Biography

Mike has developed a unique perspective from 20+ years of working alongside a star studded list of world-renowned thought leaders, including: John Kotter, Stephen Covey, Tom Peters, Jim Kouzes, Hyrum Smith, Steve Farber and Chris McChesney. Mike served in executive leadership and consulting roles with Kotter International, FranklinCovey, and Tom Peters Company.

In addition to being a leading authority on Unleashing Personal and Organizational Accountability, clients rely upon Mike’s solutions to; Accelerate Change, Shape Their Optimal Culture, Flawlessly Execute Key Strategies, Ignite Leadership Capacity at all Levels, Amplify Employee Engagement, Thrive and Excel in the Age of Disruption, Embrace The Role of CEO of Your Life, Career and Destiny, and Cultivate Peak Performance.

Thirty-one of Fortune 50 are clients. Mike works with organizations around the globe and in virtually every arena, from the tech sector to financial services, manufacturing, health care, hospitality, entertainment, retail, and the US Government. Clients include: Intel, Capital One, Apple, Caterpillar, PNC Bank, Cargill, Pfizer, General Mills, H&R Block, The United States Navy, John Deere, Fidelity Investments, Monsanto, Google, US Steel, Rite Aid, Agilent Technologies, Johnson & Johnson, Symantec, Cigna Corporation, ITPA, US Department of Commerce, BNY Mellon, Oracle, Astra Zeneca, Baxter International Inc., Shell Oil, UPMC, Citrus Valley Health, McAfee, American Airlines, Masonite, Novartis, Ernst & Young, ACE Hardware, DuPont USA, Quest Diagnostics, State Farm, BP Oil, Heinz USA, NAFCU, and NASA.

Mike consults with senior teams, facilitates custom workshops, delivers keynote speeches and provides coaching and consulting on all of these subject areas. He uses his unique insights, passion, experience, and humor to positively affect individuals, teams and organizations around the world. He is experienced with executive leadership teams and groups at all organizational levels. His style is engaging, upbeat, entertaining, thought-provoking, compelling, and most importantly educational, relevant and impactful. Individuals, teams and organizations yield immediate results by applying what they learn.

His personal mission is to help individuals, teams, and organizations accelerate their ability to achieve more than they ever believed possible. Clients describe him as inspiring, motivating, and a ball of energy with an unequaled focus and passion for helping them achieve their desired professional and personal results.

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Future Work - AI Impact - Disruption

Seven powerful forces have joined together and are gunning for your job, to displace your department, and to reinvent and disrupt your industry. Leveraging talent, ideas, speed, distinction, and leadership are the keys to thriving in the new world of work.

• ERP/SAP: 100’s of 1,000’s of jobs expunged over the past 10-15 years. Replaced by software and advanced technology.
• White-Collar Robots: Cash Machines, Kiosks, People-less stores, Lights Out Warehousing…
• Globalization: Abundance of talented professionals worldwide are only a click away
• Outsourcing: Often better, cheaper, faster (IT, HR, Payroll, etc.)
• Internet: Bye-bye brick-and-mortar. Banking is needed; banks are not. Travel is needed; travel agencies are not. Retail is needed; malls are not…
• Disruptive/Destructive Competition: Uber, Air BnB, Driverless Trucks, Netflix, Amazon…
• Artificial Intelligence: AI’s performing surgery. Capable of learning, making decisions…

We are in a brawl with few rules, where the fast, flexible, and agile will eat and spit out the slow, overthinking, and complacent. Individuals, teams, and organizations that fail to adapt will find themselves vulnerable, uncomfortable, and at the mercy of other people, events, or the competition. In this New World of Work, leveraging ideas, speed, talent, distinction and leadership at all levels will separate top-performing teams and organizations from the laggards.

In the past, change was episodic, transient, and gradual; now, change is constant as business, technology, and society itself continue to evolve at an ever-more-rapid pace. Accelerating Change—igniting engagement, passion, ownership, and creativity that is often lacking during times of change—can be accomplished using proven, memorable, and pragmatic principles. Learn why some organizations achieve and exceed desired results.

Embrace memorable principles that can be put into practice immediately. Whatever the desired results you wish to achieve or challenges within your organization – employee engagement, culture change, breaking down silos, improving collaboration, raising employee morale, merging cultures, doing more with less – it is through your people that you will either succeed or fail. How your people behave is a reflection of leadership.

Learn to cultivate an environment where employees at all levels are engaged, energized, and flourish. How do you effectively tap into the enormous wealth of creativity, innovation, passion, energy and commitment of employees that is often left idle?

KEY LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS:
• Discover the essential tools in the ‘New Work/Future Work Survival Kit.’ Pragmatic, memorable ideas, skills and principles that will equip you and your team with the ability to thrive and excel in the new world of work.
• Understand what it will take for individuals, departments and organizations to thrive, excel, and ward off the unforgiving forces of the ‘7-sided pincer movement.’
• Embrace the 5-ingredient ‘kryptonite’ to thwart the 7-sided Pincer Movement.
• Cultivate a workforce that is connected, committed and aligned and that delivers your 'brand promise.' Become distinctive in today’s sea of sameness
• Capitalize on the untapped potential of your talent - inspire extraordinary performance.
• Build, enhance and grow your desired 'brand' – Organizational and Individual – to cement your spot in the New World of Work.
• Develop tenacity, resolve and agility to secure your spot in the New World of Work.
• Arouse a sense of purpose, distinction and passion among your employees.
• Discover what it takes to move employees from compliance to commitment – jettison resistance.
• Learn how to create a ‘Want-To’ versus a ‘Have-To’ culture. A culture where change is embraced.
• Discover what it takes to lead a culture/team that is aligned, resolute, engaged, agile and takes accountability and ownership to achieve what matters most.

Create Your Optimal Peak-Performing Culture - Culture Shaping

Whatever the desired results you wish to achieve or challenges within your organization – lofty growth, distinction, culture change, innovation, breaking down silos, improving collaboration, employee engagement, merging cultures, doing more with less… – it is through your people (culture) that you will either succeed or fail. Embark on a transformative journey towards fostering a culture that drives exceptional results.

Culture, simply put, is the convergence of the way your employees think and act. That culture is producing your organization’s every result (financial, operational, customer, employee, etc.). If your future desired results are loftier, more difficult, of just different than those you are achieving today, will your current culture be able to deliver? Creating those ‘shifts’ in how employees think and act is what will propel your team or organization toward those desired results.

Your culture is your ‘brand.’ An organization’s (or team’s) culture is either an engine propelling it toward it’s desired results, or an anchor impeding and hindering it’s progress. You can define, lead and shape your optimal culture.

Learn to cultivate an environment where employees at all levels are engaged, energized and flourish. Internalize what it takes effectively tap into the enormous wealth of creativity, innovation, passion, energy and commitment of employees that is often left idle. Cultivate a culture that is engaged, passionate, focused, committed, aligned and accountable, with employees contributing daily to help achieve what matters most.

You can ignite extraordinary results within your team or organization. These straightforward, practical and memorable tips can transform your culture to support and deliver your ‘must-achieve desired results.’ The results that will ensure you thrive and excel in the new world of work.

KEY LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS:
• Learn how to create shifts in the way employees think and act so that your desired culture will flourish and heighten organizational performance.
• Foster increased levels of trust, collaboration and teamwork
• Ignite a heightened sense of urgency, accountability, and ownership at all levels of your organization
• Intensify ownership, engagement and alignment – Crumble silos and abolish territorialism.
• Understand how to identify the root cause of undesired cultural beliefs and actions that impede progress, and how to infuse desired beliefs and actions to accelerate achievement of desired results.
• Discover how to gain voluntary commitments from colleagues so they self-select desired actions - Stop wasting time enforcing compliance around policies and procedures.
• Develop a culture where employees ‘bring more of themselves’ to the workplace – trigger innovation, creativity and passion.
• Create organizational laser-like focus on what matters most – eliminate confusion, misunderstanding, miscommunication, mistrust, frustration and indifference.

Cultivate Resilience, Commitment, Accountability, Ownership and Perseverance – Ignite Peak Performance

Accountability is the Catalyst to: Accelerated Change, Robust Employee Engagement, Intensified Ownership, Relentless Perseverance, Impeccable Alignment, and propels individuals, teams and organizations to intoxicating heights of achievement and success. Learn what it takes to awaken the whatever it takes attitude, belief, resolve, perseverance, confidence, determination, drive and creativity to achieve what matters most to individuals, teams and organizations.

Accountability crumbles silos, boosts teamwork and collaboration, strengthens camaraderie, creativity, resiliency, agility, trust, and communication. Accountability is a current that feeds into the slipstream of success. Your performance, your decisions, and your results are all within your control; when you operate from that premise, magic happens. You deliver like never before because you are personally invested in the outcome. Achieve with Accountability shows you how to nourish that can-do mindset, so you can begin to achieve what matters most.

Discover how to transform accountability into a positive, engaging and forward looking experience that will secure your position in the new world of work. Learn how to kick-start a revolution that will blast your team or organization to new heights of success. With the world coming at us fast and furious every day, it's easy to feel like you've lost control of your own life, your team or your organization. By choosing to take and lead accountability you reclaim control and are able to direct your own destiny.

In today’s constant changing competitive environment individuals, teams and organizations must be prepared to answer these critically important questions convincingly:
1. Who are you? What makes you distinctive in today’s ‘sea of sameness?’
2. How are you dramatically unique or different?
3. How do you make a significant difference or create an astonishing overt benefit?
4. What is/are your reason/s why anyone should believe in you?Convince me!

KEY LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS:
• Discover the 4 keys to accountability and observable best practices.
• Cultivate the agility, flexibility, and resiliency to adapt and thrive during constant change.
• Foster collaboration, camaraderie, and teamwork – Establish unshakable trust and credibility.
• Intensify ownership, engagement, and alignment – Crumble silos and abolish territorialism.
• Instill a can-do, steely resolve, solutions-focused mindset in the face of difficult challenges, obstacles, and barriers.
• Eradicate the blame game and vanquish excuse-making that stifles peak performance.
• Shed feelings of disarray, discomfort, apathy, entitlement, indifference, and despair.
• Unleash voluntary contributions of discretionary performance often left untapped in individuals, teams, and organizations.
• Discover how to develop and enhance your ‘desired brand’ to secure your position now and in the future.
• Grasp what it takes to unleash your true potential.
• Develop a team or organization that is connected, aligned, and manifests your organizations brand.
• Break through self-imposed barriers and mediocrity.

Leading Change – Accelerate Achievement of What Matters Most and Thrive in the Age of Disruption

In the past, change was episodic, transient, and gradual; now, change is constant as business, technology, and society itself continue to evolve at an ever-more-rapid pace. Accelerating Change—igniting engagement, passion, ownership, and creativity that is often lacking during times of change—can be accomplished using proven memorable and pragmatic principles. Learn why some organizations achieve and exceed desired results.

Driving a strategy that requires change in human behavior may be the most difficult challenge a leader can face. What do top leaders do to gain voluntary contributions of discretionary performance from those they lead? How do they create alignment, ownership and accountability for desired results at every level of an organization? How do they ensure that key strategies are not slowly suffocated, but instead produce extraordinary results?

Leading change has become a critical competency in today’s economy. But there is a significant and crucial difference between leading and managing change – not only in the approach, but also more importantly in the results. The success, or lack thereof, with transformational change efforts hinges on a few key principles that have been identified, studied and validated.

Leveraging talent, ideas, speed, distinction and leadership are keys to accelerating change. Accelerated achievement of desired results can be accomplished through consistent focused attention over time on a few practical, pragmatic and memorable principles. Discover the practices demonstrated by exemplary leaders that result in others voluntarily choosing to follow them.

Intentional focus on these principles will ignite extraordinary results within your organization. Decades of research have identified five principles and practices that propel organizations forward to blast through the common barriers, obstacles, challenges and inertia that derail most change efforts.

KEY LEARNINGS AND TAKEAWAYS:
• Embrace the key change principles that are common among successful change efforts. heighten and refine your untapped leadership potential.
• Understand the critical difference between leading and managing change and the appropriate ratio required to accelerate change.
• Discover what it takes to move employees from compliance to commitment – jettison resistance.
• Learn how to create a ‘Want-To’ versus a ‘Have-To’ culture. A culture where change is embraced.
• Avoid the primary pitfalls and traps that sabotage most change efforts.
• Learn the five best practices demonstrated by exemplary leaders and how you can apply them.
• Discover the key elements of communicating a vision that leads to increased levels of commitment, engagement, and accountability.
• Understand what it takes to cultivate a workplace culture where employees ‘bring more of themselves’—where they are engaged, energized, and flourish.
• Learn how to lead, develop, and cultivate a culture/team that is equipped to overcome the new 'forces that are coalescing' to dramatically alter the corporate and economic landscape.
• Discover what it takes to lead a culture/team that is aligned, resolute, engaged, agile, and takes accountability and ownership to achieve what matters most.
• Arouse a sense of purpose, distinction, and passion among your employees.

Testimonials

I first met Mike at an industry event in Florida. I was so moved by his presentation that afterwards I shook his hand and told him that he just changed my life forever. About a month later I invited him to make a similar presentation for our company during our annual Christmas luncheon. Mike presented to over 225 guests and that were engaged and motivated. The next day he made a full day presentation to 40 of our managers and sales team. Our team is still talking about the event and quoting lines from his book.
– Navid Yavari, CEO, PAI Industries
The consensus from our attendees and employees was that you delivered a terrific and relevant keynote for our conference! Several long-time employees said it might have been the best in our 23-year history hosting this conference. We are so glad you were able to be a part of our conference.
– John Stampen, SVP Marketing, Wisconsin Manufacturing Enterprise Partnership
Mike Evans participated as a keynote speaker in The IIA’s General Audit Management Conference. His leadership presentation really resonated with the audience of executives in internal audit. Mike is one of our highest rated speakers and as a result is being asked back to present at the All Star Conference which is the conference where we showcase encore presentations from the highest rated speakers. This is a great testament to his ability to provide an audience with practical strategies, tools and techniques for positive outcomes in their practice setting. I look forward to future opportunities to include Mike in The IIA’s conference programs.
– Sheena Majette, Managing Director, Conferences, IIA
Thank you for your great presentation today! Overall I think it went well and I have already received positive feedback from Margie and several other agency leaders. The messages in your content Mike was excellent and spot on for the culture initiative our agency is working on. You also did a great job getting everyone involved and making it interactive! Our team was astonished with the level of engagement and involvement from our attendee that you were able to achieve. Simply brilliant! Thanks again and we cannot wait to have you here live in December.
– Sarah Hoenig, Senior Director, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Great job last week at the WMEP conference! I just finished with generous and valuable follow up video, and I'd welcome additional materials. We had 4 others from our company attend the conference and they all could not stop referencing your presentation. Your ideas and content we so memorable and impactful that we started to implement your ideas immediately. Your presentation skills are unmatched. I have never been as engaged in any online event ever.
– Ryan Blaine, VP Operations, Aztalan Engineering
We knew we’d found something special from the first phone call we had with Mike. He asked simple yet thought provoking questions designed to help him really understand our organization and the challenges facing us. Mike spoke at our annual group conference and he nailed it. His energy started the day off right and his message showed he listened to what we said and incorporated the themes into his keynote. The feedback from the group has been extremely positive. We’ve had experiences with speakers in that past who have missed the mark, but Mike really demonstrated the value of having an external perspective from an industry expert. Consistently what we are hearing is Mike was the best part of the conference.
– Kris Rodemack, Finance Controller, Intel
I have never seen a group respond to a speaker the way they did with Mike’s talk. Not only did he fully engage the audience for the entire (too short) time allowed, every conversation I had with attendees afterward included comments on the dynamic inspiration he provided. I am sure many of those present will go on to make meaningful leadership contributions as a direct result. Thank you, Mike!
– David Champlin, SVP, Stewart & Stevenson
His unique insights have positively affected me, both personally and professionally. His work on accountability will stop you in your tracks, almost forcing one to self-reflect and make changes regarding what matters most. You gave me the courage to step out into the unknown, to take responsibility for what was happening to me and around me, to see that there are other options. So, thank you for that.
– Pam Jamieson, Director, Department of Defense
I have had the distinct privilege of working with Mike Evans over the past decade. Mike was the keynote speaker for 3 different organizations where I served as the Vice President of Human Resources. Mike’s engaging interactive upbeat and humorous style works across all industries as well as non-profit and for-profit companies. Reviews consistently rate Mike as the highlight of our events. Mike’s ability to work a room of 50 to 2000 guests is amazing. He keeps attendees on the edge of their seats during his entire presentation. The engagement and interest he creates is palpable. Mike designs custom workbooks which are used to reinforce the learning and equips participants with something to utilize when they return to their place of employment. When completing post survey questionnaires Mike’s sessions always rate as the highest presentation of the entire conference. Lastly, prior to each event, Mike works diligently to understand the organizations culture, mission and values and incorporates those into his presentations.
– Todd Haines, HR Consultant and Professor at Sacramento University
This was my first year picking our keynote speaker for our Annual Kickoff Meeting, on my own and I was not sure what direction to go. I came across and viewed a video of Mike speaking at another event, and I automatically felt that he was the right person. From the very beginning, it was obvious this was his space and what he was meant to do. He was professional and his attention to detail was amazing. He truly listened to our expectations and what we needed. The topics he spoke about resonated with every single person and allowed them to take away applicable strategies to better themselves and their business. Not only was he engaging but his demonstrations were eye opening and relatable. He had a natural way of connecting with the audience. I received nothing but positive feedback and praise for him as a speaker. I am grateful to have found him.
– Elizabeth Vela, Chief of Staff, Mass Mutual

Booksby Mike Evans

Achieve with Accountability

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Blog Posts

 

Five Life-Changing Lessons from Recording 100 Podcast Episodes

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