Drew Dudley

Speaking topics

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

• The Leadership Test: Six Questions that Transform People and Organizations

  “How many of you are completely comfortable with calling yourself a leader?”

  Leadership author and educator Drew Dudley has asked that question to thousands of audiences around the world, and fewer than 1% of those audiences were willing to call themselves leaders. That’s a problem. This session focuses on how to solve it.

  In this engaging and empowering keynote, Dudley aims to demonstrate that there is a form of leadership to which we should all aspire. One that is driven by a daily commitment to acting on six key leadership values: impact, courage, growth, empowerment, class, and self-respect.

  Dudley will provide six simple questions that comprise “The Leadership Test”, and while the questions may be simple, the behavioural changes they generate build better careers, stronger organizations, and more fulfilling lives. A commitment to passing “The Leadership Test” turns those six values into action, changing how you treat yourself and the people around you.

  Sharing stories from small town Canada to the deserts of Qatar, and insights from leaders of all types — CEOs, elite athletes, cab drivers, custodians, and everyone in between — this presentation will change the way you think about leadership in your life and workplace.

• This Is Day One: Creating Cultures of Leadership

  In this practical and provocative keynote, Drew Dudley reframes leadership as a daily choice rather than a set of titles or accolades gained over time. He shows that treating each day as if it is “Day One” of your leadership journey results in a stronger daily commitment to acting on core personal and organizational values. Individuals who achieve clarity on — and commit to — their personal values:

  • Rate 110% higher on overall leadership effectiveness than those who do not.
  • Are rated 140% higher by those they lead than those who do not.
  • Have teams with higher levels of commitment, pride, and productivity.
  • Rate 135% higher on measures of trust.

  Dudley will walk audiences step-by-step through the discovery of their personal leadership values, demonstrate how those values can be translated into daily behaviours, and illustrate how values-based decision-making leads to individual and organizational success. At each stage, Dudley draws on 15-years of personal leadership stories and insights to show how this process led him through battles with alcohol, obesity, and personal tragedy.

  Honest, engaging, and above all practical, this presentation will help audiences understand what their Day One needs to look like, remind them why they’re a leader, and clarify what they can do to be a better one, starting today… on Day One.

• Courage: Leadership Impact in Action

  “No one’s interested in something you didn’t do.” – Gord Downie

  Too many positive personal, professional and organizational changes are put off because we’re afraid we will end up worse off than we are now. It’s not the challenge of “making it happen” that keeps us from catalyzing change but the fear of what we might lose if it doesn’t work out.

  We are educated into this inaction, and in this keynote Wall Street Journal bestselling author Drew Dudley shares a series of practical strategies for developing the courage to take action even with the possibility of loss.

  Audiences will learn:

  • The distinction between confidence and courage.
  • Practical strategies for more effectively preparing for — and dealing with — failure.
  • How to identify and remove internalized barriers to personal and professional leadership.
  • Why failure is more powerful as a strategy than a “lesson”.

• Self Respect: The Foundation of Leadership

  “There is no hole in your life that cannot be filled with self-respect.” It’s on this premise leadership speaker and author Drew Dudley has built this keynote, but he knows all-to-well that fostering that self-respect is a lot easier said than done.

  In 2010, Dudley was fresh off delivering what would be voted one of the “15 most inspirational TED talks of all time” and traveling the world delivering keynotes that led one Oxford University professor to proclaim him “the most motivating and inspiring speaker on leadership out there right now”. While his professional career was empowering others to embrace their leadership, Dudley was struggling off stage, battling alcohol addiction, undiagnosed bipolar disorder, and a lifestyle that had ballooned him to over 300 pounds.

  In this keynote, Dudley melds self-care insights from all over the world with his own story to present practical strategies for embedding self-care and building self-respect into your personal leadership philosophy. Over the past decade, these strategies have helped him achieve and maintain sobriety, lose 100 pounds, manage his mental health, and process a profound personal tragedy.

  A presentation that acknowledges the dark parts of life and work with humour and compassion, this practical exploration of self-awareness, forgiveness, resilience, and healing will remind audiences that we cannot lead others until we can lead ourselves and shows them how great leaders put themselves first while still serving others.

  Audiences will learn:

  • How every personal and professional decision can be assessed for its impact on self-respect.
  • How inaccurate their assessments of the quality of their decisions usually are.
  • Strategies for more strongly embedding self-care into their personal leadership without sacrificing their impact at home or work.
  • Simple daily habits that can provide strength and energy on the most difficult days.

• Elevate Don’t Escalate: Leading with Impact and Living with Class

  “It seems to me that more and more we’ve come to expect less and less from one another, and I think that should change.” – Aaron Sorkin

  At the foundation of any interpersonal or organizational dysfunction is fear — fear that something will be taken away or something unwanted forced upon us. The challenge is that we generally address dysfunction at the level of the behaviour it generates rather than the underlying fear, perpetuating conflict in our communities and workplaces and taking its toll on personal mental health.

  In this keynote, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Drew Dudley provides practical strategies for creating communities and workplaces characterized by psychological safety and positive interpersonal impact. If you’ve ever sworn at your computer screen because of an email or found your fists balling up while thinking of a co-worker, this keynote will provide you with tips that help save relationships and careers.

  Audiences will learn:

  • How to respond to one of the most dangerously overused word in leadership.
  • The most effective way to provide someone with positive feedback.
  • How to effectively deal with some of the most common sources of anger in the workplace.
  • A step-by-step strategy for more effective collaborative problem solving.

• The Game Has No Winners: Growth, Empowerment, and Leading Beyond an Economy of Scarcity

  “Don’t start chasing applause and acclaim. That way lies madness.” – Ron Swanson

  From a young age, we are pushed to compete with one another for limited resources: grades, school admissions, money, jobs, even respect. This belief in an “economy of scarcity” is learned although it is never explicitly taught, and the results can be seen in the interpersonal and organizational dysfunction that permeates our lives and workplaces.

  In this keynote, Wall Street Journal bestselling author Drew Dudley provides a roadmap to embracing a different type of economy — one focused on personal growth and collective empowerment. Embracing this “economy of abundance” requires a fundamental shift in both mindset and action, and Dudley provides practical strategies for acting as a catalyst for that shift personally and professionally.

  Audiences will learn:

  • The two most important words in leadership.
  • Why effective leadership relies more on questions than answers.
  • The three key pieces of knowledge each leader must develop.
  • Why “nice people finish last” and what to do about it.