Mark Sanborn

Leadership Development Expert

Mark Sanborn

Leadership Development Expert

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Biography

Mark is the president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea lab for leadership development and turning the ordinary into the extraordinary. GlobalGurus.org lists Mark as one of the top leadership experts in the world.

Mark has given over 2600 presentations in every state and 14 countries. He has authored eight books and more than two dozen videos and audio training programs. His programs are taught by Crestcom International in 90 countries and Mark is the Leadership Expert in Residence at High Point University.

Mark’s book, The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work and Life Can Turn the Ordinary Into the Extraordinary is an international bestseller and was on the New York Times, Business Week and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists. His other books include 1) You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader: How Anyone, Anywhere Can Make a Positive Difference, 2) The Encore Effect: How to Achieve Remarkable Performance in Anything You Do, 3) Up, Down or Sideways: How to Succeed When Times are Good, Bad or In Between, 4) Fred 2.0: New Ideas on How to Keep Delivering Extraordinary Results and 5) The Potential Principle: A Proven System for Closing the Gap Between How Good You Are and How Good You Could Be and 6) The Intention Imperative: 3 Essential Changes That Will Make You a Successful Leader Today.

Mark is a member of the Speaker Hall of Fame and is a past president of the National Speakers Association.
Mark’s list of clients includes Costco, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, FedEx, Harley-Davidson, Cisco, KPMG, Morton’s of Chicago, New York Life, RE/MAX, ServiceMaster, ESPN, GM, IBM, Avnet, Sandvik and John Deere.

“We each know how good we have become,” Mark says, “but none of us knows how good we can be. One of the most exciting opportunities we get each day is to pursue our potential.” Mark Sanborn challenges his audiences with this message and provides insights for extraordinary living.

He lives in Highlands Ranch, Colorado with his wife Darla and sons Hunter and Jackson.

Speaker Videos

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Four Ways to Elevate the Customer's Experience

How To Be a Thought Leader

Why I Don't Talk About Customers Service

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Speech Topics

Up, Down or Sideways: How to Succeed When Times are Good, Bad, or In Between

Discover practical ways to prepare for and deal with change - good, bad or otherwise - by focusing on the mindsets and methods that never change.

Predicting the future is easy; predicting it correctly is very hard. Since we can’t be certain of what the future holds, what should we always be doing to ensure our success regardless of what happens?

Originally created to help audiences through the aftermath of the economic downturn of 2008, this presentation contains strategies and tips extremely relevant to the COVID-19 crisis and any other unimaginable situations.

THIS PROGRAM:

Examines the mindsets and methods that enable us to succeed come what may
Teaches a practical way of preparing for and dealing with change
Helps listeners to focus on those things that should never change
Shows the audience how to make the most of up, down, and sideways situations
Improves company morale and inspires teams to push through challenging times
Advises what to do when coming out of a crisis

The Intention Imperative: 3 Essential Change That Will Make You a Better Leader Today

Nobody ever got to the top of Mount Everest accidentally. Summiting the highest peak in the world takes clarity and intention; and so does leading successfully.

Intentional Leadership = Clarity (knowing clearly where you want to go) + Intentionality (taking consistent action to get there). Clarity without consistent action is daydreaming. Consistent action without clarity is wasted time and effort.

Just as the tools of successful mountaineering have changed and improved over time, so have the requirements of intentional leadership. Based on 33 years of working with organizations globally, teaching leaders and observing powerful shifts, Mark Sanborn has identified three essential areas of focus for leaders in the world.

YOUR AUDIENCE WILL RECOGNIZE THE IMPORTANCE OF:

Inspiration: motivation to the power of purpose
Culture: creating the engine that sustains vision and values while achieving desired results
Emotion: designing for and delivering positive emotion for customers and employees

The Potential Principle: How The Best Get Better

How do you keep getting better if you are already among the best? This is a critical question for successful leaders and organizations. What happens when complacency, outdated thinking or weariness stunts performance? What do leaders do when growth stalls, or when their teams are working below their true potential?

In this presentation, Mark Sanborn provides the answer and teaches four powerful tools your audience can use to pursue their potential.

YOUR AUDIENCE WILL LEARN:

Why you must pursue your potential and not settle for simply achieving your goals
How to disrupt yourself before somebody else does
Three ways to become laser-focused on doing things that produce the biggest results
A powerful way to think that gives you a competitive advantage over others

The Fred Factor: How Passion in Your Work & Life Can Turn The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary

In this inspiring presentation, Mark Sanborn shares four life-changing lessons he has learned from Fred, an extraordinary postal carrier. Based on his New York Times and international bestseller, The Fred Factor, Mark will teach how no one can be prevented from choosing to be exceptional.

As a result, your audience will be able to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary and the mundane into the magnificent in their personal and professional lives.

YOUR AUDIENCE WILL DISCOVER HOW TO:

Build better relationships with customers and colleagues to improve overall work performance
Create new value for others without spending a dime
Elevate the customer experience for everyone
Stay motivated and engaged every day for maximum working life enjoyment

You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader: How Anyone, Anywhere, Can Make a Positive Difference

Based on 30 years of working with some of the world’s best leaders and companies, this keynote focuses on the true heart of leadership: making things better for others (and you don’t need a title to do that).

Mark Sanborn proves how anyone at any level and regardless of title can make a significant contribution and a positive difference.

YOUR AUDIENCE WILL WALK AWAY WITH:

The six fundamental skills of leadership that nearly all leaders practice
How to create an army of lions where everyone knows when and how to lead
How to maximize the only three resources any organization possesses
Over a dozen ways that leaders communicate differently than others

Testimonials

Everything went GREAT with Mark. Personally, I feel that he is, by far, the best speaker that we have had. He held our audience’s attention and we had more employees stay for his presentation than ever before.

The company gave everyone a copy of Mark’s book, and after our program Mark signed books until he had to leave for the airport. As a result, he missed lunch completely.

- Michigan Sugar Company

"Over and over again, I’ve heard Mark Sanborn’s motivational speech at the IIA International Conference in Atlanta in June 2010 was the best ever! As Conference Chair and the person who picked you, this makes me very happy. You were, by the way, the #1 rated speaker the conference!"

- Institute of Internal Auditors

"I just wanted to send you a quick note to thank you again for speaking to the associates at TFS. It’s been nearly six months since you were here and people are still talking about you and the ideas you shared. I continue to get requests from all over the organization, including our field offices, for copies of the DVD from the event so they can watch it with their teams. You really struck a chord with everyone here and I wanted to once again express my appreciation."

- Toyota Financial Services

"I wanted to thank you for presenting at our kick-off meeting today. You really hit a homerun; perfect ending to a perfect day. Spot on with the theme of our kick off, and I could tell that the group took some key takeaways from your message and that they will put them into motion to make positive change and impact personally and professionally!"

- Cisco

"Thank you for helping make this a great conference for our member-owners. 100% of my feedback from members, vendors, and staff was that you and your presentation were absolutely outstanding. I particularly appreciate and liked the written materials that you provided and the structure of the wrap-up session that you coordinated. Thanks again and I look forward to our fourth engagement."

- Do It Best Corp.

"Needless to say, Mark, you scored a homerun with the way you integrated the facts about Doubletree into your message. Everyone in the audience was spellbound by the amount of information you had about our company. Kindly make sure to include the Doubletree Hotels Corporation to your list of many, many satisfied clients."

- Doubletree Hotels

"Thanks again for everything and for doing an outstanding job at our dealer conferences. I have to admit that our dealers at Jacuzzi Hot Tubs and Sundance Spas are some of the toughest to appease. Upon doing a quick review of our post-conference surveys the score for your presentation was the highest of the conference and there were multiple references in the open comments that stated you were the highlight."

- Jacuzzi and Sun Dance Spas

"Although he prefers to be known as a leadership development speaker rather than a motivational speaker, keynote speaker Mark Sanborn was nonetheless a source of significant motivation for more than 1,300 delegates on the morning of Monday, December 7. Challenging the audience to put their passion for the air show business to effective use, Sanborn received as strong a positive response as any ICAS keynote in the last dozen years. He set just the right tone for the 2009 ICAS Convention and sent everyone in attendance out onto the exhibit floor with purpose and enthusiasm."

- Air Shows Magazine

"Mark was funny and motivational. His remarks on leadership, teamwork, and self mastery were right on the mark. Mark’s tailoring made his entire talk a real homerun for our event."

- McDonald’s