Erica Dhawan

Leading Authority on 21st Century Teamwork, Collaboration, and Innovation. WSJ Bestselling Author. Named “Oprah of Management Thinkers” and Ranked #1 of Top Women Keynote Speakers

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$30,001 - $50,000

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Erica Dhawan – Keynote Reel

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Erica Dhawan

Leading Authority on 21st Century Teamwork, Collaboration, and Innovation. WSJ Bestselling Author. Named “Oprah of Management Thinkers” and Ranked #1 of Top Women Keynote Speakers

Add To My Favorites Check Fee/Availability

In-Person Fee Range:

$30,001 - $50,000

Fee Details

Virtual Fee Range:

Inquire for Fee

Traveling from:

Florida

Why Book

Expert on Connectional Intelligence: Erica Dhawan is a leading authority on connectional intelligence, helping teams and leaders unlock innovation and collaboration in a hybrid and digital-first world.
Dynamic and Engaging Speaker: She combines research, storytelling, and actionable insights to deliver high-energy keynotes that resonate with global audiences across industries.
Trusted by Top Brands: Fortune 500 companies like Coca-Cola, FedEx, and Goldman Sachs have trusted her to inspire their teams, demonstrating her credibility and impact on high-performing organizations.

Biography

When leaders want to break team silos, drive exponential growth, and innovate through teamwork, they call Erica Dhawan.

Erica is an internationally recognized authority, bestselling author, and advisor on 21st century teamwork, collaboration, and innovation. Named by Thinkers50 as the “Oprah of Management Thinkers,” she is the author of three books: Use Your Brain, Digital Body Language, and Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence.

The world of business is increasingly digital, and work practices have changed at a blistering rate. Erica shares innovative strategies to unlock the collective power of teams, build a culture of trust across any distance, and create authentic engagement that keeps organizations competitive and original in the age of AI. Rated #1 on the Top Women Keynote Speakers list and featured among the top 50 management thinkers most likely to shape the future of business, Erica appears frequently in Harvard Business Review, New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal. She pairs storytelling and humor with research to give audiences interactive, refreshing, practical strategies for modern, innovation-driving teamwork.

She holds degrees from Harvard, MIT, and Wharton.

Programs

Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence

Two teams have been working on the same problem for six months. Neither knows the other exists. That is what endless meetings, cross-team dysfunction, duplication, and delay actually cost you. And it isn’t a tools problem. Your people can find any document, any dataset, any answer in seconds. So why is collaboration still hard?

Because what actually moves work forward is their human relationships across silos. The colleague who tried this years ago and watched it fail. The client relationship that makes a hard conversation possible. Tools can retrieve everything your company recorded. It cannot reach what only your people know.

When every organization has the same tools, the edge belongs to those who connect across the lines that divide them. Function to function. Region to region. Level to level.

Erica Dhawan, global expert on 21st century teamwork and innovation and author of Get Big Things Done, named this Connectional Intelligence, which turns people into superconnectors who break silos and drive breakthrough impact. She shows leaders and teams how to surface what no system captured, build trust fast across boundaries, and unlock the collective expertise of the whole enterprise.

Learning Outcomes:

Surface the tacit knowledge and relationship capital no AI system can retrieve
Diagnose where collaboration stalls in your organization, and unstick it
Break silos and keep teams aligned, accountable, and motivated
Build trust across functions, geographies, and reporting lines without adding meetings

Use Your Brain: Critical Thinking Intelligence for the Era on Autopilot

Your people aren’t using AI. They’re agreeing with it. We stopped drafting and started approving. We stopped wrestling with the idea and started accepting the summary. It feels like productivity. It’s cognitive surrender, and it’s quietly flattening originality, weakening recall, and producing decisions no one in the room can actually defend.

Erica Dhawan, global expert on 21st century teamwork and innovation and author of Use Your Brain, argues that Critical Thinking Intelligence is to this decade what Emotional Intelligence was to the ’90s: the differentiator between the leaders who compound and the ones who get automated.

This is a keynote about running at full speed without outsourcing the original thinking that makes your people worth paying for. Based on case studies and practical storytelling, Dhawan sends audiences home with team rituals they can run the next morning: the Think Sandwich, where human judgment opens and closes every AI-assisted task, the Friction Meeting, where someone is assigned to argue how the work is wrong; and a Decision Filter for what to automate, what to augment, and what stays non-negotiably human.

Interactive, immediately usable, and built for teams that think originally and creatively in our modern age.

Learning Outcomes:

Catch themselves and their teams on autopilot, and put real thinking back around the machine in their organization and with customers/clients
Pressure-test technology output, stop AI slop, separate signal from noise, and decide what to automate, augment, and protect
Own high-stakes decisions they can explain, defend, and recall

Collaborate Faster and Further Together

Every message is now well-written. Warm opener. Clean structure. Thoughtful closing line. And you have no idea whether the person actually read your note, cared about your problem, or was even the one who wrote it. That’s the new trust problem.

In the past, the signals were sloppy but real. A rushed reply meant something. A typo at 11pm meant something. A long thoughtful message meant someone spent time on you. Effort used to be visible in the writing. Now polish is free.

Erica Dhawan, global expert on 21st century teamwork and innovation and author of the WSJ bestseller Digital Body Language decodes what actually signals care, credibility, and commitment. Specificity is the new sincerity. Response time is the new eye contact. Showing your reasoning is the new showing your work. And the fastest way to rebuild trust with a client, a peer, or a direct report is to be unmistakably human in a channel where everyone else sounds like a machine.

This keynote will name the norms that are quietly eroding trust, and leave audiences with shared communication rules and guidelines for what gets automated, what gets drafted, and what has to come from a person.

Learning Outcomes:

Read the signals that still carry meaning, and stop trusting the ones AI made worthless
Create cultures of maniacal clarity across email, phone, IM, text, video and even live meetings
Rebuild credibility with clients and colleagues in channels flooded with perfect, forgettable communication

Selling Value in a 21st Century Marketplace: The Power of Connectional Intelligence

Selling value in a 21st century marketplace demands a significant transformation in go-to-market strategies and a profound evolution in salespeoples’ omnichannel communication skills and competencies—where up to 70% of sales interactions are virtual-first. We no longer rely solely on the lean-in, handshake, and eye contact. Today, reading virtual cues carefully is the new listening and writing emails clearly is the new empathy.

Erica Dhawan, author of the WSJ bestselling books Get Big Things Done and Digital Body Language, is the go-to expert helping salespeople become superconnectors to decode the new signals and cues of prospects and customers by mastering the power of Connectional Intelligence. In this keynote, learn the differences between the buyer’s brain during virtual interactions and in-person meetings, how to tackle the unconscious cognitive bias in both in-person and digital sales interactions, and how to elevate your presence and increase your level of influence using omnichannel communications. Salespeople will leave blown away by how to better connect with customers, build stronger relationships, and drive sales success in the modern age.

Learning Outcomes:

Decipher Digital and In-Person Body Language: Master the ability to read and respond to the subtle cues of your prospects and customers, both online and offline.
Optimize Omnichannel Communications: Embrace and effectively utilize a variety of communication channels, tailored to your prospects’ and customers’ digital and generational preferences.
Craft Personal and Emotional Experiences: Create compelling virtual experiences that keep prospects engaged and eager for more in-person and virtual interactions.

Balance Real-Time and Asynchronous Communication: Strategically use real-time interactions (live meetings, phone, video, chat) and asynchronous methods (email, text, social media) to maximize engagement and productivity.

Books

Use Your Brain

Digital Body Language

Get Big Things Done

Erica Dhawan Reviews

“Erica’s presentation was an absolute hit.”

— Miami Heat

“Non-verbal cues are vital to understanding each other. Now that so much communication happens online–and with the massive shift to distance learning and remote workplaces–we need Erica Dhawan’s book more than ever. In Digital Body Language, Erica shares tips and strategies for communicating effectively on chats, emails, and video calls, so everyone can successfully share and connect in the digital age.”

— Facebook

“Erica offers a profound look at how to foster inclusion and better leadership in our digital world.”

— Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative

“Terrific. Our leaders were very engaged and had immediate practical takeaways. Erica made a big impact.”

— Deloitte

“Erica’s session was engaging, relevant, and actionable. She is thoughtful, inspirational, and smart with a contagious positive energy. All organizations and executive leaders would benefit from having her as an advisor to drive behavioral change, harness the power of networks, and think beyond traditional cohorts. She is a thought leader in the development of collaborative ways of working, improving productivity and customer engagement and experience.”

— Korn Ferry

“As a presenter at our organization’s first large scale virtual conference, Erica delivered a keynote session that was not only engaging and thought-provoking, it was extremely relevant to what our organizational membership is currently experiencing. Erica’s presentation took viewers outside of their home offices and truly felt like a live, in-person event.”

— AACSB International

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Who is Erica Dhawan?

Erica Dhawan is an award-winning keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author recognized for her expertise in teamwork, collaboration, leadership, and innovation. She is the founder and CEO of Cotential, a global innovation firm that helps organizations strengthen collaboration and unlock the potential of their teams. She is the author of Digital Body Language and Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence.

2. What does Erica Dhawan speak about?

Erica Dhawan speaks about leadership, teamwork, communication, innovation, and building trust in an increasingly digital workplace. Her keynote topics include Get Big Things Done: The Power of Connectional Intelligence, Collaborate Faster and Further, Together, and Use Your Brain: Critical Thinking Intelligence. She also explores digital body language and how people can communicate more effectively, collaborate across organizational silos, and use artificial intelligence without losing the critical thinking and human connection that drive meaningful results

3. What audiences is Erica Dhawan best suited for?

Erica Dhawan is well suited for corporate conferences, leadership summits, professional associations, executive retreats, employee development programs, and industry conventions. Her presentations are particularly valuable for executives, managers, emerging leaders, and teams seeking to improve communication, strengthen workplace relationships, navigate technological change, and encourage innovation. Organizations working across remote or hybrid environments can also benefit from her insights into digital communication, trust, and collaboration.

4. What makes Erica Dhawan different from other generational diversity speakers?

Erica Dhawan combines research-backed insights, real-world business examples, and practical strategies that audiences can apply immediately. Her concept of Connectional Intelligence emphasizes the ability to connect people, ideas, and resources to achieve greater results. Rather than focusing solely on individual performance, she helps organizations understand how stronger relationships, clearer communication, and collaboration across teams can accelerate innovation. Her energetic, interactive presentation style makes complex workplace challenges accessible and actionable.

5. How do I book Erica Dhawan for an event?

To check Erica Dhawan’s availability or request a quote, contact Eagles Talent Speakers Bureau by calling 973-313-9800, emailing info@eaglestalent.com, or visiting Erica Dhawan’s speaker profile and submitting a booking inquiry.

6. What are Erica Dhawan’s speaking fees?

Erica Dhawan’s speaking fee varies depending on the event format, location, audience size, and specific program requirements. To receive an exact quote, contact Eagles Talent Speakers Bureau by calling 973-313-9800, emailing info@eaglestalent.com, or submitting a check availability request through her speaker profile page.

7. Can Erica Dhawan customize the keynote for my audience?

Yes. Erica Dhawan customizes her keynotes and workshops to align with an organization’s goals, audience, and specific challenges. Her presentations incorporate relevant stories, research, and practical action steps tailored to the needs of each group. Whether the focus is improving leadership communication, building trust across teams, driving innovation, or adapting to artificial intelligence, she works to ensure attendees leave with strategies they can put into practice.

8. What do audiences say about Erica Dhawan’s presentations?

Audience testimonials highlight Erica Dhawan’s engaging delivery, practical takeaways, and ability to connect her message to real workplace challenges. Erik Spoelstra, head coach of the Miami Heat, described her presentation as “an absolute hit.” Bridget Dunn, a meeting planner with the Association for Talent Development, praised her keynote on digital body language as relevant and timely. Other reviewers have highlighted her storytelling, informative case studies, and ability to inspire leaders to strengthen collaboration and communication.