Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Entrepreneurial Businesses

Bradford D. Smart, Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People (New York: HarperCollins, 2005).

Lead by example and remember that actions speak louder than words.

Stuff happens—what counts is how you react to it.

One of the tag lines in Cote’s presentation was, “Stop talking before I stop listening.” “I don’t have a lot of time to waste,” Cote explained. “And if you want to come in, let’s talk, but get to the point.

Every new management-level hire creates multiple new interpersonal relationships among management team members, introducing change into an existing team. The need to attend to management team dynamics

the candidate should have at least an appreciation of entrepreneurial business as well as a broader understanding of what it takes to grow and develop a business.

most said that their biggest mistakes were firing too slowly, in hopes that the person would improve or that they could teach the person to be what was needed.

1. Businesses are collections of people coming together to produce something of value to other people. Most businesses do business through employees and with customers.

most businesses are really nothing more than groups of people learning how to work together to produce something of value to sell to other people.