Leading at 90 Below Zero will showcase proven principles  that will increase your ability to effectively find, engage and keep the best people for your team.  You will walk away from this program with specific action items that you can take back to your place of business and implement right away.

As an avid polar history fan and a two-time polar marathoner, Mike uses stories from Antarctic history, as well as his own personal adventures there, to showcase the points of the program.  He will specifically focus on the leadership of Ernest Shackleton, who in 1914 led 28 men on what is considered one of the greatest undertakings and leadership stories in recorded history, when the men were stranded in Antarctica for two years.

Shackleton was a master leader, getting the 28 men to trust him and want to do what was necessary despite conditions and circumstances that were beyond terrible.  This includes how to thrive under conditions of adversity, sudden and unexpected change, conflict resolution, engaging team members, and facing obstacles beyond ones control.  It’s no different than how business teams today must be led by people who know how to lead effectively and can get the people on the team to trust them and do what is necessary, despite being surrounded by constantly changing and challenging circumstances.

Antarctic Mike’s program, The Penguin Principles, will once again travel to Antarctica to understand how to build and maintain the strongest and best performing team(s) within your organization. You will walk away from this program with specific action items that you can take back to your place of business and put into play immediately.

The Emperor Penguins are the only creatures that can survive in the harsh climate of Antarctica.  Even through they’re swimmers, they spend most of their life on land marching, and not alone.  Their success and survival depends on teamwork, sacrifice, sharing of difficult responsibilities and a number of other factors that are easy to understand and hard to execute when in the midst of a winter storm.

So too, our teams that we work with each day are subject to a number of factors consistently that make working together easy to understand and hard to do consistently, especially when the conditions are much less than ideal.  The Penguin Principles will help you how to build and orchestrate teamwork at a high level.

Key themes:

• Building a stronger bond of trust among individuals, departments and customers.
• Redefining and reengaging true sacrifice, understanding why it will get you what you want.
• Increasing your people’s ability to respond to change and create change that is necessary.
• Developing your team member’s ability stay focused on the task at hand.
• Mastering your team’s ability to communicate with each other, understand and appreciate what others on the team contribute.

Antarctic Mike’s program, Selling at 90 Below Zero, will showcase proven sales principles that significantly increase your sales team’s ability to effectively generate sales activity that leads to revenue. You will walk away from this program with specific action items that you can take back to your sales team and implement right away. 

The focus in this program is on the story of the race to the South Pole between a Norwegian team and a British team. The Norwegians won the race and all survived. The British not only lost the race, but all 5 of them, lost their lives on the return. The key differences between the two leaders and the two teams are the basis for this program, as the differences are endless. They all teach us something specific about how to be more effective as a sales person and as a sales leader.  

Key themes:

• How  to pick the right people for the expedition.
• Understanding how to develop and orchestrate a sales plan that works and that is sustainable over the long run.
• Mastering the art of developing the right pace of activity, ensuring that your people will run fast enough to win, yet slow enough to insure that they finish the race.
• Effectively showcasing your value proposition in a way that is meaningful to your customers, making price a back burner issue.
• Making sure that people on your team have the right tools and equipment to do their jobs at world-class level