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Joe Hirsch    

Managing Director of Semaca Partners & Author of "The Feedback Fix"

Dr. Joe Hirsch helps organizations design and deliver feedback without fear. An award-winning educator and researcher, Hirsch blends stories, science and strategy to help leaders and teams get better results and relationships through fearless communication.

HE is a TEDx and global keynote speaker and the best-selling author of "The Feedback Fix", which has been praised by Fortune 500 executives, NFL coaches and educational reformers for its forward-looking view of team and individual effectiveness.

Hirsch's work and research has been featured in Harvard Business Review, CNBC, Forbes, INC.,The Wall Street Journal and other major outlets. Hirsch has helped more than 30,000 others across three continents communicate with impact and joy. When Hirsch is not doing something outdoors with his wife and kids, he is hosting his popular podcast, "I Wish They Knew".

Speech Topics


Feedforward: Fearless Feedback for All

There are few things more uncomfortable than giving and receiving feedback. Judgment, worry, disappointment, pain – when these deeply-felt emotions enter the conversation, they can complicate relationships, crimp performance, and diminish trust. To create a fearless feedback culture, we need to change its tone and trajectory – starting with a bolder mindset and message.

In this interactive and evidence-based talk, you’ll discover the power of partnership with “feedforward,” a fearless feedback approach that amplifies strengths, promotes dialogue, and focuses on future success instead of past failure – creating performance partnerships built on real talk and genuine relationships.

Driven by research and practice, feedforward shifts the dynamics of traditional feedback from blame to contribution, accountability to autonomy, and ratings to growth. Through a lively blend of storytelling, science and strategies, you’ll learn powerful techniques that increase employee agency and resilience, make difficult conversations more manageable, and create results-driven dialogue. Work has changed. With feedforward, so can the way we talk about it.

  • Activate the full potential of employees with a strengths-based approach to managing talent. 
  • Develop practical tools to recognize and develop the full potential of employees.
  • Drive performance with two-way coaching conversations built on candor, trust and partnership.
  • Foster a culture of inclusion  that drives continuous opportunities for growth and development.

Feedforward: Fearless Feedback for Sales Success

When feedback fails, sales suffer. Meetings aren’t booked, leads aren’t closed, and predictability is elusive. Strong sales depend on robust feedback, but without the right skills and savvy, we strain our results and relationships. Sales managers need a playbook for giving feedback without fear or friction – a plan to move their people and pipeline forward: FEEDFORWARD.

FEEDFORWARD is a strengths-based, forward-looking view of success. Instead of focusing on past failures, FEEDFORWARD emphasizes future possibilities. Blending cutting-edge behavioral science with practical solutions, FEEDFORWARD reinforces the lines of communication and trust through a partnership model that empowers others to grow. 

Whether you’re looking to support individual performance, improve team effectiveness, or drive company culture, FEEDFORWARD provides the mindset and skillset that leads to sales success.

  • Close more leads by targeting performance snags before it’s too late.
  • Blow past sales targets on a consistent basis.
  • Achieve sustainable, predictable sales success. 
  • Increase transparency and trust among your sales teams.
  • Retain and promote talent with sales coaching tools and techniques. 

Messages that Matter: How Feedback Fosters Workplace Wellbeing

It’s widely recognized that our work reflects our wellbeing. But how we talk about work can dramatically impact the way we feel — delivering either a lift or blow to our standing, sanity and overall sense of self.

Through a lively blend of storytelling, science and strategy, you’ll explore the surprising link between performance feedback and workplace wellbeing. Learn how effective feedback can become a catalyst for emotional fitness, driving more positive and productive dialogue that energizes work, fosters deep connection among teams, and creates a human-centered workplace built on empathy and trust.

By crafting a message of mattering, we enable others to do their best work while experiencing their fullest selves — all while putting people at the center of their career growth and development. When our purpose aligns with our practice, work becomes an elevating experience.

  • Activate the full potential of your talent with a strengths-based approach to employee development. 
  • Boost workplace well-being through high-touch, high-frequency feedback built around partnership. 
  • Foster a culture of connection and belonging that allows people to experience personal and professional wholeness at work. 

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