Richard Shorter

Richard Shorter is a sought-after keynote speaker and expert in challenging conversations. As the Head of Awkward Conversations, Richard offers leaders and teams the skills to tackle the difficult conversations that people often avoid or barge straight through. By turning discomfort into positive dialogue, Richard is helping organisations build trust, strengthen their culture, and drive tangible progress.

Richard’s early career was a diverse mission to support those around him, including roles as a youth worker for the local authority and lecturing at several universities for over 25 years. Richard was also educated with an Honours Degree in Community and Youth Studies and a Diploma in Life Coaching from A R Training. Such education fuelled his passion for supporting youth, and thus he became a parenting coach. As the creator of the Non-Perfect Dad, he has worked with a variety of the UK’s top high-performing organisations, including England Rugby, Manchester United, Manchester City, The FA, Motorsport UK, the ECB, Saracens, and Millfield School. His work has given adults the confidence to speak with clarity, kindness, and strength under pressure. 

Such experience translates to the corporate world, with Richard sharing how to have meaningful and constructive conversations, listen for change, handle high-pressure moments and see past bad calls to focus on what you can control. Richard has shared his wisdom in his book, 'Conversations for the Journey: 40 Ways for You to Build a Sporting Character'. He is also a regular contributor to the BBC.

In his speeches and courses, Richard explores how effective communication builds trust, how mindset shapes results and how performance thrives when people feel valued and understood. Audiences will leave with a clear internal script to use for difficult conversations, motivation rather than the feeling of shutting down, confidence in addressing tension early, and with the tools to deliver real change during their next awkward moment. Richard's mix of emotional safety, sharp challenge, and practical delivery encourages audiences to reflect on how they lead, listen and respond. Whether addressing leadership teams, company-wide events or a school hall full of parents and their children, Richard helps people find the 'productive ground', the vital space between quiet and clamour, where truth and connection come alive.