It takes two types of leaders at the helm of a 10-250 person entrepreneurial organization to have the "Rocket Fuel" it needs to hit the next level: the Visionary and the Integrator.

The Visionary entrepreneur’s passion, drive and creativity are the key elements that help launch a business and fuel a company’s growth. But when a company is growing, the Visionary entrepreneur starts to feel swamped with the overwhelming workload, and their momentum begins to stall and sputter. Every great Visionary hits this threshold.

In my 30-plus years as an entrepreneur, I’ve faced some pretty tough situations in business.  We all do.

The hardest thing I’ve ever done is to counsel someone facing what seemed like an impossible crisis. Like the time one of my clients lost millions of dollars in one year and had several none-too-happy bankers considering calling their loans.  Or the client who realized that a long-time partnership was not going to work out and they were faced with a messy business divorce.  Or the client who was betrayed by a trusted employee who departed with a significant customer, instantly putting the future of the business and his family’s financial security in jeopardy.

The ability to hire and retain good people is the biggest challenge facing most companies today.  I often hear comments like the millennials don’t care, nobody has any loyalty anymore, the work ethic today is not what it used to be, etc. What that tells me is we have to be better at hiring the “Right People”.

Words like “Core Values” and “Culture” get so much press today that you can get numb to them. However, they are a key to solving the “People Problem” and enhancing your overall business.

 "I wish my employees would take more responsibility?" How many times have you heard yourself say that? As owners of growing businesses we find ourselves working longer hours, making more decisions and feeling like we’re losing control of the business we’ve worked so hard to create.

Lesson #8: leadership lessons from the cockpit

Once upon a time in aviation, flight crews faced a culture of hierarchical command where it was considered disrespectful, if not insubordination, to question the captain’s authority. Doing so risked possible retribution.