About Dan Burns

Helping leaders amplify performance while building healthier organizations.

Leadership Has Always Been Personal

Growing up, I watched my dad come home from work carrying the weight of his day. He worked hard, cared deeply about providing for our family, and did everything he could to succeed. Yet I could see how much the workplace affected him. The culture, leadership, and environment people work within do not stay at work. They impact families, well-being, and quality of life.

That experience stayed with me.

Throughout my own career, I have worked for leaders who inspired trust, challenged people to grow, and created environments where employees could do their best work. I have also worked for leaders who did the opposite. Those experiences shaped my belief that leadership matters more than most organizations realize.

Today, I help leaders and leadership teams create workplaces where people and performance thrive together.

Why Leadership Matters to Me

Over the past 25+ years, I have served in leadership roles, taught leadership and management in higher education, and coached leaders across hundreds of organizations. Through executive coaching, leadership team development, assessments, training, and consulting, I have had the opportunity to work with thousands of leaders and hear their stories firsthand.

What I have learned is simple. When organizations have strong leadership that values both people and results, the impact is profound. Employees are more engaged. Teams collaborate more effectively. Leaders make better decisions. Organizations become healthier and more resilient.

When leadership falls short, employees often struggle to do their best work. Trust erodes. Accountability weakens. Workplace cultures become places people endure rather than places where they can contribute, grow, and thrive.

That is why I do what I do.

The research I study, the assessments I provide, the tools I curate, and the coaching conversations I facilitate all serve a single purpose: helping leaders amplify the practices that create healthy, high-performing organizations.

I believe organizational health and organizational performance are inseparable. Leaders who invest in employee well-being, engagement, accountability, development, and trust create environments where both people and results flourish.

My goal is to help leaders become the kind of leaders people want to follow and to help organizations become places where people can perform at their best while doing meaningful work.

Strong leadership creates workplaces where people can thrive and organizations can perform at their best.

Professional Background

Dan Burns is the founder of Burns Leadership Consulting and an executive and leadership coach who partners with senior leaders, leadership teams, and organizations seeking to improve both performance and organizational health.

His experience includes more than 25 years in leadership roles, nearly 15 years teaching leadership and management, and more than two decades coaching and developing leaders across industries including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, professional services, and nonprofit organizations.

Dan specializes in executive coaching, leadership team development, succession planning, leadership assessments, and practical leadership development solutions that help organizations build stronger leaders and stronger workplaces.