Heather R Younger

TEDX Speaker, Attorney, Author, Forbes Contributor, Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2025

Heather R. Younger, J.D., CSP, is a leadership and workplace culture keynote speaker, four-time bestselling author, and creator of the C.A.R.E. framework for Unshakable Leadership^TM. Named an Inc. Top 50 Leadership and Management Expert and a Thinkers50 Radar Thought Leader, she helps organizations build leaders and cultures strong enough to handle what’s next. With more than 20 years leading teams through reorgs, mergers, acquisitions, and technology shifts, Heather knows what it takes to stay grounded when the pressure won’t let up. Her research includes analysis of 40,000+ employee survey comments and 350+ leader interviews, grounding her work in what people actually experience, not just what looks good on paper.

Heather R Younger Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type
$20,001 - $40,000
Languages Spoken
English

Heather R Younger Keynote Speaker Fee Fee range is for U.S. events, depending on location and organization type
$20,001 - $40,000
Languages Spoken
English

Why Heather Younger?

REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE

Heather’s experience leading teams and building organizations is a valuable asset to you because she brings practical know-how and lessons learned that can be directly applied to your situation. Plus, participants love that she has been in their shoes and has practical insights they can use immediately.

DYNAMIC

If your group is a sales team kicking off a new program, a leadership audience looking for fresh perspective, or an all employee event, Heather leverages her unique capacity to navigate complex social dynamics in the workplace and achieve goals together through effective communication.

INSPIRING

She creates opportunities for leaders, teams, and individuals to reframe adversity and empower change, championing positive transformation in workplaces, communities, and the world at large. Heather is unique in her ability to facilitate high level interactions between herself and the audience, which leads to the audience interacting with one another, enhancing their learning and building new relationships.

RELEVANT

Because of Heather’s unique commitment to leveraging current research findings, listening sessions, and employee feedback to close the gap between what employees need and leaders want, her content is fresh, relevant and applicable now.

RELATABLE

Audiences love Heather’s warmth and genuine nature, and she will love them right back. She doesn’t just talk about Caring Leadership®, but she seeks to embody it in every interaction. It’s common practice for Heather to spend time after an event talking with participants, signing books, taking photos, and listening to their hopes and dreams for a workplace where everyone feels heard, valued and understood.

RESULTS FOCUSED

Her strategies yield tangible business results, including heightened employee engagement, unwavering loyalty, seamless collaboration, and robust connectivity.

Keynote Speaker Topics

Business Speakers
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Keynote Speakers
Inspirational Keynote Speakers
Resilience Keynote Speakers
Team Building Speakers
Women in Business Speakers
Women Motivational Speakers

Suggested Keynote Speaker Programs

The Self-Leadership Imperative: Turning Personal Growth into Collective Impact

Self-leadership is the foundation of resilient, high-impact influence. It’s what allows people to navigate uncertainty, bounce forward from setbacks, and model the kind of adaptability their teams need now more than ever. In this transformative keynote based on ...

In this transformative keynote based on her book, Heather R Younger empowers leaders to trade perfectionism for progress, fear for flexibility, and burnout for balance — without sacrificing performance. She’ll share actionable strategies to help leaders harness resilience as a competitive edge and unlock their full potential in the face of constant change.

And the results speak for themselves:

90% of top-performing employees demonstrate high emotional resilience (Harvard Business Review)

Organizations that invest in leadership development see 2.4x higher revenue growth and 3x better retention (Deloitte)

Because when leaders lead themselves well — they elevate everyone around them.

Ideal for leaders and team members who:

Want to develop resilience strategies to fuel agility, adaptability, and sustainable success
Are navigating rapid change, uncertainty, or high-pressure environments and need a mental framework to thrive
Struggle with perfectionism and want to shift their mindset to prioritize progress over unattainable ideals
Are ready to step into greater ownership as a leader, by fostering a growth mindset and self-empowerment
Want to inspire teams to stay engaged, motivated, and high-performing—despite obstacles

The audience will walk away with:

The Self-Leadership Framework – A proven model to stay strong, flexible, and focused through change
Progress Over Perfection – A mindset shift to embrace growth, adaptability, and continuous improvement
A Self-Empowerment Toolkit – How to take control of your career trajectory and leadership influence
How to Foster a Culture of Resilience – Inspire teams to become adaptable, solution-oriented, and engaged
Emotional Agility & Decision-Making Mastery – Strengthen clarity, composure, and effectiveness under pressure

This keynote equips leaders to redefine challenges as opportunities, embrace change without fear, and step fully into their leadership power—turning personal growth into enterprise-wide success.

“Heather has a unique ability to understand her audience and the realities they face every day. By grounding her keynote in the audience’s real experiences, she delivered a relevant message that was relatable, meaningful, and empowering—and that created the space for reflection, connection, and renewed confidence.” – Michael Underwood, BSc | Pathway to Excellence Nurse of the Year

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The Unshakable Team: Navigate high-stress situations, rebuild trust after setbacks, and sustain performance without burnout

Today’s teams are operating under sustained pressure. Only 27% of managers feel enthusiastic about their work, more than 40% of employees report significant stress, and just one in five feels fully engaged. Leaders...

Today’s teams are operating under sustained pressure.

Only 27% of managers feel enthusiastic about their work, more than 40% of employees report significant stress, and just one in five feels fully engaged. Leaders are facing constant change, higher expectations, faster decision cycles, and fewer buffers to absorb the impact.

The most effective teams don’t rely on heroic effort or constant hustle. They build shared systems that allow them to navigate pressure, recover quickly from setbacks, and maintain focus even when uncertainty is high.

This keynote, based on her forthcoming book The Unshakable Team, Heather R. Younger draws on more than 20 years of leadership experience guiding teams through mergers, acquisitions, reorganizations, layoffs, and major technology shifts.

She shares a practical framework for leading and working together under pressure, helping teams create the clarity, trust, and alignment they need to move forward, even in the most demanding environments.

Audiences will leave with:

A practical framework for resilient leadership under pressure that helps teams tackle high-stakes challenges together
Strategies to sustain high performance without burnout
Tools to reduce ambiguity and increase clarity, even when certainty isn’t available
A repeatable approach for rebuilding trust and momentum after setbacks

“Heather was one of the best speakers we’ve ever had. Her inspirational words helped our organization’s leaders think about how they’ll move forward in the new world of business we’re all now navigating.” – Steve Hansen | CEO, Presbyterian Medical Service

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The Case for Caring Leadership: Build high-trust teams, boost engagement and retention, and drive performance

...

“Care at work” is often dismissed as soft or optional. But in a workplace defined by AI acceleration, change fatigue, and increasing leadership pressure, the absence of care creates disengagement, turnover, and fractured teams.

Caring leadership isn’t a perk, it’s a business strategy. Leaders who intentionally build trust create teams that communicate better, execute faster, and stay engaged, even across remote and hybrid environments.

Based on her bestselling book The Art of Caring Leadership, Heather R. Younger shares insights from 40,000+ employee comments to reveal what care actually looks like at scale: measurable, operational, and leader-owned. She introduces the Nine Daily Behaviors of Caring Leadership®, a practical framework that helps leaders strengthen culture, improve employee experience, and reduce preventable turnover, without lowering standards.

Audiences will leave with:

The Nine Daily Behaviors of Caring Leadership® that build trust and accountability
Practical ways to scale care across remote, hybrid, and distributed teams
Repeatable actions that increase engagement, retention, and performance
A clear framework for making care an operational leadership practice

“Heather’s speeches are filled with energy and passion. She leaves audiences invigorated to make a difference in their own leadership.” – Angel Cardoza | Vice President, Con Edison

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About Keynote Speaker Heather R Younger

Heather R Younger, J.D. is a trusted contributor to leading news outlets, like Forbes, Fast Company, Bloomberg, NBC and ABC and one of the world’s leading experts on Caring Leadership® and active listening at work. She is the visionary Founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix, a preeminent employee engagement and workplace culture consulting firm to Fortune 100 companies. Employee Fanatix conducts annual research on workplace culture, relying on employee voices for what is relevant now, to help companies redefine their culture strategy. Heather has personally read over 30,000 employee surveys and facilitated over 100 employee focus groups, including her signature “Art of Active Listening Sessions.”

Questions? Contact Us Any Time:

805.965.1400

info@bigspeak.com

With over 25 years of successfully managing teams, she has worked in customer experience, sales, and large account management for multi-million dollar accounts and multiple industries such as tech, staffing, healthcare, professional services, the public sector, and the financial sector. She’s a renowned keynote speaker, drawing insights from current data and putting into practice what she teaches in her Caring Leadership Transformation Model™.

Heather is an award-winning leader in the area of Employee Engagement as recognized by Inspiring Workplaces, is a LinkedIn Learning course partner, 3-time best-selling author, TEDX speaker, and the host of the popular, Leadership with Heart podcast.