About Us

Accelerated Success is a joint venture between Sue Burnell and Kevin Oubridge. It is the outcome of our combined careers and our long-term collaboration in the delivery of transformational leadership coaching.

Our Mission has evolved from our work in the private and public sectors. We’ve worked in organisations at the individual level developing managers and leaders, specialising in performance management. We have also been part of teams which led company-wide change.  As leaders, we have acted as consultants to internal clients and been service providers to external customers.

Since 2005 we have been evolving Accelerated Success programmes to address the limitations of traditional management/leadership development methods and the accepted approach to driving change. We saw first hand how vast sums of money, combined with huge effort and commitment were poured into one initiative after another. All too often results were unclear and added to the business’ cynicism as one flavour of the month replaced another.

The quality of leadership in an organisation has a huge impact on its ability to perform.In our work, we see that the competence of an individual leader matters. One leader can drive significant, high value change by quietly pursuing a focused, well aligned agenda. Conversely, ill-equipped leaders have an impact way beyond their immediate team, slowing down activity and negatively affecting performance throughout the system. When leaders understand the hierarchy of work in an organisation under-performance is made visible. Furthermore, where and how to intervene to correct it also becomes clear to them. Established as This is Business Coaching (TiBC) in 2003 we now operate under our current name, Accelerated Success.

Our Team

Sue Burnell set up Accelerated Success in 2003, working with talented leaders who want to make a real difference through driving change for business growth. Since then Sue has worked one-to-one with numerous senior leaders in UK-based and global commercial organisations. Most recently she has specialised in coaching leaders of fast growing regions of global ICT companies. Prior to this Sue worked in leadership development and communication roles for British Telecom and the National Housing Federation. She also found time to bring up a family, cycle across France and Italy, and travel in India and SE Asia. Sue enjoys gardening and is a black belt at Choi Kwang Do. Sue has an MA in Coaching & Mentoring Practice from Oxford Brookes University and a BA in Psychology from the University of Keele. She is a member of the British Psychological Society, the society’s Special Group in Coaching Psychology, and the Association for Coaching. Sue is an accredited coach with the Oxford Brookes International Centre for Coaching & Leadership Development, and the Association for Coaching.

Kevin Oubridge joined the company in 2005, focusing on helping Sue map her marketing and service delivery processes. Prior to this, Kevin worked in learning and organisation development in British Telecom, NHS executive, regional and trust roles, and Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Throughout his career Kevin has specialised in implementing and leveraging the value of performance management systems in large organisations. He has also worked extensively with individuals and teams in developing project stakeholder management capability. Kevin has a Post Graduate Diploma in Training & Performance Management from Leicester University and is an accredited mentor with the government led National Enterprise Allowance scheme, which supports new business start-ups.

Our Book

Based on their work together at Accelerated Success, Sue and Kevin have written a book for leadership coaches. The Leadership Coaching Alligator Handbook recognises that you’re a leadership coach, not a salesperson! It tells you how you can build a thriving business working with Blue Chips despite this fact. Reading this book will enable you to:

  • Connect with leaders in Blue Chips
  • Switch them on to the value of your leadership coaching
  • WIN business with them
  • WIN business with other leaders in the same company
  • Build long-term relationships and WIN business year-on-year
  • Proactively use referrals to WIN business in other companies

You can achieve all this by playing to your strengths as a coach. No need to reinvent yourself as a marketing professional. You’ll enjoy growing your business as much as you enjoy coaching your clients!

Our Mission

We believe hard pressed senior executives need access to personalised, high quality leadership development, which attends to what’s important and challenging in their context – right now. Today’s leaders require a development solution that is relevant to their situation. It must be flexible and delivered in short sessions over the long term.  It must foster focus, increased knowledge and capability AND support execution on the ground. Traditional leadership courses were designed for a different era: they don’t provide what YOU need, WHEN you need it, and they don’t help you to apply what you learn to the work place. Our programmes are designed to meet YOUR business needs. We believe in building long-term relationships which allow us to work with you and provide aligned, relevant, on the job development, which drives change and delivers a step change in business results.

For coaches

Get a copy of The Leadership Coaching Alligator Handbook and learn how to do business with Blue Chips.

Win business with Blue Chips

“This book is a gift to all Coaches who want to grow their business.  It gives generously – offering practical help in not just what to do, but how to do it.  The straightforward way in which the book is written made me laugh out loud, yet gave me the push I needed to really focus on what is important.  Since adopting the Accelerated Success approach, I have a tangible way of connecting with clients and delivering value to their business.  I am getting results for me and my clients already.”

Helen Beckingham Executive Coach Within-Reach

We offer a free session to help you decide if working with us will extend your performance and deliver the results you want. The purpose of the session is for you to reflect on:

  • Your objectives for the next 12-24 months
  • The most important and challenging aspects of these objectives
  • What it would be most important for your part of the organisation to get better at, in order to achieve fully the business objectives.

You will also know if our accelerated success programmes are right for you.

To book your free strategy session, please complete and send the form below. We will contact you to arrange your session within 48 hours.


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