Leadership and Culture Transformation for Organizations That Can't Afford to Get It Wrong

Wade speaks nationally on culture transformation, authentic leadership, and navigating organizational change—bringing Fortune 250 credibility with Southern accessibility.

Popular Topics:

The Culture-Strategy Gap: Why Most Strategies Fail (And How Yours Won't) Most strategic plans fail not from poor strategy, but from a culture that won't execute it. This keynote reveals the gap and gives leaders a framework to close it.

Leading Through AI Disruption While Maintaining Committed Culture AI changes everything about how work gets done—but it doesn't change what makes humans commit to organizations. Learn how to advance capabilities without losing culture.

Leadership Through Power vs. Force: The Framework High-Performing Leaders Use. There's a difference between forcing compliance and building commitment. High-performing leaders know it. This keynote teaches the framework.

Authentic Leadership in High-Stakes Environments When the stakes are high, and the margin for error is zero, authenticity isn't soft—it's strategic. Learn how authentic leadership drives results in complex organizations.

The Inclusion Advantage: Why Culture Transformation Drives Business Results. Inclusion isn't compliance. It's a competitive advantage. Organizations that build inclusive cultures outperform—here's how.

Custom Topic Development: We work with you to develop keynotes addressing your organization's exact needs, industry context, and conference themes.

Format Options: • Conference keynotes (45-75 minutes) • Leadership retreat sessions (90 minutes - half day) • Virtual presentations • Fireside chat format • Panel participation

What's Included: • Pre-event consultation to understand audience, objectives, and organizational context • Custom content tailored to your industry and challenges • Professional keynote delivery with executive presence • Post-event resources and frameworks for attendees • Follow-up availability for questions

What Makes These Keynotes Different: Fortune 250 VP and General Counsel experience, not generic inspiration. Legal and governmental background, not consultant theory. Insurance and financial services expertise. Southern roots with executive credibility. Substance that moves beyond motivation to application.

Investment: Custom pricing based on event scope, format, and travel requirements.

For detailed speaking information, availability, and booking: wadehinton.com

Custom workshops built around the Culture Compass™ framework—a four-pillar approach to aligning people, purpose, and performance. These aren't generic leadership trainings. They're practical, applicable frameworks your leaders will use immediately.

Workshop Topics:

Culture in Action: Getting Started & Leading with Accountability: How to translate culture statements into actual behavior. The accountability framework that high-performing teams use.

Leading Beyond Your Experience: What to do when you're leading in areas where you lack technical expertise. The framework for credible leadership without being the expert.

Communicating with Clarity and Impact: How executives communicate complex ideas with precision. The structure for high-stakes communications.

The Art of Bridge Building Leading across organizational silos, political divides, and competing priorities. The coalition-building approach that works.

Building Trust for Innovation: Why Psychological Safety Drives Results. How to build the trust that enables risk-taking and innovation.

Smart Hiring for Stronger Teams Beyond skills and experience—how to hire for culture fit, potential, and long-term contribution.

Leading Across Generations: Managing Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z on the same team. Practical approaches to generational leadership challenges.

Harnessing Cognitive Diversit:y Why diverse teams outperform—and how to lead them effectively. Moving beyond demographics to cognitive diversity.

Who It's For: Organizations developing leadership capacity across levels, executive teams navigating strategic change, management cohorts needing practical frameworks they'll actually use, and emerging leaders stepping into expanded roles.

What's Included: • Pre-workshop consultation and needs assessment to understand your context • Custom content design for your industry, challenges, and organizational culture • Interactive facilitation (75-minute or half-day format) • Participant materials and frameworks they can apply immediately • Post-workshop resources and implementation support • Follow-up consultation to address questions and support application

Typical Outcomes: Leadership teams report immediate application of frameworks to real challenges. Improved delegation and accountability across the organization. Stronger team communication and trust. Leaders stepping into complexity with confidence. Shared language that persists long after the workshop.

Investment: $4,000–$10,000 depending on format, audience size, customization level, and travel requirements.

Move beyond employee surveys. Get unfiltered truth about what's actually happening in your organization—and a clear, actionable roadmap for transformation.

Who It's For:

Insurance and financial services firms are navigating regulatory change, technology disruption, or post-merger integration where cultural friction is undermining strategy.

Organizations experiencing cultural friction during growth—what worked at 50 employees doesn't work at 500, and you're feeling the strain.

Leadership teams preparing for strategic initiatives who know culture will make or break execution.

Companies where "something's off"—performance is slipping, talent is leaving, strategy isn't getting traction—but you can't pinpoint why.

What's Included:

Discovery Phase: Leadership interviews to understand strategic context, desired culture, and known friction points. Document review of existing culture statements, values, employee survey data, and strategic plans. Context analysis of industry dynamics, competitive positioning, and organizational history.

Assessment Phase: Stakeholder interviews across organizational levels—not just leadership, but the people doing the work. Culture inventory using the Culture Compass™ framework to identify what's working and what's not. Anonymous feedback mechanisms to surface truths that don't emerge in formal channels.

Analysis: Identification of cultural strengths to leverage and build on. Clear articulation of cultural barriers undermining strategy and performance. Gap analysis between stated culture and actual culture. Root cause analysis—not just symptoms, but what's driving the dysfunction.

Recommendations: Written report with specific, actionable steps—not generic advice, but concrete actions for your context. Prioritized roadmap distinguishing quick wins from long-term transformation. Stakeholder engagement strategy for building buy-in and managing resistance. Metrics for measuring progress and holding leaders accountable.

Presentation: In-person debrief with leadership team—honest conversation about what we found and what it means. Q&A to address concerns, objections, and implementation questions. Strategy session on sequencing and resource allocation.

Implementation Support: 90-day roadmap with clear milestones and accountability. Follow-up consultation to address roadblocks, adjust approach, and maintain momentum. Access to Wade for questions as implementation proceeds.

What Makes This Different:

Industry Expertise: Deep experience in insurance, financial services, and organizational dynamics. We understand your regulatory environment, risk management requirements, and competitive pressures.

Executive Perspective: Wade's held senior roles—VP, General Counsel, City Attorney. He understands the political complexity, competing priorities, and real constraints you're navigating.

Truth-Telling: We say what's actually happening, not what's comfortable. You're paying for unfiltered truth, not validation.

Actionable Recommendations: Specific steps for your context, not generic consultant frameworks. We will tell you what to do on Monday morning.

Typical Timeline: 60–90 days from kickoff to final presentation, depending on organizational size and complexity.

Investment: $15,000–$30,000 depending on organizational size, geographic distribution, and assessment scope.

One-on-one strategic partnership for executives navigating high-stakes challenges. This isn't generic executive coaching—it's peer-level partnership with someone who's been the VP, the General Counsel, the senior executive making the call.

Who It's For:

CEOs and senior executives navigating transitions—new role, new organization, expanded scope, or stepping into the CEO role for the first time.

Executive directors are facing organizational transformation—growth, restructuring, culture change, or strategic pivot, where the stakes are high.

General counsel managing legal and strategic complexity—you're not just providing legal advice, you're shaping business strategy and managing political dynamics.

VPs stepping into broader leadership roles—moving from functional expertise to organizational leadership, managing complexity beyond your prior scope.

Focus Areas:

Leadership Transitions: New role, new organization, expanded scope. The first 90 days and beyond. Building credibility, assessing talent, and making early calls.

Organizational Culture Transformation: Leading culture change while maintaining performance. Managing resistance. Building a coalition for transformation.

Strategic Decision-Making: High-stakes calls with incomplete information. Scenario planning. Risk assessment. When to decide, when to wait.

Executive Presence and Communications: How you show up matters. High-stakes presentations. Board communications. Crisis messaging.

Navigating Political Complexity: Building a coalition across competing interests. Managing up, down, and sideways. Stakeholder engagement when everyone wants something different.

Crisis Leadership: When things go wrong. Managing the immediate situation while positioning for recovery. Communications under pressure.

What Makes This Different:

Peer Perspective: Wade's held roles like yours. VP. General Counsel. Senior executive accountable for results and reputation. He gets the pressure, the politics, the real constraints.

Industry Context: Deep understanding of insurance, financial services, and regulatory environments. Your challenges aren't abstract—they're his lived experience.

Strategic Focus: This isn't life coaching. It's strategic partnership on the challenges that matter to your role and your organization.

Confidential Partnership: What we discuss stays between us. You get someone who's not on your board, not on your team, not competing for your job—just straight advice.

Direct Access: Email and text between sessions for urgent questions. You're not waiting two weeks when you need perspective now.

Engagement Structure:

Minimum 6-month commitment (culture change and leadership development take time—this isn't transactional).

Bi-weekly or monthly sessions (60–90 minutes each, scheduled to fit your calendar).

Email/text access between sessions for urgent questions and real-time challenges.

Customized based on your needs—your challenges, your goals, your timeline.

Typical Outcomes:

Clarity on complex decisions you've been wrestling with. Increased executive effectiveness—doing the right things, not just more things. Successful navigation of transitions that could have derailed careers. Enhanced strategic communications that land with boards and stakeholders. Stronger relationships with key stakeholders—board, peers, direct reports. Confidence to make the calls that need making.

Investment: Starting at $20,000 for 6-month minimum commitment. Pricing scales based on engagement intensity and duration.

Five-month cohort program developing emerging and mid-career professionals into strategic leaders. Limited to 12 participants per cohort. Combines proven frameworks, peer learning, and real-world application.

Who It's For:

Chambers of commerce investing in regional leadership development—building the next generation of community and business leaders.

Community foundations supporting nonprofit sector capacity—developing leaders who can navigate complexity and drive mission impact.

Organizations building internal leadership pipelines—preparing high-potential talent for expanded roles and strategic responsibility.

Economic development authorities are developing community leaders—creating leadership capacity for regional growth and transformation.

Program Components:

Monthly Full-Day Sessions (5 Total): Each session combines teaching, discussion, application, and peer learning. Topics include delegation, power vs. force, culture transformation, strategic communications, and leading through complexity.

Leadership Frameworks: The Culture Compass™ framework for organizational culture. Power vs. force distinctions that separate high-performing leaders from managers. Delegation approaches that build capacity without losing control. Strategic communications for complex stakeholder environments.

Individual Coaching Between Sessions: One-on-one sessions with Wade to apply frameworks to participants' real challenges. Customized support for their specific context and development needs.

Cohort Peer Learning: Small group discussions and accountability. Learning from each other's challenges and approaches. Building network of peers who understand the complexity.

Capstone Project: Real organizational challenge each participant tackles using program frameworks. Presentation to cohort and stakeholders. Measurable impact in participant's organization.

Certificate of Completion and Alumni Network: Recognition of program completion. Ongoing access to alumni network for peer support and connection.

What Participants Learn:

Strategic Leadership Frameworks: Not generic leadership theory—practical tools they'll use immediately in their real roles.

Navigating Organizational Politics with Authenticity: How to build coalition, manage competing interests, and lead with integrity in political environments.

Building Coalitions and Influence: Moving things forward when you don't have direct authority. Stakeholder engagement that works.

Culture Transformation Principles: Understanding culture, diagnosing dysfunction, leading change that sticks.

Applied Learning Through Real Projects: Taking frameworks from classroom to real organizational challenges with measurable impact.

Program Results:

95% completion rate—participants stay engaged because the content is relevant and applicable.

Participants report immediate application of frameworks to real leadership challenges they're facing.

Organizations see measurable leadership capacity increase—participants step into complexity with confidence and competence.

The alumni network provides ongoing peer support—relationships that persist beyond the program for continued learning and connection.

Partnership Model:

We work with chambers, foundations, and organizations to co-create cohorts that fit your goals and context.

Partnership options include: • Organizational sponsorship (your organization funds and selects participants) • Scholarship funding (foundation or chamber provides scholarships for nonprofit or community leaders) • Participant fee structure (individuals or their organizations pay to participate) • Hybrid models combining sponsorship and participant fees

Investment: Custom partnerships—contact us to discuss your leadership development goals, timeline, and budget parameters.