Top Team Building Facilitator List in Your Area
Hiring the right team-building facilitator is like a Michelin-star dining experience. You arrive with a quiet buzz of curiosity, not quite sure what to expect—but that’s part of the thrill. A new experience is waiting for your team members. All they have to do is show up and be open to seeing what unfolds, ready to embrace positive change.
Our goal is to take the load off your event planners with a turnkey experience while fostering common goals among participants. We tailor the experience to the specific needs of the team. Your facilitator will start with a pre-team-building session logistics call. One of our professional facilitators will ask questions to understand who will be in the room—their personalities, past experiences, and the group dynamics at play. This lets us tailor a proven framework to fit your entire team perfectly, ensuring everyone is aligned toward shared objectives.
We’re also experts at warming up your team members and getting the energy flowing in a room. For instance, when we know a remote team is meeting in person for the first time, we’ll kick things off with an activity designed to spark laughter and encourage new conversation. This simple alteration, guided by an external facilitator, helps everyone connect more naturally before diving into the event, strengthening group dynamics and setting the stage for positive change.
Hiring the right external facilitator isn’t a risk, but a strategic investment with lasting impact.
In the following paragraphs, you’ll discover the behind-the-scenes role of a team-building facilitator and why they’re a valuable investment for your team members. Then, we’ll help you decide if you truly need one for a successful event. Finally, we’ll guide you on choosing the right facilitator to leave your team energized, connected, and inspired, ready to pursue common goals together.
Do You Really Need a Skilled Facilitator to Ensure a Successful Team Event?
The main question you have to ask yourself before you decide whether hiring an external facilitator is a good investment is, “What is your capacity?” Can you legitimately take on the role of a facilitator without sabotaging your team’s success?
Take a look at your schedule, tasks, and upcoming deliverables. Is it realistic to add to your plate not only the planning, but also the execution of your next team building session? Do you have the bandwidth– or would taking it on stretch you too thin?
By the way, the biggest drawback to self-facilitating team building programs is that you and your team don’t get to participate yourselves. Those planning the event are like the mom behind the camera– always capturing the moment, but never in the pictures. When you hire a facilitator, you give yourself the gift of creating memories with your team.
If you have the capacity and decide to facilitate the team-building experience yourself, you’ll want to consider the variables at play. If you have 30 or fewer people, chances are you’ll be fine to facilitate on your own with no prior experience. As the group size gets bigger, though, an effective facilitator has essential skills that can really help you. Not because you’re not capable, but with more people comes more responsibility and moving pieces. Not only are you trying to guide people through the experience, but now there’s more energy in the room and potential challenges to navigate.
We find that larger groups require better communication. So if you have 50 people, 100 people, 200 people or more, and you want your entire team to have better outcomes, a corporate team building facilitator is a valuable investment!
Here is a List of Our Best Team Building Facilitators (in Your Area).
Doug Staneart, CEO
Doug Staneart (Dallas) is CEO of The Leaders Institute, LLC ® and has been a speaker, trainer, and keynote speaker for over 20 years and is author of five best-selling books. Doug revolutionized team building when he created a way to combine team development with philanthropic service with the Build-A-Bike ® team building workshop. Under Doug’s direction, The Leaders Institute ® has become one of the largest, most popular, and fastest growing training companies in the world. His style and energy make him one of the most popular speakers in the world.
Amy Maybury, Senior Instructor
Amy Maybury (Dallas) spent over ten years in business management before becoming a professional facilitator, trainer, and keynote speaker with The Leaders Institute ®. Her natural ability to relate to people on a deeper level, extreme attention to detail, and high level of energy make her an excellent candidate to deliver powerful performances with lasting memories. Amy’s clients rave about her relentless energy and how she can make any meeting fun!
Damian Johnson, Senior Instructor
Damian Johnson (Charlotte) is a Senior Instructor for The Leaders Institute, LLC ® and has been a speaker, trainer, and keynote speaker for over 10 years. Damian began his professional career in banking and finance which helped him discover his passion for coaching on personal finance management, leadership development and personal growth.
Chris McNeany, Senior Instructor
Chris McNeany (Los Angeles) has been teaching and coaching in the corporate world for over eight years. He graduated with a B.A. in English, and he started his career teaching English in Ecuador for several years. He also has a background in acting and improvisation through the Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles and has appeared in a number of commercials and movies. His enthusiasm and energy as one of our team building leaders is contagious and his clients give him rave reviews. His diverse background allows him to connect quickly with his audience, and his humor always leaves the group wanting more.
Toby Martini, Senior Instructor
Meet Toby Martini (Tampa), one of our most engaging team building leaders. Well, it’s no joke that straddling the two worlds of business and entertainment made Toby a highly sought after trainer and coach who teaches the skills and challenges of Improv Comedy to corporate CEOs, management and employees. The skills needed to be funny and entertaining are valuable in the business world, as Toby learned first hand while working at several Fortune 500 companies – and as hundreds of graduates of Toby’s workshops will attest.
Scott Hubbard, Senior Instructor
Scott Hubbard (Chicago) is a certified facilitator and career coach. His 10 years of experience in sales and business development gives him a results-oriented approach to training. He studied comedic improvisation at the conservatory at the Second City of Chicago, and he is passionate about bringing “improv” techniques into business settings. Scott has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Purdue University.
Candace Cox, Instructor
Candace Cox (Las Vegas) has 15 years of on-air radio experience, mostly as a traffic and news reporter. Candace has also worked as an on-camera television host, emcee, actor and voice-over talent. Candace’s on-air experience makes her a favorite of audiences because of her humor and energy, and she has successfully transferred these talents to the business world to train other professionals. We are so happy to have her as one of our team building leaders.
Rebecca Rivas, Instructor
Rebecca Rivas (Dallas) discovered her natural aptitude for communication and leadership, excelling as a college athlete. Whether delivering motivational speeches, leading workshops, or engaging in community discussions, she has an unparalleled sense of humor for any group whenever she steps on stage.
Colleen Staneart, Instructor
Colleen Staneart (Dallas) began her career as an entrepreneur when she started her first company, May Array, LLC, while still in High School. She started as an intern with The Leaders Institute while still in college and has since become one of our top consultants and very popular instructor.
Susan Schoenfeld, Instructor
Susan Schoenfeld (Milwaukee) is one of our strongest team building leaders. She has worked as a Professional Development Director at a large law firm, Training Manager in a healthcare organization, Curriculum Designer for a non-profit, and College Professor at several universities. She has been coaching clients, presenting workshops and speaking professionally for over 20 years. With an MA in Communication and experience acting in professional theatre, Susan’s training sessions are dynamic, fun, informative and targeted to the needs of her customer!
Laura Lobo, Instructor
Laura Lobo (Fargo) loves working with people and creating outrageously fun events that result in both learning and meaning. She has spent the last several decades helping individuals and teams improve connections, accelerate response times for problem solving, and prevail in today’s dynamic business landscape. With diverse experiences ranging from global multi-national companies to small entrepreneurial start-ups, Laura also provides executive presence coaching and vocal impact training through Voice Pizazz LLC. She loves to travel and has visited most of the United States and more than 15 countries.
Brett Nelson, Instructor
Brett Nelson (Tampa) is a trainer and executive coach with more than 15,000 hours of live facilitation and coaching experience. He has a background in international finance and was COO Sabrinian Capital and Quantix Partners before becoming a professional speaker. His firsthand experience in leadership and developing team culture make him a very popular facilitator.
Kelsey Greenwood, Instructor
Kelsey Greenwood (Atlanta) is a speaker and author of the book Confronting Conflict. Kelsey began her career amid the melee of a corporate startup. So her specialty is bringing order to chaos. She’s known for her ability to build trust quickly, inspire connection, and encourage a team-oriented attitude toward life.
Ashley Martinez, Instructor
Ashley Chung Martinez (Atlanta) has a professional background in activity leadership and training. She is passionate about bringing people together, creating connections and finding ways to help raise confidence within individuals and teams. When facilitating team-building events, she brings enthusiasm and a positive spirit.
Debbie Brunet, Instructor
Debbie Brunet (San Jose/Santa Cruz) is a seasoned facilitator with over 15 years of facilitation and team-building experience. Since 2017, she has facilitated corporate team building in the San Francisco Bay Area. Using her background in communication and experiential education, Debbie creates fun and meaningful workshops that warm connections within every team she works with.
Heather Archer, Instructor
Heather Archer (Washington DC) has worked as a Workshop Facilitator for over 30 years and her training motto is: “The more we laugh, the better we can learn.” Her ability to find the human and the humor, even while presenting on the “hard” topics allows participants to better engage in the new information and with each other. Heather is a Certified Master Trainer through the Association of Talent Development (ATD), as well as currently holding Facilitator Certifications for MBTI, DiSC, and True Colors.
Leslie Seiler, Instructor
Leslie Seiler (Los Angeles) has been a workshop facilitator and instructor for over fifteen years. She was a successful movie actress before being recruited by the iconic comedy theater, The Second City, to teach comedy improvisation to their corporate clients. Leslie truly believes that joy and collaboration are powerful tools to building successful, cohesive and enduring teams while unlocking new doors to innovation. She is also Canadian, but don’t let that scare you. It just means she may pronounce some words a little differently and she has accepted her hockey team (The Toronto Maple Leafs) will (probably) never win a Stanley Cup.
Eric Molin, Instructor
Eric Molin (Vienna, Austria) is an international public speaking coach who has taught training programs and team building activities across Europe and the US for over a decade. He has trained over 3000 people coming from a wide range of professional backgrounds on how speak better in front of an audience with less anxiety, and clearly and confidently deliver a call to action which gets them the results they need.
Send our leadership team building instructors a message below to request an event or an instructor.
Thank you for taking the time to learn more about our amazing team building leaders.
