After building and selling a successful business, Andreas Dankelmann decided to share his experiences with other entrepreneurs and business owners in growth mode.

Today, Andreas is a Vistage Chair at Vistage Worldwide, Inc., the world’s largest executive coaching organization for small and midsize business leaders. Andreas facilitates confidential peer advisory groups and provides one-on-one coaching to help CEOs and executives make better decisions to achieve better outcomes.

With over 20 years of executive leadership experience in Fortune 500 and privately held companies, Andreas also serves as an EOS Implementer, guiding leadership teams to gain clarity and traction.

Most business owners and executives of larger organizations will periodically find themselves stuck, burned out, overwhelmed, or frustrated by slow-moving progress. Even the best-run organizations periodically experience stalling growth and loss of momentum. So what’s really holding back growth?

According to Andreas Dankelmann, a seasoned coach and former entrepreneur, businesses plateau because the leaders stall. Andreas firmly believes that an organization cannot outgrow its leadership, and the first step toward transformation begins with personal growth.

When leaders become clearer on their long-term vision and step out of the day-to-day operations to gain a better perspective, their entire organization benefits. Andreas shares how making time for deep reflection, asking the right questions, and co-creating alignment with teams can dramatically shift business outcomes.

In this episode of the Pillar6 Podcast, host Roman Polnar sits down with Andreas Dankelmann, Vistage Chair at Vistage Worldwide, Inc., to talk about how transforming the leader first leads to sustainable business growth. They discuss the leadership mindset shift required for scaling, the importance of clarity and team alignment, and why business debt can silently slow momentum. Andreas also gives advice on creating space to think strategically.

• Roman M. Polnar on LinkedIn
• Pillar6 Advisors
• Andreas Dankelmann on LinkedIn
• Vistage Worldwide, Inc.
• Fifth Ascent
• Sync’d Up
• Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman