Accelerated Growth Consulting

Every company has them–they’re the reason why we love Dilbert, laugh at The Office, yell at the auto attendant in “customer service,” who “can’t understand our response,”  and can’t wait to tell our friends and co-workers, “You won’t believe what happened to me today.” Or, in the case of people like me, blog about them. [...]

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 [...]

In a video post on the Fast Company site, Alex Bogusky, co-chair of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, argues that the classic business mantra of learning from failure is just plain wrong. In his world (and at his company), he doesn’t debrief failure or lost accounts or why a campaign isn’t working (which I find hard [...]

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 [...]

Are you starting to do your year-end evaluations—and wrestling with how you can do them well and/or differently this year? If you are, then you’ll want to continue reading this week’s Accelerated Growth Caffeine. I received an email a few days ago from one of my clients asking about whether or not I had a [...]

How many times have you thought about doing something that you know would be helpful or good or beneficial–and then not done it? I know, probably somewhere north of ten thousand times (at least that’s my running total). Well, this week, I’m on vacation at one of my favorite places on planet earth, Sea Pines [...]

It’s more important than you think! When I work with senior executives, and we’re one-on-one, they tend to be defensive around critique and accountability in general. But when I’m with them, and they need to be critiqued in front of their executive teams (Note: in a session designed for critique and evaluation. I normally provide [...]

I remember hearing Dan Kennedy (a marketing expert) say, years ago, “What’s interesting about entrepreneurs is that they won’t pay for the soft stuff (like dealing with their fears or lack of confidence), but they will pay for the hard stuff (like how to use some new technique on the internet to attract more customers), [...]

Regardless of whether you’re a basketball fan or not, you have to admire what Phil Jackson accomplished yesterday, as well as over the past 18 seasons he’s served as a head coach (similar to your role as the senior executive of a SMB). With yesterday’s NBA championship with the Los Angeles Lakers, Phil Jackson probably [...]