DeDe Halfill
About
About DeDe Halfhill - Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel, Keynote Speaker, and Advisor helping leaders Master the Unseen™:
Colonel DeDe Halfill, USAF (Ret.), is an international keynote speaker, strategic advisor, and leadership expert who has spent 25 years leading in high-stakes environments—where unseen human dynamics shaped success before strategy ever had a chance to. From combat zones to advising senior executives, she saw firsthand that teams and leaders don’t struggle because they lack a plan; they struggle because they misread the forces shaping whether people buy in or check out.
Hesitation, unspoken tensions, quiet disengagement—these aren’t just workplace challenges. They’re the invisible factors shaping trust, culture, and performance. In the military, where hesitation and miscommunication had real consequences, DeDe learned how to recognize and address these forces before they derailed mission success. As a principal advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staf, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and the Commanding General of the Multinational Forces in Iraq, she made sure the nation’s top leaders didn’t make decisions without a clear view of the human dynamics that shape success. Every organization has an emotional undercurrent—it’s either working for you or against you.
DeDe’s leadership approach was featured in Dr. Brené Brown’s bestselling book, Dare to Lead, and on CBS’s 60 Minutes, highlighting her ability to challenge leadership norms and bring courage to the conversations leaders often avoid. Today, she partners with top organizations such as Lockheed Martin, Salesforce, Bank of America, Hearst, and FEMA. Through her keynotes, advisory work, and training seminars, she challenges leaders and teams to stop managing symptoms and start addressing the forces that truly drive engagement, trust, and performance.
The unseen isn’t just a risk—it’s the greatest opportunity most leaders never tap into.
Topics
What DeDe Halfill Talks About:
MASTER THE UNSEEN™
Your Hidden Competitive Advantage
You’ve seen it before—a strategy that makes sense, a team that agrees, an initiative that should work. But then something gets in the way. Momentum stalls, resistance builds, and what looked like a sure thing quietly unravels.
Leaders focus on execution because it’s measurable—but the biggest risks (and opportunities) are in what’s harder to see. Leaders and teams mistake compliance for commitment, busyness for resilience, and silence for alignment—until the cracks start to show. Success isn’t just about execution—it’s about recognizing the real human dynamics shaping whether people buy in or check out.
Retired Colonel DeDe Halfhill has spent 25 years leading through complexity—from commanding in combat zones to advising the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. She’s seen what happens when leaders miss these hidden forces—and the advantage they gain when they see them clearly.
In this keynote, DeDe challenges leaders to go beyond what’s visible, so they can Master the Unseen™ forces shaping their success.
The audience will leave with:
- The ability to recognize and address the hidden dynamics shaping trust, engagement, and performance.
- Practical tools to surface unspoken tensions and address them before. they become roadblocks
- A new leadership lens—one that moves beyond strategy to harness the emotional undercurrent driving success.
This program is perfect for:
- Senior leaders navigating high-stakes, high-pressure environments.
- Organizations seeking to improve adaptability, communication, and trust.
- Teams that want to move past surface-level leadership to create lasting impact.
EVERYDAY COURAGE™
Transforming Small Actions into Big Impact
Most people think courage is about big, dramatic moments—crisis leadership, major decisions, or bold public stands. But the most overlooked form of courage is in the everyday moments that define truly define leadership. The conversations leaders have or avoid. The feedback they give or withhold. The decisions they make now or push off for later. These moments determine whether teams thrive and trust grows—or whether hesitation and avoidance quietly take over.
With 25 years of experience leading in high-pressure environments where every decision carried weight, retired Colonel DeDe Halfhill has seen how avoiding these small moments limits leadership impact. But leaders who engage with them create stronger teams, deeper trust, and momentum that lasts—even in uncertainty.
In this keynote, she challenges leaders to rethink courage, not as something reserved for extraordinary situations, but as a daily habit that shapes leadership, trust, and culture.
The audience will leave with:
- A new perspective on courage and its everyday attainability.
- The confidence to tackle challenging moments head-on.
- Actionable strategies to turn hesitation into momentum.
This program is perfect for:
- Leaders, teams, and individuals who want to strengthen their potential and influence through authenticity and courage.
- Organizations driven to inspire engagement, spark innovation, and build resilience by empowering their people to embrace courage, one step at a time.
CONNECTION IS THE COMPETITIVE EDGE
The Advantage No One Talks About—But Everyone Feels
You know what it feels like when a team just clicks—trust is high, collaboration flows, and people step up for each other. You also know what it feels like when they don’t—when silos form, communication breaks down, and progress slows.
Too many leaders focus on strategy and execution, assuming connection will happen on its own. But research proves otherwise. The strongest teams don’t just work together—they trust each other. And that trust is what makes them adaptable, innovative, and resilient under pressure.
In this keynote, retired Colonel DeDe Halfhill draws from more than 25 years of being on high performing teams, to include the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, to show why connection isn’t just a leadership skill—it’s a strategy. The leaders who prioritize relationships build teams that outperform, outlast, and out deliver.
The audience will leave with:
- Practical ways to build trust and create stronger, more connected teams.
- Actionable insights into how trust fuels collaboration, innovation, and resilience.
- Proven strategies to strengthen commitment and unlock team potential.
This program is perfect for:
- Leaders, managers, and teams who want to work better together and build lasting trust.
- Organizations looking to create cultures where collaboration and connection drive results.
Recent Publications
DeDe's presentation was a game changer. I expect the usual leadership talk but was blown away by her fresh, human-centered approach. The audience was buzzing about her insights long after the conference ended - proof of lasting impact she made