Hire Michael Bunting to Speak on Leadership, Culture, and Performance
Evidence-based keynotes that help leaders make immediate improvements to bottom-line performance, innovation and workplace engagement.
Start the conversation and see if we’re a fit.
“Michael is truly exceptional. Insightful, practical, and unforgettable. The audience response was outstanding.”
Richard Lindell
CEO, Corporate Leaders Network
Michael Bunting is an award-winning authority on leadership and organisational culture change. He is one of the rare voices in this space whose work is built on rigorous research, as opposed to opinion or personal narrative.
He is the best-selling author of The Mindful Leader, Vertical Growth, and Extraordinary Leadership in Australia and New Zealand (co-authored with Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, creators of The Leadership Challenge, one of the most researched leadership models in the world). His methodology is featured in the MBA program at the University of Sydney and has been applied across dozens of iconic global organisations.
Michael has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of adult development, applied leadership research, and real-world organisational performance.
His work is built on a clear, evidence-based insight: leadership behaviour is the primary driver of performance, culture, and learning. He calls this the Triple Goal: Great Performance, Great Learning, and a Great Workplace, and his work is designed to help organisations improve all three simultaneously.
“Michael delivered exactly what we needed—connecting the dots, reinforcing our leadership strategy, and supporting leaders to reflect honestly on how they show up under pressure.”
Shona Poulten
TPG Vodafone
Why Michael Bunting’s Keynotes Stand Out
Evidence-Based Insights
Powerful and Thought-Provoking Delivery
Michael challenges leaders to rethink their assumptions about leadership, performance, and culture, creating moments of genuine insight that stay with audiences long after the event.
Practical Tools Leaders Can Apply Immediately
Leaders leave with specific frameworks and actions they can implement immediately to improve how they lead, communicate, and develop their teams.
Entertaining, Human, and Memorable
Michael combines humour, vulnerability, and compelling stories from real leadership situations around the world. The result is a keynote that is engaging, relatable, and highly memorable.
Focused on Real Organisational Outcomes
Leaders leave understanding how to shift their behaviour in ways that improve results, strengthen culture, and accelerate learning across their organisation.
“Michael’s ability to explain complex leadership challenges in a simple, practical, and deeply authentic way created an appetite in our leaders we had never seen before. The impact was eye-opening and life-changing.”
Michaela Wortley
Ernst & Young
Signature Keynote Topics
All keynotes are evidence-based, highly engaging, and tailored to the audience and context.
Future-Proofing Your Culture in the Age of AI
Most organisations are trying to operate in a faster world with a culture that’s slowing them down by as much as 40%. Michael’s evidenced-based research shows you exactly how to fix this.
What this keynote delivers:
- The evidence-based patterns that drive a culture of speed, fast learning, and accountability.
- Why agility and psychological safety fail without accountability and ownership.
- How misaligned incentives and routines are hurting your learning and performance.
- How to enable fast learning from mistakes without lowering standards.
- What it takes to reset culture to deliver performance, adaptability, and growth at scale.
The New Rules of Leadership
Michael’s original research on the intersection of adult development, immunity to change, complexity and leadership inform this eye-opening talk on what it takes to be an exceptional leader in today’s disrupted, complex world.
What this keynote delivers:
- The only three leadership outcomes that matter.
- The conditioned behaviour patterns all leaders must overcome to achieve excellence.
- The evidence-based leadership behaviours that create great outcomes.
- How to build the capacity to self-regulate and act from wisdom under stress.
- How to make the leadership growth process simple, focussed and achievable.
Mastering Feedback Conversations
Most performance and culture challenges come down to conversations people are not having, or not having well. Whether it’s aggressive, reactive, sugar-coated or avoided altogether, a failure to engage in high-quality feedback conversations hurts organisations.
This keynote provides a clear, practical framework for having honest, constructive conversations that drive psychological safety, accountability, learning and results.
What this keynote delivers:
- The common conversation patterns that lead to confusion, misalignment, and low standards.
- How to set clear expectations and hold others accountable without damaging relationships and psychological safety.
- A practical framework for having direct, respectful, and outcome-focused conversations that drives ownership and learning.
- What it takes to build a culture where honest conversations are normal, safe, and effective.
Self-Awareness: The Most Important Leadership Skill
Self-awareness is fundamental to the growth process and is arguably the most important life skill to develop. It determines the quality of your leadership, your relationships and your mental health.
But self-awareness that does not translate into self-regulation has no value. This keynote covers the three fundamental skills required to master self-awareness and translate it into consistent self-regulation.
What this keynote delivers:
- Why self-regulation is the foundation of modern leadership effectiveness.
- The three core capacities: See It (awareness), Own It (accountability), Regulate It (emotional balance).
- A closer look at the reactive patterns that undermine performance and relationships.
- Practical tools to stay regulated in high-stakes situations.
- How to lead effectively across generational differences in expectations, communication, and engagement.
Psychological Safety: Why It’s Essential But Not Enough
New psychosocial risk legislation is raising the stakes for organisations, placing a clear obligation on leaders to proactively manage workplace factors that impact mental health, safety, and wellbeing. Many organisations are responding by focusing heavily on safety, but often without the complementary behaviours required to drive performance.
This keynote draws on original research to challenge conventional thinking and reveal the critical leadership behaviours that create cultures that are not only safe, but also accountable, high-performing, and capable of fast learning.
What this keynote delivers:
- The risks of over-indexing on safety without accountability, clear standards, and performance discipline.
- The leadership behaviours that, combined with safety, drive performance, innovation, and reduce risk.
- How to balance care and challenge to create both trust, high expectations, and a safe working environment.
- What it takes to build a culture that delivers performance, fast learning, and meets evolving safety obligations.
What Clients Say
Tracey Craven Head of Organisational Development, George Weston Foods “Michael helped us deliver our most successful leadership conference to date. Our NPS score doubled, and the highlight by far was Michael’s two-hour interactive keynote. He helped us create an event to remember—and map a clear leadership and culture journey going forward.”
Growth Faculty organiser of some of the world’s premier keynote events. "Michael Bunting’s session, Vertical Growth: The Inner Work of Transformational Leadership, was one of the top-rated sessions at LeaderSHIFT 2026, earning 188 “favourite session” votes, standing out amongst a line-up of globally renowned keynote speakers. Leaders connected strongly with his evidence-based framework and its practical application to real leadership challenges. The depth and quality of audience questions reflected a clear desire to apply these ideas immediately, particularly in areas such as managing defensiveness in feedback, shifting team behaviour, and leading effectively within complex cultures."
Tanya Bowes Corporate Affairs Executive Director for Tourism Australia “I recently asked Michael to deliver a keynote on self awareness, growth and leadership to my function. The feedback was truly exceptional. People were very moved and inspired by the message and simple (not easy!) take outs and Michael's incredibly honest, personal style of delivery. So impactful and so good.”
Jaime McCoy Vice President at Gilead Sciences “Michael ran a 2.5 hour keynote and workshop on Vertical Growth for our broader leadership team. I have had amazing feedback from my team about the session and its impact. Michael makes a complex, yet game changing leadership development process easy to understand, immediately practical and useful. His deep expertise and good humour made the session engaging and enjoyable for all.”
Sharon Woodley Chief People Officer consulting for high growth businesses “Michael’s presentation style, knowledge and use of research engages our leaders in a way I haven't seen. These leaders have implemented changes they've made in their leadership practices as a result and often quote some key concepts from Michael's presentation which is starting to give us a common leadership language. We are already planning our next leadership sessions with Michael.”
Richard Lindell CEO of Corporate Leaders Network “Michael was a keynote speaker for our CEO and HRD forum. We have seen hundreds of keynote speakers in our line of work and Michael’s presentation was right at the top of the range. It was a truly terrific presentation on leadership and the process of growth and culture change.”
Shona Poulten TPG Vodafone “Michael delivered exactly what we needed—connecting the dots, reinforcing our leadership strategy, and supporting leaders to reflect honestly on how they show up under pressure.”
Enquire About Booking
Michael Bunting is available for keynote presentations at conferences, leadership offsites, and executive events.
Keynotes can be delivered live or virtually and are customised for each audience.
To enquire about availability and fees, please complete the form below: