KEYNOTE

Create a Culture of Results

How to Lead Hard Conversations without Breaking Trust -

and build a culture of real results through care, clarity, and courage.

Telling your team what’s wrong isn’t the problem. It’s doing it in a way that keeps trust intact.

Most leaders avoid the conversations that matter most – not because they don’t care, but because they do. They fear the fallout, so they pull back. But that fear becomes a silent killer of clarity, culture, and performance.

In this transformative keynote, Ben Ward shows leaders how to say what needs to be said — without crushing morale. He delivers a practical, repeatable framework for giving hard feedback with care, holding people accountable without resentment, and creating a culture that’s as courageous as it is connected.

Picture of the Soft Like a Brick book written by Ben Ward

Book this keynote when your leaders need to stop avoiding the truth – and start delivering it with strength and empathy.

You'll discover:
  • Why most leaders blow up their own culture by avoiding accountability
  • The 3 “pre-checks” before any hard conversation
  • 5 Power Phrases that disarm resistance and increase connection
  • How to lead friends without playing favorites
  • The holy grail: delivering correction that inspires commitment

 

Because when your people know you care deeply and expect greatly, they’ll follow you anywhere.

This isn’t about being “nice.” It’s about being Soft Like a Brick — a leader with a heart strong enough to care, and a spine strong enough to lead.

The Impact of Soft Like a Brick

This keynote teaches leaders the exact skillset to be both deeply caring and unapologetically clear.

Your team will learn how to deliver feedback that lands, build trust through honesty, and challenge their people to rise — without breaking rapport.

How to have effective hard conversations that produce a culture of results.

Picture of the Soft Like a Brick book written by Ben Ward
TESTIMONIALS

What people are saying about Ben's Keynotes

Chad Willardson

Founder of Pacific Capital & Elevated

Oriya Hirschhorn

Event Planner, Elevated