Lisa Wocken, PhD
Dr. Lisa Wocken is an executive facilitator, leadership coach, and practitioner specializing in creating bespoke leadership development experiences and solutions for Fortune 500 organizations. She is a trained performance neuroscience coach—helping leaders thrive under pressure, align with purpose, and sustainably reclaim their energy. With over 15 years of experience developing senior leaders, she brings a rare combination of scientific rigor, enterprise perspective, and deeply human insight to the future of leadership.
Expanding Possibilities at Every Level
Lisa is the founder of Bolster Leadership, which integrates the latest research in neuroscience and positive psychology into practical, results-driven solutions. She currently partners with organizations like Pentair and Xcel Energy where she trains and designs leadership development programming. She has also done work for great organizations like Target, John Deere, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and Stanford, in addition to the many organizations that send their leaders through Bolster Leadership offerings.
Prior to Bolster Leadership, Lisa led and shaped leadership development at scale. As Global Leadership Development Director at Cargill, she owned enterprise-wide initiatives including digital executive education and manager development programs tied to global transformation efforts—impacting more than 1,100 leaders across 70 countries.
Prior to Cargill, she spent a decade at Target Corporation in executive development, leadership development, and business-facing roles, building a strong foundation in both strategy and human performance.
A differentiated part of her background is her work leading an international research team exploring the future of leadership through emerging models—co-founding a product startup and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) within blockchain-based start-ups since 2020. These insights are integrated into her work, expanding how people see technological disruptions like AI, to understand their human-centered implications.
In addition to her client work, Lisa serves as an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches graduate students on Facilitation Skills and Strategic Planning & Decision-Making. Her doctoral research as part of her PhD in Organizational Leadership centered on Appreciative Inquiry, a strengths-based approach to organizational process and development.
But Lisa’s work is not just built on research and experience—it is rooted in personal transformation.​​
From Overextension to Intentional Performance
Early in her career, she found herself caught in the same pattern many high-performing leaders face:
overextended, constantly “on,” and steadily approaching burnout while trying to do everything well. Rather than accepting that as the cost of success, she turned to the very science she now teaches—applying performance neuroscience and intentional practices to fundamentally change how she works and lives. The result was not just recovery, but a new model of sustainable high performance.
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Among her many experiments, Lisa took an 18-month sabbatical in France to focus on the development of core virtues that can't ever be checked off a list - virtues like patience and presence. This experience transformed her perspective on how humans relate to work and the immense potential that can be unlocked when we function from inspiration versus obligation.
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Her lived experiences now shape how she works with leaders—grounding her approach not only in evidence, but in what truly works under real pressure.
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Lisa holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership, a Master’s in Leadership Development, and is a certified executive coach and trained performance neuroscience coach.
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She lives in Minnesota with her husband and daughter, and is continually energized by travel, language learning, art, and meaningful conversations.
Contact Lisa
In addition to designing and facilitating leadership development programming, Lisa also does keynotes and workshops on topics like Communication, Strategic Agility, and the Future of Work.
952-412-6476