Strategic empathy is the leadership superpower to drive performance.
Daniel Murray blends the worlds of organisational strategy, behavioural economics, and strategic empathy with simplicity and practicality to help even the most analytical thinkers to engage in the world of empathic leadership.
Current Work:
With a degree in Mathematics, an MBA and a long career in strategy and management consulting within Australia's largest Financial Services organisations, Daniel now helps businesses and leaders to drive performance through people, culture and empathy.
His company, Empathic Consulting, was born out of Daniel's desire to embed empathic leadership tools in business. He has seen time and time again that businesses that largely ignore the unique emotional needs of people suffer disloyal customers, higher staff turnover and lower overall performance.
Through his presentations, workshops, and consulting services, Daniel empowers leaders to leverage empathy as a capability to cultivate productive teamwork and experience tangible corporate success.
Daniel is renowned for his ability to entertain audiences with engaging stories, practical tools, and relevance that bring to life the often-hidden side of human behaviour.
Talking Points
Leading With Empathy
Our highly complex and interdependent businesses, economies and ecosystems mean our people need the ability to step out of the constraints of their own views and see through the eyes of others.Leading With Empathy
This is where perspective-taking and strategic empathy empowers your people to build trust, deepen understanding and see the opportunities others miss. In this session, Daniel unpacks the challenges and key steps needed to become an empathic leader empowering performance through clarity and understanding.
With a mixture of clever strategies, emotive stories and pragmatic tools that people can use straight away. Daniel not only inspires action but provides the steps to make change an immediate reality.
Hard Feedback & Performance Management With Empathy
Feedback and performance management are essential leadership skills for those looking to challenge the status quo, break through barriers and step confidently into leadership. This session is designed for those trying to navigate the complexity of people. It equips participants with the tools, insights and strategies to lead with confidence, drive high performance and create a lasting impact.Hard Feedback & Performance Management With Empathy
Through engaging examples, practical frameworks and simple stories, Daniel explores how to support motivation, deliver impactful feedback and elevate team performance by building trust, clarity and consistency. Audiences leave empowered, prepared and confident to navigate performance conversations with ease and position themselves for leadership success.
Key takeaways:
- The Critical Role of Feedback in Leadership – Understand why effective feedback is essential for driving engagement and performance.
- Empathy-Driven Techniques for Difficult Conversations – Challenging discussions don’t need to be harsh. Learn how to approach them with clarity, confidence, and care.
- A Proven Formula for Giving Great Feedback – Apply a simple, structured approach to feedback that motivates performance, empowers teams, and fosters growth.
- Strategies for Elevating Performance Standards – Develop techniques for setting clear expectations, monitoring progress, and building a high-performing culture.
This practical and interactive session provides the skills and confidence needed to navigate performance management with impact—ensuring you lead with clarity, consistency, and influence.
Leading the Great Reconnection
Inspiring leaders to use empathy & curiosity to rebuild teams in the face of uncertainty. There has never been a more important time to begin the reconnection in our fractured workplaces. In a world dominated by complexity and uncertainty, your leadership is under the microscope.Leading the Great Reconnection
Many employees are feeling isolated, afraid and disconnected from the people they need to trust, understand and work with the most. Are you going to be a victim of the great resignation or lead your team to a great reconnection? Now is not the time for locking ourselves away in the busyness of daily work. It is not the time for controlling with an iron fist. Now is the time for curious and empathic leaders to foster empowerment and confidence for the future.
This keynote provides inspiration and key strategies to help leaders reconnect their people and recapture their performance.
Empathy, Ethics & the world of AI
Why we need to be more human in a world of artificial intelligence.Empathy, Ethics & the world of AI
Are your people concerned about the rise of AI and what it means for their jobs?
Are they struggling to see how they will fit into the future of work?
Is it time to reframe their importance and reignite the fire of human intelligence?
With the world of artificial intelligence and technology changing our lives so quickly, it is easy to be left paralysed, overwhelmed and struggling to understand our workplaces of the future. But we must not let the uncertainty of the future hold us back from the important role we will have in shaping it. This session is focused on repositioning the role our people need to take in developing the future of decision-making, workplaces and culture.
The future will be shaped by people. By the level of curiosity, empathy and ethical decision-making we make. This session will compel audiences to rethink what AI means for the future and put the spotlight directly on the critical role they play today and in the future.
Empathic Leadership Masterclass
Duration: 3 x half-day sessions held over 3 consecutive days.Empathic Leadership Masterclass
A practical and inspiring Masterclass to supercharge capability and growth as a leader.
Practical, personal, engaging and hands-on, this comprehensive masterclass will optimise your professional performance and accelerate your growth as a leader.
Specifically designed for new and emerging corporate professionals, you will gain key tools to thrive as a leader and build your career with drive and resilience.
Designed to build your professional and leadership development, this program has been thoughtfully crafted to optimise your learning experience. You will walk away with tools and resources that leave you refreshed, inspired and confident to lead with empathy to drive performance.
Benefits of this Program:
- Build leadership authenticity, understand your values and boost confidence to lead high-performance teams
- Develop self-awareness and empathy to become a more effective leader
- Receive an individual Team Management Profile (TMP) to identify work preferences and opportunities to work more effectively with others
- Learn how to communicate with influence and build trusting relationships
- Build resilience in yourself and others to navigate challenging situations
- Master strategies to break out of being busy and become a more strategic leader of your team
- Learn how to solve complex problems by embracing complexity, collaboration and accountability
- Shift from being a manager of the process to a leader of people
What to Expect:
- Before the Masterclass, each delegate completes a Team Management Profile and Individual Report from one of the world's leading psychometric profiling tools
- A personalised learning experience: With a maximum of 25 participants, this intimate and hands-on Masterclass is shaped to allow you to share your personal objectives and challenges, work in intimate groups to solve problems and integrate your work preferences to receive personalised feedback and insights.
- Build new connections and a support network of like-minded peers: You'll get the chance to collaborate and problem-solve with a new network of emerging leaders, all with a special interest in growing their skills.
- Each participant will work in small groups throughout the modules to provide support, advice and networking between sessions, with many support networks continuing beyond the program as lasting relationships.
- A toolkit of takeaway resources: Walk away with a toolkit of practical resources, frameworks and hacks that you will be able to implement immediately to assist your leadership development journey and career progression goals.
MC & Host
Often referred to as "Mr Empathy," Daniel has an exceptional ability to read the room, adapt seamlessly, and keep events running smoothly—even in the face of complexity. With years of experience presenting to demanding senior executives, navigating Boardroom conflicts, and ‘herding cats’ through major change, Daniel brings polish, poise, and a personal touch to every event.MC & Host
A seasoned professional in project management, corporate events and organisational strategy, Daniel is always planned and prepared, ensuring every session runs on time, on topic and on point. His blend of empathy, humour, and humility creates a welcoming atmosphere where the audience leaves as the hero. Whether it’s high-stakes conversations, high-energy panels, or unexpected twists, there’s no situation he can’t manage. When connection, energy and engagement must come together, Daniel ensures your event doesn't just have a pulse, but is a beating heart that everyone feels.
Video
Daniel Murray | Understanding People | Saxton Speakers
Daniel Murray blends the worlds of organisational strategy, behavioural economics, and strategic empathy with simplicity and practicality to help even the most analytical thinkers to engage in the world of empathic leadership.Daniel Murray | HR L&D Tech Fest 2019 | Saxton Speakers
Daniel Murray | Saxton Speakers
Thought inspiring, provoking and interesting. Took you through the emotional journey of using empathy in your business. ... keep reading Tyro Payments
He engaged people in the room who I didn't think would ever respond, let alone take-away actions. Post this session, I observed genuine behaviour changes. This was one of the best things I could have done for the team.
As a master storyteller, he led us as willing volunteers, on a journey of change. Through powerful analogies and images finely balanced by science and supporting frameworks (to build Empathy) Daniel speaks and people not only listen but are compelled to do better.
I can honestly say it was one of the best sessions I have been part of. His content was unique and his style was very interactive. I highly recommend using Daniel if you are looking to build empathy & understanding to drive performance.
I was fortunate to meet and experience Daniel’s presentation on empathetic leadership at a large conference held for the Fijian accounting community recently. His presentation was so engaging and honest, and so well tailored for the audience. He has such an authentic storytelling style, with the ability to have you immediately think of the potential to use empathy in your own life and organisation. I would highly recommend Daniel!
I had the privilege of listening to Dan talk about leadership and empathy. The session was full of moments that made you think, practical ways to apply empathy in leadership situations and to approach everyday situations a little differently. Dan made us think more about our perception of people and our preconditioned responses to certain situations and how these play out at work. There were so many valuable learnings for me and things I will now do differently from my short time listening to Dan. I really enjoyed the style of the content of what we went through!
Engineers Australia engaged with Daniel for content to deliver to our Engineering community. In particular on the topic of 'Leading with Empathy'. The presentation style was fantastic, engaging and impactful, applying personal stories and examples one would experience in the workplace which made it relatable. Daniel has such a calm nature which was lovely to work with leading up to the event, feedback following the presentation included comments such as - "Wow! That was incredible. I wish I had heard Daniel 35 years ago" / "This was one of the best sessions ever attended". I would highly recommend Daniel for any future events and certainly look forward to working with you in the future!! Keep up the great work and knowledge sharing you are doing Daniel!
Daniel provided a fantastic presentation to Fiji accountants and government leaders on empathic leadership. A really critical topic for developing countries who are seeking to drive innovation and transformational change - this has to be led by people and the right character, humility and leadership is essential. Highly recommend Daniel - a great style and creates a safe environment for self reflection.
