great business speakers

Mike Abrashoff - "It Was All About the Culture" Imagine you’re put in charge of a new project. You’re given goals and objectives and a team of people to work with. This team, though, has a horrible performance history. In fact, they are among the worst teams in the organization, yet your job is to meet the objectives – no excuses. And – you can’t fire bad performers, or financially reward good performers, or hire new help. What would you do?

In today’s highly competitive, rapidly advancing business climate, there is an increased emphasis on organizational leadership tactics that will drive real results. And this is for good reason. Now, more than ever, business leaders are realizing that the true power in their organization lies within its employees, and creating an environment where they can succeed should be a top priority. For far too long, there has been a misconception that employee morale, motivation, and productivity are inherent traits to each individual. However, this has been shown to be far from the truth. In fact, the leadership approach an organization takes can make or break them. A prime example of a drastic shift based on an new approach to leading change in organizations is the remarkable turnaround story of USS Benfold Captain Mike Abrashoff.

SUCCESSFUL CHANGE MANAGEMENT: CREDIT UNION EXECS LEARN MAVERICK RULES A month ago former founding member of Fast Company POLLY LaBARRE spoke to an audience of credit union executives in San Diego. They gathered to re-imagine ways to respond to the changes rocking their industry. Polly’s talk gave the audience a maverick manifesto to change the way they go about changing their organizations. The talk was wildly received.

Creating Breakthrough Performance in a Rules-Based Culture

MOST INNOVATIVE COMPANIES LIST If you haven’t read the cover story for Fast Company this month it’s well worth the time. It’s the World’s Most Innovative Companies issue for 2016. The big news is the startling shake-up – only six companies on the list are holdovers from 2015. That factoid underscores the difficulty of sustaining a competitive advantage with innovation in the face of the overbearing and upending pace of change.

On Mike Abrashoff: “Feedback was fantastic. Best in our nine years of meetings!” - Schmenti Construction

Polly LaBarre aids Adidas’ innovation breakthrough project

Matthew Shaer recently wrote an article in New York Magazine entitled The Boss Stops Here discussing the current state of flatter-transparent organizations and the evolution of bossless environments.

All eyes are on them; everything they do, no matter how insignificant, is taken as a signal, and their people follow their example, for good or ill. Whatever they intend, and no matter what they write in memos or say in speeches, the true quality of their leadership is measured by the example they set.