Better, smarter, stronger decision-making under pressure.

Jim Steele helps leaders at every level get the best from their people when pace is relentless and change is constant.

E+R=O (Event + Response = Outcome) is a neuroscience-backed framework for choosing response over reaction. Your team uses it the same day.

2025 Speaker of the Year

Best Live Speaker

Best Virtual Speaker

Book a Call with Jim See the Keynotes

15-minute call. No pitch, no commitment. If Jim's not the right fit for your event, he'll tell you.

TRUSTED BY

Reading about E+R=O is one thing. Watching it land in a room of 500 is another.

Watch Jim in Action

The Framework

The science behind better decisions under pressure.

Too many conference keynotes give your team energy in the room and little to carry forward after the event. E+R=O is different.

Event + Response = Outcome. It is a neuroscience-backed operating system, built and refined through Holistic Performance Lab (HPL) over 3,000+ sessions. It helps leaders focus on what they can control, gives your leadership team a shared language for reframing challenge, choosing response over reaction, and acting with coordination. The day they learn it.

E

EVENT

+

R

RESPONSE

=

O

OUTCOME

In a world you don’t control, your advantage is how you respond.

E

EVENT

The external environment every leader is navigating

AI acceleration

Constant change

Relentless pressure

Noise and distraction

Uncertainty

Competing demands

R

RESPONSE

Where performance is created

BETTER

Performance systems, disciplined habits, sharper focus

SMARTER

Clearer thinking, empowering beliefs, intelligent use of technology

STRONGER

Emotional regulation, deep confidence, resilience that sustains performance

O

OUTCOME

What shifts when response improves

Clearer, faster decisions

Sharper priorities and disciplined execution

Higher individual and team performance

Greater alignment across leadership

Resilient confidence under pressure

Sustainable energy and focus

Leaning in means choosing response over reaction. Repeatedly.

YOUR EVENT. YOUR PEOPLE.

Who books Jim.

If you recognise yourself in this list, you are in the right place.

Executive Leaders

CEOs, C-suite executives, and senior functional heads who need their leadership team aligned, decisive, and performing under pressure. You want substance that sticks, not a motivational sugar rush.

L&D and People Leaders

CHROs and L&D teams tasked with building performance cultures that last beyond the offsite. You need a methodology your people will still reference six months later.

Event Organisers & Bureaus

Conference organisers, association event leads, and speaker bureaus who want a trusted act their audience talks about at dinner. You need a speaker who always overdelivers.

BOOKED FOR

Leadership & strategy offsites

Transformation & change

AI adoption & resilience

High-stakes environments

All-hands & leadership summits

THE TALKS

Signature Keynotes

High Performance Leadership in a Fast & Changing World

Your people are operating under constant change, rising pressure, and relentless pace. Each keynote is a powerful standalone experience, delivering practical tools your audience can use immediately. Together, they form a connected performance framework giving leaders at every level a shared language for making clear, fast, coordinated decisions when the stakes are high and the room is watching.

Jim Steele Keynote Speaker Stage photograph

Jim has a distinctive presentation style and great energy. He unpacks a modern toolkit of smart behavioural thinking advocating some radical new habits

John Dore

Director of Executive programmes at London business school

01

The Adaptive Leader

Reframing Disruption to Opportunity

Leadership teams face constant disruption: AI, shifting markets, constant ambiguity. The speed of change is not the problem; how leaders respond is. Many speakers talk about embracing change. Jim Steele teaches leaders how to work inside it. This keynote helps leaders get the best from their people when everything around them is moving.

The engine behind the session is E+R=O (Event + Response = Outcome), the neuroscience-backed framework from Jim Steele's book Unashamedly Superhuman. Leaders learn to choose response over reaction, shifting from overwhelm and resistance to agency and ownership. Grounded in cognitive neuroscience and human performance, and tested through Holistic Performance Lab (HPL), the lab Jim founded, every tool is usable the same day.

This is a leadership operating system, not just motivation.

What this session delivers

Leaders learn how to regulate their response to disruption, remain agile, and sharpen priorities, so they can lead decisively rather than reactively.

For leadership teams navigating transformation, AI adoption, or market disruption.

Choose response over reaction leading to better decisions and purposeful action

Create clarity and direction for their teams that steadies performance when the ground is shifting

Build confidence and belief in the future direction so teams lean into change instead of resisting it

Sustain execution at pace without losing clarity or focus

02

The Momentum Multiplier

Turning Strategic Intent into Sustained Performance

Leadership teams have strategies. Not all have systems to execute them. Priorities drift, energy fades, and progress stalls because leaders react to noise instead of responding to what matters most. Teams lose direction and momentum. This keynote equips leaders to align focus, maintain traction, and convert strategic clarity into coordinated performance, closing the gap

The engine behind the session is E+R=O (Event + Response = Outcome), the neuroscience-backed framework from Jim's book Unashamedly Superhuman. Leaders learn to choose response over reaction, shifting from overwhelm and resistance to agency and ownership. Grounded in cognitive neuroscience and human performance, and tested through Holistic Performance Lab (HPL), the lab Jim founded, every tool is usable the same day.

This is a leadership operating system, not just motivation.

What this session delivers

Leaders learn how to create focus, translate strategy into daily behaviour, an build systems that keep momentum alive long after the event ends.

For leadership teams responsible for delivering on strategy in fast-moving environments.

Translate strategic goals into coordinated execution

Set clear priorities that drive ownership and accountability

Reduce decision overload so priorities stay sharp

Build execution rhythms that maintain momentum after the initial push fades

Jim Steele Keynote Speaker NSC Conference image

Jim completely changed the mindset of each and every person at our conference, instilling confidence and positivity, and we've never looked back since

Stacey Winters

Managing Partner and Market Leader for Gen AI, Deloitte

Peak performance isn't about a single bullet. It's about the implementation of an entire system of behavior and thinking. Jim explains how you can establish your own winning system for personal success.

Phil Jones

Managing Director of Brother UK

03

The Decision Engine

Sustaining Leadership When Demands Don't Stop

Leadership teams face demands that compound and never let up. Many respond by pushing harder, which can erode focus, decision quality, and the energy that drives results. This keynote helps leaders get the best from their people through a practical performance system that strengthens cognitive endurance, emotional regulation, and recovery rhythms without burning capacity.

This is a leadership operating system, not just motivation.

What this session delivers

Leaders learn to turn over-extension into regulated endurance enabling clear and coordinated decisions in high demand environments.

For leadership teams where sustained performance matters more than short sprints.

Manage focus, energy and cognitive capacity with the same discipline they
bring to strategy

Maintain decision quality under sustained, compounding pressure

Build recovery habits that keep performance consistent over time

Show up at their best repeatedly, combining productivity and sustainability

Jim completely changed the mindset of each and every person at our conference, instilling confidence and positivity and we have never looked back since.

Stacey Winters

Managing Partner and Market Leader for Gen AI, Deloitte

He was funny, relatable, had the ability to connect with his audience, and effortless to follow and understand. A truly standout and memorable speaker.

Mary Tillson-Wharton

Judge - The Speakers Awards

I have never seen any speaker engage a 1000+ audience like Jim did and I have never heard such good feedback from participants.

Cecilia de la Hox

Parner EY Parthenon

Love working with you Jim. A professional speaker that always delivers. #The Postman

Steve Lindsey

National Sales Conference

There are plenty of remarkable keynote speakers. I've watched hundreds and felt, wow they're amazing. Jim does more. The audience leave thinking they are amazing too.

Ian Chamberlain

Director. Life Science Academy

The event was an enormous success. My teams are still talking about the philosophies he presented. He has had such a positive impact and we look forward to them delivering extraordinary results

Regional Leader

GLAXOSMITHKLINE

As a speaker, Jim is not only entertaining and motivating, but he also possesses the ability to completely captivate your audience. I will convey each of his practical strategies to my team

Country Head

DISNEY RETAIL

THE PERSON

About Jim Steele

Keynote Speaker. Author. Executive Coach.

Jim Steele has spent 30 years observing the same pattern across more than 3,000 stages and working with leadership teams at every level. Different industries. Different pressures. Same breakdown:

Capable people. Fast environments. Reactive decisions.

From that pattern came E+R=O (Event + Response = Outcome), not as theory, but as a decision-making framework tested in real leadership environments. Through The Holistic Performance Lab (HPL), the research and application engine he founded, the model is continuously refined for the realities leaders face today, AI acceleration, compressed timeframes, and increasing cognitive load.

Jim rebuilt his own career three times, through the financial crisis, industry shutdowns, and rapid market change. He completed an Ironman at 57 not as a stunt, but as a demonstration of disciplined systems over motivation. His authority on resilience is grounded in execution, not sentiment.

He then wrote Unashamedly Superhuman (Wiley). The book distils three decades into a framework leaders keep on their desks, not their shelves.

30+

YEARS

3000+

AUDIENCES

6

CONTINENTS

2025

Speaker of the Year

What to expect when you book Jim.

Every engagement starts with a conversation. Jim speaks with you directly. No questionnaires. No templated intake forms.

1

A 15-minute call.

You tell Jim about your event, your audience, and what you need them to walk away with. Jim will be direct about whether he is the right fit.

2

Tailored preparation.

Every keynote is shaped around your context, your industry pressures, and the specific decisions your team is facing.

3

The day itself.

Jim arrives early. He meets your team. He understands the room before he walks on stage. Your audience leaves with tools they use immediately.

4

After the event.

Many organisations extend into leadership days, digital programmes, or coaching. The keynote stands on its own. There is no pressure to extend.

HOW JIM WORKS

Services

A keynote creates energy, clarity, and momentum. Holistic Performance Lab (HPL) is the research and development engine behind E+R=O, where the frameworks are built, tested, and kept current.

Some organisations start with a keynote and extend into programmes or coaching. Others go straight to leadership development. The work shapes itself around your context.

The common thread: helping leaders and teams respond better, think smarter and perform stronger.

Signature Keynotes

Immersive, framework-driven keynotes from the 2025 Speaker of the Year. Your team walks away with tools they use the same day.

Leadership Days

A deeper session that embeds the keynote content and builds bespoke strategies for your team's specific challenges.

Digital Programme

Developed in partnership with the University of British Columbia. Your people apply E+R=O at their own pace, with structured accountability.

One-to-One Coaching

Bespoke coaching for senior leaders. Personal clarity, sharper decision-making, and the accountability to follow through.

Get in Touch

THE BOOK

Unashamedly Superhuman

Published by Wiley. 30 years of high-performance leadership distilled into a framework that leaders keep on their desks, not their shelves. E+R=O, the science of choosing response over reaction, in your hands.

Get the book

FOR BOOKERS