I have a secret…
I have four questions that trip up nearly every business leader I meet. I don’t actually want to upset these leaders, rather I want to point out potential pitfalls they are bound to encounter as they move through any growth stage. Here’s how the conversation typically goes:
Colleen: Hi, how is the year going for you and your company?
Leader: It’s going well Colleen. We’re super busy.
Colleen: That’s great, what’s your plan for this year?
Leader: We really want to grow, we’re at the perfect point with everything happening in our market.
Colleen: Growth is so exciting! What’s your growth strategy? (Question #1)
Leader: Well, um, we don’t really have a strategy per se, but things are going great and we are seeing more and more customers come on board every month.
Colleen: Let me ask you a question, if your business grew 25% overnight, what would immediately go at risk? (Question #2)
Leader: Thinks for less than a minute…It would definitely be our operations, we would struggle to meet that kind of demand.
Colleen: Oh, well that’s critical. How would that impact you or your customers? (Question #3)
Leader: If we can’t deliver product we’re sunk! We’d end up losing new customer orders. We’d also have to have our team work extra hours—and they already feel like they are overworked.
Colleen: What is your plan to prevent or manage that risk? (Question #4)
Leader: A little concerned…You know I never really thought about it that way. I suppose we ought to think through our growth plans a bit more.
Colleen: I’d agree because growth, while exciting, creates utter chaos for most companies. Having a growth strategy and operational plans to support growth and mitigate risks helps. Without a plan, the chaos can really hurt your company and ultimately your customer relationships.
You see, every business leader I know wants their organization to grow but I rarely meet one who has planned for growth. Unplanned for growth creates chaos in an organization but that chaos can be minimized if you have planned well.
Given the death rate of businesses, isn’t it worth your time to plan for successful growth?
The pain points I most frequently hear are connected to problems with:
- People—I know I don’t have the right people, but this team has been with me from the start. What can I do?
- Accountability—I need my people to do what they are supposed to do and my management team to hold their people accountable
- Communication—Our management meetings are worthless, we don’t make any progress, nothing ever gets decided, and I still don’t know what everyone is doing
- Processes—Balls are dropped every day, yet I thought we had processes for everything
- Decision making—I need my managers to have an owner’s mentality and they won’t make the simplest decisions. They keep coming to me for everything.
- Alignment on priorities—Everyone is really busy, but the most important stuff is falling through the cracks
- Ability of the CEO and leaders to delegate and release control—I have to keep dropping into the work to get things done the right way. I can’t seem to get time to focus on strategic work
- An erosion of trust among leaders—There’s a lot of finger pointing going on. I thought we were all on the same team here.
If any of these sound familiar I’d suggest the following steps to get on the right path.
- Have the courage to address people issues as they arise instead of allowing guilt to cause you to delay difficult decisions. It’s common for leaders to realize that the people who were in your company at the beginning don’t have the right skills to take you successfully through a growth stage. But these same leaders feel guilty letting these team members go because of the employee’s hard work and loyalty. Know that you are not honoring the person by holding on to them when you know they aren’t right any longer. You honor them by helping them get into a job that will allow them to excel by using what they know to help another company. Do everything you can for them such as:
- Give them a long runway to find a new job while still on your payroll
- Make strong connections for them with other companies
- Provide feedback on their resume and LinkedIn profile
These actions truly honor the person.
- Train people in the skills they will need to support the company though the growth stage. Moving people to new roles is important but don’t make the mistake of assuming they will know how to do the job or “get it” over time. Invest the time needed to develop them first.
- Decide on and communicate a specific growth strategy to the entire company. If your employees are aware of exactly what you are trying to do to grow, they can understand how their work fits in. This will reduce resistance to the impact of growth, and the fear and uncertainty that comes as everything in the company begins to change.
- Clarify decision making roles and responsibilities among leaders and their teams—and then honor them consistently
- Improve alignment and accountability by mapping what each person in is responsible to deliver to the company and sharing that across teams
- Evolve the value stream to ensure that you can delight customers from the first moment of engagement through to the last
- Plan for both unexpected opportunities and risks by having each team identify potential positive and negative challenges and plan for those that are most likely and would have the greatest impact.
Even with the best strategies and plans, growth may still feel chaotic. Without planning you most certainly will have heightened anxiety and face unexpected problems. With advanced planning, honesty, and courage, however you can be significantly more confident as you meet each challenge.