Heather Younger

Heather Younger is a highly sought-after keynote speaker, a diversity, equity and inclusion strategist, and the world’s leading expert on listening at work.

Expert on

  • Leadership
  • Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI)
  • Resilience
  • Employees / Workforce
  • Communication
  • Business – Communications

Fee Range

$20,000–$30,000

Travels from

CO, US

Biography

Heather R Younger, J.D. is a trusted contributor to leading news outlets, like Forbes, Fast Company, Bloomberg, NBC and ABC and one of the world’s leading experts on Caring Leadership® and active listening at work. She is the visionary Founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix, a preeminent employee engagement and workplace culture consulting firm to Fortune 100 companies. Employee Fanatix conducts annual research on workplace culture, relying on employee voices for what is relevant now, to help companies redefine their culture strategy. Heather has personally read over 30,000 employee surveys and facilitated over 100 employee focus groups, including her signature “Art of Active Listening Sessions.” 

With over 25 years of successfully managing teams, she has worked in customer experience, sales, and large account management for multi-million dollar accounts within multiple industries such as tech, staffing, healthcare, professional services, the public sector, and the financial sector. She’s a renowned keynote speaker, drawing insights from current data and putting into practice what she teaches in her Caring Leadership Transformation Model™.

Heather’s strategies yield tangible business results, including heightened employee engagement, unwavering loyalty, seamless collaboration, and robust connectivity.  One of her clients, a leader at a bank, continues to win Top Workplace awards, and the feedback from employees is that they are connecting the dots and making employees feel informed and engaged. Another one of her clients, a leader at an oil and gas company, says employee feedback shows an increased sense of trust about voicing concerns without fear of negative consequences. This all results in better outcomes in our everyday work. 

Heather is a former practicing attorney turned award-winning leader in the area of Employee Engagement as recognized by Inspiring Workplaces, is a LinkedIn Learning course partner, 3-time best-selling author, TEDX speaker and host of the popular, Leadership with Heart podcast. She is also an Adjunct Organizational Leadership Professor at University College at Denver University.

Her accolades include being a best-selling author of three books: “The 7 Intuitive Laws of Employee Loyalty,” a Forbes Must-Read List topper for HR professionals, “The Art of Caring Leadership,” wherein she shines a spotlight on the radical potential of compassionate leadership, and her latest best-selling book, “The Art of Active Listening,” through which she equips individuals with the interpersonal skills required to make others feel seen, heard, and valued.

Heather’s personal journey, rooted in her challenging experiences growing up as the only child of an interfaith and interracial marriage and being excluded because of her race, fueled her unwavering determination to ensure that workplaces around the world make both employees and customers alike feel heard, valued and seen.

Speaker Videos

Reimagining a New & Better Workplace

In this empowering, interactive, and hope-filled keynote, Heather provides a roadmap for navigating change with agility, confidence, resilience — and a positive outlook.

This program is perfect for leaders:

  • Powering through tough moments or times of crisis
  • Fortifying those they lead in preparation for future challenges
  • Equipping their organization to thrive long term

The audience will leave with:

  • An effective framework to more quickly recover from adversity
  • A high-level roadmap for succeeding with more ease, even in uncertain times
  • A clear path to retool their workplace through creativity and innovation

Diversity and Inclusion: How to Build a Culture of Belonging

This keynote draws from Heather’s personal experiences as the only child of an interfaith and interracial marriage to inspire leaders to flex their empathy muscles and master the art of active listening to ensure every employee feels valued, respected and supported.

This program is perfect for leaders:

  • Building cultures of belonging at work
  • Seeking to honor their colleagues’ diverse experiences and perspectives
  • Educating themselves about other peoples’ challenges

The audience will leave with:

  • A practical method to elicit feedback and unlock change and growth
  • A greater understanding of the role they have to play in creating cultures of belonging at work
  • The inspiration to show up each workday as their most authentic selves

How to Create a Culture of Listening

This keynote distills down 12 years of Heather’s experience reviewing 25,000 employee engagement survey comments into actionable insights that have been proven to lead to better engagement, better customer satisfaction, higher revenue, lower turnover, and brand loyalty.

This program is perfect for leaders:

  • Seeking to understand employees, prospects, or customers to better meet their needs
  • Working to improve the culture at work to ensure everyone feels heard, valued, and appreciated
  • Supporting others at work to become more engaged, motivated, and productive

The audience will leave with:

  • The one success characteristic they need to reach their goals and create win-win scenarios at work
  • An inspired understanding of how to practice active listening with those who look to them for guidance
  • A listening process that will unlock valuable insights and deliver desired outcomes
 

The Art of Caring Leadership

The four Caring Leadership principles delivered in this keynote serve as a powerful reminder of every leader’s responsibility to uplift their team and organization and drive real business results.

This program is perfect for leaders:

  • Supporting employees through organizational change
  • Prioritizing self-development as part of their leadership development
  • Working to improve their ability to inspire and engage those they lead and meet key organizational goals

The audience will leave with:

  • A practical understanding of the concrete actions they can take to uplift and engage those they lead
  • Deep insights into the positive power they possess to create a culture of caring at work
  • Strategies to inspire loyalty with their leadership by becoming more present, caring, and compassionate