In your haste to grow, are you missing key developmental milestones?
Managing people and organizations isn't easy. In fact, one of the things we talk about most in coaching sessions both for Executives individually and Executive Teams centers around how best to manage others, and at a deeper level, how to best manage in differing stages of business. Larry R Greiner, in a HBR article titled "Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow", breaks down the stages of an organization's growth and makes the argument that managers/leaders too often look to future milestones for how they manage as opposed to understanding how they should manage based on the stage they are in today. Greiner calls out 5 different phases of growth: Creativity, Direction, Delegation, Coordination, and Collaboration. He then lists the milestones and roadblocks that arise in each phase as an organization grows.
Half the battle is truly understanding what stage your organization is at in the continuum. It takes understanding where you are to understand what type of leadership is needed.
Perhaps your organization is in its beginning stages. It's smaller in size, and very young in its inception. Things are informal, and many are left to creatively build what's necessary. Employees are often managed informally. As the company grows, stronger leadership is necessary. Better managerial processes are required. There's a "stage of crisis" for company leaders, and those organizations who evolve how they operate (in this case by creating more formal processes and instilling proper managerial structure), continue to grow. This process continues in each of the stages that Greiner has listed, each with its own challenges, its own crises, and own proper evolution. We love understanding where different businesses are in the continuum, and giving them key skillsets to assist in managing as is needed by the business in its current stage.
