Steve Donahue

Steve Donahue is a professional speaker, author and coach who specializes in individual and organizational change.  He has been delighting and inspiring audiences internationally for decades.

At the age of 22, Donahue had his life all mapped out.  He was living his dream as a professional disco dance teacher.  He had it all; money, fame and plenty of dance partners.  Then disco died.  But Donahue learned a valuable lesson; never bet your life on shiny shirts and tight pants.  He also remembered not to trust maps.

Just two years previous, Donahue crossed the Sahara Desert.  Battered by relentless sandstorms, tormented by searing heat and freezing nights, never knowing if the speck on the horizon would be a friend or foe, he found his way in the world’s largest desert.  He discovered that only a compass could guide you across shifting sands.

A consummate storyteller, clients have described his presentations as “spellbinding”, “magical” and “flawless”.  One of Donahue’s gifts is the ability to engage and captivate international audiences.  He recently addressed 8,000 financial planners from 85 countries at the Million Dollar Round Table.  He speaks French and all of his programs are available “En Francais”.  Donahue is also a professional coach, documentary filmmaker and an international bestselling author.  His first book, Shifting Sands; A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change, has sold over 75,000 copies.  It is available in English, Korean, Russian, Turkish and Greek.

With the timing honed as a standup comedian, Donahue keeps audiences laughing.  But his message is as serious as a sandstorm bearing down on your caravan: you must keep moving in the right direction even when the terrain is shifting.  For twenty years Donahue has inspired people to find and follow their compass in a changing world.

• 4. OASIS - an Interactive Board Game

  OASIS is a fun and interactive training that builds employee engagement, improves work/life balance and clarifies personal and corporate direction. Table groups compete in teams to outperform each other in the desert challenge. Lessons learned transfer immediately to work and life. This is a great follow-up training to a Steve Donahue keynote or as an interactive conference session. (Pricing based on number of participants)

• 3. THE MORE YOU STOP THE FARTHER YOU GO

  The only way to cross the Sahara Desert is to stop at every oasis. This is where you replenish your water supplies, refuel your vehicle and renew relationships with fellow travelers. Skipping an oasis means almost certain death. This presentation shows how to identify and protect your essential oases so that you always have gas in your tank, a clear direction and travel as a team.

• 2. PLAY TO YOUR STRENGTHS IF YOU WANT TO PERFORM

  The secret of success is to identify your inherent giftedness and turn that specific talent into performance. Based on a lifetime of leveraging his uniqueness, Steve Donahue shares his own 15 years of strength-based research and coaching to help you discover, develop and deliver your genius in the situations where you can have the greatest impact.

• 1. FOLLOW A COMPASS, NOT A MAP

  The most important journeys cannot be mapped out because you have to cross uncharted territory. The challenge is to keep heading in the right direction under constantly changing conditions and ever increasing uncertainty. This electrifying keynote will help you find direction and seize opportunities by following your compass across the shifting sands of work and life.

• Your formula worked wonders. The standing ovation you received is not our usual response to a keynote speaker.
  Association of Municipal Clerks & Treasurers of Ontario
• You are really funny. Your other strength is the ability to customize your presentation.
  Group Health Care
• Your powerful closing was a perfect finish to an exceptional conference.
  Manitoba Health Organization
• You instantly captivated the attention of a well-traveled group of attendees and never let it drop. I realize this must have demanded a tremendous energy on your part, yet you made it look so easy. A consummate art, indeed.
  Amway Corporation
• Witty and entertaining but includes important messages that can be applied in the workplace and in 'real life'. You really did your homework to understand us.
  Municipal Electric Association
• The most appropriately customized piece of work I have ever seen!
  Meeting Professionals International
• I just wanted to follow up with you to thank you once again for your contribution to our agency conference. People told me it was the best agency conference they have ever been to. And they told me that they loved your story, your messages and the way that you tied everything together at the end for them. Without your observations earlier on in the day, your messages may not have been as powerful because you weaved them together so nicely. Your story was both compelling and profound.
  BC Public Service Agency
• Thank you again Steve for your participation in our conference; you were remarkable!
  Interior Health
• Steve was fantastic. Please let him know that I keep having that feeling when you have finished a good book, you just want to hear more of the story, and find out what happened next to the characters. Steve is a very talented story teller, and the world is very lucky that he continues to share his talent with others.
  Ministry of Small Business and Revenue

• 
  February 2004

  Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change

  Unlike the familiar mountain-climbing metaphor, which focuses more narrowly on goal setting and achievement, the desert as a metaphorical place of change does not have final summit or endpoint. Shifting Sands exposes the mountain-climbing myth and its goal-setting metaphor as ineffective, and suggests that the desert is the perfect metaphor to describe the journey of life, especially in times of transition. Deserts require us to pay attention to the journey rather than the destination.