Curt Steinhorst

Speaking topics

Presentations listed below include in-person and virtual keynotes, as well as workshops, fireside chats, and other presentation formats.

• Rethinking Leadership: What Effective Leadership Requires in an AI-Driven World

  As AI transforms the workplace, leaders have an opportunity to rethink how they lead, where they focus their attention, and what their teams need to succeed.

  For years, leaders have been overwhelmed by competing demands, constant communication, and the pressure to make decisions with incomplete information. While AI can help reduce this burden, it cannot replace the human capabilities that drive effective teamwork: clear responsibilities, constructive disagreement, and open communication.

  Drawing on 15 years of experience working with leaders at organizations ranging from Nike to the U.S. Naval Academy, and his role as Head of People at Venus Aerospace, Curt Steinhorst explores what effective leadership looks like in an AI-driven world. Using lessons from Venus Aerospace’s historic rocket engine flight, he demonstrates the importance of clear responsibilities, productive conflict, and the ability to communicate openly under pressure.

  In this practical keynote, Steinhorst challenges leaders to rethink their responsibilities, refocus their attention, and build teams equipped to navigate complexity, challenge assumptions, and speak up when it matters most.

  Audiences will learn how to:

  • Identify responsibilities they can delegate or eliminate.
  • Adapt their leadership approach to meet their team’s evolving needs.
  • Protect the time and attention required for thoughtful decision-making.
  • Encourage team members to challenge assumptions and navigate disagreements constructively.
  • Build teams where people feel able to raise concerns before problems escalate.

• Rethinking Culture: Building a Culture That Does Hard Things Without Burning Out

  A strong workplace culture is defined by more than shared values and employee appreciation. It’s reflected in how people work together, navigate challenges, and perform when the pressure is on.

  Building a culture that supports high performance without burning people out means creating an environment where employees can admit when they’re struggling, challenge ideas, and take risks, even when the stakes are high.

  As Head of People at Venus Aerospace, Curt Steinhorst faced this challenge firsthand. He developed and implemented the Venus Flight Plan, a set of five values that guided how the company worked, who it hired, and what it tolerated. In May 2025, Venus achieved a historic milestone, flying the world’s first high-thrust rotating detonation rocket engine.

  Drawing on this experience, including what worked and what didn’t, and 15 years of working with leaders across industries, Steinhorst explores how organizations can build cultures that enable teams to navigate uncertainty, tackle difficult challenges, and sustain their efforts under pressure. He challenges leaders to rethink how work gets done and recognize when greater pressure helps or hinders performance.

  Audiences will learn how to:

  • Evaluate workplace culture based on employees’ day-to-day experiences and how work gets done.
  • Create an environment where team members can acknowledge difficulties, challenge ideas, and take risks.
  • Help teams navigate uncertainty and maintain momentum when answers aren’t clear.
  • Recognize when pressure improves performance and when it becomes counterproductive.

• Finding Focus in a Distracting World: Focusing on What Matters When Everything Is a Priority

  Technology can take routine work off a team’s plate. It can also make it easier to send more messages, launch more projects, and fill every hour it saves. The question is whether it gives people more attention for work that requires their judgment or simply increases the volume of work they’re expected to manage.

  Somewhere along the way, responding became the job, and being reachable became proof you were doing it. But a day fragmented by constant requests and interruptions doesn’t necessarily add up to meaningful work, regardless of how many hours go into it. Often, the problem isn’t how much people have to do, but how divided their attention has become. And that’s something leaders can change.

  Drawing on more than a decade of research and experience advising companies on attention and workplace dynamics, Curt Steinhorst explores why distraction is often rooted in confusion about what matters. He examines how protecting employees’ attention can influence productivity, adaptability, engagement, and well-being, and why achieving better outcomes requires rethinking how work is approached, measured, and organized. By recognizing the limits of human attention, leaders can create the conditions for people to focus their judgment where it matters most.

  In this practical keynote, Steinhorst helps audiences recognize what’s competing for their attention, prioritize what matters most, and create more space for meaningful work and the people they care about.

  Audiences will learn how to:

  • Use technology to reduce routine work without filling the time saved with additional demands.
  • Recognize how competing demands on their attention influence decision-making.
  • Identify what deserves their attention when everything feels like a priority.
  • Organize work so their team’s time translates into meaningful progress.
  • Protect their team’s focus through more intentional meetings and communication.
  • Establish boundaries that protect attention for meaningful work and a fulfilling life outside it.

• Breaking Through the Noise: Communicating So People Hear It, Believe It, and Act on It

  Producing a message has never been easier. Getting someone to pay attention, trust it, and act on it remains a challenge. Whether you’re leading an organization, driving change, or winning new business, your ability to communicate effectively is essential. With information overload, AI-generated content, and constantly evolving communication channels, capturing and keeping attention has become increasingly difficult.

  Why do people ignore information they need while paying attention to things they never intended to? Understanding what captures attention matters when you’re asking someone to reconsider a decision, support a change, or buy what you’re selling.

  Your audience brings different experiences, expectations, and reasons for listening. As personalized media increasingly shapes what people see and engage with, reaching them with unfamiliar ideas or messages they may not initially want to hear requires a deeper understanding of how attention works.

  In this practical keynote, Curt Steinhorst, bestselling author of Can I Have Your Attention?, draws on the science of attention to show audiences how to shape and deliver messages that cut through the noise. Moving beyond short-lived communication trends and tactics, he explores what makes people pay attention, what keeps them engaged, and how to communicate ideas that resonate. Tailored to the challenges facing executives, sales professionals, and communications leaders, this presentation equips audiences with strategies to communicate more effectively and influence decisions.

  Audiences will learn how to:

  • Recognize how information overload and personalized media have changed audience expectations.
  • Communicate effectively across generations, cultures, and geographically dispersed teams.
  • Apply the science of attention to capture and sustain audience interest.
  • Adapt messages to the medium and moment.
  • Use advanced rhetorical techniques to make ideas more compelling and memorable.

• Speaker’s Choice: When What You Need is Not on the Menu

  Sometimes, what your team needs most is the thing no one else will say — and no one else has the permission to deliver.

  Here’s the truth: Curt Steinhorst spends his days thinking about what actually moves organizations forward. Sometimes that’s a new framework. Sometimes it’s remembering why work should be energizing, not exhausting. Sometimes it’s the strategic insight everyone’s missing. Or the simple truth that changes everything. When you choose this option, you’re saying: “We trust you to step back, look at where we are, and deliver what we actually need to hear.”

  It might be brand new thinking that hasn’t made it to a slide deck yet. It might be a proven idea applied exactly to your moment. It might even be permission to stop doing something everyone thinks is essential. The point is, you’re getting what matters most right now — not what was predetermined, but what’s useful.

  Key learning outcomes include:

  • What you didn’t know you needed to hear.
  • Permission to stop doing that thing everyone pretends is working.
  • At least one idea you’ll steal immediately.
  • A story you’ll retell at dinner (and probably claim as your own).

  Side effects may include sudden clarity, uncontrollable honesty, and the urge to cancel half your meetings…