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Phillip Van Hooser  

Leadership, Communication Skills & Employee Engagement Expert

A seasoned leadership expert, keynote speaker, and author, Phillip Van Hooser is passionate about developing intentional leaders who can effectively engage and empower their employees to deliver powerful results.

Early in his career, Van Hooser realized that at the heart of any worthwhile success— large or small — was the influence and impact of individual leaders. Determined to be a leader who made a difference, he immersed himself in the study of leadership and developed a process that can help anyone be a more effective leader.

For over 35 years, he’s shared this process with individuals and organizations around the world through keynotes, training programs, books, and strategic advising - with extraordinary results!

A Hall of Fame keynote speaker, Van Hooser’s unique conversational style and relatable storytelling captivate audiences while empowering them with the fundamentals they need to unlock their leadership potential and elevate others.

Whether delivering a keynote, conducting leadership training, or advising leaders, Van Hooser’s insight, candor, and experiential understanding of leadership have made him a trusted guide to any individual or organization ready to level up their leadership.

Speech Topics

Choose to Lead: Steps Leaders Take to Intentionally Create Positive Impact

This culture-shifting keynote inspires the audience to take responsibility for their leadership impact and empowers them with the mindset and methods for making decisions that create stronger teams, better communication, and a more significant impact. This program is perfect for executive, established, and emerging leaders:

  • Stressed by their lack of skills and confidence or afraid of making the wrong decisions when leading multi-generational employees with diverse backgrounds and attitudes toward work
  • Challenged to rapidly equip, prepare and retain high potential employees for transition into management/leadership roles as the labor market tightens and their current leaders exit
  • Needing to build a cohesive culture of trust as they navigate mergers, acquisitions, and rapid change

Keynote Takeaways:

  • A fresh outlook on the critical role that intentionally choosing to lead plays in elevating individual and organizational leadership effectiveness
  • A powerful model for improving the quality and appropriateness of organizational decisions made
  • The 5 bases of decision-making and actionable methods for making decisions that deliver better results.

Too Busy for Details: Strategies to Solidify Leadership Connection (Based on Phillip’s book, Leaders Ought to Know)

The strategies presented in this engaging keynote equip audience members to evaluate their effectiveness at building authentic employee relationships and elevate the way they listen, communicate, and engage with their people. This program is perfect for executive, established, and emerging leaders:

  • Dealing with broken trust, disengagement, conflict, or low productivity due to changing workplace demands or a disjointed organizational culture
  • Preparing for management transitions brought on by reorganization or demographic, market, or culture shifts
  • Anticipating rapid growth that will require high levels of teamwork, collaboration, and empowerment

Keynote Takeaways:

  • A better understanding of why employees want authentic connections, how these connections affect engagement and performance, and how to establish those connections
  • Steps to improve active listening and open communication and build greater respect, trust, and authenticity
  • Engaging examples of what to do and what not to do to solidify trusting, cohesive relationships that improve employee performance and retention

We Need to Talk: Building Trust When Communicating Gets Critical (Based on Phillip’s book, We Need to Talk)

This commonsense keynote equips the audience with six unique communication strategies for building trust when relationships and results are riding on the words they say and the way they say them. This program is perfect for executive, established, and emerging leaders:

  • Needing to communicate difficult decisions about downsizing, layoffs, or restructuring due to rapid or unexpected business changes
  • Experiencing distrust, disloyalty, and declining engagement due to changing values of the workforce or changing workplace demands
  • Tasked with creating a cohesive culture following mergers and acquisitions, leadership shifts, or market changes

Keynote Takeaways:

  • Tried-and-true strategies for communicating difficult, unpleasant messages in a way that strengthens relationships rather than damages them
  • Strategic approaches to rebuilding the believability quotient when truthfulness hasn’t always been practiced
  • Active listening and communication methods that build rapport, empathy, and trust with employees and customers

Moving Up, Moving On: Succession Planning for Continuity and Long-Term Growth (Joint Keynote with Alyson Van Hooser)

Succession planning is vital to an organization’s long-term success, but the why, what, who, and how of planning for a transition can be difficult to navigate. This inspiring keynote offers a practical perspective on the challenges and opportunities surrounding succession planning while leaving a legacy of impact and assuring a future for continued excellence. This program is perfect for executive, established, and emerging leaders:

  • Struggling to adopt the “letting go and letting others” mindset needed for effective succession planning
  • Burned out from carrying the load themselves but unsure how to identify, trust, train, and ultimately transition a competent successor
  • Wanting practical insights into successfully navigating the human element of the succession planning process.

Keynote Takeaways:

  • A practical 6-step process for successfully empowering employees for top-level management and leadership
  • Actionable insights on identifying and leveraging opportunities to strengthen their professional relationships through intentional communication
  • A fresh, multi-demographic approach to succession planning and developing the next generation of capable, equipped leaders

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