Unreasonable Leadership

Unreasonable Leadership is Chartrand's personal saga of what can be accomplished no matter the odds or what conventional wisdom labels as impossible. It will succeed in any organization, Chartrand insists, including those in the public sector, non-profits and academia. Unreasonable leadership, Chartrand urges, is a mindset and a call for action. The unreasonable leader is the ever-determined eternal optimist who eagerly faces challenges head-on, usually with a smile and always with an intense desire to win and win big. The unreasonable leader will always challenge the status quo. The unreasonable leader ventures outside of his/her comfort zone, sees what others do not see, and rallies colleagues to help turn the laughable into first the impossible and then, in short order, the improbable, the possible, the probable, the achievable, and finally the achieved.

Chartrand s success as an unreasonable leader testifies to the value of never being afraid to ask and the critical importance of molding a corporate culture that endures. Acosta grew from more than 100 mergers that united as many as 200 companies and now operates a payroll of more than 16,000 associates in offices throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Acosta Sales & Marketing is hardly a household name, but there is scarcely a household in America that doesn't benefit daily from the services they provide. Healthy portions of the food served on dining room tables across the land wind up there because of the effort and vision of this billion-dollar sales and marketing agency.

Acosta's startling growth is all the more remarkable given its roots: For nearly 50 years it remained a tiny, family-owned firm, content to represent a handful of clients in one mid-sized city in the South, and equally content to adhere to the status quo. That, of course, was to change and change dramatically.

Unreasonable Leadership stands as a 21st century affirmation of George Bernard Shaw's famous observation that all progress comes from unreasonable people. What sounds contentious really describes a leader who envisions the future, finds and articulates the seemingly unattainable goals, holds fast to convictions, inspires colleagues to move beyond their comfort zones, silences the naysayers, and achieves the impossible.

In chronicling his now 83-year-old company's dramatic journey to the pinnacle of its industry, Chartrand describes the traits of the unreasonable leader, and uses the Acosta growth story to demonstrate how to develop the traits to capture the passion, heart and talent of any organization.