Whatever comes through that door; it's going to be different!
Stew Darling is a leadership strategist, high-performance executive coach, and former covert military officer who has spent over 20 years leading in the world’s most challenging environments.
A senior officer in the British Army, Stew’s operational career spanned conflict zones and high-stakes intelligence missions where the cost of failure was measured in lives, not dollars. He advised the prime ministers of Great Britain and Canada and briefed the US Senate on national security, resilience, and leadership under extreme pressure.
Today, Stew brings those lessons to the stage and the boardroom, inspiring audiences to be unreasonable, raise their standards, and develop unstoppable resilience. His stories, drawn from both covert operations and corporate transformations, deliver powerful, actionable frameworks that challenge leaders to step beyond comfort, break through fear, and achieve results others think are impossible.
As the founder of Unstoppable Force, author of Unstoppable: Living Beyond Our Limits, and a trusted coach to founders and executives, Stew has helped thousands transform their thinking and their leadership. With Stew, you don’t just hear about resilience; you experience it.
Talking Points
Becoming Unstoppable — The Elite Standard of Performance
Ordinary leaders wonder “if” they can — unstoppable leaders know they will.Becoming Unstoppable — The Elite Standard of Performance
Unstoppable is a decision, not a personality trait. Every day in covert work we chose to be unstoppable, or we didn’t come home.
I have stood in rooms where failure was measured in lives, and learned the difference between good and truly unstoppable.
Unreasonable Leadership for Impossible Times
In the covert world, “reasonable” was a death sentence — impossible missions demanded unreasonable thinking, and so does your boardroom.Unreasonable Leadership for Impossible Times
I’ve seen very senior people freeze under pressure. Unreasonable leaders refuse to freeze; they execute.
You don’t get a second chance to lead — build your mission, own your mission, and be unreasonable about protecting it.
Decision-Making When the Cost of Failure Is Everything
In combat, hesitation kills. In business, it bankrupts. We were trained to decide, commit, and execute.Decision-Making When the Cost of Failure Is Everything
When we built Canada’s first overseas covert capability, we knew one mistake could destroy trust and lives, your business deserves the same level of clarity.
The mission never waits. If you’re still polling for consensus, you’ve already lost.
How to Lead When Your Comfort Zone Disappears
Mission helicopters never launched from comfortable. In chaos, comfort is a luxury you leave behind.How to Lead When Your Comfort Zone Disappears
When the rules change mid-operation, you don’t whine, you adapt, improvise, and lead from the front.
A leader’s job isn’t to create comfort. It’s to create confidence, especially when every play feels risky.
Covert Resilience: Lessons From a Life on the Edge
You don’t build resilience on the sofa, you build it rehearsing a mission that might kill you, then executing anyway.Covert Resilience: Lessons From a Life on the Edge
In covert ops, we trained to bounce forward, not just back, recovery was never the finish line.
Every mission threatened to break us, but breaking was never on the table, resilience is a non-negotiable standard.
Be the Captain: Challenging conventional Leadership
Challenges the conventional leadership paradigms by asserting that the current model is inadequate and often ineffective. To enact meaningful change, we must adopt a more radical approach: being unreasonable, raising personal standards, and embracing vulnerability.Be the Captain: Challenging conventional Leadership
By critiquing the status quo of leadership, emphasising its shortcomings in fostering innovation, inclusivity, and genuine connection within teams. Using personal examples from Special Operations training, it calls for leaders to break free from traditional constraints and embrace a mindset of unreasonableness—a willingness to challenge norms and think outside the box to achieve ambitious goals.
Through sharing experiences from operations across the Middle East, this keynote stresses the importance of raising personal standards as a means to inspire and motivate others. By setting high expectations for oneself and demonstrating commitment to excellence, leaders can create a ripple effect of positivity and performance within their organisations.
It champions vulnerability as a strength rather than a weakness. It encourages leaders to authentically connect with their teams by sharing their struggles and uncertainties, fostering trust and empathy in the process.
Ultimately, "Be the Captain" advocates for a new breed of leaders who are bold, uncompromising in their standards, and unafraid to show vulnerability. By embracing these principles, individuals can catalyse profound transformations in their leadership styles and organisational cultures.
Unmasking Truth: Redefining Negotiation Techniques
Drawing on years of personal experience this keynote redefines interrogation away from the Hollywood view to a form of negotiation rather than coercion. By highlighting how the principles of principled negotiation—such as separating people from the problem, focusing on interests rather than positions, and inventing options for mutual gain—can transform interrogation practices, the speech challenges traditional perceptions.Unmasking Truth: Redefining Negotiation Techniques
The speaker leverages personal experiences from high-threat, high-pressure environments to illustrate unique lessons applicable to negotiation scenarios in everyday life and business. They emphasise the importance of empathy, active listening, and strategic communication in achieving productive outcomes, even in adversarial situations.
Outcomes of the speech include a shift in mindset among listeners towards viewing interrogation through a constructive lens, recognising its potential for building rapport and gaining valuable information through ethical means. Attendees will gain practical strategies for enhancing their negotiation skills, fostering collaboration, and achieving mutually beneficial outcomes in diverse contexts, ultimately empowering them to navigate challenging interactions with confidence and integrity.
From Darkness to Light: Leadership and Ethics
In this compelling keynote, a seasoned spy, negotiator, and interrogator shares profound insights inspired by the stark comparison between the notorious Abu Ghraib prison atrocities and the more humane and effective practices at UK interrogation facility outside Basra under his command, the speaker explores how organisational systems profoundly shape individual behavior and ethical outcomes.From Darkness to Light: Leadership and Ethics
The presentation delves into the systemic factors that contributed to the Abu Ghraib abuses, highlighting the toxic environment created by flawed leadership, inadequate oversight, and permissive cultural norms. In contrast, the UK facility exemplifies a system designed to prioritise ethical conduct, accountability, and human dignity. By examining these contrasting environments, attendees gain a deeper understanding of how organisational systems can either empower or constrain positive behaviors.
This keynote delivers; insights into how organisational structures and leadership impact ethical decision-making, encouraging businesses to develop robust ethical frameworks and accountability mechanisms.
Lessons on effective leadership that fosters a culture of integrity, empathy, and respect, promoting healthier workplace dynamics and stronger team cohesion, and,
Strategies for identifying and mitigating systemic vulnerabilities that could lead to reputational damage or ethical lapses, enabling proactive crisis management and prevention.
This keynote challenges leaders to critically evaluate their organisational systems and cultivate environments that promote ethical behavior, fostering long-term success and sustainability.
Workshop: Living your Unstoppable Life
Where are you on the pathway to an Unstoppable LifeWorkshop: Living your Unstoppable Life
How is you brain hindering you and what can you do about it
Why are you so stressed and how to live stress free
The SECRET to wellness that keeps us thriving and jiving
Workshop: Creating Powerful Values
Develop individual and organisational Value statements that lastWorkshop: Creating Powerful Values
Your 6-month strategy to embed and keep those values alive
Create a values-driven business
Workshop: Body Language bootcamp and Negotiation skills
Communicate without speakingWorkshop: Body Language bootcamp and Negotiation skills
Learn your Animal - Why did the FBI loose so many officers in Afghanistan while Stew survived
Learn the same body-language skills that Oprah WInfrey used to build a multi billion $$ business
Identify the body language of stress and anxiety in others and know what to do.
The seven steps Stew used to negotiate with Afghan Warlords, Venture Capital fund managers and, his wife and kids
Workshop: Captaincy Fundamentals
Your Framework for leadership growthWorkshop: Captaincy Fundamentals
What makes every leader and how do they become great or grim
Harness the power of every relationship
Video
Stew Darling Speech Snippet
Stew isn't just a speaker; he is a catalyst for extraordinary transformation, offering an electrifying blend of insight and inspiration and delivers unmatched value. Prepare to be challenge ... keep reading Tegel Chicken
Stew has a unique gift of translating cutting-edge science and Unstoppable Concepts into clear accessible language that I now see my team ultising every day
