Unbroken by blindness at 22 and paralysis at 34, Mark Pollock combines personal experience with doctoral research into elite performance to deliver keynotes that move people to action. A TED speaker and catalyst of $150M in paralysis cure projects, he inspires leaders and teams to move beyond challenges by building resilience, optimizing performance, and collaborating effectively.
It is tough to deal with uncertainty and change. Your people won’t do it by chance. With a high-impact catalyst, you can help them act with the courage to make it happen.
Mark Pollock is that catalyst, and that’s why leaders worldwide have asked him to inspire their teams to build resilience, optimize performance, and collaborate effectively.
As a TED speaker and accomplished keynote professional for over 20 years, Mark combines insights from personal experiences – racing to the South Pole and catalyzing projects worth over $150M to cure paralysis – with doctoral research into elite performance.
Acknowledged as a global expert in resilience, performance, and collaboration, Mark says, “The reason to bring in a speaker is to move the audience emotionally. It can never be about the speaker; rather, it must be about engaging the audience to help them achieve more than they thought possible – that is what I aim to do every time.”
Trusted by leaders in hundreds of companies including Diageo, Mercedes F1, Red Bull, Goldman Sachs, Unilever, Google, Microsoft, and Pfizer, Mark has inspired tens of thousands of people worldwide with his keynotes and masterclasses. In addition, he has spoken at TED, Davos, the World Economic Forum, Talks@Google, EG, and Wired.
Collaborating to Solve Complex Problems – The Trust Imperative
It is easy, even for world-class performers, to work in isolation as soloists. Yet it is when we find a way to galvanize a disparate group of people around a common goal that we have a chance of making major breakthroughs. The question is, how do we create the conditions for people to become collaborators?
When we’re operating in a stable environment, we need structure and hierarchy to scale existing solutions. But when challenges appear and the path forward is uncertain, we need something different. We need flatter collaborative approaches with people working together to achieve more.
The masterclass prompts participants to reflect on how to:
Choose to be a collaborator, not a soloist
Create the conditions for collaboration
Build trust with other people
Develop high-trust teams
Adversity & Challenges — Maintaining a Resilient Mindset Under Pressure
Sometimes we choose our challenges, sometimes our challenges choose us. What we decide to do about them is what counts. Deciding to be a competitor, a realist and a collaborator offers your people a chance of maintaining a resilient mindset under pressure. Mark Pollock’s keynote on adversity and challenges uses the power of active decision making to deal with challenges, regardless of where they come from, to help your people become more resilient.
Leadership & Motivation — Leading Through a Crisis and Developing Intrinsic Motivation to Move Forward
Uncertainty and change typify a crisis and it’s difficult to lead in such circumstances. By providing your people with insights into the resilience, attitude and decisions of others facing extreme circumstances you will help them to develop the intrinsic motivation to move forward. Mark Pollock’s keynote on leadership and motivation delivers deep insights for leaders to navigate through the crucible moments they face and lead others to achieve more.
Mindset & Performance – Challenging Expectations to Perform at a Higher Level
It is tough to deliver world class performance. Your people won’t do it by chance. With a high- impact catalyst you can help them act with the courage to make it happen. Mark Pollock’s keynote on mindset and performance is that catalyst – it challenges your people to examine expectations of themselves and others to perform at a higher level.
Collaboration & Teamwork — Creating and Motivating Dispersed Teams Across Disciplines and Geographies
Galvanizing a disparate group of people around a common goal is not easy. Yet when it happens, when we collaborate, that is when major breakthroughs happen. Mark Pollock’s keynote on collaboration and teamwork provides your people with insight into how high- performance teams get things done when others can’t.
Human Enhancement – Exploring the Intersection Where Humans and Technology Collide During the 4th Industrial Revolution.
Exploring the intersection where humans and technology collide is essential for businesses to maintain their competitive edge. By raising the consciousness of your people to the human dimension of the 4th industrial revolution, you will empower and encourage innovation at the edge. Mark Pollock’s keynote on human enhancement provides your people with insight into the transformative intersection of technology and humankind as he explores a cure for paralysis using robotics, neuro-modulation, and AI.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities – The Resilience Cycle
The positive mental attitude industry requires us to be optimists. Yet optimists rely on hope alone and leave themselves open to becoming disappointed and demoralized if the best-case scenario doesn’t play out.
In contrast, realists manage to confront the brutal facts while also keeping hope alive. The realists have resolved the tension between acceptance and hope by running both in parallel.
During this masterclass focused on how to adapt and build resilience, participants develop a deeper understanding of how to rapidly adapt to change and deal with uncertainty.
Turning Challenges into Opportunities masterclass prompts participants to reflect on how to:
Respond to expected and unexpected challenges
Confront the facts of their current reality
Anchor themselves with a sense of control
Chart a path through uncertainty
Exploring Performance Potential – The Competitor’s Mindset
In a world where challenges are inevitable, some people are held back while others are propelled forward. Either we sit on the side lines as spectators, or we step into the arena as competitors.
Competitors find a way to pursue success and risk failure. They define themselves by their willingness to try, displaying a mindset that values the endeavor as much as the outcome.
During this masterclass, participants reflect on the science of human performance and why recovery is a non-negotiable in reaching their potential.
The masterclass prompts participants to reflect on how to:
Embrace a competitor mindset to reach their potential
Use clarity, commitment, and connection for optimal performance
Create the conditions to enter the high-performance flow state
Treat recovery as a peak performance non-negotiable