Build Your Best Team Ever^®

Every leader in professional services understands that success relies on high-performing teams. Seamless collaboration, client-focused execution, and the ability to consistently deliver exceptional results are critical. Yet, despite efforts to recruit top talent, refine incentive structures, provide feedback, and track engagement, many teams still struggle to reach their full potential.

The truth is, high-performing teams aren’t created by recruiting stars or perfecting perks. They’re built by cultivating the habits and culture that unlock optimal performance and empower everyone to thrive.

Talent doesn’t make the team; the team makes the talent.

That’s what creating the Best Team Ever is all about.

By focusing on the culture of your teams, you create an environment where every member contributes at their highest level, enabling your firm to exceed client expectations consistently.

In this engaging and actionable keynote, Dr. David Burkus reveals the science behind the world’s highest-performing teams and explains how leaders in professional services can apply these insights immediately. You’ll discover how to break down silos, foster trust, and create a culture that drives collaboration, innovation, and engagement across teams.

Leaders will walk away with a deeper understanding of how the culture of their team drives performance and a practical roadmap for transforming their teams into high-performing powerhouses. This keynote will inspire and equip you to elevate your firm’s performance by transforming how your teams work together, delivering exceptional results for clients and positioning your organization for long-term success.

Collaboration is the lifeblood of professional services teams. Success depends on diverse minds coming together to tackle complex challenges, deliver innovative solutions, and exceed client expectations. Yet collaboration isn’t always easy—especially when team members bring differing perspectives, preferences, and personalities to the table. Building trust is hard. Keeping that trust intact in the face of high stakes, tight deadlines, and inevitable setbacks is even harder.

That’s why the most successful professional services teams go beyond basic trust. They intentionally foster psychological safety—an environment where trust and respect intersect, empowering teams to openly share ideas, challenge assumptions, and work through conflict constructively.

Trust is a starting point, but without respectful responses to trusting actions, the culture and performance of a team can erode quickly.

In this evidence-based and highly engaging keynote, Dr. David Burkus reveals how psychological safety unlocks the full potential of diverse teams, leading to better ideas, smarter solutions, and greater client impact. Leaders will learn how to foster trust on their teams, model the collaborative behaviors that sustain it, and maintain high levels of engagement—even when navigating setbacks, failures, or conflict.

For leaders looking to elevate collaboration, strengthen team culture, and achieve consistent excellence in professional services, this keynote provides a roadmap to make trust and respect the foundation of every team’s success.

The debate over hybrid work and returning to the office continues to dominate conversations in professional services firms. Plans for managing teams seem to shift by the day. Employees’ desire for autonomy is at an all-time high, while their feelings of connection and belonging to the team are at all-time lows. Many leaders find themselves asking, “When will we get back to normal?”

But instead of looking back, why not move forward to something even better? The future of professional services is undeniably hybrid and remote, requiring leaders to develop the skills to lead from anywhere.

In this meticulously researched and refreshingly practical keynote, Dr. David Burkus equips leaders with the strategies they need to manage high-performing remote and hybrid teams. Drawing from everyday examples and illuminating insights, David offers actionable advice on strengthening team culture, even when team members are dispersed, and managing performance when people aren’t physically present.

Leaders will also discover how to balance team members’ autonomy with the accountability necessary to drive results in a client-focused environment. By mastering these skills, professional services leaders can adapt to new ways of working while fostering collaboration, engagement, and excellence on their teams.

This keynote delivers everything leaders in professional services firms need to survive and thrive in a remote and hybrid world—because leading from anywhere isn’t just a skill for the future, it’s a necessity for the present.