Ben tells the story of the last 24 months leading up to the Sydney Olympics and how the Great Britain Men’s Eights changed as a crew from being a regularly 7th placed boat to a winning one. The story is one of a group of individuals forged into a winning team by following a set of Performance Principles, habitually and consistently, in everything they did. Those Performance Principles were:
– Focus on what’s important
– Focus on performance, in order to get results
– Work together effectively
It is an engaging, motivational and inspiring speech that can be tailored to you and your current challenges and opportunities. The Great Britain Men’s Eights’ collective focus, direction and drive to succeed was captured in the execution of the clear and direct question – ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’.
The simplicity of the question and its implied focus and action consistently resonates with teams and individuals who are challenged to lead themselves and others to simplify process, reduce complexity, innovate and improve performance.
Ben is one of the most sought after motivational speakers in the world. Part of the connection that people establish with Ben and his story is that it could be them. He is a humble, ordinary guy who achieved something extraordinary. Everyone can relate with his “Crazy goal”, his dream and what Ben and his crew did to raise performance and achieve their dreams. It may be an Olympic story but its relevance to every team and every organisation immediately becomes clear.
The speech will take 45 – 60 minutes and is tailored to fit with your key messages. Click below for more information on the speech process and optional workshops to ensure your delegates can immediately begin to apply the ideas.
Ben has a great skill in captivating and engaging an audience at all levels and putting them at ease so that they want to actively participate. In addition, the experience that he relays, and the examples and learning that he derives along the way of his journey are all very applicable and transferable to other situations. All the feedback and evaluation of the session has been very positive. We will be using the ideas discussed to approach our work with a fresh view.
Ben Hunt-Davis came to our event and ‘wowed’ everyone with his inspirational and uplifting session. Ben is living proof that the only barriers to achieving greatness are the ones we create ourselves, but not only that he helped us with tools and techniques to remove the barriers. Ben is very warm and engaging and the time we had with him and what he covered will stay with us for some time.
Ben recently came to the Institute of Directors IOD Young Directors event and his session was an absolute knock out. I think it was one of the best business presentations I’ve been to – and I’ve been to a few. Ben had a simple style of delivery and couples this with his unique insights in high performance sport. If you want your team to lift their game and go for gold – a few minutes with Ben and his team at “Will It Make the Boat Go Faster?” will set you out on the right road.
Having Ben at our 2012 Company Kick off took our event to a different level. His personal experience demonstrated and perfectly supported our company mission to change the game, leaving staff motivated, inspired and focused on the changes ahead. His ability to relate to people from all levels and the challenges of a growing business was spot on. I would thoroughly recommend him to other business leaders looking to motivate and focus their teams.
Our participants were impressed by Ben’s story and will never forget him. It is an inspirational journey that we can apply to any kind of business or deal situation.
I was really impressed that Ben took the time before the session to understand our business and was therefore able to relate his experiences on his journey to a gold medal in Sydney to the daily challenges we face in growing our business and keeping the team focused and motivated. Ben delivered this message flawlessly. He is a highly inspirational speaker and I would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone looking for a speaker to motivate their team.
Ben’s talk was inspiring and I received loads of great feedback afterwards from many in the team. The themes Ben talked about from his professional sports experience resonated so well with many of the messages that I was trying to get across namely: making a difference, driving outstanding performance, and being a great boss. I used a number of your quotes in my wrap-up session for the conference. Your session gave a unique perspective to these themes and added real value to the day.
I think the key thing is, if you’ve achieved what Ben’s achieved, it’s obviously a message in itself in terms of that highest level of performance, but also Ben’s got a presence and a charisma about him that makes the message come home in a very solid way.
Ben tells a timeless tale of daring to do things differently to succeed – a story that truly resonated with my audience of mid-senior managers. His combination of self-deprecation, humour and passion delivers a real punch and, coupled with his thorough research into my own organisation, allows him to take this tale of the extraordinary and make it accessible and relevant to the business world. I had nothing but positive feedback: I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him.
The presentation from Ben was tailor-made for our meeting as he demonstrated that “how to make the boat go faster” was determined by Process, Communication and Accountability. If you want to know what success looks like then Ben is clearly an ambassador for this, all who attended are now empowering their teams to “making the boat go faster” and reaching the business goal.
Ben spoke during our Sales Excellence Awards dinner at our inaugural global sales and marketing conference in January 2012. He held 518 people in the palm of his hand as we heard about the astonishing training, discipline and fantastic team work required to win a coveted gold medal. Ben tailored his content to fit perfectly into our theme of ‘Think. Innovate. Act’. Over a week down the track sales and marketing team members across the world are still chatting about how they can make our ‘boat go faster’.
Ben spoke at our Global Senior Managers Conference and he was both inspiring and thought provoking. He truly engaged with a diverse audience and his message reinforced our Conference objective perfectly. The team at Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? were extremely professional and delivered an excellent service to our organisation.