Available to book
Mike Abrashoff
Company Culture
Transformational Leadership
Team Building
Build high-performing teams with Mike Abrashoff, leadership speaker and organizational culture expert. Mike works with leaders to strengthen leadership, employee engagement, and accountability, delivering proven methods from transforming the USS Benfold into the Navy's top-performing ship.
Military
Author
Motivational
Professional Development
Business Consulting
Inspirational
Veterans Day
Professional
Mike Abrashoff is a former U.S. Navy commander, leadership expert, and bestselling author who helps organizations build stronger cultures, improve performance, and develop leaders who give their people the tools to achieve exceptional results.
As the youngest officer in the Pacific Fleet, he took command of the USS Benfold when it ranked among the Pacific Fleet's poorest-performing ships. Within a year, the same crew transformed it into the Navy's top-performing ship. He is the author of four leadership books, including It's Your Ship, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies, and the founder of Aegis Performance Group, helping organizations strengthen leadership and performance. His work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Fast Company.
Mike's Leadership Roadmap shows organizations how to replace command and control with commitment and trust. He draws on his experience turning around the USS Benfold, where employee turnover fell to 1 percent, promotions tripled, and operating costs dropped by 25 percent, to demonstrate that culture change starts with putting decision-making power in the hands of the people closest to the work.
Audiences leave Mike's sessions with practical steps for building accountable teams, increasing engagement, and creating a culture where employees take ownership of results. He shows leaders at every level how small, incremental changes can produce dramatic gains in performance.
Book Mike Abrashoff to inspire your organization with battle-tested leadership principles that create sustainable cultural change and improved performance.
Topics, sessions and talks
Mike Abrashoff shares his transformative experience commanding the USS Benfold, where he turned low morale and high turnover into top performance within a year. He emphasizes the importance of leadership and organizational culture, illustrating how he shifted his leadership style to foster trust and empower his crew. By encouraging initiative and collaboration, he demonstrated that effective leadership is about asking, “What would YOU do?” Attendees will gain practical tools and inspiration to elevate their own organizational performance.
Mike Abrashoff transformed his leadership approach when he took command of the USS Benfold, a struggling Navy ship. Faced with dire circumstances, he prioritized building trust and empowering his crew, ultimately turning the ship into the Navy's top performer. His principles of effective leadership are crucial for organizations navigating virtual work environments. Attendees will learn how to measure results over activity, appreciate team efforts, and develop the skills needed to lead effectively in a virtual setting, gaining a competitive edge.
In this talk, Mike Abrashoff emphasizes that true competition lies within ourselves rather than against external adversaries. Drawing from his experience in the U.S. Navy, he shares how he transformed a struggling ship by shifting focus from average goals to realizing their full potential. This pivotal moment reshaped his leadership approach and led to remarkable achievements documented in major publications and his book, "IT’S YOUR SHIP." Attendees will learn to redefine expectations and recognize self-imposed limits.
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frequently asked questions
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Email mike.abrashoff@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Mike's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Mike Abrashoff structures his talks around the turnaround of USS Benfold, using it as a case study to walk audiences through the specific leadership interventions he applied as commanding officer. He pairs this narrative with a framework he calls the Leadership Roadmap, translating military outcomes — such as a 1% turnover rate and a 25% reduction in operating expenses — into actionable principles for civilian organisations.
Mike Abrashoff speaks on transformational leadership, organisational culture, high performance, and leading virtual teams. He commanded the USS Benfold as the youngest officer in the Pacific Fleet, turning it from one of the poorest-performing ships in the Pacific Fleet into the Navy's top performer within a year, a story documented in his book It's Your Ship, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies.
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Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
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