Anton Gunn

How Great Leaders Win by Building Trust First

Trust isn’t just a leadership buzzword. It’s the foundation of influence, retention, and success. Yet, many leaders struggle to cultivate trust, leading to disengaged employees, high turnover, and toxic workplace cultures.

In today’s workforce, employees demand more than just a paycheck. They want meaningful work, opportunities for growth, and leaders who can bring out the best in them. Anton Gunn, a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama and one of the world’s foremost experts on organizational leadership, shares a transformative approach to becoming the leader that everyone admires.

This keynote is built on practical, field-tested strategies drawn from Anton’s 25-year career in leadership, spanning the White House, Fortune 500 companies, and some of the world’s most influential organizations. Leaders will leave with a concrete game plan to transform their leadership, build trust, drive engagement, and foster a workplace culture that attracts and retains top talent.

Participants Will Learn:

The three non-verbal questions every employee asks and how answering them the right way transforms workplace culture

Eight psychosocial responses that drive employees away (and how to counteract them)

A step-by-step method to build attractive credibility and inspire action at any leadership level

How to future-proof your team culture in an era of workforce disruption and change

Practical strategies to become the highest regarded leader in your organization and create a thriving, resilient, high-performing culture

Whether you’re a CEO, executive, or emerging leader, this session will give you the blueprint to lead with connection, confidence, credibility, and ultimately impact.

How Everyday Leaders Build Workplaces People Love

Great workplaces don’t just happen. They’re built by people who show up every day ready to lead, inspire, and contribute. The most admired companies in the world, like Apple, Microsoft, and Costco, have one thing in common: they create a workplace culture where employees feel valued, trusted, and empowered. However, too many workplaces suffer from ineffective leadership, disengaged employees, and revenge quitting, which creates a culture of “toxic turnover.”

So, how do you change the game? By becoming a Culture Champion, someone who brings energy, authenticity, and impact to their workplace every day.

In this inspiring and high-energy keynote, Anton Gunn, a leading expert on workplace culture, introduces a F.R.E.S.H. new Framework, five powerful principles drawn from the world’s top-performing companies, and hip-hop’s relentless commitment to innovation, resilience, and influence. Whether you’re an employee, a middle manager, or an aspiring leader, you’ll walk away with the tools to shape your leadership journey, elevate your career, and build a World-Class Culture™.

This isn’t about waiting for others to fix things—it’s about what you can do right now to create a workplace people love.

Attendees Will Learn:

The five areas of culture that matter to most employees and how to manage them

The eight psychosocial responses that kill productivity, morale, and employee engagement

How to lead without a title and why culture starts with personal accountability, not just management

The top culture strategies from the world’s most admired companies and how to apply them in your workplace

Practical ideas to boost collaboration, trust, and teamwork

How small, consistent actions can drive lasting cultural change

World-Class workplaces aren’t created by accident; they’re built by Culture Champions. This keynote will inspire and equip your team with the skills to lead, influence, and elevate their workplace from any level

How Inclusive Cultures Drive Innovation and Impact

The best organizations don’t just talk about opportunity and inclusion– they build it into their DNA. Yet, too many companies have lost focus on creating cultures where every employee feels valued, heard, and empowered. Without intentional leadership, organizations suffer from low morale, high turnover, and a workforce that feels disconnected and disengaged.

Anton Gunn, a nationally recognized authority on leadership and workplace justice, knows firsthand the impact of good intentions gone bad. He has advised Fortune 500 companies, top healthcare systems, and even the White House on how to turn cultural challenges into competitive advantages. In this dynamic keynote, he shares the essential leadership strategies to build a thriving, opportunity-driven culture where everyone can succeed.

This session isn’t about check-the-box initiatives, it’s about sustainable leadership actions that create real impact.

Attendees Will Learn:

The barriers to innovation and outcomes and how to break them down

How to lead a diverse team with confidence and competence

The DNA traits of inclusive, high-performing workplace cultures

Why diversity is your biggest competitive advantage and how to implement it

How to embrace resistance and create lasting change in your organization

Organizations that embrace fairness, trust, and opportunity don’t just improve morale—they drive innovation, growth,
and long-term success. This keynote delivers the blueprint to make it happen

How to Build Resilient Teams That Thrive in an Unpredictable World

Motivated and prepared teams with the right tools can not only survive a crisis, but they can also thrive in uncertainty. Unfortunately, the best teams can quickly fall apart in turbulent times without a crisis leadership strategy.

Global instability, political disruption, economic uncertainty, and other catastrophic events are just a few potential crises that can devastate an organization. An online poll of more than 2,000 executives and organizations found that a large percentage of respondents did not know what their biggest gap in crisis preparedness would be. Further, half of the respondents were unsure whether their teams would even be prepared to respond to a crisis.

Not having the tools to respond can cost an organization everything. Loss of revenues, market share, and brand positioning, plus a loss of talent and employee trust, are the first things that can impact your organization in times of uncertainty.

With more than two decades of successful leadership development experience, helping some of America’s top organizations, Anton teaches that any high-performing team can thrive through tough times by embracing a few key principles modeled by some of the greatest leaders.

Key points in this presentation include:

Identify and understand disruptive environments
Develop the right mindset during uncertain times
Build resilient teams that are prepared for adversity
Respond to the impact of the crisis; do not react to the circumstances
Become better prepared for the next challenge

Customized and personalized for each audience, this program is an impactful program for leaders at any level.

Your effectiveness as a leader is only as strong as your ability to influence.

The challenge today is most organizations do not give their leaders the tools needed to create lasting impact on their workforce.

Recent studies show incredibly high percentages of employees are disengaged at work and actively looking for new jobs. Additionally, current reports reveal that teams are unhappy, underperforming, and overlooked by their management or leadership.

Anton Gunn knows the negative impact of an ineffective leader. Nearly 30 years ago he was a disengaged team member and a marginal performer on a bad team. He was in a toxic culture full of unfairness that forced him to quit that organization. Since that time, he has risen to become a top C-level executive and a senior advisor to President Barack Obama, with over two decades of successful consumer and employee engagement experience.

Filled with impressive data, heartwarming stories, and real-world examples, Anton teaches how anyone can become a greater influencer and leader by embracing seven simple principles.

Your audience will leave knowing how to:

• Inspire those you lead and create a positive legacy in their lives
• Create quality communication within your organization
• Develop passion that leads to greater performance
• Engage your teams in the power of personal development
• Build a culture that is caring, helpful. and trusting

Motivated and prepared teams with the right tools can not only survive a crisis, but they can also thrive in a crisis.

Unfortunately, the best teams can quickly fall apart in turbulent times without a crisis leadership strategy.

Global pandemics, racial and social unrest, economic calamity, and other catastrophic events are just a few potential crises that can devastate an organization. An online poll of more than 2,000 executives and organizations found that a large percentage of respondents did not know what their biggest gap in crisis preparedness would be. Further, half of the respondents were unsure whether their teams would even be prepared to respond to a crisis.

Not having the tools to respond can cost an organization everything.

Loss of revenues, market share, brand positioning, plus a loss of talent and employee trust are the first things that can impact your organization in times of crisis.

Anton Gunn has experienced the massive impact of a crisis. More than 20 years ago, the crisis of terrorism that devastated the American economy after 9/11 almost cost him and his family everything. But since that time, he has led a remarkable turnaround to become one of the most influential minority executives in healthcare and a former senior advisor to President Barack Obama.

With more than two decades of successful leadership development experience, helping some of America’s top healthcare organizations, Anton has learned that any high-performing team can thrive through tough times by embracing a few key principles modeled by some of the greatest leaders.

Key points in this presentation include:

• Identify and understand disruptive environments
• Develop the right mindset during a crisis
• Build resilient teams that are prepared for adversity
• Respond to the impact of the crisis; do not react to the circumstances
• Become better prepared for the next challenge

Industry-leading organizations have two things in common: they have inclusive leaders, and they are intentional about corporate diversity.

In this era of both a global pandemic and increased social unrest, too many organizations and executives have collectively taken their eyes off these two things. Instead, they have reduced diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility efforts, and allowed the silence and the conflict around these topics to spread like cancer throughout their business culture and workforce.

A pulse survey by the research firm The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) found that 27% of organizations have put all or most DEI initiatives on hold because of their response to the pandemic. And 12% say that DEI is less of a consideration when companies are making decisions about workforce changes such as reductions, promotions, special assignments, and compensation. Eliminating the intentionality on diversity and inclusion can result in low morale, low productivity, high turnover, discrimination claims, and toxic workplace culture. According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), American employers lose nearly half of a billion dollars in discrimination claims annually.

Anton Gunn has seen the negative impact of a failed diversity strategy on business. In 2014, the crisis of race and injustice nearly consumed the culture of a $1 billion academic healthcare system in protests and discrimination claims. His expertise as a strategic advisor to the President and CEO and the executive team led to impactful initiatives that improved employee engagement, workplace culture, and community relations – fueling their growth strategy to nearly $3 billion in revenue and resulting in the organization making the Forbes list of America’s Top Employers for Diversity.

In this program, Anton reveals how anyone can build an industry-leading organization if they gain The Diversity Advantage.

By learning and embracing a few leadership traits modeled by some of the best organizations, you can build your company culture and boost your bottom line.

Your audience will leave knowing how to:

• Develop the right mindset around racial justice, diversity, and equity
• Build inclusive and resilient teams that are prepared to grow your company
• Model the behaviors of an inclusive leader
• Define new opportunities to drive leadership accountability on diversity and inclusion
• Build a culture that is responsive – not reactive – to external changes