Jim Lawless

Jim Lawless is widely respected not just for his achievements but also for his ability to connect with people at all levels. His talks are filled with real-world applications, challenging audiences to re-evaluate their assumptions and take bold steps towards their goals. His methodology emphasizes the importance of agile thinking and decisive action in a rapidly changing world.

A deeply trusted architect of transformation and culture, he has advised senior leaders from Apple and Microsoft to Diageo and carries that gravitas onstage with him. Jim’s captivating presence onstage is magnified by his energy, humour and compelling storytelling with a deep, lived understanding of the emotions, vulnerability and personal encounters with risk and uncertainty that come with change – drawn from his own experience of achieving the ‘impossible’ in his own life.

His immense and immediate credibility comes from the fact that he sits at the top table as a trusted advisor to leaders delivering change and that he literally embodies what he talks about. He became the deepest freediver in British history with an incredible dive to 101m without air in just 8 months. He transformed from non-rider to televised jockey in just 12. He is the author of the global Best Seller ‘Taming Tigers’.

A City of London commercial lawyer by training, he went on to study at Guildford School of Acting in his thirties to better understand human connection, communication and storytelling. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in 2008 in recognition of his business writing.

Jim’s Speaking Topics

• Fast, courageous change and resilience in uncertainty
• Tools for designing and sustaining high performance under pressure
• Transformational mindsets and culture shifts
• Resilience and decision-making in disruption and transformation 
• Architecting culture and results with senior leaders
• The future of leadership to exploit AI and retain / prepare your talent for continuous change, learning and unlearning
• Managing the mechanics and emotions of uncertainty, vulnerability and doubt to deliver outrageous goals with no track record or reasons to believe

Jim’s Keynotes:

• The DARE Loop – How to Deliver the Impossible: A visceral and thrilling high-impact keynote on overcoming fear, acting boldly, and navigating enormous levels of uncertainty to deliver big bold goals you think you have no business attempting.
• The Next Dimension of Leadership: Tomorrow’s leaders work with Jim to design and build agile, curious, empowered organisms. Yesterday’s leaders are oiling slow, command and control machines. How do you design a culture to deliver the future, when you don’t know what the future is?
• High Performance Under Pressure: Real-world strategies drawn from freediving, elite sport and global leadership. Jim delivers actionable frameworks to help teams focus, design their results and behaviours and standards to act, remain resilient and win.