Mike Shaw

Great leaders, like great athletes, exemplify the behaviour they expect to see in their teams. Elite athletes consistently achieve peak performances because they are exceptional at overcoming adversity. Are the mindset tools that make athletes successful reserved solely for athletes? Absolutely not. We can all activate the athlete mindset. We all have it within ourselves to push through hardships to achieve outstanding growth at work, for our families, and in life. 

In today’s ever-changing work environments, most people view intelligence, skill level, and commitment as the premier defining factors for whether someone will be successful or not.  Resilience in the workplace has never been more critical when you consider the array of stressors like pressing deadlines, cutbacks, organizational restructuring, technological advancements, system redundancies, and policy changes.  Being able to adapt and thrive in the face of adversity or stress is essential for overall success. 

When things fall apart and you’re in recovery mode amid dispute resolutions, organizational dilemmas, disruptions, disasters, or traumas, don’t ‘fix it’. The concept of rebuilding or ‘fixing it’ is flawed. Looking ahead to what you can build or create (not what you can recreate) is a fundamental shift that organizations need to make.

In most team environments, from minor league sports to the boardroom, team members are chosen, not pulled together at random. Talent identification is part of the process, but members get selected to join a team based on measurable skills.  But what happens if you don’t get to pick your team?  Or, what happens when you join a team and are forced to fit in? And, how do you turn your existing team into a high-functioning one? In this session, participants will learn about three critical areas of team building: culture, support and synergy that aligns with the vision.

The antidote for adversity, namely grief, is gratitude. Gratitude can help us overcome our biggest challenges in life. It creates a perspective shift that helps us frame setbacks in the grand scheme of things. It is the foundation for the physical, mental, and emotional growth and recovery for individuals, teams, and leadership groups.

Resilience in the workplace has never been more critical to safety. When faced with an accident, incident, or potential disaster, safety professionals often view it as a failure for themselves and their organization, which diminishes progress and stifles growth. Mike is the project manager at SafeStart,  human error prevention training, injury reduction and 24/7 safety by providing safety training for companies worldwide. Mike teaches strategy and combines the unique demand for safety and performance, by reducing the critical errors and decisions compromised by rushing, frustration, fatigue, and complacency. 

Looking in the rear-view mirror to establish causation is vital—but it can be costly. While it’s essential for learning, determining ‘blame’ negates a good safety mindset and culture. No matter what precautions we take, we must understand that there are human factors at play in every work environment and mistakes are bound to happen. How safety personnel respond to challenges and the steps we take to future-proof our organizations can positively influence culture, save time, money, and most importantly—save lives. 

Mike Shaw had to completely shift his world to adapt to his new circumstances after his accident. Dreams were shattered and it was a very challenging time in his life to make sense of his situation. As an athlete, Mike was able to dig deep and make the best out of his situation in a short time frame. Often embarking on the unknown, he refused to let his disability stand in the way of who he was and who he wanted to become. He is still faced with daily challenges due to his spinal cord injury, but through a mindset he has developed, Mike has become a champion in his own life and others.

In this presentation, Mike shows how the power of choice of how we think and our attitude can be its own disability on its own. Through gratitude, hard work and facing challenges head on, Mike teaches the ability to help others who are faced with a disability to survive and thrive in everything they do. He helps employers recognize the powerful skillsets that can help organizations perform through an inclusive workplace. By creating a culture that encourages and support those who face challenges as a result of a disability with it will maximize the performance, team synergy for each employee giving them a new foundation of purpose in their work lives that promotes accessibility for dis-ABLED employees.