Patrick Houlahan
Top Leadership and Motivational Speaker, Former United States Marine Corps “Top Gun” Fighter Pilot, Management Executive Consultant, Organizational Development Executive, and Entrepreneur
Featured Topics
Fee Range
$15,000
Patrick Houlahan
Featured Keynote Programs
TOPGUN Lessons Learned:
TOPGUN Lessons Learned:
TOPGUN strategies to be the top 1% in your marketplace
Graduating from TOPGUN wasn’t just a rite of passage and it wasn’t just a check mark along a career path. It was a validation of hours upon countless hours of hard work, introspective reflection, and attention to detail that is beyond reproach. It also came with an almost mythical charge to hold yourself and all those around you to the highest of standards.
In addition to the tactical instruction, I also learned what it meant to wear the TOPGUN patch and to be a TOPGUN grad. The lessons I learned at TOPGUN and the ways of conducting oneself as a TOPGUN grad hold true in Naval Aviation as well as in the business world. They are effective, timeless, and transformational.
In the presentation “TOPGUN Lessons Learned,” we will discuss the top five lessons (Purpose, Dedication, Humility and Honesty, Tough Love, Debrief) I learned from TOPGUN and how they can be used in business to develop and lead high performing teams. They are not hard to understand. However, they do take dedication. Let me share these lessons with your clients and their teams and show them how to become the TOP 1% in their marketplace.
Simplifying Leadership
Keys to Leading a Successful Team
Leadership happens at all levels or at least we expect that it should. But where do our rising leaders learn to be Inspired, Compassionate, Mission-Driven Leaders? What are the key principles they should follow?
In “Simplifying Leadership: Keys to Leading a Successful Team,” I will give you the leadership principles necessary to take your leadership and your team’s performance to the next level. The keys to leading successful teams are not hard to understand, but they do take commitment. Allow me to share what I have learned and experienced over the past 30 years, leading top executives and millennials alike.
Communications is Key
The Art of the Debrief
The mission is complete, the sale is won or lost, and the quarter is over. What comes next? Is it time to go after the next client or time to get started on the next quarter? No, it is time to have a debrief. Take this time to review what your team did right, what they did wrong, what they can improve, and what they can learn. As a military and business professional, nothing is finished until the debrief is completed.
In “Communication is Key: The Art of the Debrief,” I will teach your teams the steps and the art form of leading and conducting an effective debrief. Many companies review their productivity without ever getting to the heart of the matter. Unfortunately, they only review the surface-level causes and do not get to the root of the issue. They miss the opportunity to build best practices that can have an exponential impact on their business going forward. In addition, creating a culture of debriefing is a fundamental component of strategic leadership.
In this interactive presentation, I use a variety of stories to ingrain the steps of debriefing and to make an emotional connection of why it is so important to your team’s performance. Allow me to take your team on a journey and instill the art of the debrief.
Fast and Effective Planning
Link Tactical Actions to Strategic Direction
A senior executive once said, “We agree all the time at the executive level, but then things break down below us.” Has this happened in your organization? Believe me, this situation can happen anywhere. But why does it happen?
In “Fast and Effective Planning: Link Tactical Actions to Strategic Direction,” I will teach your teams how to plan and ensure a line of sight from the frontline employees to the strategic direction of the organization. Unfortunately, many companies do not build effective actionable plans throughout their organization, which allows their strategic direction to become diluted. Planning takes effort, but as Yogi Berra reminds us, “If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
In this interactive and informative presentation, I use a variety of stories to ingrain the critical steps to build effective actionable plans and how to link tactical actions to strategic direction. Allow me to instill the planning processes that have served me well in combat and in the business world.
Cross-Functional Execution
Keys to Executing in an Interconnected World
Executing as an individual is one thing. However, unless we are performing as an individual triathlete or an individual salesperson, everything in this world is done as a team.
We have all heard that “we are only as strong as our weakest link.” Oftentimes, that link is how we communicate across boundaries with other departments as we work toward an organizational goal.
In “Cross-Functional Execution: Keys to Executing in an Interconnected World,” your teams will learn how to work across boundaries from a U.S. Navy SEAL and U.S. Marine Corps fighter pilot. We have worked and executed in the most demanding environments possible and we have translated those best practices for the business world. Allow us to demonstrate how the tools and techniques of a Navy SEAL and Marine fighter pilot will increase your team’s performance in an interconnected world.
Resiliency
How to Build and Lead a Resilient Team
Life is hard. Pandemics, Politics, Business setbacks, and Personal setbacks can drag down even the most dedicated and successful person and team. Charles Swindoll is credited with saying, “…life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it." This is a perfect outlook for what we are dealing with today and what all of us have experienced at some point in our lifetime. How do we bounce back and lead our teams? How do we take a seemingly terrible experience and dig ourselves out? How do we ensure the “bads” do not define our lives and careers?
In “Resiliency: How to Build and Lead a Resilient Team,” Patrick shares professional and personal stories of resiliency that has led to his success. From the challenge that almost kept him from becoming a fighter pilot, the obstacle that nearly doomed his Top Gun dream, to being “let-go” in the business world, Patrick has always found a way to rise above the situation and persevere.
Patrick’s interactive presentation will teach your team members:
• How to lead during challenging times and build resilient teams.
• How to personally persevere and the one key step to keep moving forward and turn failures into successes.
• The processes and tools individuals and teams can use to ensure that the lows are never too low.