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Shar Banerjee | ACCESS+ Leaders Inc.

High-performance growth coach & trainer 💙 | The ultimate hub for revenue leaders & their teams 🚀 | Side effects include teams that brag & organizational WOW 😮 | Host of Books That Built Me – a podcast for leaders 🎒

Featured Post

The urgency addiction for high performers

I’ve got a client who’s incredible under pressure. He’ll admit it, too. He doesn’t move until a deadline is bearing down like a freight train. Then? Boom. Focus. Decisions. Execution. A hero in the final hour. Sound familiar? He’s not lazy. He’s addicted to urgency. And honestly? It works. Think about every action movie ever. The hero doesn’t save the day three weeks in advance. They dismantle the bomb at 00:01. They cross the finish line just in time. That’s the drama. That’s the win. And...

Imagine having the most advanced car in the world: it maps the fastest routes, predicts traffic, even tells you where to stop for coffee. But if you don’t trust yourself to drive, you’re not going anywhere. That’s what self-doubt does to leaders. You know the strategy. You’ve seen the problem before. Your gut already has an answer. And still, STILL, you’re hitting the brakes, polling five people, and circling the roundabout of overthinking. One leader I coach nailed it: “I’m not...

Ever been invited to a party where you didn’t know anyone? You showed up because you were told to. You smiled politely. You hovered by the snacks. And then, somewhere between the awkward small talk and trying to remember names, you thought: “Why did I even come?” Now imagine that feeling… but at work. Because after a merger, restructure, or leadership shake-up, that’s exactly what happens. People don’t just lose org charts. They lose orientation. They lose the “us.” One leader said it like...

Failure isn’t the villain of your story. It’s the personal trainer you’ve been dodging, the one who makes you sweat, pushes you past your limits, and then hands you the muscles you didn’t know you could grow. Most leaders don’t fail. Not really. They pivot, they polish, they reframe. They dodge the sting. Sounds smart, right? Except it’s secretly shrinking your potential. Because if you’ve never failed badly enough to wince at the memory, you’ve probably never stretched far enough to find...

In 2025, I did something I’d never done before. I stepped away. Not just from my business. But from my roles as a parent, a partner, and an always-on problem-solver. For one full week, I pressed pause on everything so I could focus on one thing: working "on" my business instead of "in" it. And here’s the thing: the learnings were exponential. But not because of the program alone. They were exponential because I decided they would be. The theme of the week was: “How you do anything is how you...

We all know about SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound), right? They’ve been drilled into us since the dawn of performance reviews and goal-setting frameworks. But here’s the part nobody tells you:SMART isn’t just a goal-setting tool.It’s a secret weapon for asking better questions: in work, in life, in moments that sneak up on us and shape everything. Let’s prove it with something wildly unsexy but completely universal: 🪥 Brushing your teeth. Let’s say you’re...

Here's the task: design a 3 year strategic company plan. The old way: Executive offsite. Vision deck. Surprise roadmap. The new way: Co-creation. Ownership. Commitment (not compliance). The leader who did it differently When the 3-year strategy cycle came around, Sarah (VP of Operations at a mid-sized tech firm) could already picture how it would go. She and the exec team would hole up in a windowless hotel conference room for two days. They’d debate markets, budgets, priorities, and return...

Ever been exhausted because you’re doing too much? Answering every question. Spotting every risk. Holding every thread of every project. Feels like your brain is a whiteboard that never gets wiped clean? One leader I coached put it this way: “I thought I was holding the team together. But I was just holding the team up.” That’s when we talked about the difference between leading and facilitating. And that’s when the shift began. The real reason you're on fire Leadership burnout isn’t always...

Some conversations never get said… but they leave you feeling like a blunt pencil. Used. Worn down. Pressing harder than ever, just to make a mark. You used to feel sharp, clear, confident & ready. But every conversation you avoid wears you down a little. You get quieter, even when it matters most. You press harder, but somehow say less. And eventually, it’s not the act of speaking up that exhausts you. It’s the weight of everything you’ve held back. And still, the hard thing goes unsaid....

You know the feeling. You’ve worked your way up, chip by chip. You cashed in your attention to detail. You cashed in your problem-solving skills. You cashed in your focus and grit and reliability. And now… the stack of chips is gone. You’re in a bigger role. And suddenly it feels like the game changed but nobody gave you any new chips to play with. Maybe this is as good as you’ll ever be. Maybe you’ve been promoted beyond your level of competence. Maybe this is where growth stops and you...