Michael Clarke
Australian Cricket Captain & Keynote Speaker
Former Australian cricket captain and one of the game’s greatest batsmen, Michael led Australia to the No. 1 Test ranking in just 18 months. A four-time Allan Border Medal winner, his leadership and performance on and off the field provide invaluable insights on high-performance culture, resilience, and leadership.
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Michael Clarke is a former Australian cricket captain, widely regarded as one of the game’s greatest batsmen. Appointed captain in 2011, Michael led Australia from No. 5 to No. 1 in the world within 18 months, earning four Allan Border Medals along the way. He played 115 Test matches, scoring 28 centuries, including his iconic unbeaten 329* against India, and became known for his ability to perform under pressure.
Since retiring in 2015, Michael has transitioned to a successful media career, with a regular commentary role with Channel Nine during the Australian summer. A passionate advocate for giving back to the community, he has raised millions for causes such as the McGrath Foundation, Cancer Council, and Life Education Australia.
As the founder of the Michael Clarke Cricket Academy, Michael continues to inspire the next generation of athletes, teaching them the leadership, resilience, and strategic thinking that helped him reach the pinnacle of cricket. His unique insights into high-performance, goal-setting, and teamwork are sought-after by businesses looking to implement winning strategies.
Topics
Developing a Winning and Enduring Culture
Whether it’s the playing surface or the company floor, a positive and winning culture is imperative for organisational success. Michael will clearly illustrate the stepping stones to developing and maintaining a culture that is success orientated, robust and evolutionary with the needs of the organisation. Michael will draw on creating a culture that saw the Australian cricket team go from number five in the world to no 1 in 14 months.
Leadership 101A
The Things That Business Can Learn From Sport – Focus, continual training, self-evaluation, getting the best out of people and their personality types, reading the future with crystal clarity, goal setting done properly… these are all common elements to achieving success. Michael will speak openly on how he learned all of these essential leadership traits during 16 years of elite sports performance and translate rules and tips that all leaders can invoke.
The Essentials to Understanding Human Performance Criteria
What makes certain people perform at higher levels than expectation? What are the secret ingredients to getting team members to put points on the company scoreboard rather than their personal record? What are the small things that team members do and don’t respond to from their leaders. Michael will present the key elements that he used in getting the best out of his players and the evaluation tools needed to understand that everyone is different and a leader needs to understand those differences to get peak performance.
Achieving Victory in the Face of Adversity
The number of times businesses appear to lose their way and hope disappears is all too regular. Test match cricket is one of the most highly strategic areas of elite sport. Making key decisions under pressure is critical to achieving victory yet the atmosphere makes clarity difficult. Michael will inspire and leave insights to making key decisions under pressure.
The Power of Different
Differentiation is one of the most important attributes to achieving your goals. Michael achieved phenomenal success as an international sportsman yet he certainly wasn’t born privileged with a gift of achieving such heights. There is no greater feeling than being successful in your own right, in your own way and embracing your uniqueness. Michael will inspire high performance among the audience by discussing his goal setting techniques and his planning of how to achieve them, your way.
