Mike Weddington
From the grid iron to the board room
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Former professional football player – five years with the Green Bay Packers
*Fee ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Speaker Exchange Agency representative.
Is Your Business or Team NFL Worthy? This innovative and exceptional workshop is taking the business world by storm. This course provides a direct comparison to business on the level of a high-ranking professional football team.
Mike Weddington played professional football for eight years, joining the USFL’s New Jersey Generals for three seasons, followed by five seasons in the NFL with the distinguished Green Bay Packers.
Throughout his professional sports career Mike’s unique experiences of competing at a world-class status from the grid iron to the board rooms prepared him for a career for Training and Development as a motivational speaker, business coach and lecturer. He provides cutting edge strategies, while leveraging his NFL football experience and 28 years in Corporate America.
This unique experience will bring insights to creating, inspiring and building a winning team and organization. Mike shares key strategies from professional football playbooks that should be included in every business plan. Most important, he focuses on the two greatest assets of a company – their staff and customer base. He shares with executives and business professionals how to create action plans and strategies to compete in a highly competitive business environment.
Expanding beyond the bounds of football, Mike moved on to invest over 28 years with two Fortune 500 companies. He spent 18 years at Wilsonart International, working directly with the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing to grow its annual revenue to over $1 billion. Mike also worked 10 years at Hunter Douglas window fashions increasing annual sales to over $4 billion, where he reported directly to the president.
Key Takeaways About Mike Weddington’s Professionals Experience:
- Hosted 800+ seminars and work with over 400+ businesses in business planning sessions.
- Worked with over 45,000+ businesses owners and staff across the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean Islands in the past 10 years.
- Presented over 125+ keynote speeches for Chambers of Commerce, small, midsize and large corporations, regional and National Trade and professional association events.
Mike continues to work closely with small, mid-size and large corporations, retailers, dealers and distributors. He works with them to create strategic business models that drive sales and achieve positive results. Mike has a proven track record of helping businesses create a plan of action to become more effective, maximize profitability and increase sales. A seasoned business professional, Mike holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from the University of Oklahoma.
Mike’s Four Areas of Expertise
- 1.Leadership and Team Building
- 2. Sales Management: Territory Management, Selling and Negotiating Skills
- 3.Organizational Excellence & Employee Engagement
- 4.Hiring Young Professionals
Mike brings a high level of energy to his workshops and keynotes. Each engagement is filled with practical, real-world proven, step-by-step strategies to help owners, managers, and employees move to their next level of success.
What are the key characteristics of a Culture of Excellence?
Corporate vision and mission statements are no longer enough. Achieving a Culture of Excellence requires that all employees know their roles and responsibilities, recognize the specific actions they must take to achieve the goals and objectives of the company, and have the attitude, drive and motivation to accomplish them.
Why is creating an organizational Culture of Excellence essential to employee performance?
In a Culture of Excellence, employees must feel that their work is meaningful, significant, and purpose-based. Their driving force must come from the knowledge that management, their staff, subordinates and colleagues are all working together towards a common purpose. It is the culture that decides the health of the organization and the way employees interact, stay motivated, remain loyal and produce the results necessary for success.
How can establishing high performance expectations influence the creation of a Culture of Excellence?
Setting high performance expectations at all levels throughout your organization supports and encourages employees to master their roles and areas of expertise. It’s critical to offer mentoring, training and nurturing, and follow that with recognition and reward for those who meet or exceed their high performance goals. This process will ultimately signal to low performers that they must participate and move up or leave the organization.
How does employee mediocrity and business changes and challenges affect the formation of a Culture of Excellence?
Concentrating only on putting out fires often ends up rewarding mediocrity if low performers are only encouraged to focus their time and energy on problem-solving. Change and challenges can distract and slow down some employees, causing them to lose sight of the importance of the larger goals and vision of the organization. In a Culture of Excellence, employees develop the flexibility and resilience to deal more easily with inevitable change, challenge and uncertainty. Even when obstacles seem impossible to overcome, motivation is higher than discomfort and employees are able to push through barriers and move forward with a sense of purpose and a strong desire to succeed. Critically important during these times is the support and assistance of management, who help teams stay strong, focused and on track.
How does team collaboration empower a healthy Culture of Excellence in an organization?
Working in an company where collaborative teams are encouraged and rewarded empowers employees to work together towards an inclusive and common vision. Teams and individuals no longer guard and protect their projects, knowledge and expertise, but instead welcome the input and participation from internal and external sources. This allows the introduction of fresh ideas, innovative processes and pioneering approaches and helps a healthy Culture of Excellence take hold.
How can small incremental changes raise employee engagement past 32% and nurture a Culture of Excellence?
Professional teams do not settle for mediocre. To continue playing on the team, players must break records, achieve unprecedented results and compete at 100%…or leave. Seemingly small incremental changes made by all employees help to raise the bar and can make a big difference in the final results. This creates energy, drive and excitement and can have profound impact on employees and teams, encouraging them to explore new possibilities in achieving the goals and vision of the company by working together with a common purpose and developing an organization with a winning Culture of Excellence.
What specifically will be covered in this workshop?
- Building a culture of excellence and value for your organization.
- Knowing how employee life cycles affect employee engagement.
- Developing strong leadership at all levels of your organization.
- Understanding employee engagement in football and business.
- Developing processes and checkpoints that ensure success.
- Creating and maintaining an innovative entrepreneurial spirit.
- Understanding the importance of studying your competition.
- Maximizing and perfecting the customer experience (CX).
- Becoming the ultimate results and service-driven sales organization.
- Attracting, hiring and developing top tier franchise employees.
- Identifying the most valuable person (MVP) in your company.
What lessons learned from the Gridiron to the Boardroom will be covered in depth in this workshop?
- Get buy-in from employees on ideas, projects and company vision.
- Build balance by helping employees perform at their highest level.
- Manage so that employees understand you and respect your style.
- Analyze everything and review what went right and what went wrong.
- Leverage and protect your brand and look for new revenue streams.
- Find ways to implement more entrepreneurial and winning strategies.
- Invest in your people through continuous education and training.
- Take calculated risks and determine what needs to be adjusted.
- Be accountable for plans and programs and celebrate successes.
- Know and communicate company goals, how they’ll be measured and support the process all the way.
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