​Continuing with my article theme over the last few weeks of building a great leadership team, I’m excited to share a Gravitas Impact podcast on the topic from my colleague and mentor Mike Goldman in New Jersey.

Based on his newly released book, Breakthrough Leadership Team, he shares his perspective, after thirty years consulting and coaching, that the biggest difference between a great company and mediocre company is the leadership team. It’s the growth “linchpin”, as I call it.

In this 30 minute podcast, Mike shares more broadly how to build a great leadership team, and also dives deep into the one biggest challenge to that effort - ensuring the right leaders are on the team.

Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android

How can you strengthen your leadership team?
​
​To find out what you can improve in your leadership team to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.  Complete section 1, 2 and 4 to check your leadership team’s collaboration, talent and accountability processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth.

​I was looking for a reference guide of common KPIs to make it easier for the leadership team of one of the companies I work with to identify appropriate metrics to drive execution. 

I reached out to my network of colleagues in Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches. They suggested Key Performance Indicators: The 75+ Measures Every Manager Needs to Know, by Bernard Marr.

The problem was there was no audio version and no text-to-speech feature. Listening to books while driving or walking my dog is my only option.

So I found this “for Dummies” version by the same author. It did the trick.

The gist of it

In Key Performance Indicators for Dummies, Marr provides, not only a list of common KPIs across the essential areas of financial, customer, internal efficiency and people, but also a comprehensive guidebook to developing and implementing KPIs.

While the book, in places, goes into more complexity than is needed for many mid-size companies, he does a nice job of explaining how KPIs connect with and support business strategy and execution disciplines.

Marr, an expert in KPIs and big data, emphasizes how KPIs, effectively developed, can support a learning culture of fact-based decision-making where leaders test business assumptions and strategies through metrics.

He also shares common pitfalls to avoid, such as tying compensation directly to KPIs, which unwittingly creates an incentive for employees at all levels to distort results. 

The alternative, in my experience, when incentives are implemented to support an already developed performance culture, is to tie them to numbers that are regimented, centrally controlled and therefore not easily manipulated, such as financial results.

The irony of this book is that, while it’s designed as a go-to reference for picking KPIs, it recommends - and rightly so - to not just pick them from a list, but to do the harder thinking as a leadership team of what you’re aiming to achieve and what number you can track to tell you you’re making progress.

Length of book: 320 pages.

Bernard Marr is founder and CEO of the Advanced Performance Institute and author of 16 books on key performance indicators, metrics, big data, analytics and artificial intelligence.


How can you execute on KPIs more effectively in your company?

​To find out how to have more efficient execution to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist [link directly to checklist]. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 4 to check your execution processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

Happy holidays from my wife Janelle, our son, and I!

We wish you, your employees, and your families, a restful, joyous and safe holiday season.

And for 2025, we wish you all the success in growing a thriving team, company and life!

Are you ready to unlock the potential of your Human System and build a long-term A-Player team?

In this session, you'll discover Shannon Susko's powerful framework—Metronomics, a methodology we've drawn from extensively in our approach at Wellspring Growth Systems. This strategic growth operating system connects every critical aspect of your business—people, cash, strategy, and execution—empowering CEOs and leadership teams to reach their goals three times faster than companies that aren't using this balanced, integrated approach.

Shannon will guide you through a practical, step-by-step system tailored to meet your team where they are today and propel them toward future success. The Human System, built on insights from the world’s top business thought leaders, is operationalized in a way that any CEO and leadership team can use—no matter their size or stage of growth.

Metronomics is the culmination of over 20 years of development, and it's the key for any company aiming for sustainable growth.

Learning Outcomes

• Learn the Metronomics Framework: Discover how to align people, cash, strategy, and execution for accelerated business growth.
• Build High-Performing Teams: Learn about the Human System to develop long-term A-Player teams using proven methods.
• Implement a Scalable Growth System: Gain an understanding of the practical steps to customise and implement the Metronomics system for sustainable success.

​How can you have more A-players in your company?
​
To find out how to have stronger talent and leaders to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 2 to check your talent processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​Many CEOs struggle with mastering their own productivity as they encourage a culture of accountability in their organization. They feel constantly busy, overwhelmed and inundated.

In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches webinar, Hao Lam, author, coach and CEO of the Best in Class Education Center in Seattle, Washington, shares his own schedule to demonstrate the habits and tools he’s used to monitor and improve his time management skills in both his personal and professional life.

Lam also shares his personal story of escaping Vietnam as a refugee, and finding his passion for providing education worldwide, as outlined in his book From Bad to Worse to Best in Class.

Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android

How can you and your team become more productive?
​
​To find out how to improve your productivity to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 4 to check your execution practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​For those new to this classic, here's an overview of one of THE best books on building a great company. And, for those who’ve read it, consider this a brief reminder of the insights from this in depth research.

Released in 2001, Good to Great studied what made 10 “great” companies great, compared to comparable companies Jim called "good". Greatness was defined by a minimum 20 years of growth and sustained financial success that far outpaced the market or industry average.

The book debunked a number of myths and identified 8 key factors to greatness:

1. Good is the enemy of great - the comfort of good enough gets in the way of putting in the effort to build a great company.

2. Level 5 leadership - in addition to ambition and determination, a level 5 leader is humble enough to exert their drive for the benefit of what they are creating, not for their own ego.

3. First who, then what - get the right people on the bus - on your team - before setting your strategy.

4. Confront the brutal facts (yet never lose faith) - believe you can prevail AND be realistic about what's happening and what's needed to get there.

5. Your hedgehog concept - compete successfully by playing only in the intersection of your three circles: what your passionate about, what you can be the best at and what drives your profit engine.

6. Culture of discipline - look hard at what to NOT be doing, including anything that strays from your hedgehog concept.

7. Technology accelerators - use technology not as a strategy in itself, but to enable and strengthen your competitive advantage.

8. The Flywheel - apply these concepts rigorously through small, consistent, aligned actions that reinforce each other and build momentum over time.
​
We are forever grateful to Jim Collins for these fantastic research-based insights, which still hold to this day, and which the leadership teams we work with benefit from greatly.

Book: 320 pages. Audio book: 6 hours. GetAbstract summary: 5 pages or 10m audio.

Are you ready to grow a great top team, company and life?
​
​To find out what changes and improvements you could make to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​Burnout is now officially recognised as a medical condition by the World Health Organisation, making it imperative to address this critical issue. 

Organisational wellbeing and productivity are at stake, as burnout not only affects employee health but also undermines engagement and innovation.

Join Trudy MacDonald, named “Speaker of the Year” on multiple occasions by the world’s largest CEO network (TEC), for a 1 hour high-impact session to transform your team from burnout to brilliance and into the high-performers you need them to be.

Understand why role clarity, accountability, team alignment, autonomy and building trust are the secret sauce to refocus and reengage your team. An unmissable event to ensure you and your organisation flourish.

Learning Outcomes

• The current state of wellbeing in the workplace
• 4 main triggers which contribute to reduced wellbeing
• How to tackle the root causes of burnout
• Intergenerational considerations when leading people
• New and effective ways of working, and leading teams

How can you strengthen accountability in your entrepreneurial company?

​To find out how to improve delegation in your business to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete sections 1, 2 and 4 to check your delegation practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​As a CEO and owner of a mid-size company works to build and strengthen their organization, several barriers often get in the way.

In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches webinar, Sara Castiglioni from Buenos Aires, Ph.D in Leadership & Systemic Innovation, takes us through those barriers to change and innovation, and explains the things CEOs and owners can do to break through.

Note that all the barriers and solutions have to do with people and behaviour, starting with the CEO. This podcast is not for the faint of heart.

​Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android

What can you do to evolve your mid-size company?

To find out what you and your leadership team could do to innovate and change more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​Have you had good success and are now considering diversifying your business to protect it? You might want to think again. 

Profit from the Core, by Chris Zook with James Allen, quickly became an international best seller when it was published in 2001 just after the dot-com bust. Profit from the Core: A Return to Growth in Turbulent Times, is the latest version, released in 2010.

It provides guidance for managers to improve growth by focusing on their core business, rather than weakening their business by branching out into new unrelated areas. 

The book is based on more than ten years of Bain & Company research and analysis and is still relevant and useful today.

It argues that most companies diversify well before tapping into the full growth and profitability potential of their core business – that mix of target market, product offering, distribution channels, unique capabilities and other critical strategic assets that can establish a market leader position.

Investing in that core business offers the most growth and profit potential. Paradoxically, our core business is often already our most profitable business line.

When growth in the core is fully maximized, carefully adding “adjacencies” that reinforce it can further its growth. Otherwise, diversifying usually distracts from and weakens the core business, and the company’s growth and profitability.

While the research seems strong, expect a bit of a technical read.

Book: 192 pages. Ebook with Read-Aloud available on Google Play Books. Book summary on Soundview: 8 pages, 22 minutes audio.

How can you improve your profitability?
​
To find out how to improve your profitability to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profitability management practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​In my last 5 Minute Growth Tip, I compared the eight options for getting outside support to implement the many structures, systems and processes needed to grow profitably and enjoy the ride.

These options might seem overwhelming. And a CEO or business owner might want to throw up their hands and say “I’ll just send my senior leadership team members on some leadership training. That’ll do the trick.”

But, unfortunately, it won’t.

An October 2016 Harvard Business Review article titled “Why Leadership Training Fails - and What to Do About It” reviews decades worth of studies that show leadership training - on its own - does not change leadership behaviours or improve a company’s performance. It also describes the other critical pieces needed first for leadership training to stick and make a difference.

Here, I’ll summarize the key points from the article and share some experience of my own.

Although companies pour enormous amounts of money into employee training and development - $160 billion in the US in 2015 alone - the learning largely doesn’t improve performance. This is because leadership training participants soon revert to their old ways of doing things.

Why is that?

The more obvious reason is that training is a once and done event. There is no follow-up to reinforce the learning. We’ve all experienced this when we’ve taken training with the best of intentions, but then never revisit the material to implement what we learned.

The less obvious reason leadership training doesn’t stick is that, once the training is done, leaders go back to a workplace that still operates the way it used to. That workplace has processes, routines and ways of doing things that don’t encourage what the leaders have learned, and often even discourage it.

For example, a leader might learn how to select and clearly define specific priorities to improve the business and get better results within their department. But when the leader goes back to the office, their CEO may have a number of internal projects they want to see happen across the company or in certain departments, with little definition or specificity. New projects might also be added regularly, causing others to inadvertently fall by the wayside. Best case, the leader will have little incentive to select and clearly define priorities because their boss has yet to see the value of doing so. Worst case, the CEO may discourage choosing priorities and see the leader as uncommitted or lacking entrepreneurial grit. Neither scenario encourages the leader to implement what they learned in the training about prioritizing. As a result, performance doesn’t improve.

So, if leaders soon revert to their old ways of doing things after leadership training, why do CEOs continue to invest in leadership training?

There are two reasons.

The first is that many CEOs, and leaders generally, tend to view a company’s performance as being simply the sum of the actions and behaviours of everyone in the organization. The thinking goes “if everyone in the company learns and grows, they’ll each get better at what they do, and the company will perform better.”

The same view is common for executive and senior leadership team performance. Develop the individual leaders, and the executive team and company will do better.

But this just isn’t true.

A number of studies have shown that company performance results from not just individual skills and abilities, but, more so, from the systems in which people work.

Building on the HBR article, our experience has been that these systems fall into five areas:

1. The company’s philosophy and direction and how well they’re understood and supported.
2. The business processes, policies and practices to get work done (within and across functions).
3. The organizational structure, including clarity of roles, accountabilities and reporting relationships for all functions.
4. The communication processes that ensure people know what’s happening so they can make good decisions.
5. And lastly, the resources employed within these systems - the financial, physical and technological resources.

From this view, leaders’ individual skills and abilities make up less than one fifth of the key ingredients needed to improve a company’s performance. This aligns with Peter Drucker’s research, identifying that 80% of employees’ performance is due to the systems in which they operate. Only 20% is due to their individual knowledge, skills and abilities.

The second reason CEOs continue to invest in pure leadership training is that no one has ever had the courage to challenge them with the uncomfortable truth that the way they lead and manage their team and company - in terms of direction, structure, processes, communication and resources - is the larger reason their company hasn’t gotten to where they want it to be.

As the HBR article puts it “those are the things to fix before training can succeed longer-term.”

And so, how can CEOs and business owners get these systems working better?

I would share similar advice to that given in the HBR article, although slightly adjusted for growth-minded small to mid-size companies:

1. Work collaboratively with the senior leadership team to:
   1. adjust and clarify their roles, accountabilities and reporting  relationships in order to eliminate gaps, confusion and bottlenecks, and to improve collaboration and coordination
   2. clearly define the company’s philosophy, including core purpose and core values to inform decision-making and behaviours at all levels
   3. set clear direction, competitive strategy, metrics and targets for the company as well as priorities for improvementset clear metrics, targets and expectations with and for each senior leadership team member
   4. implement a consistent meeting and communication rhythm to execute effectively
   5. adjust systems to select, evaluate, develop and retain A-player talent, including the senior leadership team members themselves.
2. Provide just-in-time, joint senior leadership team micro-training to inform and support the team in making these changes.
3. Use ongoing CEO and senior leadership team coaching to guide and support the decision-making, collaboration and learning above

This approach will ensure the right systems are in place and working to support the leadership learning that takes place as a part of this process.

At this point in the article, a CEO or business owner might be considering simply attending leadership training with their senior leadership team members. That way, the CEO can learn the same best practices, implement them and create an environment that encourages the behaviours their leaders will have learned.

That’s certainly an option.

This takes CEOs back to the first problem mentioned with leadership training… there’s no follow up to ensure the best practices are implemented.

And that’s made more difficult by some of the features of most leadership training programs:

• They teach many best practices in a short amount of time, making it virtually impossible to implement everything the leaders have learned. By the time they’ve implemented the first best practice, they’ve forgotten about many of the others. Most leadership training usually doesn’t include a way to slow-drip the learning and ensure each concept and best practice is fully implemented before moving on to the next.
• The learning doesn’t address the most important and pressing issues in the business. Publicly offered leadership training is never tailored to individual business’ current realities. And leadership training that is customized for a private workshop is usually based on a CEO or senior leadership team’s wishlist of topics rather than on a thorough analysis of needs and root causes.
• Leadership training programs usually have a relatively narrow focus. Most leadership training programs don’t cover the broad set of challenges discussed in the approach above. One can find programs on emotional intelligence, communication or collaboration, just to name a few of the important topics. But few programs will cover all of these topics and the many more needed to successfully implement the right systems and behaviors. This results in the CEO having to piece together multiple leadership training programs that cover different pieces, without knowing whether they’ll work together, or what training should be taken first, second or third.

At the end of the day, leadership training has the CEO back to taking a Do-It-Yourself approach. And we’ve already discussed how a DIY mindset slows growth.

So, if leadership training doesn’t work, how can a CEO and their senior leadership team successfully learn and fully implement the systems and skills to grow profitably?

This takes us back to the 8 options we covered in my last 5 Minute Growth Tip. And what we find is that the most effective option to make this happen is a Business Growth & Executive Team Coach.

If Executive Team Coaching seems like it might be the right option for you, the next question to consider is: are you the right fit for an Executive Team Coach? We’ll cover that in my next 5 Minute Growth Tip.


How can you implement the systems to grow a thriving company?
​
To find out what systems to strengthen to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​In the previous 5 Minute Growth Tips video, I talked about how CEOs can speed up the process of implementing best practices in their leadership team and company by getting outside, help rather than using a Do-It-Yourself approach.

So what kind of services are available and how do they all compare?

When evaluating the options, we want to keep in mind the key underlying challenges we want help with to implement the structures, systems and processes needed to grow profitably, and enjoy the ride. These challenges include:

• building a leadership team full of A players leaders
• developing and commiting to a clear and effective competitive strategy
• getting efficient buy-in to leadership team decisions
• having our team execute effectively and accountably
• getting out of the weeds to work more on the business, and
• changing our mindsets to focus on what we ourselves can do to improve things.

​
Note that all these challenges involve not just technical changes (eg. how we set goals, run a more effective interview, or put together an effective meeting agenda), but also changes to how we and our leadership team members behave (eg. learning to say no to goals that are important but not top priority, developing the discipline to drill into a job applicant’s past, or practicing the restraint to let all team members speak first). So we’ll want to look for help with both technical and behavioural improvements when we consider the options.

Here, we’ll explore the eight most common types of outside support I’ve seen CEOs and business owners consider over my 17 years working with them:

• CEO forums
• Business consultants
• HR consultants
• Strategic planning facilitators and consultants
• Team building facilitators and trainers
• Leadership and executive coaches
• Business Coaches
• Business Growth & Executive Team Coaches

Below, I’ve described each type of service as if it were pure. But they rarely are. There are business consultants who also offer strategic planning facilitation, and HR consultants who also do executive coaching. By reviewing the summaries below you should have a feel for who offers what even if they offer more than one type of service.


CEO Peer Forums

CEO peer forums are peer groups of CEOs and owners from non-competing companies. They usually meet once a month for a half day to a day. This includes sharing wins and obstacles, hearing other members’ experiences, and sharing goals and commitments to apply what they discovered. In most peer forum meetings, there will also be a presentation from a guest speaker, or from the moderator, on a topic of interest to the group.

The Pros:
CEOs and owners develop relationships with peers who understand where they are coming from. Being a CEO or business owner can be a lonely job because no one inside the company understands what they’re going through. A CEO forum solves this problem. It can also be a great place for networking. Keep in mind that most CEO forum groups frown upon any kind of sales activities in the group, including asking for referrals and introductions to other business owners.

The Cons:
While CEOs will hear others’ experiences of how they handled certain situations, they’ll need to keep in mind that the tactics shared may or may not be proven best practices. While an approach may have worked for their CEO peer, it may not work in their own unique environment. Similarly, the tactics shared may have gotten the peer CEO through the situation, but may not have produced excellent results. Members will also want to keep in mind that their own description of the problem will be the basis of the solutions others share. If we don’t fully see our problem, or we’re biased in how we see it, the solutions other members share could be misguided. Without others seeing our situation first hand, there is no way for our CEO peers to be truly objective with the solutions they offer. As well, when a CEO peer forum member is implementing solutions they hear, they then have to convince their leadership team that the problem exists and that the solution they heard will work, because their team members were not part of the discussion. This can lead to hesitation, if not resistance, from their leadership team.


Business Consultants

Business consultants aim to provide analysis and insights to a CEO or other leader on what needs to change. Business consultants vary from “pair-of-hands consultants”, who are hired to carry out work the company directs them to do, through to “expert consultants”, who review information, meet with team members and provide recommendations for what to change or improve. In between these two types are “collaborative consultants.” They do the same work as expert consultants but work hand-in-hand with the client to gather information and develop recommendations, so the client builds some capability in-house.

The Pros:
Experienced and effective business consultants can provide insight on a focused problem that is technical in nature, whether it is about business processes, financial management, accounting, marketing activities, or sales processes, in short, within the various functional areas of a business. They can also provide validation for a high stakes decision by gathering more rigorous data and doing a more thorough analysis than the client has the ability or resources to do themselves.

The Cons:
Business consultants are not often experts at supporting the implementation of their recommendations. I’ve met many business owners who have hired consultants only to have the report still sitting on a shelf, collecting dust. In my experience, there are many more consultants who only make recommendations than those who will stand behind those recommendations to see them through. That said, some consultants will work as contractors to implement new processes or systems, manage and maintain them for a while and then train others in the company to take them over. However, this only works for trainable technical skills as opposed to behavioural skills, which take much more than training. Changes in behavior require the CEO and leadership team to realize that they are part of the problem and that they need to change how they do things. The challenges we’ve been discussing in this 5 Minute Growth Tips article series involve alot of behaviour change. So doing analysis and making a recommendation usually does not work. Instead, we need to get leaders to think about their part in the situation and consider what they personally need to do differently, so that they will take ownership of the solution and change their behavior. While some consultants have this capability, it’s generally not what consultants do.


HR Consultants

Given that working on our leadership team processes and systems involves changing behaviours, we might consider those we think of as experts on people: HR consultants. They typically take a similar approach to broader business consultants, but focus on the human resource management function. Again, those who use an expert consulting approach will review documents, hold interviews and provide recommendations. Those who use a collaborative approach will do the same, but with the client rather than for them. However, HR Consultants’ will typically limit themselves to HR processes and systems: job design, hiring, orientation, onboarding, training, performance planning and review, compensation, disciplining, dismissal and labor law. Some HR consultants will provide individual or organizational assessment services based on surveys or interviews. And some also provide basic strategic planning services (see below).

The Pros:
When a CEO or owner is absolutely certain that the main area for improvement in the leadership team is a technical one related to how individuals are found, managed, paid and removed, an HR consultant may be appropriate. However, keep in mind that the solutions again are technical ones, not behavioural. And the growth challenges we have been discussing in this 5 Minute Growth Tip article series are primarily behavioural.

The Cons:
HR consultants don’t typically support leadership team members to change and improve their behaviours as leaders or team members. Their organizational assessments can be helpful. However, HR consultants will not necessarily pick up on subtle leadership and interpersonal behaviours that could be as or more important factors. Their strategic planning facilitation services often cover the basics of mission, vision and values, with little or no attention paid to competitive market positioning or execution.


Strategic Planning Consultants and Facilitators

While business and HR consultants provide recommendations, strategic planning consultants and facilitators moderate leadership team discussions to come up with their own solutions, decisions and plans. The “consultant” in “strategic planning consultant” usually means they recommend the process for strategic planning the leadership team will use to make decisions. The strategic planning consultant doesn’t usually recommend what the leadership team should do in their business. Instead they facilitate those discussions and decision-making.

The Pros:
Experienced, trained, strategic planning facilitators can be great at moderating and guiding conversations to arrive at clear, well thought out decisions with a level of buy-in and commitment from the team. Having an outside, experienced facilitator also frees up the CEO to participate in the conversation rather than trying to lead the meeting effectively while also contributing.

The Cons:
Many strategic planning facilitators are well versed in the basic planning processes of SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), Core Values, Mission, Vision and priorities. However, I have met very few who know how to facilitate competitive strategy decisions and execution planning and monitoring, let alone other key issues that often arise, like role clarity, talent assessments, profitability, cash flow and mindset, just to name a few of the dozens of practices that help with growing a mid-sized company. 


Team Building Facilitators and Trainers

Team building facilitators generally come in three flavors. There are those who do personality assessment sessions, those who lead team building learning activities, and other event and activity businesses who have branched out into this space. Personality assessment sessions have leadership team members learn about each others’ personality types and how to work better together. Team building learning activities include fun, social events intended to bring awareness to basic collaboration skills like listening, communicating, planning, problem solving, etc. Some examples of these activities include team obstacle courses, activities to build objects with unusual materials, or trust falls. Other event and activity businesses, like wall climbing studios, escape rooms and axe throwing centres, also offer their activities for companies looking to do team building.

The Pros:
Personality assessments are a worthwhile team building activity. By understanding our own and each other’s strengths and weaknesses, preferences and frustrations, leadership team members learn to be open and vulnerable. This often results in a higher level of trust within the team and team members communicating more effectively with others. Team building learning activities and other event and activity companies can be fun for team members, create structured time together in a more relaxed environment, and can remind them of basic team skills.

The Cons:
The trust and communication skills developed in a personality assessment session can fizzle rather quickly afterwards. This is because these sessions rarely get into the other critical aspects of leadership team collaboration, like having productive conversations and conflict, making clear decisions that all team members are committed to, and holding each other accountable for execution and results. So while personality assessments are good as far as they go, they don’t go far enough. Similarly, the skills identified in team building activities rarely lead to meaningful application within real life decision-making and execution. These activities usually take place in a separate, fun environment or involve role plays. Without application and practice in the challenging realities of the business, the skills won’t stick.


Leadership and Executive Coaches

When CEOs and owners of mid-size businesses think of a coach, they generally think of an executive or leadership coach. This is someone they would talk to one-on-one on a regular basis who would support them in becoming a stronger leader, in curbing a habit they want to change or achieving an important goal. A leadership or executive coach doesn’t analyse the CEO’s business or recommend solutions. Instead, they guide the CEO in working through the problem themselves. In this way, the CEO reflects on their own part in the challenges they face, takes ownership for it, and works on changing those behaviours to achieve a better outcome. Leadership and executive coaches also hold the CEO or business owner accountable for change, progress and results, given CEOs often have no one to play that role for them.

The Pros:
Executive and leadership coaches can be a great support to help a leader really move the needle on how they show up, work through problems, interact with others and manage themselves. Leadership and executive coaches also help with execution by supporting the CEO or owner on an ongoing basis. In this way, they guide the CEO through the intricacies and hiccups of making new behaviours stick in the face of day-to-day real-life challenges.

Cons:
A key limitation of one-on-one executive and leadership coaching is that the CEOs of mid-size companies may often learn things that they want their leadership team members to learn as well. Yet they’ll often find it difficult to teach those concepts to their people themselves. They may then find they have to get the same one-on-one coaching for one or more of their team members. Another limitation is executive and leadership team coaching addresses the individual’s behaviour, but doesn’t fully address the relationships and interactions between the individual and someone else, because the other person’s perspectives and behaviours are not factored in. In a similar way, it doesn’t address the relationships and interactions across a leadership team. Beyond that, leadership and executive coaching tends to focus more on behaviours and less so on the technical business aspects a CEO and leadership team need to also pay attention to, areas like: strategy, execution, systems, customer, profitability and cash flow.


Business Coaches

Like leadership and executive coaches, business coaches work one-on-one with owners, serve more as problem-solving guides rather than do-it-for-you analysts, and hold them accountable for progress. In contrast to leadership and executive coaches, business coaches tend to focus more on business aspects and less so on leadership behaviours. They often work with owners of small to mid-size companies to guide them through key business decisions.

The Pros:
A seasoned, trained, certified business coach can be a great resource for owners of small businesses: those who don’t yet have a management team and don’t yet need one. In these businesses, the owner is the key decision maker for every function in the business - from marketing, sales and production, to HR, accounting and IT. Given the multiple areas a business owner needs to pay attention to, an experienced business coach can help them find their way and keep on top of everything.

The Cons:
Like leadership and executive coaches, business coaches work one-on-one with the business owner. Once a business grows to the point of having or needing a management team (usually around 10 to 20 employees), the business owner will have one or more managers leading certain functions, whether that’s marketing and sales, production, or finance and administration. At this point, the business owner may want these other managers to receive professional guidance from their business coach as well. However, this can lead to problems where decisions made by the owner become disjointed from the decisions made by the other manager(s). This will cause different parts of the business to go in different directions and cause unnecessary conflict, inefficiencies, problems for employees and customers, and subpar performance overall.


Business Growth & Executive Team Coaches

In the last 10 to 15 years, a new type of coaching service has evolved to meet the needs of mid-sized company CEOs and their whole senior leadership teams. Some of these coaches call their service Leadership Team Coaching. Others call it Business Growth Advisory Services, Business and Leadership Growth Coaching or CEO and Executive Team Coaching. Regardless of the label, this hybrid service includes a combination of regular, ongoing, one-on-one CEO coaching and facilitated leadership team planning and coaching sessions, whether quarterly or monthly. This newer breed of coaching also uses some of the same group facilitation methods as strategic planning facilitators and team building trainers, but with a more holistic set of both leadership and business best practices, so they can support and guide the large majority of decisions and actions a CEO and leadership team need to take on their growth journey.

The Pros:
With an experienced, trained and certified Business Growth & Executive Team Coach, CEOs and owners of mid-sized companies get many of the benefits of the other options above, with few of the disadvantages. A seasoned Executive Team Coach provides a caring, empathetic, understanding ear because they’ve seen the CEO’s situation many times before. They share and teach proven best practices that have been shown to get results. The whole leadership team learns these best practices and buys into them more easily. Executive Team Coaches act as an outside, objective observer who can point things out that the CEO and team may not be aware of. They support both the technical and business improvements and the behavioural and leadership change needed for the leadership team to truly move forward. Working with the leadership team as a whole enables improved interactions and relationships across the team. They guide the leadership team through critical real-life, real-time decisions and planning, in ways that ensure the whole team is clear, focused and aligned. They enable the CEO to fully participate rather than worrying about running the meetings. They support high level strategic thinking decisions right down to detailed execution planning, accountability and course correction, so that real progress is made. 

The Cons:
Business Growth & Executive Team Coaches are more expensive than leadership, executive or business coaches as well as strategic planning and team building facilitators. This is because of the much greater value they bring in terms of decision-making quality, execution follow-through and business results. It’s also because of the years of business, coaching and facilitation experience needed to be effective guiding a CEO and their whole leadership team. That said, the whole leadership team benefits from the service, not just the CEO. So the investment per person can still be lower than some of the other options above. This kind of service is also not for those who are looking for a quick fix. Recall that growing a company involves both technical and behavioural improvements at all levels of the company, within every department, and across a number of different areas: leadership, talent, strategy, execution, cashflow, customer, systems. It takes ongoing focus, commitment and discipline to implement the many best practices needed to grow and profitably. And so business growth advisors and leadership team coaches provide the ongoing support for CEOs and their leadership teams to lay the foundation and build from there over time.


For CEOs and owners of mid-sized companies who’ve recognized a Do-It-Yourself approach is too slow and are looking for outside support and guidance, there are a number of options to choose from. However, in my experience, to see real improvement, progress and results within themselves, across their leadership team and down through their organization, Business Growth & Executive Team Coaches offer the best investment to grow profitably and enjoy the ride.

While an Executive Team Coach may be best for you and your company, will you be a good fit for them? In my next article, I’ll share what it takes to be successful with a Business Growth & Executive Team Coach.


How can you grow a thriving company?
​
To find out what to focus on to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

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Join our 1-hour online masterclass and learn to more accurately think about what the future holds from one the most trusted advisors to the Fortune 500.

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In my new article I would like to introduce you to a thought experiment that helps me to regain my ability to act and make a decision before making important decisions. 

We humans make 20,000 decisions every day. Most of them happen unconsciously. If we were to consciously weigh up every decision in terms of alternatives and consequences, our brains would be completely overloaded by this constant neuronal fire. 

With this huge number of decisions to make every day, we humans should be masters at making decisions – you would think. But the opposite is the case. 

If we look around in companies, we often find that hardly anyone is prepared to make an independent decision and take responsibility for it. Why is that?

The search for the perfect decision paralyzes

Since childhood, we have been warned by parents, teachers and other people around us not to make the wrong decision. This starts with choosing which friends we surround ourselves with, which education we pursue, which partners we choose, etc. 

We are conditioned to categorize decisions as "good" and "bad," "right" and "wrong." Too often, bad decisions are held up to us afterwards and presented to us as mistakes. It is not surprising that many people hesitate for a long time to make important decisions for fear that they might be the wrong ones. 

Why do decisions keep us awake at night? 

You've probably experienced it yourself a few times. What happens when you're struggling with an important decision? That's right: your mind starts racing, you struggle with the problem for days and nights, mentally playing through all the possible scenarios of the consequences of your decision. If you're like most people, it's not the rosy success scenarios that keep you awake at night. 

We worry about the negative consequences a wrong decision could have on our lives, our jobs, our status or our income. It is hardly surprising that many people become paralyzed by this negative spiral of thoughts and are no longer able to make any decisions.

What if there is no right decision?

In order to free ourselves from this burden of decision-making, we seek advice from friends, partners and colleagues, hire experts to support us or rationalize our decision-making process using countless methods in order to ultimately find the one right decision. 

I also struggle with decisions time and time again. What helped me to become able to act again and to break out of the cycle of thoughts is a thought experiment.

I ask myself: What if there is no right decision? 

It's not about making the perfect decision. What's more important is that we make a decision and implement it with all our determination. 

No decision is perfect. There will always be things that work and things that don't. That's okay. As long as you keep your eyes open, reflect and recognize these things, you can make agile adjustments and adjust your course on the fly. 
​
Conclusion

If we delay important decisions out of concern that they might be the wrong ones, we deny ourselves the opportunities and possibilities that this decision opens up for us. Because only when we make decisions do we set things in motion. Remember this the next time you make an important decision.

A small framework that I keep in mind before making decisions is: 
​
DECIDE : Make your decision boldly.
EXECUTE : Resolutely implement your decision.
ADJUST : Reflect, change what isn’t working and adjust your course along the way.

https://justgrow.eu/blog/​

If you're interested in reading more of Olaf articles please visit the website link above. (Please note that Olaf's site is in German but Google translate does an excellent job of instantly translating it to English.)

How can a great business, growth & executive team coach help you grow a thriving company?
​
​To find out what areas a qualified executive team coach can help you improve in to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.  ​

In this 5 Minute Growth Tips article series, I’ve shared overviews of the key best practices for growing a thriving company.

Yet, you may be asking, “how can I implement each of these best practices? how can I actually make them happen?”

For example, how do I define the right functions on my leadership team? How can we set clear priorities for change and improvement? Or, how do I get my leadership team members to change their mindset?

One way is to figure things out yourself. Another way is to use an outside expert, like a coach, consultant or advisor, to guide you step by step.

Many leaders try to figure things out themselves.

Some of these leaders don’t know there are experts who could help them in these areas. Others have had a bad experience with an outside expert and are nervous about trying it again. Other leaders are concerned about what the cost might be. 

But oftentimes, leaders think it’s their job as a CEO to have ALL the answers.

While figuring things out yourself is certainly an option, it’s the “long road option”. 

For sure, CEOs and owners can get there on their own, over time. They’re smart, passionate, energetic and fast learners.

But they’ll get there a lot faster with the support of an experienced external advisor.

As I mentioned in my previous article in this series, business owners and CEOs often have a high internal locus of control, meaning they believe they have control within themselves to make things happen and influence the world around them.

Sometimes, this belief shows up in a counter-productive way, where they influence the world by doing too much themselves, rather than getting help from others. As a result, they become the bottleneck, slowing down the company’s development, growth and profitability.

That said, let’s consider the option of figuring things out on their own.

They could read a book that includes dozens of these best practices in one convenient, integrated package, tailored specifically for mid-size companies...like Scaling Up or the 7 Attributes of Agile Growth monographs. And then they could read a book or two on each of those best practices, ideally with how-to guidance, and implement them with their team over time.

They could even attend a workshop where they get a chance to practice a bit with a handful of best practices.

With each of these approaches, it’s then up to the CEO alone to implement their learning in their team and company.

So, what are the pros and cons of this DIY approach?

Some pros are:

• The hard cost is minimal: only the cost of books or training.
• There can be a sense of autonomy and control.
• It can feel flexible and like they can go at their own pace.

Some cons include:

• Given this will be the CEO’s first time implementing a particular best practice, they’ll likely have to make more than one attempt to achieve their desired result. Every additional attempt will take time and will have an opportunity cost such as not seizing other opportunities or not implementing other best practices.
• Every additional attempt will be faced with skepticism, or even cynicism, by their team and other managers and employees, leading to resistance and yet more difficulty implementing that best practice and others in the future.
• Even if the CEO implements a best practice effectively, it may be out of sequence, meaning, it may require other best practices be implemented first in order for it to produce results. For example, implementing a best practice weekly leadership team meeting structure will have limited benefit without first defining clear metrics and targets for the team and specific priorities to accomplish over a certain time period.

In short, the devil is in the details. And there are alot of them.

And why is that?

One word: complexity. 

Some specific best practices are straightforward, like defining a goal. You can Google how to set a goal like you can Google how to change the oil in an engine. These narrow, individual problems have a straightforward, known solution that applies in most situations.

However, improving how leaders lead and how companies operate isn’t so straightforward. These changes involve a variety of interconnected organizational and leadership best practices. 

For example, strengthening accountability takes much more than setting a goal. And how the goal is set depends on other things like clearly defined individual accountabilities.

Improving how a company operates is more like tuning a whole modern day engine than just changing the oil. There are multiple parts involved and multiple interacting solutions needed. And only an expert mechanic can help diagnose the issues and determine the solutions.

There are a few other disadvantages to a DIY approach:

• The CEO and their leadership team may have blindspots about some of their own actions or behaviors that are contributing to a particular challenge. For example, they may not be aware that their leadership team conversations bounce around from topic to topic. So the team solves few problems and makes few decisions. Only an experienced, outside set of eyes would be able to point that out.
• Getting leadership team buyin to something new and different is more difficult for a CEO when they are not perceived as being an expert. Busy team members will be hesitant to commit to the new ways of doing things if they don’t have enough confidence that it is needed, that it’s the right solution or that it will be implemented effectively, work and be worth the effort.
• The CEO has no one holding them accountable for successfully implementing what they’ve learned. There likely isn’t any one encouraging or challenging them to follow-through on the effort. This can result in further delays and team member cynicism and resistance.

As the Gravitas Impact Voice of the CEO survey showed, the results of a DYI approach are low productivity, market share, revenue growth, profit and/or cash flow. The survey also found that CEOs often feel unsure, stressed, frustrated, scattered and reactive.

In contrast, the owners and CEOs that get the furthest fastest tend to take a different path. They don’t focus on how to make things happen, but on who they need to learn from and partner with to speed up the process.

In fact, the Voice of the CEO survey also showed that CEOs who engaged a qualified Gravitas Impact business growth and executive team coach saw significant improvements in employee engagement, overall productivity, revenue growth and profitability. They also felt more focused, clear, confident, balanced, calm and strategic.

Did Mahamad Ali, or Lennox Lewis, or any successful athlete, rise to the top of their sport by figuring everything out on their own? No. They each had a coach, an experienced advisor.

Or Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, or Eric Schmidt? Did they build and grow thriving, enduring companies by taking a DIY approach? No, they also used coaches and advisors.

In my next 5 Minute Growth Tip article, I’ll compare the pros and cons of some options for getting dedicated and tailored, external expert guidance, from strategic planning facilitators and business consultants to CEO forum groups, business coaches and executive team coaches.


What can you do to grow your mid-size company?

To find out what you and your leadership team could do to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

​

​Want to listen to the tip? Use the play button below.

​Many organizations spend 100% of their time talking to the 10-20% of customers who are unhappy. This type of fear-based reactive selling costs organizations millions.

What is this REACTIVE selling costing YOUR organization in revenue, time and effectiveness?

In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches webinar, Alex Goldfayn, author of The Wall Street Journal bestseller Selling Boldly, walks through his PROACTIVE selling approach to engaging clients and prospects in new, effective ways, from asking “Did You Know” questions to getting referrals.

​The Selling Boldly proactive approach will change how your sales team approaches business.

​While profit is obviously critical to any business, it is often simplistically depicted as the result of maximizing revenues and minimizing expenses.

However, companies often wrestle with the challenge of determining what expenses are critical to making their revenues, and which ones can be spared without affecting the top line.

One book on profitability demystifies profit creation. 

The Art of Profitability, by Adrian Slywotzky, demonstrates that profitability is achieved through the appropriate choice of business strategy, or business model, if you prefer.

Through the engaging parable of a strategy veteran coaching an aspiring strategy professional, Slywotzky covers 23 common and not-so-common “profit models.”

The Customer Solution Profit model, for example, is when a company invests significant up front time and energy to learn about a customer to develop tailored solutions just for them. These then generate ongoing profits for a long time after.

Multi-Component Profit is where the same product is sold to the same customers through different channels at different prices to maximize profitability (eg. Coke). 

The key message is that profit creation is an experimental art rather than a certain science. But it can be learned and practiced. The story also vividly illustrates effective coaching of strategic thinking, or of any other skill.

Book: 272 pages, full audio - 5 hours 36 minutes. Soundview Summary: 4 pages, 16 minute audio.


How can you improve your profitability?
​
To find out how to improve your profitability to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profitability management practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

We’re excited to let you know that registrations are now open for the Good to Great Immersion Workshop in Chicago on 8 October 2024.
 
Due to its huge success last year, Jim Collins will be back in Chicago to present a full day workshop for CEOs and team who are highly motivated to implement and understand the application of the Good to Great concepts and Jim’s full body of work on what makes great companies tick.
 
The agenda and format will be very similar, however, there is a small but significant change to the program. Jim has allocated an additional hour to Q & A so all delegates will have a chance to ask questions.

Interactive learning day with Jim in Chicago:

• Learn, understand and implement his Good to Great concepts
• Introduction to The Map, the comprehensive framework for the practical implementation of Jim’s work
• Deep dive into Turning the Flywheel and other key concepts like Built to Last, Great by Choice, Beyond Entrepreneurship and more and how they apply to your company.
• Network with other students of Jim’s work from around the globe.

​“I would highly recommend the course for every CEO and especially those that are scaling up their businesses, it is essential for them to attend.” LARRY FISHER, President Lark Group (Canada)

Special discounts for Wellspring Clients
Standard Table:  $13,950 / Wellspring Rate:  $12,950
Single Ticket: $1,495 / Wellspring Rate: $1,395
Prices quoted in USD

​Want to listen to the tip? Use the play button below.

As Dr. Brené Brown wisely notes, "We desperately need more leaders who are committed to courageous, wholehearted leadership."

Leaders who shy away from tough conversations and uncomfortable feelings often leave their teams feeling unsafe, unseen, and disrespected. This is your opportunity to change that dynamic.

Join us for a transformative 90-minute virtual masterclass:

Build Brave Leaders and Courageous Cultures

​Led by Certified Dare to Lead™ Facilitator Kylie Lewis, this session will equip you with the tools and insights to become a braver, more effective leader. Based on Dr. Brené Brown's groundbreaking research, you'll discover how to lead with vulnerability, live your values, build trust, and rise after setbacks.

In this masterclass, you’ll learn:

•  The three pillars of daring leadership and the barriers holding you back
•  Leading with vulnerability; the myths, the truths, and the discomfort
•  Trust-building behaviours including self-trust

​Simon Sinek has popularized the scientifically proven idea that a company’s purpose, and how much the leaders promote, act and live by that purpose, is one of many key ingredients for building a great culture and workplace. 

​Yet many midsize company owners and CEOs find it difficult to bring their company’s purpose to life and help employees connect to that purpose.

In this Gravitas Impact Premium Coaches webinar, Petr Ludwig, author of The End of Procrastination and founder of Procrastination.com and the GrowJob Institute, based in New York, Prague and Dubai, shares how CEOs need to be leaders of the purpose movement in their own lives to inspire others to find their purpose at work.

Subscribe to Gravitas Impact podcast: Android

How can you improve your company’s return on investment?
​
​To find out how to increase your return to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profit processes. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.

In my experience, one of the most overlooked disciplines in business is pricing. This is also reflected in the small number of books on the topic, compared to those on leadership, marketing, strategy, etc.

How often do you and your leadership team ask: Could our prices be increased? Are we discounting too much? How can we protect our pricing as competitors enter? How can we price to capture other segments of the market?

This topic is all the more relevant in the current environment of high inflation. It’s critical right now for many companies to figure out how much they can pass on supplier price increases to their customers without losing them or drastically reducing volumes.

These questions, and others, are covered in depth in Pricing With Confidence by Reed Holden and Mark Burton.

As pricing consultants to large firms, they are well versed in the internal organizational dynamics that make pricing challenging.

A key theme in their book is “build your selling backbone”. This requires thoroughly understanding the value of your product or service relative to alternatives in the market. That means analysing the added (or lesser) financial value of your offering based on the results it delivers or enables for your customers.

The authors also share insights on how to shift pricing at different stages of a product’s life.

Although clunky to read, and technical at times, this book is well worth the time investment.

Book: 202 pages, full audio - 7 hours 23 minutes.


How can you improve your pricing and profitability?
​
​To find out how to improve your profitability to grow more easily, quickly and profitability, AND enjoy the ride, try our complimentary Agile Growth Checklist. This self-service questionnaire takes 5 to 10 minutes to complete. You'll receive the checklist with your responses immediately. Within 24 hours, you'll receive a compiled report highlighting areas to improve. Complete section 5 to check your profitability management practices. Or complete all 7 sections to find out how your company is doing in each of the 7 areas needed to produce more rapid, profitable and sustainable growth. This report is complementary and involves no obligation.