Accelerated Growth Consulting

A recent conversation highlighted one of the more common mistakes leaders make, especially once they get past 15 or more employees–they stop hanging out with their people–which is both understandable … and disastrous. It’s understandable because leaders lead through their leaders/direct reports. Between meetings and working with and through their direct reports, there’s often very [...]

If you’re at all like me, chances are you have some favorite quotes that you return to over an over again to  pick you up and get your headed in the right direction. I remember, shortly after my board coup several years ago, the movie “Rocky Balboa” came out and in the middle of the [...]

I don’t know if you’ve read any of my posts on my new blog called Letters for My Daughters (where I’m writing a series of life lessons to pass on to them as they make their journey from home to life on their own), but I wrote one the other day on the title above [...]

As a leader, you want to believe your people are telling you the truth–but are they? Though some of us as entrepreneurial leaders have always been our own bosses, chances are you were at some point an employee. So, when you were an employee, did you always tell your boss the truth? I’m not talking [...]

Forget whether you’re a “trekkie” or not, the series (from the original onward) has been a great vehicle for observing and evaluating both positive and negative leadership–and this latest edition is no slouch on that account. I’ve never been a big trekkie fan (though I did think Jean luc Picard was a phenomenal leader) so [...]

When did “flip-flopping” become a sign of weakness? If you don’t regularly read Business Week, you ought to at least peruse the back page when you’re near a copy–if for no other reason than to read what Jack Welch has to say. This week’s edition (3/9/09) was one of those weeks that every leader should [...]

Regardless of which political party you’re in, or which presidential election you pick out of the past fifty years, the winner has almost always been the most likable of the two candidates (for example, Kennedy over Nixon, Carter over Ford, Reagan over Carter, Bush I over Dukakis, Clinton over Bush I, Bush II over Gore, [...]

I don’t know if you’re a tennis fan, but this past Sunday’s achievement by Roger Federer at the US Open ought to WOW you. It was his tenth STRAIGHT grand slam final (no one else has even come close to that). It was his 12th grand slam title in total (putting him at number two [...]

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to consistently perform at a higher level than others? Or why some people in your organization seem to continually produce more remarkable results than others? Or why some organizations seem to be at the forefront of their industry or market, year after year? If you have, then [...]

I was talking with a friend of mine recently who’s a senior executive of a company just north of the Fortune 100. As we were talking, I asked him, "So what do you think separates you from other people? What do you think makes you so good at what you do?" Without hesitating, he said, [...]