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Karl James is an authority on leadership through dialogue, showing how the quality of our conversations shapes the quality of our decisions. For over two decades, he has worked with leaders, teams and individuals facing pressure, conflict and change. By drawing on the experiences of astronauts, peace negotiators, surgeons and explorers, he reveals how resilience, courage and empathy emerge when people learn to listen deeply and speak with purpose. His insights have made him a compelling voice for organisations seeking to build trust and lead through uncertainty.
Karl’s career began in 1996 when he co-founded Trade Secrets, an initiative dedicated to exploring creativity in the workplace. Five years later, he launched The Dialogue Project, an organisation that continues to explore how dialogue can resolve challenges and strengthen leadership. His growing reputation for clarity and practical wisdom brought him into the corporate world, where in 2005, he joined Unilever as a Dialogue Consultant. The following year, he co-founded Ideas That Can Change The World, underlining his commitment to innovative approaches that help leaders face complex realities.
In parallel, Karl has built a career as an acclaimed theatre director, with productions staged at the Royal Court, the Royal National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre of Scotland, as well as in New York, Tokyo and Lisbon. His ability to shape powerful stories on stage translates seamlessly into his leadership work, where narrative and authenticity play a vital role. Commercial clients, including Google, Tesco and TSB, have turned to him for guidance, and his projects have reached national audiences through features on the BBC, reinforcing his standing as both practitioner and storyteller.
Karl is chosen as an inspirational leadership speaker because he combines hard-won expertise with warmth, wit and humanity. His talks challenge leaders to rethink authority, demonstrating that true influence lies in the ability to listen, to connect and to inspire others to act. At a time when businesses and communities face polarisation, disruption and rapid change, Karl offers a vital reminder: leadership is not about having all the answers, but about asking the right questions and creating space for others to thrive.
Karl James is regularly booked to engage audiences at events, read their latest feedback below:
“Karl is a brilliant blend of deep empathy, whole-self listening, wide experience, bravery in conversation, and application of huge expertise. He has a knack of transforming how people communicate by helping them see themselves and their audience (whether that be an individual, a team or a large group of people) more clearly, and he does it with great humour, and greater humanity. Conversations of all kinds are just richer, broader, and more meaningful whenever Karl is in the mix and he gets there standing shoulder to shoulder with those involved as a natural and forever welcome extension to the team. He is simply one of my go-to people.”
“Karl revolutionised my confidence, helping me to move from speaking to smaller intimate audiences to the bigger stage. Specifically helping with the build-up to an event, how to manage anxiety, confidence, clarity in narrative, how much to rehearse and prepare, building structure and confidence on the journey there and on the day itself. Karl has a talent for quickly understanding how people function and is able to hone in on what’s controllable. Cutting out the things that either don’t matter or can just be noise. It’s been a pleasure to work with him. Karl created a genuinely massive shift from where I’ve been, and I owe him a massive thank you.”
“Karl combines his deep experience of working in theatre, sound and film with real expertise and insight into effective conversations. He demonstrates his knowledge through rich, concise and often moving storytelling and cuts through with individuals, teams and much larger audiences. Karl has made a real difference to influencing how we talk and listen to each other. The result is a much more empathetic and engaging way of communication, firmly rooted in a clear recognition that we are (after all) all human beings!”
“I’ve been lucky enough to know and work with Karl for more than 15 years – at Unilever, then Tesco and TSB. Whatever the challenge, Karl has always stepped up and delivered– which is why he has been so ever present in my career. The projects we’ve worked on together have been varied – from coaching leaders to perform at stadium conferences to supporting leaders to have braver one-to-one conversations to coaching storytelling to team communications. Karl brings the freshest of thinking and real creativity to the driest of subjects. Unshackled by the conformity of a corporate background but drawing on his experience as a performer as well as being an intense listener, he can help you dig deep for what’s really of interest to your audiences and how to articulate it in a memorable and bold way.”
The Inspirational Leadership Speakers Agency is one of the UK’s leading bureaus for inspiring global leaders. We supply speakers for corporate and public events across the world and cater to both in-person occasions and online webinars. Our roster includes athletes, psychologists, celebrities and more, each with top industry insight into leadership.
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