Keynote Presentations

“Keep Your People in the Boat – How Generous Leaders Build Breakthrough Teams”

  • Can you always engage the most clear and productive attitude in your people, even in complex times of stress and change?
  • Are you as skilled as you could be at being in control without being controlling?

If you’re like most successful leaders, you recognize that your team’s performance is catapulted to success, or mired in dysfunction, by your mastery or failure with these two leadership skills.

I’ve learned to handle complex times of stress and change from leading crews of sailors in the life-threatening conditions of long Tall Ship voyages across ever-changing oceans.

With compelling real-life stories of leadership at sea, illustrated with arresting photos and salty realism, I show you how to take the principles and techniques of generous leadership and apply them at work immediately, productively, and sustainably:

  • The Use and Abuse of Command
  • How Less Leadership Gives More Results
  • The Three Simple Rules of Generous Leadership in Complex Times

And to make the learning truly compelling and memorable, the entire audience moves tables and chairs aside for an on-your-feet experiential example of generous leadership in action. (And we move the chairs back when we’re done.)

Results:

    • You can give your people what they need to thrive and perform
    • You don’t give your people what they don’t need, that limits their performance
    • You have stronger skills for team engagement in complex times
    • You know how to avoid “leadership fatigue” and burnout

Video: Less-Is-More Leadership – Moving 400 Chairs

“As Chairman of the Board, I needed a provocative, challenging opening for our international conference in Spain. Our Members are a high energy group and were expressing a need to the organization to stir up some new thinking. Crane delivered in spades, set the buzz going, and energized the whole conference. I got a lot of great feedback from my members.”
Doug Prothero, Executive Chairman, STI International Conference


“The Un-Encumbered Mind – Generous Self-Leadership for Your Best Performance”

What do you do when you feel like you’re sinking at work?

An intense work environment can be intensely challenging, mentally and emotionally, just like a crowded ship on rough seas. But sailors’ lives depend on getting past this “mental claustrophobia,” to give their personal best performance, all the time. Or they’re sunk.

I will show you how to use personal attitude-management techniques for optimum performance, so you can constantly reconnect with the joy of your personal best, even under pressure.

I’ve led crews of Tall Ship sailors through storms and fog and treacherous reefs on long ocean voyages, where your state of mind feels as claustrophobic and trapped as the ship. And I’ve taught meditation and mindfulness practices for 30 years, helping people find the more expansive state of mind that is the source of our personal best.

I will show you practical, no-nonsense techniques you can use every day for shifting your attitude on the spot, whenever you need to, even under pressure:

  • Momentum: Friend or Foe?
  • How to Escape “Mental Claustrophobia” in tough times
  • The Source of Our Personal Best is an Unencumbered State of Mind

Video: Leading Your Personal Attitude

“You took risks but this made your session so much more valuable. You started off our conference with such a dynamic and creative session. It will be hard to live up to in the future!”
Gerry Hansen, ED, Infection Prevention and Control National Conference