Leadership & Culture
Keynote Speaker
Kate Davis
Helping leaders build high-performing teams through clarity, trust and joy at work.
Why Organisations Book Kate
You don’t invite a speaker to fill an hour. You do it to create movement.
Kate Davis helps leaders and teams rediscover what makes them thrive. Her keynotes bridge leadership science and human truth, combining psychology, practical frameworks, and lived experience.
The result?
Rooms that shift.
Conversations that deepen.
Teams that perform.
Rooted in a decade of leadership development and executive coaching, Kate’s talks blend commercial rigour with human warmth. She works with scaling, founder-led businesses to transform culture, communication and team performance.
“Kate’s take on team resilience was so refreshing. We came away uplifted. I’d highly recommend booking Kate for your next away day”
“Definitely not another ‘corporate training talk’. I left inspired and feeling like I could really make a change”
“Fantastic, clear, interactive and very insightful. Kate left us with energy, clarity and a toolkit to embed what we learned”
Signature Keynotes
1. Joy as a Business Strategy
Joy isn’t a perk. It’s a performance metric. In this keynote, Kate reframes joy as the most accurate signal of alignment, trust and sustainable growth. When people are alive at work, everything works better.
Takeaways:
Identify the link between joy, trust and performance.
Recognise where energy is leaking in your team or culture.
Rebuild clarity and creativity through purposeful joy.
2. Unlocked Teams: The Science of High Performance
What separates teams that soar from those that stall? Drawing on Project Aristotle and years of client work, Kate reveals the five conditions of high-performing teams - and how psychological safety turns potential into performance.
Takeaways:
Understand the neuroscience of trust and safety.
Assess and improve your team’s current performance stage.
Create conditions for sustained collaboration and results.
3. Cracking the Communication Code
Most leaders believe they’re clear. Most teams don’t agree. This keynote unpacks how intent and impact diverge - and how relational and emotional intelligence rebuild connection, trust, and influence across your organisation.
Takeaways:
Recognise and adapt your communication patterns.
Develop relational intelligence as a leadership skill.
Lead conversations that build clarity and confidence.
4. Leaders Define Culture (Whether They Mean To or Not)
Culture isn’t the posters on your wall; it’s the everyday experience of how leaders behave. Kate exposes the invisible leadership patterns shaping results and morale, and shows how to turn culture into a competitive advantage.
Takeaways:
See how leadership habits ripple through teams.
Spot early signs of cultural drift.
Realign values, decisions, and behaviour for integrity and growth.
5. The Business of Being Human
Behind every performance issue is a human story. This keynote dismantles the myth of “professional distance,” exploring how authenticity, boundaries, and compassion create stronger leaders and healthier organisations. Discover the impact of relational intelligence on performance, resilience and innovation.
Takeaways:
Build trust through grounded emotional intelligence.
Balance empathy with accountability.
Make humanity your leadership advantage.
About Kate Davis
Kate Davis helps leaders build human, high-performing organisations. As Founder of Meraki People, she partners with scaling businesses to fix the people issues slowing them down - culture, communication, and team dynamics.
Known for her fierce clarity and deep humanity, Kate is a sought-after leadership coach and keynote speaker whose work has been featured in Forbes, Fortune, and The Times.
Named National Coach of the Year (2024), and nicknamed “the Board Whisperer'“ Kate is also a finalist in the IoD Director of the Year Awards 2025 for People and Turnaround categories.
Kate is a speaker, facilitator and coach for Business Leader, and Vice Chair IoD Surrey & Berkshire.
Kate’s clients describe her talks as “the moment everything finally made sense.”
As Seen In
Kate is a regular contributor to several magazines on leadership, culture and working life
