Use questions like "Tell me more"
→ Clarify by asking "What do you mean by X?"

5/ Put Your Agenda Aside
→ Stop planning your response while they're speaking.
→ Be fully present in the moment.

When you practice these, conversations go deeper and trust grows faster.

Great leadership isn't about having all the answers.
It's about making people feel heard, seen, and understood.

Which one will you practice in your next conversation?

------
♻️ Repost to help more leaders listen better.
👋 I'm Will—sharing practical insights on leadership, team growth, and people-first strategy. Follow for more.

5 years ago, I watched one of our best people quit.

She was the best communicator and marketing expert. Always creating and connecting dots others missed.

She could turn complex ideas into campaigns that actually moved people.

But her manager kept assigning her repetitive admin tasks and data analysis.

"We need someone reliable," he'd say.

She wasn't unreliable. She was a creative thinker stuck doing data entry and analysis.

When she resigned, she told me:
"I don't think he ever saw what I was good at."

That moment stuck with me and taught me something critical:

People don't leave jobs. They leave environments where their talents go unseen and their strengths unused.

The best teams don't just acknowledge strengths. They put them to work every single day.

Since then, I've learned three things about strengths:

Help people learn their strengths, they get clarity.
Help people use their strengths, they build confidence.
Help people own their strengths, they create momentum.

That's when real performance happens.

I created The 5 Habits of High-Performing Teams guide to help you develop your teams and unlock their strengths.

Real practices and tools:
https://lnkd.in/g7bHKx65

Stop missing their genius.
Start unlocking their strengths.

Every achievement happens twice.

First in your mind.
Then in reality.

I've facilitated The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People for many years.

And this principle, Begin with the End in Mind, is the one leaders skip most often.

They jump straight to execution.
They react instead of design.
They build without blueprints.

The difference is clear:

👉 The leaders who visualize first, execute better.

They see the outcome before the work starts.
They align their team around a shared picture.
They make decisions that move toward something, not away from problems.

Visualization isn't woo-woo.

It's strategic clarity.

When you can see the end state (the culture you want, the results you're after, the team dynamic you're building), you make smarter choices today.

You stop firefighting.
You start designing.

Most leaders are too busy to think.

But thinking is the work.

The mental creation comes first.
The physical creation follows.

If you skip the first, the second becomes chaos.

Start your next project with 5 minutes of visualization.

Picture the outcome.
Feel what success looks like.
Then build toward that.

Everything is created twice.

Make sure the first creation is intentional.

------
♻️ Repost if you're ready to create instead of react.
👋 I'm Will—sharing practical insights on leadership, team growth, and people-first strategy. Follow for more.

Many leaders get feedback wrong.

They think it’s about delivering feedback.

But real feedback isn’t a speech.

👉 It’s a conversation.

Because feedback isn’t just about what you say,
it’s about what the other person hears, feels, and takes away.

If you want feedback to actually drive growth:

✅ Ask before you tell.
→ “Can I share an observation with you?”

✅ Listen before you fix.
→ Sometimes people don’t need answers, they need space to think.

✅ Explore together.
→ “What do you think could work better next time?”

✅ End with ownership.
→ The best feedback conversations end with their plan, not your advice.

When feedback becomes a two-way dialogue,
it shifts from being something we fear
to something that fuels growth.

Which one will you practice with your team this week?

------
♻️ Repost to help more teams grow together.
👋 I’m Will - here to help you lead better, grow people, and build real trust at work. Follow for more.

The rising leaders aren't the smartest in the room.

They just never stopped learning.

The leader who thinks they've mastered it all?

Same problems. Same results. Year after year.

What worked last quarter might not work today.
What you learned in your degree is already evolving.

Keep learning.
Or get left behind.

I spend hours every week learning new things:
- reading books and listening to podcasts
- testing AI tools for innovation
- staying curious about what's next

Nobody's forcing me to do this.

It's just how I stay relevant.

The second you think you've figured it all out is when things start getting harder.

Continuous learning isn't just about you. The best leaders build learning into their teams. They create environments where growth becomes the norm.

I've broken down the 5 habits these team leaders use to build learning into their culture.

Become one of them:
https://lnkd.in/g7bHKx65

I spent years waiting for the 'right time' to invest in my team's development.
Spoiler: It never came.

I see it everywhere.

Leaders want to invest in development.
They know it matters.
They've read the research.

But when Monday hits, the urgent drowns out the important.

Every single time.

Here's what happens:

- The fire drill becomes the culture.
- The whirlwind becomes normal.
- Development gets pushed to "next quarter."

And your best people start looking elsewhere.

Because here's the truth:

People don't leave jobs where they're learning.

They leave jobs where they're stuck in survival mode.

High-performing teams do something different.

They protect space for learning like it's sacred.

Not someday.
Not when things calm down.
Right now, in the middle of the chaos.

Here's how:

• Block 2 hours every other week for team development
• Make it non-negotiable (like your leadership meetings)
• Focus on one skill that solves a real problem
• Let people practice, not just listen

The teams that do this handle the fires faster.

They prevent more problems.
They keep their top talent.

The teams that don't stay stuck in the same cycle.

Different year, same fires.

------
♻️ Repost if you're tired of busy.
👋 I'm Will—sharing practical insights on leadership, team growth, and people-first strategy. Follow for more.

Most leaders think AI will replace people skills. They're about to get left behind. Tomorrow at 10am PT, I'm breaking down:

- Why people skills matter more in an AI world
- The L&D playbook for leading AI transformation
- How to get exec buy-in

Join me and the Life Labs Learning team: https://lnkd.in/gEpaCP5S

People skills matter even more in the age of AI. Grateful for the chance to join Priscila Bala at LifeLabs Learning next week for a great conversation!

Helping Leaders Perform at their Best, Organizational Growth Accelerator, Business Development and Partnership Strategist

HR Leaders - Staying competitive means developing human intelligence alongside artificial intelligence. Join us for after the holiday on 12/3 as we chat with William Feng, SHRM-SCP, Global Head of Learning & Leadership Development at Fabletics, to share the best ways to make a compelling case for people skills in an increasingly automated world.  Hope to see you there! LifeLabs Learning

https://bit.ly/4rjyqhV

Open article: L&D Labs: Getting Buy-In for People Skills in the Age of AI by bit.ly

L&D Labs: Getting Buy-In for People Skills in the Age of AI

Last week, I was invited as a guest speaker for a webinar on AI and leadership development. The conversation sparked an important realization:

AI won't replace your people.

But people who use AI will replace those who don't.

Here's the shift every L&D leader needs to make now:

AI and people development aren't separate conversations anymore. They're the same conversation.

The companies winning with AI aren't just deploying better technology. They're developing better humans to use it.

Four human skills unlock AI's full potential:

1/ Curiosity to explore what's possible
2/ Adaptability to evolve with the technology
3/ Team Learning to share discoveries
4/ Discernment to know when AI helps (like using it for first drafts, not final decisions)

L&D's role has evolved into three critical functions:

→ Enabler: Give people the tools and access
→ Facilitator: Create spaces for experimentation
→ Process Consultant: Help teams integrate AI into workflows

The truth?
AI is a leadership multiplier.

I've seen this firsthand at Fabletics. Leaders who use AI to automate routine tasks free up time for coaching.

Those who don't? They're drowning in admin work while their teams wait for feedback.

AI amplifies good leadership and exposes weak leadership. It accelerates strong teams and reveals dysfunction in struggling ones.

Your action item this week:

Start using AI daily.
Not tomorrow.
Not next quarter. Today.

Pick one task. Draft an email. Summarize meeting notes. Create a training outline. Use AI to complete it.

Reflect on what worked and what didn't.

Then teach someone else what you learned.

Because scaling AI starts with scaling people.

------
♻️ Report if this resonates
👋 Follow Will Feng for more on AI L&D.
P.S. Big thanks to NotebookLM for creating the summary image for this post.

Most teams are too busy chopping wood to sharpen the saw.

Your team is grinding through projects.
Hitting deadlines.
Putting out fires.

But when's the last time you stopped to grow together?

People work harder, not smarter.
People burn out because there's no space to learn.

A dull saw takes more effort and delivers worse results.

The best teams create space to sharpen together.

Not another Zoom training.
Not death by PowerPoint.

Real workshops and offsites where people:

- Build trust through shared experiences
- Learn skills they'll actually use
- Connect as humans, not just coworkers

When teams sharpen the saw, they work faster.
Collaboration improves.
And people actually stay.

Because your team deserves more than busy.

They deserve better.

Start small:

1/ Block 90 minutes this quarter for your team to learn something new together.
2/ Have one person teach a skill they're great at to the rest of the team.
3/ Replace one status meeting with a 'what did you learn this week?' conversation.

Not a meeting.
Not a training deck.
Real time to sharpen the saw.

------
♻️ Repost if you're tired of busy.
👋 I'm Will—sharing practical insights on leadership, team growth, and people-first strategy. Follow for more.

taplio

The Battle

Javier Llerena 🪄

William Feng

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreWilliam Feng's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Javier Llerena 🪄

William Feng

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}William Feng's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreWilliam Feng's LinkedIn Performance