Named a “Crisis Leadership Expert” in The Financial Times and widely noted for his thought leadership in navigating turbulence, crisis and change.

Contact Big Speak or your preferred speakers bureau to book Eric

Eric connects with audiences at live keynotes, virtual events, and workshops. Listeners leave with actionable insights, excited to take on challenges and make positive change within their organizations and communities. Here are some of his current speaking topics enjoyed by scores of audiences around the world.

“Eric McNulty is a rare talent: equal parts thought leader, storyteller, and teacher. His views on leadership are breakthrough yet accessible to senior and aspiring leaders alike. If your organization is searching for an authority on leadership, bring Eric in to speak. You and your audience will be delighted with your decision.”

Eric Lowitt, Managing Director, Nexus Global Advisors

Choose Your Topic

Unleashing the Power of Us: Mastering the Hidden Keys to Change 

As organizations and communities face ever-more complex challenges, leading change needs a refresh.

Eric reveals how to tap into the power of humans’ natural collaborative, adaptive instincts by making sense, crafting meaning, opening space, and shaping place to enlist support and build momentum. Change becomes a collective undertaking where everyone sees the future, and has the potential to contribute and grow.

“Your presentation was amazing and very relevant to our group.”
M. Darcy, Energie NB Power

What the audience will take away from this presentation:

  • How to steward large teams towards meaningful success (and create an environment people will love to work in).

  • How to transition from command-and-control to a service mindset that brings out the best in people, enhances engagement, and improves results.

  • Innovative and inspiring, a 2023 client called this talk, “captivating and moving, and a huge hit.”

  • You’ll also learn to see individual performance in a new light, one that unlocks potential across your team and organization.

Leading Confidently through Crisis

It’s impossible to prepare for every contingency. Yet there are essential skills and techniques you can learn to face high-stakes moments with confidence.

Effective crisis leaders build islands of certainty around core values and principles that restore calm and foster resilience amidst the chaos. This enables quick action, even amidst great uncertainty. Eric shows you how to navigate even the most turbulent situations so you, too, can confidently take the reins in any challenge.

“Eric is an accomplished speaker and possesses the ability to keep large groups intrigued and engaged while presenting complex materials – no small feat!”
Sidney Hoffman, FEMA

What the audience will take away from this presentation:

  • The three dimensions of the powerful meta-leadership framework and practice method that empower you to lead more intentionally and confidently.

  • How to establish a culture of trust and accountability that focus and ground both small teams and large, no matter the challenge.

  • Sometimes crises emerge from our organization’s own actions, and sometimes they’re an unexpected shock. Learn how to prepare for multiple futures, both foreseeable and difficult to discern—so you’re ready to nimbly address whatever reality unfolds.

Getting “Smarter Than Your Brain”

Eric uses accessible insights from neuroscience and psychology to help leaders understand how to optimize their performance and that of their teams.

He reveals how three core features of the human brain drive our behavior, decisions, and actions. It is knowledge that enables people to work with, rather than against, their core capabilities. Participants leave better understanding themselves and how to work with the amazing capacity of their brains while avoiding common pitfalls.

“Eric gave a one-day seminar on Meta-Leadership and Conflict Resolution at UCSD. Our feedback survey was relentlessly positive scores; it is rare to see top box numbers over 95% like his are.”
David Granet, UCSD Health

What the audience will take away from this presentation:

  • How to navigate the instinctual, rapid response, and intellectual neural networks for overcome uncertainty and adversity.

  • Understanding the brain’s orientation toward energy efficiency underpins biases and other thinking errors.

  • How to rejuvenate thinking capacity amidst information overload.

The Deeply Human, Deeply Social Future of Work

While the bells-and-whistles of the latest technology get the most attention, people will continue to want to work together. We are a social species with instinctual urges to collaborate. The future of work will call people to team up to tackle ever-more complex problems with greater urgency. That means a transition from organizations build for stability and predictability to structures optimized for fluidity and adaptive capacity. Leading such organizations will require the ability to sense-and-respond rapidly amidst ambiguity and unpredictability.

“Eric is a fantastic communicator and really engaged us as participants.”

Corinna Grimes, Atlantic Fellows

What the audience will take away from this presentation:

  • An appreciation of how to leverage the dynamics of complex adaptive systems to achieve positive outcomes.

  • How to foster high accountabilty while empowering distributed leadership and decision-making.

  • Powerful ways to use values, purpose, and trust to counter volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity.

  • Learn how intentional behavioral norms can enable speed with minimal conflict and friction.

In-depth Workshops for Tranformational Change

Bring Eric to your strategic off-site, leadership training, or other meeting to get your people thinking and ready for change. In addition to his keynote topics, Eric has a proprietary approach to future-casting that helps executive teams look over the horizon to find fresh insights and opportunities while overcoming blindpots. He also offers workshops on negotiation, conflict resolution, and making critical decisions.

Eric’s “vast knowledge and expertise span the universe of leadership.”

Emily Hough, Crisis Response Journal

The workshop format brings your participants:

  • Active-learning techniques that engage adult learners.

  • Expert facilitation that ensures that all voices are heard.

  • Focus on your critical issues and distinct culture.

  • A safe environment for imaginative thinking and bold experimentation.

Eric works with visual storyteller Heather Willems of Two Line Studios to add an extra dimension to workshops and training sessions.