Heather R Younger, J.D., CSP

Only 27% of managers feel enthusiastic about their work. Over 40% of workers are experiencing significant stress, and just one in five feels fully engaged.

The numbers tell the story: Today’s teams are operating under sustained pressure-constant change, higher expectations, fewer buffers, and faster decision cycles. When leaders are running on empty, teams feel it. And telling people to “be more resilient” without changing how they lead, decide, communicate, and recover only fuels burnout and disengagement.

In this keynote based on Heather’s forthcoming book by the same title, she draws on 20+ years of leading teams through reorgs, mergers, acquisitions, technology shifts, and layoffs to show what actually builds team resilience: a practical system for leading sustainably under pressure.

Audiences walk away with a clear framework, shared language, and repeatable tools to navigate high-stress situations, rebuild trust after setbacks, and maintain focus without exhausting people.

This program is perfect for:

• Leadership teams under sustained pressure who must stay agile, focused, and responsive
• Senior leaders accountable for high performance, retention, and burnout prevention
• Managers and project leaders navigating visible, high-stakes change

The audience 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
• A shared language for how teams move, decide, and recover together (so resilience becomes a team practice, not an individual burden)
• Tools to reduce ambiguity and increase clarity even when certainty is not available
• A repeatable approach for rebuilding trust and momentum after setbacks without losing focus

“Care at work” has been misunderstood and often dismissed as soft, optional, or in conflict with performance. Yet in a world of AI acceleration, change fatigue, and increasing pressure on leaders, care is not a perk. It’s a strategy. Caring leadership builds the trust that enables clarity, accountability, and execution, especially across remote and hybrid teams.

In this keynote, based on Heather’s bestselling book The Art of Caring Leadership, and her analysis of 40,000+ employee comments, she makes the business case for caring leadership and shows what care actually looks like at scale: measurable, operational, and leader-owned. Leaders leave with practical behaviors that strengthen culture, improve employee experience, and reduce preventable turnover—without lowering standards.

This program is perfect for:

• Executive and senior leaders accountable for culture, retention, and engagement
• Senior leaders who want to move beyond engagement surveys into measurable culture change
• Leaders navigating remote, hybrid, or distributed teams who want care to scale without losing accountability

The audience will leave with:

• The nine daily behaviors of Caring Leadership® that build trust, strengthen accountability, improve engagement, and reduce preventable turnover
• Practical strategies to scale care across remote, hybrid, and distributed teams
• Repeatable actions that create a high-trust culture where people stay, perform, and grow
• A clear framework for making care operational, not an afterthought, but a leadership practice 

• This program is perfect for:
  • High-performing individual contributors and informal leaders who others look to for direction
  • People managers navigating pressure from every direction
  • Frontline teams, sales teams, and administrative professionals
  The audience will leave with:
  • The Self-Leadership Framework—a practical model for staying strong, flexible, and grounded through change
  • A compassionate path from perfectionism to progress
  • Tools to sustain energy and prevent burnout before it starts
  • Strategies for emotional regulation, clearer thinking, and steadiness under pressure
  • A renewed sense of agency and possibility and the confidence to lead from any seat

When people feel genuinely heard, trust accelerates. Teams collaborate better. Customers stay longer. Tension de- escalates faster. In a distraction-heavy, hybrid world, listening has become a critical leadership communication skill—and one of the most practical levers for engagement, retention, customer experience, and sales performance.

In this keynote based on her book, The Art of Active Listening, Heather introduces The Cycle of Active Listening — a clear, repeatable framework leaders, sales teams, and customer-facing professionals can use to build trust, strengthen relationships, improve communication, and drive results.

Participants learn how to move beyond “I listened” to “they felt heard”: the key difference that changes outcomes in performance conversations, client meetings, and high-stakes moments.

This program is perfect for:

• People leaders and frontline managers who need practical tools for difficult conversations
• Sales teams and customer-facing professionals who need to build trust fast to reduce friction and improve loyalty
• HR and talent leaders responsible for employee engagement and retention

The audience will leave with:

• The Cycle of Active ListeningTM: a repeatable listening framework they can use immediately with teams, clients, and customers
• The ability to recognize the difference between listening and making someone feel heard
• Practical techniques for staying present in conversations—even on screens, even under pressure
• Language and tools to reduce friction, de-escalate tension, and build trust faster