Why rapid growth can cause leadership procrastination
The conundrum
A paradox is defined as any situation or feeling where two opposing and seemingly contradictory situations exist. Rapid organisational growth and leadership procrastination are two seemingly opposing components that I come across regularly that appear at the same time in the same company. This situation I have termed the Success Conundrum, as there is a puzzle to be solved here which only exists because of the success the company has had over the past few years
Typically there will exist an imbalance between the external persona expressed by the organisation (confident, positive and forward looking) and the actual feelings being experienced by the owner & senior leadership team (uncertain, unsure and reflective). If they leadership team aren’t able to solve the puzzle and realign the imbalance that exists then a period of sustained organisational growth maybe followed by a period of stagnation or even decline. Like all puzzles before you can solve them you need to understand more about the components or in this case the contributing factors. I have observed 3 factors that are regularly present in these situations.
The contributing factors
1) Your ambition exceeds your current organisational ability. In your business you are the pace car. You set the tone; you should be setting the direction of travel and mostly importantly the speed at which you want the business to grow. The level of ambition you communicate to your team directly impacts their motivation and their actions. If your ambitions are less than theirs, you may not retain them or at least inspire them to produce optimal output. However this scenario is my experience is very unusual, and a far more common occurrence is your ambition far exceeding theirs, and more crucially your (current) organisational capability. Some companies have been so focussed on the top line growth, that they haven’t paid attention enough or re-invested enough in the ‘engine’ of their business. The engine normally being the operational heart. As a result the business they now have in front of them has a lower capacity of output, a lesser ability to innovation and a less aligned way of operating than is required to achieve your ambitious plans. As the pace car you have driven too far in front, and your business has not been able to keep up. This has resulted in a misalignment between the vision you have and the ability the organisation to deliver this vision. Procrastination is a natural outcome of this dis-connect as you need to decide how and where upgrades are needed before you can proceed at the desired rate of growth
2) You have more to lose now. Back in the day when your business was smaller and simpler, decision-making was relatively easy and the fact that you were growing organically meant you could sit comfortably with your natural optimistic outlook. But as the business has scaled it has naturally become more complicated and there are now more factors to consider before making any strategic decisions.
For instance you have to decide how much of the profits generated get ploughed back in for future growth and how much you take out as dividends. Re-invest too little and growth maybe slowed, take out too little and your own ROI may feel too low to be comfortable.
Simply stated you now have more to lose. This greater risk can understandably bring a more cautious and considered leadership style that can result in longer turn around time for decisions. This caution can be perceived by those you lead as procrastination, as you may have without knowing changed the way you lead and slowed down your decision making time.
3) More known unknown than ever before. As they grow, if we are not meticulous in the way we manage them, businesses can become more complicated than is good for them. If we keep adding new people, new processes, and new software without really defining and understanding in advance what the benefit is going to be of the additional element, then confusion and a lack of clarity will probably be the consequence. New is not always better, more is not always needed. Every time we add something to the equation there is a danger that we are adding more unknown knowns to what was a simple business to operate. And here is the paradox that for continued growth to occur some addition needs to be made, systems need to be upgraded, new roles need to be created but too much newness at the same time, can actually slow down the growth that the additions were designed to continue or actually ramp up. In simple we need to keep it as simple as we can as we grow. Too many known unknowns does not enable you to lead with confidence and clarity which can look and feel like unwanted procrastination to the rest of the company.
The solution
Create an off-season. All professional sports individuals and teams know the importance of the off-season. This is the crucial period each year where they can allow their bodies and minds to recover after the rigours and intensity of the season. The off-season also gives them time to reflect, re-group and reframe. They can use this time to plan ahead, decide what if anything they need to change for the coming season, re-set goals. All these activities can take place without the pressure of competing. They know they can’t stay competitive and perform optimally for 52 weeks per year. They know that they can peak for only a certain amount of time and they plan these peaks for the most important tournaments, the major events or the critical time of the season.
In contrast most businesses are required to operate on a continual basis with no or minimal downtime. There is no off-season built into the majority of businesses. Yes there will be periods of the year where targets maybe slightly lower due to seasonal trends but the expectations will still be there. They don’t give themselves time to reflect, regroup and reframe in the same way a sports person or team does.
Now I appreciate that closing the business for an extended period is not an option for most companies but what about introducing more regeneration time into the normal business pattern?
This could be a ½ day a week when the leadership team spend time on the strategy or improving his or her leadership skills.
It could be one day a month spent off-site to review, reflect and plan on your offering and talking about the new services and products you could be developing that will underpin future growth
It could be bringing in external ‘experts’ to coach and guide the leadership team in new ways of working and thinking.
There are numerous different ways this can be achieved but what it does need is a commitment from the top of the organisation that this time needs to be found and ring-fenced, so that it is not overridden by ‘business as usual’ work. An important factor to also consider here is ‘off-seasons’ ideally take place away from your normal ‘work’ location. So ideally the regeneration time suggested here would take place at an off-site location, which will enable a different dynamic to exist and less distractions to be present.
For sports teams and individuals the off-season is a time of personal growth and tactical clarification. How effectively both are executed during this period will directly correlate with the amount of success they have in the following season. A good off-season precedes a good season. It is the same for a business. If you don’t spend enough time reviewing, re-skilling and reinventing, then you can’t expect to perform continually at the top of the market you operate in. Giving yourself this time will increase the confidence of the leadership team, improve the clarity on what you need to achieve and instil the competence needed to be able to deliver on the ambition.
I appreciate and empathise that for some businesses they are going through an enforced off-season currently due to the impact of the lockdown measures. If this applies to your business I would encourage to reframe this period as time to focus on personal and organisational self-betterment. This will enable you to grow quicker once your business and markets re-open.