Martin Gutmann is a globally in-demand keynote speaker who helps leaders navigate uncertainty with fresh, story-driven insights. Combining history, sociology, and organisational psychology, he challenges conventional thinking and equips audiences with practical tools to rethink leadership, decision-making, and strategy.
A professor at the Lucerne School of Business and senior lecturer at ETH Zurich, Martin’s work has reached over 60 million people through pieces in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Fast Company, and more. His TED Talk, Are We Celebrating the Wrong Leaders?, has over 2 million views, and his best-selling book The Unseen Leader earned high praise from organisational psychologist Adam Grant.
With a career spanning six countries and a Ph.D. in history, Martin has led major leadership programmes, including his role as the founding Managing Director of the Swiss School of Public Governance. Martin’s global perspective and academic depth make him a trusted guide for leaders in a rapidly changing world.
In uncertain times, organizations often look to the most confident, forceful, and visionary leaders for direction. Yet the qualities that make leaders highly visible are not always the ones that make them effective. This keynote challenges conventional ideas about who we celebrate as leaders and explores what it truly takes to guide people through transformation, disruption and ambiguity. Drawing on historical examples and contemporary leadership research, Martin Gutmann shows that effective leadership depends on balancing qualities that are often treated as opposites: drive with humility, strong values with pragmatism, and bold vision with attention to the mundane realities of execution. Leaders who master uncertainty are not those who simply push harder or project greater certainty, but those who know when to lead from the front, when to listen, when to adapt and when to make space for others. The result is a more grounded, resilient and effective model of leadership for an age of profound change.
