Heather R Younger: Customer Experience
Heather R. Younger, J.D., CSP is the architect of Caring Leadership® and workplace culture expert helping organizations build resilience, connection, and performance.
Quick Facts:
- Highlights:
- Creator of the Caring Leadership® framework—a system of nine behaviors proven to boost performance by 1.7Ă—.Â
- Reviewed over 30,000 employee surveys; led 100+ “Art of Active Listening Sessions™.”Â
- Thinkers50 Radar List Class of 2025, recognizing her as a top global management thinker.
- Formats: Keynotes (45–60 min), immersive workshops/masterclasses, consulting engagements, and virtual or hybrid presentations
- Audiences: Ideal for C-suite executives, HR leaders, culture and engagement teams, and organizations committed to building inclusive, agile, and empathetic workplace environments.
- Outcomes:
- Build emotional intelligence pipelines through self-leadership and caring communication.
- Embed resilient, listening-first leadership behaviors rooted in real employee voice.
- Drive engagement, belonging, and performance through compassion-led culture strategies.
- Travels from: Denver, CO
- **Fee range: $20,001 - $35,000
Talent Services
Keynote Topics:
How to Create a Culture of Listening
This keynote distills down 12 years of Heather R Younger 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 Heather R Younger 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
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Reimagining a New and 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
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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
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How to Build a Culture of Belonging
This keynote draws from Heather R Younger 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
Talent Short Bio
Heather R. Younger, J.D., CSP, is the Founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix and a globally recognized authority in workplace culture and employee engagement. Named to the 2025 Thinkers50 Radar list, Heather brings over 25 years of leadership experience across sectors like tech, healthcare, finance, and public institutions.
A former practicing attorney, she blends storytelling, data, and her Caring Leadership Transformation Model™ to help leaders lead with both heart and impact. A best-selling author and two-time TEDx speaker, Heather is also a LinkedIn Learning instructor and host of the Leadership with Heart podcast.
Read Full Bio
Heather R Younger is the Founder and CEO of Employee Fanatix, a prominent figure in the realm of employee engagement and consulting. Renowned as a captivating keynote speaker, Heather brings forth invaluable insights garnered from over 25,000 employee experiences.Â
With a robust background spanning decades in human resources and organizational development, Heather R Younger has solidified her position as a thought leader in the field of employee engagement. Holding a keen understanding of the intricate interplay between organizational culture, leadership, and employee satisfaction, Heather employs a multifaceted approach to drive positive change within organizations. Her extensive experience encompasses working with a diverse array of industries, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to startups, allowing her to tailor her insights to suit the unique needs of each client.
Heather’s expertise in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is unparalleled, as she assists organizations in fostering inclusive environments where every individual feels valued and heard. Through her consultancy work, Heather provides actionable strategies for dismantling systemic barriers and promoting diversity at all levels of the organization.
One of Heather’s most notable contributions to the field lies in her pioneering work on listening at work. Recognizing the pivotal role of effective communication in driving organizational success, she has spearheaded initiatives aimed at cultivating a culture of active listening within teams. Drawing from her research and real-world experiences, Heather equips leaders with the tools and techniques necessary to foster meaningful connections and enhance employee engagement.
Heather R Younger stands at the forefront of the employee engagement revolution, empowering organizations to cultivate thriving workplace cultures built on trust, inclusion, and effective communication. As a sought-after speaker, consultant, and podcast host, she continues to inspire leaders worldwide to lead with heart and embrace the power of listening in driving organizational excellence.Â
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Talent Videos
The Power of Listening: Transforming Employee Engagement
A workplace culture expert explains why real listening, not just hearing drives employee engagement, belonging, and organizational success.
Video Summary & Key Moments
Drawing on insights from over 25,000 employee surveys and years of organizational work, the speaker highlights a powerful truth: when leaders really listen, employees will tell them exactly what they need to thrive and will give their best in return.
The presentation begins with a simple question: How do you feel when someone truly listens to you? The answer is validated, valued, and understood—illustrates why listening is the cornerstone of engagement.
The speaker shares a personal story from a corporate merger, where fear and mistrust spread due to poor communication. Despite five companies’ worth of employees ready to collaborate, leadership failed to listen. In response, she created an employee engagement council to surface insights that executives overlooked.
The lesson: organizations must learn to recognize what isn’t being said the blind spots caused by fear or lack of trust. Listening requires awareness, empathy, and the courage to remove one’s own lens to see through others’.
The talk emphasizes that diversity, inclusion, and belonging depend on leaders practicing compassionate listening. More than words, listening requires action, the follow-through that shows employees their voices matter.
Ultimately, when organizations invest in listening, employees invest back. This creates trust, fuels innovation, and ensures long-term success.
Key Moments
00:00 – Introduction: findings from 25,000+ surveys on engagement
00:30 – Why listening matters: being heard makes people feel valued
01:15 – Story: leading customer experience during a merger marked by mistrust
02:00 – Creating an employee engagement council to give workers a voice
02:45 – Leaders’ blind spot: failing to recognize what wasn’t being said
03:20 – Listening requires empathy, removing bias, and stepping into others’ shoes
04:15 – Diversity & inclusion: listening as compassion and courage
05:00 – The action behind listening: making voices matter
05:30 – Conclusion: invest in people through listening, and they will invest back
Heather R Younger - Customer Experience
A sales leader shares how listening turned a $2M client at risk of leaving into double the revenue.
Video Summary & Key Moments
In this talk, the speaker recounts a powerful real-world example of listening as a sales superpower. While leading client development, she discovered that a $2 million client was unhappy with processes developed by leadership and was ready to leave.
Instead of defending the company, she thanked the client, promised action, and took the concerns directly to the team. Though initially dismissed, her persistence led to changes that included the client in process discussions. The outcome: not only did the client stay, they canceled with another vendor and doubled their spend with her company.
The key takeaway: listening differentiates you in sales. By tuning in to customers’ needs, hearing their concerns, and acting on feedback, businesses can prevent churn, close new deals, and grow existing accounts. The client even stated explicitly that the difference-maker was being listened to and having their needs respected.
Key Moments
00:00 – Story setup: leading client development with sales responsibility
00:20 – Discovery: $2M client unhappy, threatening to leave
00:45 – Immediate response: thanking the client, promising to act
01:00 – Taking concerns to leadership and production teams, pushing through resistance
01:30 – Process changes made with client involvement
02:00 – Result: client stayed, expanded business, doubled revenue
02:30 – Lesson: listening in sales saves and grows accounts
03:00 – Client feedback: “You differentiated yourself because you listened.”
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