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Urs Koenig

From NATO Commander to Executive Coach, Urs Koenig empowers organizations to transform managers into true leaders.

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5 of 5

Urs was not only a phenomenal speaker, but he was also a great collaborator as we prepared for our event. Urs truly worked to understand our organization's mission and culture and made strong connections to our organization throughout his talk and activities. Our team was impressed by Urs's flexibility and commitment to aligning his work with the rest of our day. Leaders left feeling energized and had a tangible focus area to talk away and start implementing immediately. Urs felt like more than just a speaker, he felt like our strategic partner.

Tiffany Nieman

MSIO, Director of Organizational Development

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Why you should book Urs Koenig for your next event

  • Unleash Leadership Potential: Gain valuable insights and practical strategies from Urs Koenig's extensive leadership experience, empowering your managers to become true leaders in today's competitive world.
  • Drive Peak Performance: With Urs Koenig's guidance, your team will learn how to overcome challenges, push boundaries, and achieve extraordinary results, unlocking their full potential and taking your organization to new heights.
  • Unlocking Potential through Experience: Benefit from Urs Koenig's expertise as a former UN Peacekeeper and NATO Commander, as he leverages his extensive leadership background to help organizations unlock their full potential.

Non-binding request for Urs Koenig

Unlocking New Levels of Achievement: Inspiring Leadership Keynotes
Unlock unparalleled leadership potential with Urs Koenig. As a bestselling author and UN peacekeeper, Urs delivers transformative insights on humble leadership. His Radical Humility framework, endorsed by global giants like Amazon and Microsoft, offers actionable strategies to elevate your leadership game. Join Urs to revolutionize your approach and achieve unprecedented success!

Urs is a bestselling author, one of the world’s leading experts on humble leadership, a former UN peacekeeper and NATO peacekeeping commander, a highly accomplished ultraendurance champion, a widely published professor, and a seasoned executive coach and keynote speaker with more than three decades of experience helping hundreds of leaders and dozens of executive teams unlock new levels of achievement across four continents.

Urs Koenig's message transcends industries and hierarchies, offering practical solutions to the challenges of modern leadership. His latest book, “Radical Humility,” chronicles his journey from executive coach to NATO peacekeeping commander, unveiling a new approach to leadership that emphasizes humility as a strength in today’s complex world. The deeply researched framework outlines five essential shifts to elevate leadership from Heroic to Humble, providing readers with actionable tools and practical takeaways to navigate the ever-changing landscape of leadership.

In addition to "Radical Humility," Urs has created a handbook designed to support fellow authors. This step-by-step guide is based on his experience publishing the bestseller "Radical Humility: Be a Badass Leader and a Good Human." It’s packed with practical advice, ready-to-use cut-and-paste templates, and strategies applicable to all publishing situations—whether self-publishing, going hybrid, or working with a traditional publisher. Radical Humility: Be a Badass Leader and a Good Human has also been awarded the prestigious Axiom Gold Medal for best leadership book in 2025.

He is the founder of the Radical Humility Leadership Institute and speaks frequently on the topic of leadership to corporations and associations across the globe. His message of Radical Humility in leadership has inspired teams from across the spectrum, including Amazon, Starbucks, the Society of Human Resource Management, Vistage, the University of Melbourne, and Microsoft.

He holds a PhD in geography and a Master of Science from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management.

When you book Urs Koenig for your event, you're not just hiring a speaker; you're inviting a catalyst for change. With a background as a bestselling author, UN peacekeeper, and NATO commander, Urs brings a wealth of real-world experience to the table. His insights into humble leadership have resonated with audiences across the globe, from corporate giants like Amazon and Starbucks to esteemed institutions like the University of Melbourne.

Customer Reviews

5 of 5

Urs was not only a phenomenal speaker, but he was also a great collaborator as we prepared for our event. Urs truly worked to understand our organization's mission and culture and made strong connections to our organization throughout his talk and activities. Our team was impressed by Urs's flexibility and commitment to aligning his work with the rest of our day. Leaders left feeling energized and had a tangible focus area to talk away and start implementing immediately. Urs felt like more than just a speaker, he felt like our strategic partner.

5 of 5

Impactful. Urs delivered an opening keynote that kept the crowd engaged and wanting more. His thoughtful delivery was filled with humor and storytelling that showcased his impressive career and lived examples of exemplary leadership. A must attend!

5 of 5

Urs presentation was fantastic. He brings a distinctive and exciting view on leadership and leading personal and professional change. His illustrations and examples resonate powerfully and his approach to motivating change is compelling. Urs gives a very tight, energetic and extremely enjoyable and inspiring presentation that never wavers or falters. His is a unique and diverse worldview and it resonates with authenticity.

5 of 5

Urs, wow, that was incredible! Your excellent opening keynote nailed it by setting the tone for our symposium. We received lots of positive feedback from audience members on how much they enjoyed your talk and how useful it will be in their work with their teams.

5 of 5

Urs' speech was absolutely incredible! Great energy and fantastic message. There were so many great nuggets of information, I couldn't write fast enough. I highly recommend Urs as a speaker for your next event. Outstanding!

5 of 5

Urs has a special talent for engaging his audience while sharing hard-hitting wisdom about managing in today's challenging environment. He speaks authoritatively and with empathy. A 10 out of 10.

Rated 5.00/5 based on 6 customer reviews

Urs Koenig Sizzle Reel - Radical Humility | Humble Leadership Keynote Speaker | 2024

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Vulnerability First, Trust Second | Urs Koenig - Radical Humility | Leadership Keynote Speaker

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Keynotes

Keynote by speaker Urs Koenig: Radical Humility: Be a Badass Leader & a Good Human

With the world changing faster than ever before, increasing business competition, rapid technological change, and an incredibly diverse generation entering the workforce, a new, elevated style of leadership is required. This modern form of leadership is called leading with Radical Humility; a more human-centered approach that views humility as a key strength to achieving goals in today's complex world.

Radical Humility unlocks exactly how to deliver stellar business results with teams looking to mitigate burnout, overwhelm, exhaustion, resistance, and high turnover while promoting productivity, engagement, innovation, and creativity.

In this timely, highly actionable, and interactive keynote, Urs helps audience members implement his deeply researched and battle-tested Radical Humility framework that is grounded in his career in the leadership trenches as a UN peacekeeper, business executive, veteran executive coach, ultra-endurance champion, and widely published professor growing leaders on four continents.

Audience members will leave this presentation inspired by moving leadership stories and with a hands-on, concrete, and easy-to-use Radical Humility toolkit they can immediately implement to create a high-performance culture that is ‘tough on results and tender on people’.

Actionable Takeaways Tailored to Each Audience:

  • Master the three-pillared Radical Humility Framework to drive engagement and productivity.
  • Discover why digging deep for increased self-awareness is key to winning and how to go about it.
  • Learn the one critical skill that is required to fail successfully and embrace a growth mindset.
  • Learn how to drive high-performance team engagement by applying compassion while upholding the highest productivity standards.
  • Learn how to build a fearless team by championing a culture of psychological safety, including an easy-to-implement exercise that you can try at your next team meeting.
Request a quote: Urs Koenig Radical Humility: Be a Badass Leader & a Good Human

Keynote by speaker Urs Koenig: Tough on Results, Tender on People: How to Create Psychological Safety in Your Teams for Performance & Growth

Psychological safety has become the foundation for building high-performing teams that can work more effectively together and navigate whatever change the world throws their way. It’s the secret ingredient that fuels innovation, engagement, and resilience in the face of uncertainty. Teams with high psychological safety, led by leaders who are ‘tough on results and tender on people’, consistently outperform others by fostering trust, enabling creativity, and deepening collaboration.

These teams tackle challenges with confidence, openly communicate, admit mistakes, and explore new approaches without fear. The question is, how can leaders create psychological safety on their team while still being tough on the results they’re looking to achieve? UN peacekeeper and leadership expert Urs Koenig knows exactly how.

In this engaging and actionable keynote, Urs shares his deeply researched and battletested framework for fostering psychological safety, enabling leaders to embrace vulnerability, fail successfully, and empower every voice on their team. Drawing from his rich experiences as a UN peacekeeper, business executive, seasoned executive coach, ultra-endurance champion, and accomplished professor, Urs offers actionable and digestible insights shaped by his work with leaders across four continents that equip leaders to build the team of their dreams.

Attendees will leave this presentation inspired by powerful leadership stories and armed with an actionable and practical toolkit to build a high-performance culture that prioritizes strong results while caring for people.

Actionable Takeaways Tailored to Each Audience:

  • Master the Three Pillars of Psychological Safety to enhance trust, collaboration, and productivity.
  • Turn failures into growth by normalizing mistakes as an opportunity for growth and fostering fearless innovation.
  • Empower every voice by creating a culture where team members feel confident to speak up and share ideas.
  • Build trust through vulnerability by leading with authenticity and openness.
  • Walk away with actionable strategies, including a simple team exercise to cultivate a thriving, safe space.
Request a quote: Urs Koenig Tough on Results, Tender on People: How to Create Psychological Safety in Your Teams for Performance & Growth

Keynote by speaker Urs Koenig: THEN to NOW Leadership: How to Engage and Empower in a Complex World

Business leaders in today’s fast-paced, disruptive, and volatile business climate face leadership challenges that did not exist even five years ago: Delivering top business results with a highly diverse work force that is dealing with burnout, mental health challenges, and low retention. To successfully tackle these challenges, a new kind of leadership is required—a kind of leadership that lets go of what we used to do back THEN and embraces what we need to do NOW to drive stellar business results while deeply engaging our team members.

In this inspiring, interactive, and actionable presentation, Urs guides his audience through the implementation of his proprietary THEN to NOW leadership framework, which is based on his world-spanning career of developing leaders on four continents as a UN peacekeeper, executive, seasoned executive coach, ultra-endurance champion, and widely published professor.

Audience members will leave this presentation energized and ready to take action. They will walk away with a tangible and concrete THEN to NOW toolkit that includes a focus on psychological safety, empowerment, belonging, and a growth mindset that leaders can immediately implement to fully engage their people while holding them to the highest standard. The result is that the team members can do what matters most: delight customers and take care of each other along the way.

Actionable Takeaways Tailored to Each Audience:

  • Master the 5 THEN to NOW Leadership Shifts to drive engagement, retention, and productivity.
  • Discover why focus and saying ‘no’ are two of the most important ingredients for success, including a practical, hands-on exercise.
  • Learn how to apply compassion while upholding the highest standards.
  • Discover how to build a fearless team by championing a culture of psychological safety, including an easy-to-implement exercise that you can try at your next team meeting.
  • Learn how to delegate and empower comprehensively.
Request a quote: Urs Koenig THEN to NOW Leadership: How to Engage and Empower in a Complex World

Blog posts by Urs Koenig

The VUCA World Requires Humble Leadership

In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, the old model of leadership no longer holds. Gone are the days when leaders could be expected to know everything and be the infallible heroes steering the ship. The Network Age has brought a shift in expertise, with frontline worke

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