Growth and the importance of your senior team

When companies talk about growth they often talk about strains on cash. Cash, though, is likely not the biggest challenge to the growth of your business. The challenge that is upstream, and the one that often doesn't get much air time, is the alignment of your senior team. Assuming you have a big vision for the future, you have set the stage for something we'll call creative tension.  Since your plans originate with the senior team, it's within this group that creative tension first shows itself. And it's here that you, as the leader, decide what you're going to do about it.

Some of your senior staff have grown attached to now obsolete activities and mindsets that supported your business on its way to its current level of achievement. You might even have reinforced some of those old behaviors with promotions, bonuses, etc. Regardless of lingering commitment to past or current practices, though, you have realized that your company's growth plans are tanked unless your senior team starts to adapt. You, as leader of the pack, get to go first.

Make the Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal (BHAG) a team goal. 
You might be the sole owner from a retained profits standpoint, but the senior team needs to have shared ownership in the business direction and the rationale behind it. If you have been used to keeping your plan close to your vest or on the back of a cocktail napkin, now is the time to share, to listen, and to document the company's intentions. Your team needs to know the numbers, even if it makes you feel slightly uncomfortable to share them.

The establishment of the really big, long-term goal takes candid interaction if you want full buy-in. If you notice some conflict, that's OK. Better that disagreement is above ground rather than underground. Ultimately you want to get the full discussion done and then the team can move forward as a unified force.

When working on your plan, it's important to be quiet for a while to hear what others on your team see, hear, and think about the future. You can be a better participant if you turn the planning process over to a coach facilitator (that would be us!). That way you can focus on the output and let the coach (who is well trained in it) to manage the group process.

Don't skimp on the business foundation
When change and speed are your daily diet, it might seem like you need the game-clinching play right now. You do need tactics, you need accountabilities, but if you don't give them context you could find yourself running back and forth on the field with no goalpost in sight. Without the business foundation, you might be doing it fast, but you'd be at risk of going nowhere.

As the company grows, the Core Values your team articulates serve as the footers for your company culture. They become the decision criteria and the behavioral guides for every level of your organization. Once your company grows to 50 people or more you especially need these tools, because you won't have daily contact and influence over every individual who works there.

Every member of your senior team needs to be aligned with these values. The values you document are those that exist today, rather than aspirations your team hopes to fulfill in the future. They become part of your selection criteria for anyone new who joins the company. And they are reinforced every day through the actions of your team.

Have you heard of the "One Jerk" rule?
We heard about this the other day, and although the source is muddy in our recall, the concept bears repeating. The rule says that a company can sustain one jerk, but only one, because two jerks start to create a jerk culture. Remember above when we said that all new people need to fit the values? (You can train in skills, but you cannot change fundamental values.)  That goes for your senior-most folks too. The best companies have zero jerks, not one, much less two.

One outspoken (jerky) outlier in your most influential group can KILL what you're trying to accomplish, so you need to seriously consider whether retaining that one leader's skills is worth tanking your culture. Even if that technically talented individual has been with you since the beginning, your culture and business growth has to take priority over that individual's career plans.

Your senior team and its health is so important to sustainable growth that it's one of the first subjects Proactive Leadership Group (PLG) coaches address when developing the business foundation with clients, and we talk about it regularly. The dynamics in your team change over time, and particularly difficult or contentious decisions can create temporary wobbles. New additions to the team, a common occurrence in times of growth, can create new dynamics. So the regular check-in helps to surface - and resolve - any issues among the leadership team as they crop up.