Organisations that get leadership right consistently outperform the rest.
Michael Bunting is one of the world's leading authorities on the behavioural foundations of leadership and organisational culture, and one of the rare voices in this space whose work is built on rigorous research, not 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 global organisations including EY, Microsoft, Sanofi, Novartis, Hilton, Swarovski, Thiess, CIMIC etc..
As founder of TripleGoal, a global leadership and culture consultancy, Michael has spent more than two decades working at the intersection of adult development, applied leadership research, and real-world organisational practice. His work is built on a single, evidence-backed premise: leadership behaviour is the primary driver of performance, learning, and workplace culture, simultaneously. He calls these the Triple Goal, and everything he does is designed to help organisations achieve all three at once.
What distinguishes Michael's keynotes is a combination of depth, evidence and immediate practicality. His sessions are grounded in data from tens of thousands of 360° leadership assessments, decades of applied client work around the world, and academic rigour that is rarely found on a conference stage. His clients have gone on to be recognised as award-winning workplaces while achieving significant, measurable gains in performance, agility, and leadership effectiveness.
Drawing on the frameworks in Vertical Growth, which distinguishes between skill-building and the deeper self-awareness required for lasting behavioural change, and the evidence-based leadership practices explored in The Mindful Leader, Michael gives audiences more than inspiration. He gives them a shared language, clear frameworks, and specific actions they can implement immediately.
Known for his depth, humour, and disarming honesty, Michael's keynotes consistently leave senior leaders and their teams with something rare: genuine insight they didn't have when they walked in, and a clear path forward.
Talking Points
Adapt or Fail: Why Culture Decides Everything in the Age of AI
Duration: 60 - 90 minutes.Adapt or Fail: Why Culture Decides Everything in the Age of AI
In the age of AI, the organisations that thrive won't be the ones with the best technology. They'll be the ones with a culture fast enough, honest enough, and mature enough to learn, adapt, and reinvent. Michael's evidence-based research reveals that most organisations are unknowingly losing an average of 40% of their capacity to adapt and perform, and the cause is hiding in plain sight. When AI is accelerating change faster than most cultures can absorb, leaving your culture to its old patterns is not a leadership oversight. It is a survival risk you cannot afford to ignore.
What This Keynote Delivers
• Why the age of AI makes psychological safety, accountability, and fast learning non-negotiable rather than nice to have.
• The cultural patterns costing your organisation speed, execution, and engagement right now
• The evidence-based practices that build a culture capable of genuine agility, honest conversation, and accountable performance
• How misaligned incentives and routines are undermining your learning and performance without anyone noticing
• How to build an organisation that learns fast from mistakes without ever lowering your standards
• What it takes to reset your culture to deliver the performance, adaptability, and speed the AI era demands
The Leadership Evidence: What the 2026 Research Reveals
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes.The Leadership Evidence: What the 2026 Research Reveals
What does the 2026 research actually say about exceptional leadership in an AI disrupted world? Michael's own original research, generated across global organisations navigating extreme disruption and rapid change, provides a rare evidence-based answer. Not opinion, not story, but precise measurable proof of what great leadership looks like right now.
His research identifies the specific green zone behaviours that drive a 50% improvement in performance, agility, and engagement, and the red zone behaviours correlating with a 45% reduction in the same measures. In an AI accelerated world, the cost of getting leadership wrong has never been higher.
What This Keynote Delivers
• Cutting through the noise: the only three leadership outcomes that actually matter in a complex, disrupted, and hyper demanding world
• Why understanding the drivers of leadership behaviour is essential for focusing on the core behaviours that drive the right outcomes in a disrupted environment
• The conditioned behaviour patterns and reactive tendencies all leaders must overcome to achieve excellence under pressure
• The evidence-based green zone behaviours driving exceptional performance, agility, and engagement in conditions of constant change and uncertainty
• How to build the capacity to self-regulate, avoid reactivity, and act from wisdom in complexity and paradox
• What it actually takes to grow as a leader in a way that is simple, measurable, and built for the demands of right now
Mastering Feedback: Because Your Future Depends on It
Duration: 60 to 90 minutes.Mastering Feedback: Because Your Future Depends on It
In a fast-paced, disrupted world where speed of learning, alignment, and adaptation are everything, organisations can no longer afford conversations that are avoided, sugar-coated, aggressive, or unskilful. The conversations leaders are avoiding or mishandling are the exact ones their organisation needs most. Poor feedback does not just slow teams down. It creates misalignment, erodes standards, destroys psychological safety, and ultimately determines whether an organisation can adapt and perform at the speed disruption demands. This session gives leaders and managers a clear, practical framework for the honest, direct, and human conversations that drive accountability, learning, and results.
What This Keynote Delivers
• The underlying truth of why almost all feedback skills training fails and what ac5ually works instead.
• The common conversation patterns that lead to confusion, misalignment, and low standards
• The critical role of appreciation and empathy in making feedback land without damaging relationships
• How to set clear expectations and hold others accountable without damaging relationships
• A practical framework for direct, respectful, and outcome-focused conversations that drive ownership and results
• What it takes to build a culture where honest conversations are normal, safe, and effective
Video
Michael Bunting | Leadership & Culture Expert | Saxton Speakers
Michael Bunting works with leaders on the things most programs do not reach. What you stand for. Whether you live it. And what it costs when you do not.Michael Bunting | Self-awareness that drives team performance | Leadershift 2026
At Growth Faculty's Leadershift 2026, Michael Bunting breaks down the single variable that separates leaders who grow from those who stay stuck. It is not skill. It is their relationship with emotional pain.Michael Bunting | The Red Zone and Green Zone of Leadership Behaviour | Saxton Speakers
Michael Bunting on the gap between knowing what good leadership looks like and actually doing it. Why culture defaults to red zone behaviour, and what it takes to shift.Michael Bunting | The Internal Standard Most Leaders Have Never Set | Saxton Speakers
Walking the talk requires having a talk. Michael Bunting on the internal standard most leaders have never defined, and why it is the foundation everything else rests on.Michael was the breakout speaker of the year for Growth Faculty. What set him apart was not just the quality of his research or the compelling and entertaining style of his delivery, but the ... keep reading Growth Faculty
Michael is truly exceptional. Insightful, practical, and unforgettable. The audience response was outstanding.
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.
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.
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.
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