We challenge leaders to transform their teams and organizations by "ReImagining" their leadership

Planning an executive off-site, retreat, or large-scale conference? Mike Abrashoff has the distinct honor of speaking to organizations all over the globe. His inspiring story of team member engagement, organizational transformation and exceptional leadership has resonated with keynote attendees across all industries.

Mike Abrashoff has the distinct honor of speaking to organizations all over the globe. His inspiring story of team member engagement, organizational transformation and exceptional leadership has resonated with keynote attendees across all industries.

Mike Abrashoff

Captain Abrashoff's Keynote Challenges You to Re-Imagine your Leadership Thinking:

Performance on the USS Benfold was dreadful, but Captain Abrashoff didn't have the option to hire, fire or promote personnel. What he could do was change the culture to elevate performance – and that's exactly what he did, making his ship the Navy's top performer. Mike made a determined effort to see the ship from the eyes of his crew. Mike's story inspires audiences to realize that if he can overcome significant hurdles in a bureaucratic environment, they too can change their organization and instill a renewed responsibility for results and success.

Keynote Topics

Mike Abrashoff is a remarkable storyteller with an uncanny ability to connect with audiences and inspire them to overcome challenges and deliver great results. Mike's best-selling books set the context for his keynote addresses, and we are confidant Mike's keynote address will exceed your expectations and be the highlight of your meetings.

It's Your Ship

Publications from Fast Company to the Harvard Business Review have heralded the remarkable turnaround of USS Benfold and business schools have made it a case study in organizational success. Mike's book, It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy, is a best seller with over 850,000 copies in print. In this keynote, the story of how USS Benfold was transformed into the best ship in the Navy rekindles audiences with enthusiasm to make a difference at work. More than that, people take away real tools they can put to use right away. Mike's It's Your Ship philosophy empowered his crew to take charge and use ingenuity and initiative to improve every aspect of the way things were done.

It's Our Ship

For organization's that want to take Mike's leadership principles to the next level, Mike addresses the challenges most on the minds of leaders in these challenging times. Collaboration, commitment, cohesion, accountability, engagement, rapid and continual innovation, engaging employees and dealing with generational differences in that workforce – these crucial issues are the ones that that successful leaders need to master. It's Our Ship is about creating a high performance culture where everyone takes ownership and responsibility using real lessons from the business world and focus on innovation, accountability and engagement.

The Leadership Roadmap

The focus of our foundational leadership development program is on learning "how" to apply the lessons and best practices modeled in Mike's books. In this keynote, the success story of USS Benfold creates a powerful example of what is possible and the impact leaders can have on results. The lessons learned aboard USS Benfold combined with the best practices that we have found in studying high performance leaders have been distilled into five simple milestones, what we call, "The Leadership Roadmap." The Roadmap is practical and simple at heart, and works because it focuses on how leaders get results, not just what leaders aspire to become.

Breakout Sessions

Many of our clients choose to follow Mike's keynote with a breakout session. At GLS, we call them "Take Action" sessions since they are a high energy, interactive, fast paced set of exercises and discussions tailored to the leadership and cultural issues most relevant to a client's organization. These follow-on group meetings are a great opportunity to deepen the learning from Mike's keynote and provide attendees with additional tools and strategies to apply in their work environment. The breakout session is customizable based upon client's needs and focus.

Client Interests:

  • Limited engagement, usually a 2-hour breakout session, immediately following Mike's keynote: more than just a Q&A
  • Want a deeper understanding of how GLS leadership principles can be implemented in their organization.
  • Mike's keynote is usually part of a company leadership event; attendees have time to extend their learning.

GLS Offering:

  • Keynote Debrief and Q&A: The Q&A occurs immediately after Captain Abrashoff's keynote to seek clarification and ideas on how to incorporate messages from the keynote into action in client's workplace.
    • Table groups discuss key messages from keynote and/or how specific messages may apply to key challenges within client organization.
    • Clarifying questions from table groups are then presented to Captain Abrashoff.
  • Commitment to Action: Specific action steps are identified to move forward using ideas from Captain Abrashoff's keynote message. Participants work to define the top three to five clear specific deliverables necessary to move ideas forward. Next steps are discussed for action and milestones for completion in table groups. Action steps are then shared with large group to identify synergies.
  • FeedForward Exercise: Collaborative method to gather suggestions from others on how to improve in an area related to Captain Abrashoff's keynote or an area identified by client.

Benefits:

  • Participants get initial exposure to GLS content and approach with minimal financial investment.