<p>“TopGun” fighter pilot and trainer leverages the leadership lessons of teams in flight to show audiences what it takes to build inspired, compassionate, mission-driven teams and leaders.</p><p>Patrick had a distinguished 27-year career in the United States Marine Corps as an Active Duty and Reserve fighter pilot. He was stationed in San Diego, CA. and participated in four six-month deployments: three to the Western Pacific and one to Al Assad, Iraq. Patrick was recognized as the Instructor Pilot of the Year and graduated from the U.S. Navy Post Graduate Fighter Weapons School, “Top Gun.” During his military career, he trained over 500 replacement aircrew, graduated from the United States Marine Corps Command and Staff College, earned his Master of Strategic Studies as a Distinguished Graduate of the U.S. Army War College, and served in a variety of leadership roles.</p><p>After leaving active duty in 2004, Patrick joined a management consulting company and quickly rose to become one of their top speakers. Over 13 years, Patrick delivered and conducted over 450 keynote presentations, training workshops, and consulting engagements with today's leading corporations such as Verizon, ExxonMobil, Medtronic, DOW, VMware and H&R Block. He became an Executive Consultant/Director of Seminars and in 2006 was selected as the San Diego’s MPI (Meeting Professionals International) Speaker of the Year.</p><p>Patrick Houlahan is the Founder and CEO of Strategic Leadership Consultants LLC. Founded in 2019, Strategic Leadership Consultants’ mission is to Build Inspired, Compassionate, Mission-Driven Leaders. With audiences he shares the top lessons of his TOPGUN training and shows leaders and teams how to leverage them for high-performing teams whose commitment to excellence, to each other, and to continual improvement is equal to their “need for speed,” and to being “with the best of the best.” </p>
Former U.S. Marine Corps “Top Gun” Fighter Pilot; Founder and CEO of Strategic Leadership Consultants
<ul><li><strong>TOPGUN Lessons Learned</strong></li><li>Graduating from TOPGUN wasn’t just a rite of passage and it wasn’t just a check mark along a career path. It was a validation of hours upon countless hours of hard work, reflection, and a meticulous level of attention to detail. In the cockpit, as in leadership, it’s critical that you hold yourself and all those around you to the highest of standards. In this presentation, Patrick Houlahan discusses the top five lessons of his TOPGUN training and shows audiences how to leverage them. The top five lessons—Purpose, Dedication, Humility and Honesty, Tough Love, and Debrief—give leaders and teams an actionable template for developing and leading high-performing teams whose commitment to excellence, to each other, and to continual improvement is equal to their “need for speed,” and to being “with the best of the best.”</li><li><strong>Communications is Key: The Art of the Debrief and Building a Debriefing Culture</strong></li><li>The mission is complete, the sale is won or lost, and the quarter is over. What comes next? Is it time to go after the next client or time to get started on the next quarter? No, it is time to have a debrief. Patrick Houlahan shows leaders and teams why it’s critical to review what your team did right, what they did wrong, what they can improve, and what they can learn. For the best military and business professionals, nothing is finished until the debrief is complete. Learn the steps and the art form of leading an effective debrief. Get to the heart of the matter . Unfortunately, they only review the surface-level causes and do not get to the root of the issue. They miss the opportunity to build best practices that can have an exponential impact on their business going forward.</li><li><strong>Simplifying Leadership: Keys to Leading a Successful Team (Even in a Crisis)</strong></li><li>Leadership happens at all levels—or at least we expect that it should. But where do our rising leaders learn to be Inspired, Compassionate, Mission-Driven Leaders? What are the key principles they should follow? Patrick Houlahan shares the key principles necessary to take your leadership and your team’s performance to the next level. The keys to leading successful teams are not hard to understand, but they do take commitment. Patrick shares what he has learned and experienced over the past 30 years leading top executives and high-achieving teams. </li><li><strong>Resiliency: How to Build and Lead a Resilient Team</strong></li><li>Life is hard. Pandemics, politics, business and personal can drag down even the most dedicated and successful person and team. But if life is “10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it," what is the secret to responding with resilience? Patrick Houlahan shares his own personal and professional challenges together with lessons learned during his many years of coaching and training corporate executives to offer a roadmap for resilience that will help you and your team persevere.</li><li><strong>Dominate Change Management: How to Win and Lead in a Dynamic Environment</strong></li><li>If there is one constant in any organization, it’s that something is going to change; a change in products, processes, competitors, direction, leaders, employees, technology, etc.. Whatever you and your organization are doing today is more than likely not what you will be doing in the future. Change can be hard. Change can be disruptive. But can also create opportunities if you tackle it correctly.</li><li>In “Dominate Change Management: How to Win and Lead in a Dynamic Environment,” Patrick shares the techniques, procedures, and nuances that Fighter Pilot’s use to remain agile and win in a complex, dynamic, and ever-changing environment. These are the same tools that Patrick has used to execute at a high level in the business world and has trained countless organizations and individuals to use. </li></ul>