Shari Elle logoShari Elle
Shari Elle
The Living Work

Leading with
connection
changes everything

Leadership and family transformation with Shari Elle.

Enquire about family work →Register for Leading with Connection
Trusted in demanding rooms
Commonwealth BankCSIROPwCSydney WaterNSW GovernmentVideri AustraliaWellways
Shari Elle smiling
About Shari

Thirty years at the heart of high-stakes rooms

Shari Elle works at the heart of high-stakes human dynamics. She was one of the four original trainers to bring Nonviolent Communication to Australia. Over thirty years, she has taught more than ten thousand people, worked with leaders and teams within organisations including CommBank, CSIRO, PwC, Sydney Water, the NSW Department of Housing, and Bridgestone Australia, and supported families of significant wealth through the conversations that shape a legacy.

Her method is The Living Work. It is not a communication technique. It is a practical, embodied practice that changes how you show up and understand everything that is going on: in the boardroom, in the business, at the dinner table.

Based between Sydney and the Sunshine Coast

30+Years in practice
10,000+People taught
1 of 4Original NVC trainers in Australia
Ways to work

Shari works in two areas

Shari guiding a leader through a process

For leaders and founders

What is your team not saying?

Your leadership commitment is strong. And still, around you, what is unsaid is quietly draining time, trust and energy: the meetings that go nowhere, the feedback nobody quite gives, the conversations you and your team are avoiding, the good people who have gone quiet.

Read more +Read less −

You have done the books and the retreats, and you know the next edge isn't another framework. It is what happens between the humans in your rooms.

Step 1

Start in the room where the work is taught: Leading with Connection, a two-day foundation intensive.

Step 2

Supported integration: A four-month program for leaders ready to make this who they are, not just what they know. Stand-alone 1:1 coaching is also available.

Start with the workshop →
Shari Elle presenting to a training group beside a projector screen

For families of wealth and legacy

Whose relationships carry it forward?

The greatest risk to your family's business and wealth isn't financial. It is the quality of the relationships entrusted to carry it forward.

Read more +Read less −

Succession, inheritance, business performance, entrusted roles, the in-laws who don't get the vision, the conversations everyone has been avoiding: these don't resolve themselves, and legal structures alone don't hold them.

This is more than wealth planning or legacy. This is also about the actual operations of family businesses and trusts where multiple generations are involved.

And all of this shows up when you want to celebrate being with your family, the people you love. The conflicts and challenges can play out across generations within business operations and family dynamics.

This work begins privately, with a confidential exploratory conversation.

Enquire about family work →
The Method

Most approaches work on the words. Shari works underneath them.

We communicate in energy before we communicate in language. The judgments, the shoulds, the blame beneath our words are felt by everyone in the room, whether or not anyone names them. What goes unsaid doesn't disappear. It accumulates in the space between people, erodes trust, and comes out sideways anyway.

The Living Work makes the invisible visible. In Shari's words:

A participant smiling during a session, holding a coffee mug

“It's like tuning the dial on a radio station. You start to pick up a whole different frequency, and perceive underneath, making clear what was previously invisible.”

Shari Elle

The result is not that you learn a script. It is that you see freshly, hear what is really being said, and act from a grounded, self-connected place. The people around you feel genuinely met rather than managed. That is where trust gets re-woven, and where the information that would change everything, which is already in the room, finally surfaces.

Shari Elle in conversation with a participant
The practice

Moving between four places

1

The facts

What actually happened, stripped of judgment.

2

The internal signal

What you actually feel, because we are sentient beings, even in the workplace.

3

What matters

The human needs underneath, which is where people stop being opponents.

4

The forward step

A clear request or action, because insight without action changes nothing.

What changes

What the research shows

Workplace study

Merck Pharmaceuticals

When Merck Pharmaceuticals studied the workplace impact of this way of working, participants reported:

Efficiency
100%

of participants reported more efficiency for themselves and others

Time to resolve issues
67–90%

Time to resolve issues reduced by 67–90%

Meetings per issue
50–80%

Meetings needed per issue reduced by 50–80%

Staff meeting time
~50%

Staff meeting time roughly halved

Greater trust, clarity, alignment and accountability, with decisions that stuck, and long-unresolved issues finally reaching resolution.

A signal from Microsoft

In good company

When Satya Nadella became CEO of Microsoft in 2014, one of his first acts was to ask his senior leadership team to read Nonviolent Communication, a body of work informing Shari's method. He was signalling a deliberate shift away from a combative culture, toward one that could actually collaborate.

What participants have reported

In their words

“I can't recommend this training enough, and Shari delivers it so brilliantly and captivatingly. This training has positively influenced how I show up as a leader and communicate with my colleagues and clients, heightening my awareness of both my own and others' feelings and needs. I would encourage anyone seeking to elevate and enrich their communication style and deepen their self-awareness to take this training.”

Ella McHugh — Videri, Manager Dementia Care
Ella McHugh smiling
Shari Elle explaining a diagram on a flip chart
Two participants in conversation sharing notes
Participant in conversation with a coffee cup
Shari Elle warmly embracing a participant

Ready to get to the heart of things, together?

What's alive in your rooms right now, and what would make life more wonderful?

Register for the workshopBook a conversation

Replies within two business days

What happens next
1

Send a short note about what's going on.

2

A confidential hour with Shari, at no cost.

3

She'll tell you honestly whether this is the right fit.

Self-assessments

Not ready to talk? Start by seeing clearly.

Two short self-assessments, built to show you something real rather than sell you something.

For leaders

What Is Your Team Not Saying?

Discover the hidden dynamics quietly undermining trust, accountability and performance.

Take the assessment
For families

The Family Legacy Health Review

An honest reading of the relationships your legacy depends on, across six areas: trust, communication, conflict avoidance, decision-making, family alignment and repair.

Take the review