Our association chapter has had Paul speak at several meetings: from our annual planning sessions, our awards banquets, and with us as a team. He brings humor, stories, and rich history to each event we invite him to – all while giving attendees and participants positive takeaways that help us in our personal and professionals lives. We can’t wait to have Paul back at our next event!
651.666.8670
Meet Paul
Executive Advisor
Keynote Speaker
Paul is a proven executive and leadership coach with 30 years of experience leading teams and helping entrepreneurs build winning organizations.
Key Topics for Presentations
- The High Price of Unprepared Leaders
- Hiring and Retaining the Ideal Team Player in Your Organization
- Leveraging Data; The Magic Sauce for Every Team
- Unleashing a ‘People Powered’ Revolution in Your Organization
- Creating Your Game Changing Customer Experience
- Mastering the Meeting: Strategies for Leadership Success
Paul has over 30 years of sales and marketing leadership managing local, corporate, and global teams. He has also been an entrepreneur; owning, leading, and successfully exiting several businesses. Paul enjoys working with entrepreneurs and leadership teams as a teacher, facilitator, and coach, helping them get more out of their business and work life, “Putting the fun back into dysfunctional.”
Serving as an Officer in the U.S. Army and as a Company Commander during Operation Desert Storm, he learned the value of great leadership, teamwork, and the critical importance of execution. Without those elements all the best plans in the world become just words on a page.
Paul has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business & Speech Communication from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Business Administration in Entrepreneurial Management from the University of Dallas.
Latest Episode from Your 10-Minute Executive Coach
Keynote Presentations
The following is a sample of Paul’s previously held keynote presentations.
The audience will be presented with practical solutions to the compelling issues facing businesses today. Employee engagement is down, stress is up, wage inflation and the high cost of turnover are impacting the bottom line.
Managers are vital in dealing with these issue and too many are not prepared. The presentation will lay out a path to elevate current managers with leadership skills that can impact their organizations and reverse these issues quickly and for the long term.
Actionable Takeaways:
- Understand the urgent need for managers to evolve into leaders.
- 5 skills mangers can develop to build their leadership impact.
- Clear understanding how leaders influence their teams.
- 7 Practical tools managers can leverage immediately to elevate their teams.
The audience will be presented with a powerful framework along with easy-to-use tools for identifying, hiring, developing, and retaining the ideal team players in any type of organization. We will discuss the three critical traits that a person must have to be an ideal team player and the three critical activities managers need to implement to improve employee engagement, productivity, and retention. Each attender will leave with information and tools that can be immediately leveraged within their organization.
Actionable Takeaways:
- Identify the 3 traits make up an ideal team player.
- How individuals can help themselves and others become an ideal team player.
- How managers reverse the tide of employee disengagement in today’s workplace.
- Practical & Relevant tools that can be immediately implemented to improve employee engagement and retention throughout an organization.
One of the most important tools in managing a business is accurate & timely data. Working with leadership teams, we teach the importance of data and leveraging scorecards. These tools give leadership teams a current pulse on the business, identify issues before they become big problems and help leaders in predicting future activity. Accurate & timely data will take the subjectivity out of decision making so the team can focus solving the issue with facts and not be distracted by personalities or politics.
Actionable Takeaways:
- Why good data and a scorecard are critical tools.
- The different stages of data management.
- What makes a great scorecard.
- How to leverage scorecards at every level of your organization.
Why a “people powered” strategy? Too often strategic planning puts people at the end of the discussion or as an afterthought to the many other issues business leaders face. With the current environment of wage inflation & declining employee engagement, business leaders must be intentional about their “people” strategy. The audience will be presented with a powerful framework for developing a people driven strategy, starting with their leadership team. They will be given practical tools that can be quickly implemented and help create a competitive advantage in any industry.
Actionable Takeaways:
- The 5 critical steps to create a “people powered” revolution.
- How to build a cohesive & functional leadership team.
- The 6 Steps to create clarity throughout your organization.
- Defining what’s most important right now!
Every business operates in a competitive environment. To succeed we need to be intentional about how we retain and grow our current clients and continue to bring in new clients on a regular basis. We also must make sure we are gaining and retaining the right clients for our business. A great client experience reflects your organizations culture and requires activation at all levels of your organization.
Actionable Takeaways:
- Identify your ideal customer.
- Steps to design and communicate your customer journey.
- Create an effective and efficient communication strategy.
- How to empower your team to serve your customers.
In today’s fast-paced, ever-changing business landscape, one critical aspect often overlooked or sidelined is the functional health of the individuals leading and driving an organization’s mission. This presentation will clearly explain how functionally healthy teams can outperform their peers. Attendees participate in several exercises and will be provided with practical tools they can implement immediately to improve the functional health of their teams. We will lay out the four disciplines of a healthy organization including tools to make your meetings more efficient and effective.
Actionable Takeaways:
- How functionally healthy teams outperform their
peers. - The critical role leaders play in the health of their
organizations. - The 4 disciplines of functionally healthy organizations.
- The 4-meeting model and right meeting structure to create efficient and effective meetings.
Consulting Services
Paul is committed to helping your organization thrive. Below is a list of key service offerings available.
During this fast-paced 2-days your leadership team will accomplish several key items:
- Build a cohesive leadership team.
- Document your strategic playbook.
- Gain a competitive advantage.
- Create best in class hiring, retention, & engagement.
Critical Outcomes
- Build the right leadership team structure.
- Assess team’s current behavior cohesion.
- Document plan to improve cohesion.
- Discover & maximize individual and team role alignment.
- Implement organization’s strategic playbook.
- Plan the optimal meeting structure and pulse.
- Learn what traits identify the ideal team player.
- Identify tools to improve employee engagement.
- Minimize hiring mistakes & money drains.
- Improve employee engagement and retention.
- Grow your business & increase profitability.
Two Day Overview
- Pre-work
- 5-Dysfunctions Assessment – 15 minutes
- 6-Working Genius Assessment – 15 Minutes
- Facilitator attends 1-2 staff meetings.
- Coaching for leader to set objectives.
- Customized plan to meet leadership team’s unique goals & challenges.
- Interactive learning
- Structure development.
- Right people in the right seats
- Team cohesion
- 5-Dysfunctions / 6 Working Genius
- Strategic playbook creation.
- 6 Key questions.
- Best meeting structure and pulse.
- Structure development.
- Create a plan with individual and team commitments.
- Follow-up coaching with leader.
During this fast-paced day your leadership team will accomplish several key items:
- Get the right people in the right seats.
- Build a cohesive leadership team.
- Hire, develop & retain the ideal team player.
- Discover and align team & individual roles.
Critical Outcomes
- Build the right leadership team structure.
- Assess team’s current behavior cohesion.
- Document plan to improve cohesion.
- Discover & maximize individual and team role alignment.
- Learn what traits identify the ideal team player.
- Identify tools to improve employee engagement.
- Minimize hiring mistakes & money drains.
- Improve employee engagement and retention.
- Grow your business & increase profitability.
Full Day Overview
- Pre-work
- 5-Dysfunctions Assessment – 15 minutes
- 6-Working Genius Assessment – 15 minutes
- Facilitator observes 1-2 staff meetings.
- Coaching for leader to set objectives.
- Customized plan to meet leadership team’s unique goals & challenges.
- Interactive learning
- Structure development.
- Right people in the right seats
- Team Cohesion
- 5-Dysfunctions
- 6 Type of Working Genius
- Ideal Team Player
- Create a plan with individual and team commitments.
- Follow-up coaching with leader.
- Structure development.
During this fast-paced half day your leadership team will accomplish several key items:
- Create clarity for the organization.
- Develop an action plan for the next 12 – 18 months.
- Communicate clarity to the team.
- Implement processes to reinforce clarity.
Critical Outcomes
- Discover organizations culture and purpose.
- Build the right leadership team structure.
- Determine organizations strategic anchors.
- Identify key priorities and “What’s most important right now.”
- Become better
- Implement processes to reinforce clarity.
Half Day Overview
- Pre-work
- Preview 6 key questions to be asked and answered – 30 minutes.
- Facilitator observes staff meetings.
- Coaching for leader to set objectives.
- Interactive learning
- Creating clarity.
- Ask & answer 6 key questions.
- Document clarity.
- Organization playbook
- Build a communication plan.
- Implement processes to reinforce clarity.
- Creating clarity.
- Create a plan with individual and team commitments.
- Follow-up coaching with leader.
During this fast-paced half day your leadership team will accomplish several key items:
- Get the right people in the right seats.
- Build a cohesive leadership team.
- Discover and align team & individual roles.
Critical Outcomes
- Build the right leadership team structure.
- Assess team’s current behavior cohesion.
- Document plan to improve cohesion.
- Discover & maximize individual and team role alignment.
- Grow your business & increase profitability.
Half Day Overview
- Pre-work
- 5-Dysfunctions Assessment – 15 minutes
- 6-Working Genius Assessment – 15 minutes
- Facilitator observes staff meetings.
- Coaching for leader to set objectives.
- Customized plan to meet leadership team’s unique goals & challenges.
- Interactive learning
- Structure development.
- Right people in the right seats
- Team Cohesion
- 5-Dysfunctions
- 6 Type of Working Genius
- Structure development.
- Create a plan with individual and team commitments.
- Follow-up coaching with leader.
During this 6-month engagement your organization will accomplish several key items:
- Build a cohesive leadership team.
- Document your strategic playbook.
- Implement effective meeting pulse & structure
- Full alignment throughout organization.
- Create best in class hiring, retention, & engagement.
Critical Outcomes
- Build the right leadership team structure.
- Enhance cohesion on leadership team.
- Maximize individual and team role alignment.
- Implement organization’s strategic playbook.
- Generate clarity throughout organization
- Employ the optimal meeting structure and pulse.
- Improve employee engagement & retention.
- Minimize hiring mistakes & money drains.
- Implement optimal process and procedures.
- Create healthy life / work balance for leaders
- Grow your business & increase profitability.
6-Month Overview
- Pre-work
- 5-Dysfunctions Assessment – 15 minutes
- 6-Working Genius Assessment – 15 Minutes
- Facilitator attends 1-2 staff meetings.
- Coaching for leader to set objectives.
- 4 – Full day leadership meetings
- Leadership team cohesiveness.
- Structure & strategy development
- 2 quarterly off-sites.
- 26 – Weekly leadership team meeting.
- Monthly one-on-one coaching with leader.
- One-on-one coaching with other leadership team members.
- Implement meeting pulse and playbook with next level leaders.
During this fast-paced day your leadership team will accomplish several key items:
- Review and reassess previous quarter.
- Leadership team development
- Solve strategic issues.
- Set team and individual goals for next quarter.
Critical Outcomes
- Review previous quarter performance.
- Assess team’s current tools.
- Update organization’s clarity.
- Solve important organizations issues.
- Prioritize issues and actions moving forward.
- Set Team and individual goals.
- Reenergize and refocus team moving forward.
- Grow your business & increase profitability.
Full Day Overview
- Pre-work
- Coaching for leader to set objectives.
- Update organization issues.
- Team development / training.
- Review previous quarter.
- Rock performance.
- Organization scorecard.
- Market developments.
- Update organization clarity.
- Team development & training.
- Strategic Issue resolution.
- Set next quarter goals.
- Team & individual rocks.
- Organization goals.
I had the pleasure of hearing Paul speak at the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s Small Business Success Summit. His content was accessible and relatable to all attendees and his presentation was easy to follow. He provided real world examples that could be extrapolated to a person’s real pain points. He came across as confident, yet understood that everyone in the room might find themselves at a different pain point in their individual business and thus his presentation welcomed all participants into the solution instead of leaving them behind. Paul put the focus on the goal of helping each attendee in the room to find at least one actionable thing that could help their business improve – this was very much appreciated.
I looked at starting Traction for our office and doing it myself, after really studying the EOS process I decided this was something I didn’t want to do on my own.
It was brought to my attention that Paul Burke had a company Business Acceleration that implemented the EOS system. I then asked him if he would help us get started with Traction an EOS Entrepreneurial Operating System.
After having Paul help us with EOS our company Moral, Meetings and Goals have greatly improved, we solve issues quickly and work together. We now are a team. We are still working on things but everyone agrees that we are better as a company because of EOS. We could not have done it without Paul’s help.
We are grateful for where we are and our growth and we have Business Acceleration to Thank for that. As a business owner I would highly recommend Paul and his company to help you create the company you always dreamed of owning.
In the fall of 2015, the family leadership group of Warners’ Stellian Appliance Co. decided to adopt an EOS Management System and implement the EOS Management Model effective Jan 1st 2016.
We knew choosing the right Implementer was a critically important decision. Our group can be somewhat intimidating and with over 100 years of combined experience in the business – the independent mind sets of the various family members would not be easily changed.
Paul Burke really guided our discussion and the entire process with true professionalism. His high energy and positive approach encouraged the group to honestly access our abilities and make the difficult decision of who should lead and in what capacity. Paul demonstrated the ability to quickly understand our business and family dynamics.
I would highly recommend Paul and Business Acceleration for any management or governance consul for your business.
Paul Burke has been leading our strategic planning and visioning process for the past couple of years. Through his facilitation and education our board and the association are continuing to move the dial within our industry. Paul brings a level of professionalism to his leadership presentation style that keeps you engaged and trusting of the process. Paul has also presented multiple different topics to groups within the Association. The feedback is always positive and attendees look forward to his next program. I recommend Paul as a facilitator, educator, and leader.
Leadership Team Development
Team Health
Gain a competitive advantage by improving your leadership team’s health through trust building and conflict management.
One-On-One Executive Coaching
Confidential, personal mentoring to strengthen leadership and problem-solving skills for middle to senior management.
Organizational Strategic Planning
Developing and documenting the organization’s long-term goals and setting a course to achieve those goals.
Owner/Family Board Creation
Setting Board Structure & Goals
Business Transition Strategy
Community Impact
Business Development
Current Sales/Profitability Analysis
Sales Plan Development
Branding Development & Marketing Strategy
Professional Sales Training