"Good" Leaders Are the Problem and the Solution

Most organizations aren't worried about their good leaders. And that's precisely the problem.

New research from The Grossman Group and The Harris Poll found that 54% of leaders are rated "good." Not bad. Not exceptional. Solidly, safely good. And in today's environment, that's not the reassuring news most executive teams think it is.

Good leaders were built for a stable world. When uncertainty spikes, they go quiet. Not because they don't care, but because they were trained to have answers, and right now answers are hard to come by. Their people feel the absence. Anxiety fills the vacuum. Then complacency. Then drift.

The gap that should worry every executive team isn't between bad leaders and good ones. It's between good and exceptional. And it's almost entirely a Heart gap.

In this keynote, David Grossman shows what 30 years of working alongside world-class leaders – and the data – reveal about what separates the two. Nine of the top 10 differentiators between good and exceptional are Heart attributes, not Head ones. In the Age of AI, where technical advantages are being commoditized fast, the Heart Work is the only competitive advantage that can't be replicated.

In this session, David shares the best strategies and tips for Heart First leadership – what he defines as leading with empathy, humanity, and authenticity.

This topic provides a special focus on the unique role of communications leaders who wear two hats: one as leaders themselves, and a second managing and influencing a critical and complex set of stakeholders. Both hats are vital to building and protecting the employee experience and the business.

After years of unprecedented change brought on by the pandemic and social unrest, we’re in a time that calls for a new level of inspired, authentic leadership – what David defines as a “Heart First” approach. Heart First leadership is about championing empathy, humanity, and authenticity to build stronger, trusting relationships, which improve engagement, retention, and business results.

In this interactive session, David defines the seven attributes of Heart First leadership and will help leaders up their game as a strategic communicator with tips, tools, and time savers to build meaningful dialogue with their teams.

Everything you do communicates, whether it’s intentional or not. As a communication keynote speaker, David uses this session to offer from-the-field insights on how the top leaders he works with differentiate themselves.

He’ll equip audiences with best practices and actionable tools they can start using right away.

Becoming a ‘natural born leader’ is similar to becoming an ‘overnight success story’: Neither happens by chance or overnight.

David provides a fresh perspective on communicating with employees, addresses how to plan communication in just 5 minutes, and introduces audiences to small tips that will improve their performance as leaders by leaps and bounds.

Leaders often think they have to emulate someone else’s style to be effective. The reality is there is no one “type” of effective leadership style. What people respond to most – at work and in life – is the authenticity of the person leading them.

David guides audiences through strategies to shed any adopted personas they’ve acquired and reconnect with their true selves in the workplace. He’ll offer strategies for building emotional intelligence necessary to rise above the fray and stand apart as a leader.

Employees are your organization's most critical stakeholder – and right now, they're asking harder questions than ever. In this interactive session, David Grossman offers a clear-eyed look at the employee experience today: what employees fundamentally need, what they're actually feeling, and what it takes to reach them in a climate of uncertainty, information overload, and eroding trust. Using a proven model for understanding employee communication needs and a candid persona of today's employee, David provides a practical framework for meeting employees where they are – and building the kind of trust that drives real engagement and business results.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this session, you'll be able to:

1. Use the 8 Key Questions model to diagnose where employees are – and adjust what you're communicating and when

2. Identify your role in addressing employee needs and build the right partnerships to make sure foundational questions are being answered – not just the organizational ones

3. Describe today's employee in specific, honest terms – and explain what that means for how you do your job

4. Walk away with practical actions to build trust through communication that's more honest, more timely, and a lot harder to tune out