Why Precise Leadership Drives Culture, Accountability, and Growth with Chris Gonzalez at A-G ASSOCIATES

In this episode, we sit down with Chris Gonzalez, Co-Founder and President of A-G Associates Inc. (Ranked No. 717 in 2025), to explore his powerful concept of precise leadership, a leadership style centered on clarity, accountability, and understanding what truly motivates your team. Chris shares how his military background shaped his approach to leadership, emphasizing direct communication, adaptability, and ownership at every level of an organization. As companies grow, maintaining agility and alignment becomes more challenging, and Chris breaks down how leaders can overcome these obstacles with intentional messaging and a culture of transparency. If you're a business leader, entrepreneur, or manager looking to improve team performance and communication, this episode delivers practical insights you can apply immediately. Episode Highlights & Time Stamps 3:24 The Role of AI in Consulting 5:56 Military Leadership to Business 10:58 Transitioning to Precise Leadership 14:49 Understanding Precise Leadership 16:45 The Importance of Accountability 18:41 Maintaining Agility in Growth 20:30 Reflection on Leadership Principles 👤 About Chris Gonzalez Chris Gonzalez is the Co-Founder and President of A-G Associates, a veteran-owned consulting firm specializing in strategy, data analytics, and stakeholder engagement. A former U. S. Marine, he brings a leadership style rooted in clear communication, accountability, and mission-driven results, helping organizations scale and improve performance. Resources & Next Steps Ready to take your leadership energy to the next level? Explore free training and resources at https://training.coreelevation.com/ to help you identify energy leaks, strengthen your leadership presence, and elevate your team's performance. 🌐 Explore More: https://training.coreelevation.com/ 🎧 Listen to the Full Episode: https://growththinktank.com/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  If I speak about, you know, the same topic to mental health clinicians, I'm going to talk about in the way of mental health outcomes. I'm going to talk about in public health outcomes. I'm going to talk about in the way that obviously resonates with it. So delivering the message and the why behind why we're doing something is just as important, maybe even more important as the process to get it done. Because to get people on board in a very busy world that we live in, they have to have the motivation there and they have to, you know, that motivation looks and smells differently for each, you know, for everybody.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Welcome to Growth Think Tank. This is the one and only place where you will get insight from the founders and the CEOs of the fastest growing privately held companies. I am the host. My name is Gene Hammond. I hope leaders and their teams navigate the defining moments of their growth. Are you ready to grow? Today, we're going to talk about precise leadership. When you think about precise leadership, you may not even know what I'm talking about. But imagine having a level of clarity and an execution that people understand and buy into. That is precise leadership in a nutshell. Today, our special guest is the co-founder of AG Associates. They've made the Inc. List twice. And I'm speaking with Chris Gonzalez.

• 1:20Speaker 01

  And Chris and I talk about precise leadership, where it came from, what are the core elements of it? I will give you a preview of that. It's a lot about communication and communicating in a way that can't be misunderstood. It's also about why we're doing what we're doing. It's also about accountability. And there's many other elements that we touch on in here. I think you'll appreciate this. So that being said, when you think of leadership and you think of precise leadership, lean in today to learn from Chris and his experience in growing his company. My name is Gene Hammond. I'm a CEO coach. We love to help companies that are in growth mode tame the chaos and deal with the things that are necessary to really push things forward.

• 2:00Speaker 01

  So that being said, if you want to go a little bit further with us, the next way to do that is absolutely free. Go to training.coreelevation.com. At that domain, training.coreelevation.com, you will find a way to sign up for the next class that we have. It's absolutely free. You as a CEO can come in, learn, discuss with other CEOs about leadership, how to stop being the bottleneck of your own company and grow beyond you. When you think of of of leadership and you think of growth, think of Growth Think Tank. And now here's the interview with Chris. Hi, Chris. How are you?

• 2:37Speaker 00

  I'm great. How are you?

• 2:38Speaker 01

  I'm fantastic. We're going to have a great conversation, very interesting business that you're running. I know you've made the Inc. List twice now. Tell us a little bit more about AG Associates.

• 2:49Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, thanks for having me, Gene. I appreciate it. I'm Chris Gonzalez. I'm president of AG Associates. We are a service disabled veteran owned small business and we focus on three aspects of management consulting. There's a lot of different flavors of management consulting, but we focus on the three. And that is strategy and implementation, helping organizations figure out with their programs where they're going, how they're going to get there, what are the key milestones for success? Data analytics, helping organizations figure out the numbers that tell the story of success or not, and making decisions accordingly. And then the third component is really around stakeholder engagement and looking at, especially for public programs

• 3:31Speaker 00

  and even public health programs, going from the federal level and even the congressional level, all the way down to states and communities and the different relationships and stakeholder groups that need to be a part of that to actually reach the designated person or a population group. A lot of work in mental health and substance use, a lot of work in quality of life programming, a lot of work in public, public safety.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  I am really excited to talk to you today because I think a lot of things are probably shifting in your world.

• 4:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  Just kind of curious, over the next three years, how do you see the work that you're doing? How you service clients shifting? I don't know if it's AI going to impact that or not, or just other shifts that that impact that, the work you're doing?

• 4:18Speaker 00

  Well, I think we're definitely going to see a shift in the way that services are provided. And we are in the business of professional services consulting. And so I don't think

• 4:35Speaker 00

  AI will truly change the interactions between people. I think no matter what, AI is garbage unless it's fed things by people who understand the, you know, the the ideal outcome, right? So you use chat GPT, you tell it, hey, find me a solution to whatever and it finds you. You know, it it could be the Wild West. But if you give it very specific prompts and if you give it very specific directions, then you get a much better product. So I do believe people will use AI tools on a bigger scale, but it will still be the interactions of people and individuals uh that are important. And it'll still be, you know, the development of organizations and the development of good ideas.

• 5:18Speaker 00

  And I think somehow the delivery of services or programs might change, uh but it will still be people behind behind those things. Having said all that, uh, I think in 2017, we recognized that a lot of tech companies were in the consulting space and they were leading with a product and kind of giving a a more cheaper solution. Uh, and so we developed a product of our own that actually is going to come to market here in 2026. We're using it now with beta testing with clients. Uh, it's called the Focus Platform. Um, so we will have a a tech-based approach to complement to some of the services that we provide.

• 6:01Speaker 00

  So we'll kind of stay relevant with uh both the technology side, the AI side, because it will have AI built in, but also not lose the essence of uh the services too.

• 6:12Speaker 01

  Fantastic. I before we transition into to talk about our real thing, I want to bring up the fact that you have uh this distinguished career of supporting our nation through the Marine Corps and, you know, leadership there. And that's probably given you a lot of of advantages inside of of growing a team and and leading a team to this level. Um, talk to us a little bit just about kind of that experience and what translates really well from the military leadership to business leadership.

• 6:42Speaker 00

  Sure.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  Uh, that's a lot. The, the thing about the Marine Corps is leadership is ingrained into the culture. And from the beginning, you're expected to be a leader. And even from boot camp, it's beat into you, oh, sometimes almost literally, uh, that every Marine is a leader. And you're expected to act accordingly. You're a representative of the country. You're a representative of the Marine Corps.

• 7:12Speaker 00

  Uh, and, and that's, you know, that's something you carry with you. You look for opportunities to even lead just a small task like cleaning up something or cleaning up a, a, a range after people shoot or something like that. So Marines are, are bred to do those types of things. And so in the Marine Corps, people are developed by seniority within the Marines, but also given small tasks and the way that they perform those tasks many times within a group. So it starts with small unit leadership. Uh, there's, you know, training and coaching along the way. And then of course you get those, uh, the opportunities to lead and of course opportunities to follow as well.

• 7:56Speaker 00

  So those types of things I think are, are very translatable to business in terms of, um, looking at the way that we develop leaders and giving them tasks that they can handle, uh, and not giving them business changing tasks as their first, you know, their first try at a leadership role, but one that, that kind of sets them up for success and then you have to build confidence. Uh, and I think the other component is, you know, I've been to, uh, both Iraq and Afghanistan. So I've been in combat zones. I've been in, you know, some pretty sticky situations. In situations where people have to perform, people know their assignments.

• 8:40Speaker 00

  And, you know, one person knows that they go this way, you know, to the right. And another person knows that they go to the left. They've been given clear directions and they've rehearsed it. We don't have that luxury here in the civilian world, but we do have the opportunity to kill things like we and Sun and things that are totally ambiguous. Right? Like Dean, what does Sun mean to you?

• 9:03Speaker 01

  It's, I agree with you, it's ambiguous. A lot of people think that they're speaking clearly, but they're not.

• 9:09Speaker 00

  They're not. They're not. And so eliminating soon and saying things like by end of day, or in two hours, or whatever it is. And eliminating things like we, and saying you do this by X date, you know, and he does this by, you know, Y date. That little tiny piece of communication that is standard in the Marine Corps, it helps a lot in civilian world.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, you know, I know that, I was looking at some of the notes we have about your company and about the things that you do and whatnot. And like even that, we're going to talk about precise leadership and make that full transition, but part of that is the language we use. And this comes up quite often. You know, one of the things we teach our CEOs, but also managers who are becoming better leaders, is explicit communication, which is a term that we use about it cannot be misunderstood. So even like something like end of day, in my opinion, is not as clear as it could be. Because end of day for some people is, well, I typically

• 10:08Speaker 00

  11:00 PM, right?

• 10:10Speaker 01

  But I go to bed at 11, right? So which, which end of day is it? So I think explicit communication is a huge part of the reasons why companies succeed or don't succeed. And I would bet that you, having that military background, have brought that into your culture in a way. I'm sure that, you know, it's very supportive. I know there's things that you let go of. I'm not going to take you down that path today, because we also know in business, you can't lead by fear. Whereas the Marine Corps, you can, you can have that heavy hand because lives are at stake. Here in, in, in our business world of America, we're, you know, because of the, the freedom that you, our military forces have allowed us to have,

• 10:55Speaker 01

  we're not at stake at that level. And so you have to like work with people. Let's, let's take a transition here, Chris, into precise leadership, because that's not two words that I've seen put together. But that's what you have described as one of the, the reasons why your company has grown to the level it has. So can you unpack what precise leadership means to you?

• 11:18Speaker 00

  Yeah, well, you actually gave me a great introduction because to me, I think we are aligned to where precise leadership really is about communication. And I suppose there's two aspects of that. One is the process to get things done. That one we just covered with being clear with who does what, when things are due. But I do believe part of the other critical piece of communication is the why. And delivering the message of why we're doing something to the right audience. Right? So if I'm talking about mental health programs for military personnel, I'm talking about the importance of it.

• 12:00Speaker 00

  The way that I deliver that message to a group of Marines is going to be much, much different than how I deliver that message to a group of mental health clinicians. I'm going to say the same, the essence of the same thing. I'm going to talk about the importance of mental health programs to the Marines, but I'm going to talk about it from the lens of

• 12:22Speaker 00

  of readiness, of warfighting capabilities, of the importance of taking care of your, your brothers and sisters. If I speak about, you know, the same topic to mental health clinicians, I'm going to talk about in the way of mental health outcomes. I'm going to talk about in public health outcomes. I'm going to talk about in the way that I see resonates with it. So delivering the message and the why behind why we're doing something is just as important, maybe even more important as the process to get it done. Because to get people on board in a very busy world that we live in, they have to have the motivation there and they have to, you know, that motivation looks and smells differently for each, you know, for everybody.

• 13:09Speaker 01

  I told you that we talked about explicit communication and we've tried to build frameworks. We really believe that when you have frameworks in leadership, you have something you can lean on. And we give them to our clients and we say, you know, you're welcome to change these any way you want to. But one part of that is an effective request. And inside that effective request, and a lot of people skip this, is why are we doing this? And they think it's this, you know, the assumption of it is, is clear. Or they'll give one little sentence that's not, you know, doesn't really mean that much. And it's not clear to the person that you're making that request to. But if, if you do make it more explicit, then they connect to it in a different way.

• 13:51Speaker 01

  And, and given the work that you guys do around public safety and, and, and mental health, you've got to be able to explain that why and people have to feel it.

• 13:59Speaker 00

  They do.

• 14:00Speaker 01

  Go ahead.

• 14:00Speaker 00

  They do. I think it's around understanding motivations. Uh, I think it's about understanding, um, I guess the competing priorities that exist in some of those, you know, those individuals' worlds.

• 14:15Speaker 00

  And I think there's always going to be an element of trust. So again, if I'm speaking to a group for the first time, I'm going to approach it understanding that I need to establish trust beforehand. If I'm speaking with that same group for the 20th time, my relationships are most likely going to be strong. I can, you know, use a few fun jokes. I can, I can, uh, you know, speak to the group in a way that's much, much different because I've established a trust. I've established relationships and I know that they, you know, they view me as someone who's looking out for the best, best interests.

• 14:50Speaker 01

  I gotta go a little bit deeper with this concept of precise leadership. I don't know if we pulled it out of you or if this is a phrase that comes up in your culture. So tell us like, where did this come from, precise leadership?

• 15:03Speaker 00

  What was, you know, it's something that you you brought up. And as I was thinking about this this podcast, I was really thinking about the term precise. And it's, you know, to me, it's exciting because that's been my, it's been my experience in the Marine Corps. It's something I tried to implement. And it's something I try to model quite a bit. And I believe that, you know, one of the most effective leadership actions is being the example of what you're looking for. Now, info disclosure is, you know, my entire organization graded being very precise and their asks. No, but we're getting there.

• 15:40Speaker 01

  Well, I think everyone that's listening into this, it has any kind of leadership capabilities, especially CEOs, is it's not always going to work out exactly like you expected because it's people. And the joke that a lot of leaders will say, you know, running a business would be easy if it weren't for all these people. And we probably all get that. But the reality of businesses that are, you know, scaling through the work of others and the knowledge workers today, as you said, I mean, the topics you're working with AI will not replace because of the human to human element. And so you've got to create that. I am kind of curious because, you know, having a background in the military has a certain amount of accountability to

• 16:24Speaker 01

  it that is at another level to what most people experience inside of their day to day life. In fact, I believe that most people don't really even understand what accountability is. They look at it as a negative thing, when it actually is a is a clarity thing for me, and it's about us aligned together around what's important, what matters the most. What does accountability look like across your organization?

• 16:48Speaker 00

  Well, when my business partner and I started the company in 2008,

• 16:54Speaker 00

  Her and I think very similarly. We both can take big ideas from concept to action very quickly. And as we grew, I mean, accountability was always something that was just kind of ingrained in both of us. So that wasn't difficult between us, but as we grew, obviously, you know, things within the company changed and we started to you started to add more people and for the long time, a long time, we were about 10 people, 15 people. So I think as we grew, we kind of chose staff that was very similar to us in terms of wanting to know

• 17:38Speaker 00

  when things are due, what quality looks like and things like that. So we've never really had an issue with the term accountability because it was there from the start. And it's become something that's, that's within our culture. And I also think there's, there's an element of encouragement that we give to all levels of staff, whether they're just starting. And AG is their first stop after college or after the military. Or, you know, if it's their last stop, you know, before their retirement. I think we encourage people at all levels to speak up, to get clarity. So, you know, to, to learn, I want to do a great job at this and AG's, you know, I'm lucky enough to have people that are filled.

• 18:22Speaker 00

  Companies filled with people that really love to do a great job. So I think encouraging people to get clarity on what does quality look like? What does a deadline, you know, what's the right deadline? Whom I expect to consult before I turn this in, things like that. That's been part of our culture and we're pretty fortunate to have carried that through as we've grown.

• 18:42Speaker 01

  Well, thanks for sharing that with us. I, you know, I know we're, we're getting toward the end of our conversation today and precise leadership is a big topic. Is there anything that I've left out that you feel like is really important to, to discuss today?

• 18:56Speaker 00

  No, I mean, I think one of the things you mentioned, the business would be great for all these people. I use the reference of Notorious B I G with more money, more problems.

• 19:09Speaker 00

  And it's true. And I think we've grown quite a bit. And the one thing that I have to tell myself, or I guess I struggle with, is I want to keep the essence of agility. I want to keep the essence of our culture that's important with accountability, with collaboration, with dedication to mission, things like that.

• 19:35Speaker 00

  And there's so many norms within our company that just existed. They weren't necessarily documented. We didn't put them into S O P. And then now, as we grow, we have all these different personalities and all these different backgrounds and walks of life. And now I think one of the things that I struggle with is how much process do we use? Right? And so it's like, we got to put in a few more guardrails here because now we just need them.

• 20:03Speaker 00

  But the last thing that I want is a bureaucracy and the last thing that I want is to lose that element of agility. So I think that's probably been my number one leadership challenge to be determined in the next few years.

• 20:17Speaker 01

  Well, Chris, thank you so much for sharing not only your success with A G Associates, but also the process behind that, that precise leadership. So I really thank you for your wisdom.

• 20:28Speaker 00

  Sure. I appreciate being on here.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  I'm going to let you tune into this because I'm going to wrap up today reflecting on what we've heard and what it means to those listeners out there. So if you want to be a better leader, this concept of precise leadership is something that you can kind of gravitate to. It may not be something you already have, but you can aspire to. And there's a lot of levels underneath it. There's the communication of it being explicit with the words that you say, but also why we're doing the work that we do. When that's clear, people are more bought in and they take more ownership of what is next, whether it be a challenge or whether it be a new opportunity, and they seek those things out.

• 21:08Speaker 01

  We also talked about accountability and the things that are really help your company stay tuned into the mission and to the work that we're doing. And if you don't have Communication that's at the level you need. If you don't have accountability, you're going to struggle inside of any business you have. And you know, one of our mantras in helping our clients is how do you create a business that grows beyond you? If you're the only one that's pulling people along, you're going to miss the opportunity. Your business isn't that valuable when it's driven by you. But the end goal, whether you're going to sell your business or whether you're going to create a business that you love, is to create a business where leadership really does excel at all levels of the company.

• 21:53Speaker 01

  My hope is you tune into these episodes over and over again to be a better leader. And when you think of growth and you think of leadership, think of Growth Think Tank. As always, leave with courage. We'll see you next time.