David Mead Keynote Speaker

• Leading During Uncertainty; How to Confidently Take on the Unknown We Face, Together

Who it’s for:

Those who want to prepare for challenges and uncertainty by unlocking the creativity and open minded thinking needed to weather the storm.

Talk overview: It’s human nature to seek the sense of comfort we feel with consistency and stability. Yet, we look toward the future and see more change and uncertainty than ever-economic downturn, shifts in the workforce, residual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and more unknowns to come. A Stanford University survey assessed business uncertainty is at its highest since 2015, with the level accelerating at an unprecedented rate. So, the only thing that’s certain is that there is more uncertainty ahead.

This state of instability can leave us feeling unsettled, demoralized, and anxious about the future. As a result, decision-making tends to become short-term and fear-based. As a result, progress slows; we become more rigid, and effective leadership declines.

Rather than becoming adaptive, organization tend to be reactive. During these times, leadership expert David Mead urges you to stop resisting uncertainty and choose to run toward it by building and maintaining a resilient culture.

In this interactive talk, David will share simple ideas to shift your perception of challenging situations and how you can see them as opportunities. Through polling and Q&A, David will encourage active participation that can prompt ideas for action for attendees. Audiences will walk away with tangible tools that can be practiced daily in order to fully engage their hearts and minds when obstacles arise.

Key concepts of the session include:

• Create High Performance Through Humanity; How to unlock your team’s untapped capacity

Who it’s for:

Leaders who want to eliminate the friction standing in the way of building a sustainably high performing team.

Talk overview:

Every leader wants their people to care about the business and its outcomes as much as they do. Those outcomes require high performance, engagement, productivity and a commitment to results. And often, those things are hampered by friction that naturally arises among messy, complex human beings.

Friction can look like:

Policies and processes aren’t enough to reduce that friction, at least not for the long term. The solution to reducing friction lies within the human beings who are causing it. And everyone on the team, from the senior leader to the newest hire, whether working in the office or in their bedroom, has a part to play.

The key lies in our ability to activate our innate humanity. That is exactly what David can help you do. In this interactive talk, David draws on science, case studies and a pattern he has discovered in working with leaders and organizations around the world. You’ll learn and apply a simple framework you can draw on a napkin, that unlocks trust and connection - the foundation of our collective humanity. The principles you’ll explore, with David as your guide, will help you have productive tough conversations, mix accountability with empathy, engage remote team members and so much more.

In this session, participants will:

• Lead With (un)Common Sense: How great leaders unlock high performance

Who It’s For:

Those who want to achieve sustainable performance through becoming the type of leader people choose to follow, instead of the type of leader people have to follow.

Talk Overview: Great leadership isn’t a secret—it’s common sense. We can all name the traits of the best leaders we’ve followed. Yet, despite being obvious, those traits are uncommon in leadership today. Why? Because although we know them, sometimes we just don’t put them into practice. We allow things like outside pressure or human friction to get in the way. These are things like:

Most leaders try to fix these issues with policies and processes—but rules don’t build trust. Systems don’t inspire ownership. No structure can replace the human dynamics that make or break a team. The real solution? Leading with (un)Common Sense. In this interactive talk, David shares science-backed insights, real-world leadership challenges, and a simple, napkin-sketch framework that helps leaders reduce friction, build trust, and create teams that people want to be part of.

In this session, you’ll:

The best leadership principles aren’t revolutionary—they’re (un)Common Sense. And the leaders who actually practice them are the ones people choose to follow.

• Turn Attrition To Attraction: How to keep the grass greener on your side of the fence

Who it’s for:

Leaders eager to create and maintain an environment in which trust and human connection lead to greater well-being, higher individual and team performance, increased innovation and higher levels of retention.

Talk overview:

Every organization strives for high performance, growth, productivity and results. And often, organizations don’t realize they are self-sabotaging those efforts through the experience they create for their people. When the culture we talk about doesn’t align with the culture our people experience, Culture Dissonance occurs. People go into self-preservation mode and they find it more difficult to trust and develop connections with others. Healthy, productive environments have Culture Congruence, where the stated culture aligns with daily behaviors.

In this interactive talk, David draws on his personal experience, research and patterns he has observed in leaders and organizations around the world. He will identify the symptoms of Culture Dissonance and explore three specific leadership traits that, when put into practice, lead to Culture Congruence.

As a result of this session, participants will: