Bio

Leadership Expert, Bestselling Author, UN Peacekeeper, Ultra Endurance Champion, Widely Published Professor

When companies need to inspire, engage, and develop their people while at the same time delivering stellar results in today’s hyper-competitive and complex business environment, they call Urs Koenig. Urs is an internationally renowned keynote speaker, bestselling author, and leading expert on humble leadership.

His message of Radical Humility in leadership draws on his world-spanning career as a UN military peacekeeper and NATO military peacekeeping commander, a highly accomplished ultra-endurance champion, a widely published professor, and a seasoned executive coach.

Urs shares cutting-edge research insights, inspiring leadership stories, and no-nonsense, practical tools to attract and retain top talent, engage high-performing teams, and create a psychologically safe culture that is ‘Tough on Results and Tender on People’ at world-class organizations like Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft and the Society of Human Resource Management.

Urs’ research-backed Radical Humility Framework is packed with tangible tools and practical takeaways, leaving audience members with the ultimate actionable blueprint for a new type of leader for a new type of world.

Speaking Topics

Radical Humility: Be a Badass Leader AND a Good Human

With the world changing faster than ever before, increasing business competition, rapid technological change, and an incredibly diverse generation entering the workforce, a new, elevated style of leadership is required. This modern form of leadership is called leading with Radical Humility; a more human-centered approach that views humility as a key strength to achieving goals in today's complex world.

Radical Humility unlocks exactly how to deliver stellar business results with teams looking to mitigate burnout, overwhelm, exhaustion, resistance, and high turnover while promoting productivity, engagement, innovation, and creativity.

In this timely, highly actionable, and interactive keynote, Urs helps audience members implement his deeply researched and battle-tested Radical Humility framework that is grounded in his career in the leadership trenches as a UN peacekeeper, business executive, veteran executive coach, ultra-endurance champion, and widely published professor growing leaders on four continents.

Audience members will leave this presentation inspired by moving leadership stories and with a hands-on, concrete, and easy-to-use Radical Humility toolkit they can immediately implement to create a high-performance culture that is ‘tough on results and tender on people’.

Actionable Takeaways Tailored to Each Audience:

• Master the three-pillared Radical Humility Framework to drive engagement and productivity.
• Discover why digging deep for increased self-awareness is key to winning and how to go about it.
• Learn the one critical skill that is required to fail successfully and embrace a growth mindset.
• Learn how to drive high-performance team engagement by applying compassion while upholding the highest productivity standards.
• Learn how to build a fearless team by championing a culture of psychological safety, including an easy-to-implement exercise that you can try at your next team meeting.

Tough on Results, Tender on People:  How to Create Psychological Safety in Your Teams for Performance and Growth

Psychological safety has become the foundation for building high-performing teams that can work more effectively together and navigate whatever change the world throws their way. It’s the secret ingredient that fuels innovation, engagement, and resilience in the face of uncertainty. Teams with high psychological safety, led by leaders who are ‘tough on results and tender on people’, consistently outperform others by fostering trust, enabling creativity, and deepening collaboration. These teams tackle challenges with confidence, openly communicate, admit mistakes, and explore new approaches without fear. The question is, how can leaders create psychological safety on their team while still being tough on the results they’re looking to achieve? UN peacekeeper and leadership expert Urs Koenig knows exactly how.

In this engaging and actionable keynote, Urs shares his deeply researched and battle tested framework for fostering psychological safety, enabling leaders to embrace vulnerability, fail successfully, and empower every voice on their team. Drawing from his rich experiences as a UN peacekeeper, business executive, seasoned executive coach, ultra-endurance champion, and accomplished professor, Urs offers actionable and digestible insights shaped by his work with leaders across four continents that equip leaders to build the team of their dreams.

Attendees will leave this presentation inspired by powerful leadership stories and
armed with an actionable and practical toolkit to build a high-performance culture that prioritizes strong results while caring for people.

Actionable Takeaways Tailored to Each Audience:

• Master the Three Pillars of Psychological Safety to enhance trust, collaboration, and productivity.
• Turn failures into growth by normalizing mistakes as an opportunity for growth and fostering fearless innovation.
• Empower every voice by creating a culture where team members feel confident to speak up and share ideas.
• Build trust through vulnerability by leading with authenticity and openness.
• Walk away with actionable strategies, including a simple team exercise to
  cultivate a thriving, safe space.

THEN to NOW Leadership: How to Engage and Empower in a Complex World

Business leaders in today’s fast-paced, disruptive, and volatile business climate face leadership challenges that did not exist even five years ago: Delivering top business results with a highly diverse work force that is dealing with burnout, mental health challenges, and low retention. To successfully tackle these challenges, a new kind of leadership is required—a kind of leadership that lets go of what we used to do back THEN and embraces what we need to do NOW to drive stellar business results while deeply engaging our team members.

In this inspiring, interactive, and actionable presentation, Urs guides his audience through the implementation of his proprietary THEN to NOW leadership framework, which is based on his world-spanning career of developing leaders on four continents as a UN peacekeeper, executive, seasoned executive coach, ultra-endurance champion, and widely published professor.

Audience members will leave this presentation energized and ready to take action. They will walk away with a tangible and concrete THEN to NOW toolkit that includes a focus on psychological safety, empowerment, belonging, and a growth mindset that leaders can immediately implement to fully engage their people while holding them to the highest standard. The result is that the team members can do what matters most: delight customers and take care of each other along the way.

Actionable Takeaways Tailored to Each Audience:

• Master the 5 THEN to NOW Leadership Shifts to drive engagement, retention, and productivity.
• Discover why focus and saying ‘no’ are two of the most important ingredients for success, including a practical, hands-on exercise.
• Learn how to apply compassion while upholding the highest standards.
• Discover how to build a fearless team by championing a culture of psychological safety, including an easy-to-implement exercise that you can try at your next team meeting.
• Learn how to delegate and empower comprehensively.

Testimonials

"Urs, wow, that was incredible! Your excellent opening keynote nailed it by setting the tone for our symposium. We received lots of positive feedback from audience members on how much they enjoyed your talk and how useful it will be in their work with their teams."

Erika Berndt, HR Director Microsoft