Dan Hill

The ability to do on-line searches about prospects had already changed sales practices a lot by quickening the pace of establishing context. But now with the advent of AI adoption, the pace of gathering and providing information will happen as if on steroids. Yes, AI will function like a collective, super-sized brain offering background galore. But deep down inside in one’s heart of hearts the sales buy-in process remains a matter of building trust and forming a personal connection because AI delivers fast, cognitive abilities but no emotional depth, nor the empathy required to be a successful salesperson.

In this talk, the synergy possible between AI and ESI (emotional and social intelligence) takes center stage. How can it not given that, in truth, client satisfaction and the loyalty that ensues revolve around an emotional verdict: as a salesperson, you’re either serving as a helpful collaborator to bring solutions to prospects or else you’re a predator merely looking for the next sale, the next (and probably last) transaction with the other party. Therefore, to do sales well on a sustainable basis requires greater emotional literacy than AI is ever likely to be capable of in real time. This presentation takes you throw what emotions mean and how they will drive a prospect’s behavior. Better yet, this presentation comes loaded with data that comes from quick, informative prospects and client research study results that show what does and doesn’t work in a pitch meeting.

Key Takeaways:

• The ability to practice emotional intelligence delivers a 6% advantage, a competitive edge further enhanced by gaining a topline understanding of how to read prospects’ non-verbal signals to know when your efforts are not just on-message but also on or (regrettably) off-emotion instead.
• The buy-in process is a five-stage scenario, each of which is detailed to reveal the emotional dynamics that lead to success or failure. On a step-by-step basis, not only are frameworks provided for being effective, illustrative tie-in examples from Inside Out (2015) and Inside Out 2 (2024) are provided to demonstrate the approaches that enable sales.
• As sales guru Jeffrey Gitomer knows full well, “The sale is emotionally driven and emotionally decided. Then it is justified logically.” To think otherwise is to foolishly pursue practices that won’t be effective.

When AI can synthesize data and draft strategies in seconds, what is the enduring, true value of an executive? Put another way: as AI automates routine corporate tasks, leaders are facing a profound identity crisis. It’s no longer possible to win by being the smartest repository of information in the room. Success belongs instead to those who can pivot from being the “all-knowing expert” to the emotionally intelligent guide whose strategic self-awareness becomes the secret weapon of a high-impact executive.

More specifically, this talk re-anchors executive value by exploring the 7 aspects of identity that serve as the building blocks for leading the human side of AI transformation. Now relational intelligence (RQ) becomes a vital counter-balance to AI’s cognitive prowess. Call it the Obi-Wan Strategy if you’d like: amid the shift to an automated C-suite, a calm, steady, agile communicative authority is required to inspire confidence and wield influence in an environment where judgment—not intelligence—becomes the new scare resource most in demand. By leveraging iconic cinematic role models from Star Wars: A New Hope, this lesson on exercising empathy amid AI disruption becomes not only a necessity but also fun, engaging, and instantly relatable.

Key Takeaways:

• Reduce tech-anxiety and accelerate execution in an automated workplace by exhibiting the transparency and humanity essential in building trust.
• Enact an identity shift by re-anchoring your leadership value around judgment, empathy, and cultural architecture rather than information alone.
• Cultivate the executive presence required to inspire loyalty and retention, including which Star Wars character archetypes are best suited to enhance performance amid technological disruption.

Organizations have long optimized operating systems that organize labor, capital, and information. Now comes a 4th system—AI—to organize intelligence. But none of those systems have been designed around people. That’s the opportunity. The next competitive advantage won’t belong to organizations with the most AI. It will belong instead to those who shift from focusing on AI capability (what the tool can do) to organizational capacity (can people absorb what AI makes possible?).

In this talk, you’ll see how to address emotional bottlenecks involving anxiety, trust, and empathy by learning from Hollywood’s most popular and influential movie: The Wizard of Oz. At a time when most Millennials and Gen Z workers have fundamentally different expectations about autonomy, purpose, feedback, and flexibility on the job, organizations can’t afford to just layer AI atop operating systems calibrated for an earlier era. Instead, they must recognize that the hope, heart, brains, and courage embodied by Dorothy and her three companions on their way to the Emerald City provide a roadmap for enabling organizations to thrive despite the tornado-like challenges ahead.

Key Takeaways:

• As much as 70% of corporate M&A’s, restructurings, and innovation efforts fail to fully meet their goals. Why? People’s truest, oldest operating system is their own emotions, and so transformational change succeeds by honoring empathy.
• The top three culprits that inhibit innovations, including AI adoption, are diagnosed, leading to a checklist for the 5 conditions necessary for AI transformation: trust, identity, safety, meaning, and agency.
• Bringing AI into alignment with ESI (emotional social intelligence) determines how well organizations will deploy AI. The three questions that, if affirmatively answered, will make a workplace feel “like home,” a place of belonging, are the set-up for a robust Q & A dialogue to follow.

The 25 square inches from our eyebrows to our chin have been called the most valuable real estate on earth, and for good reason. Not only are four of our five senses located there, but the face signifies our gender, race, health, and physical attractiveness, as well as how we are feeling. During a typical social interaction, people produce on average 101 facial movements per minute — a wealth of information that the business world has to date typically failed to leverage. In this lively, informative, and fun talk, Dan Hill takes his audience through the seven emotions of happiness, surprise, anger, fear, sadness, disgust, and contempt — with a special emphasis on how not every smile you see means what you may think it does. As an emotional intelligence expert, Hill explains the significance of a variety of expressions in various business situations. From leaders handling vital negotiations to salespeople trying to win a contract or managers securing nonverbal input on what their staff members are feeling and how best to motivate them, Hill's facial coding skill provides an invaluable, unique tool everyone can use.

Trust has long been called "the emotion of business," and yet you couldn't tell that from how carelessly companies often manage this vital asset on a day-by-day basis. Across all parts of a company, the ability to build, maintain, and (when necessary) regain trust determines both the extent of revenue growth and employee productivity and retention. Capability & Competency; Reliability & Consistency; Caring & Reciprocity; Transparency & Honesty — those are the four pillars of trust that no company can do without. As an emotional intelligence expert, Dan Hill takes you through unique case study examples drawn from his company's 20+ year history of studying the emotional dynamics at work in applications ranging from M&A and re-orgs to how a company manages to be both on-message and on-emotion in delivering speeches, sales pitches, and performance reviews. Too often, companies settle for cordial hypocrisy in making interactions feel more transactional than sincere. In this talk, Hill paints a clear picture of how a company can attain genuine trust through the practical commitments and practices it requires.