How Leadership Evolution Sets the Speed of Scaling
The Moment You See It
Ugh, it's the smell of them. And the sight: platters of pale triangles, tasteless tokens of this day.
I'm stuck here, wedged between conversations, frustratedly staring out the window. People are checked out around the table. We're all in this together, like the sandwiches stacked up on a plate, waiting for us in the back of the room to endure the upcoming sighs and small talk. I stand up when there's a lull in conversation to address the elephant in the room. I'm going to be THAT guy to bring it up.
The Hidden Cost of Indecision
These meetings drain my lifeforce. I look back at workdays swallowed by endless discussions, wondering what we actually accomplished.
The real issue isn't just wasted time, although busy work serves its own purpose as it gives us a proud feeling and the illusion of productivity. The problem isn't the avalanche of endless meetings, rather it's our fear of committing to making a decision.
Although it feels like it's our inability to make decisions together, the reality is we have commitment issues. Without really realizing it we hesitate to take ownership. And instead of making clear calls and standing behind them we circle around the same conversations, avoiding risky decisions and waiting for the perfect answer that never comes. Decisions are left in the dust as we argue about everything and don't move anything forward. And as frustrating as it is, it feels safe to not make a call. But indecision doesn't build momentum, or get anything done.
The Bottleneck
It took us some time to realize we were the bottleneck, but once we saw the truth we'd start to reel ourselves back in when we'd stall out. It was actually cool to witness as we were becoming way more aware of what was holding us back.
Scaling a business and accelerating growth took a different form once we realized it wasn't just the systems, execution and team, but also our leadership capacity- and our ability to navigate through decisions effectively.
Scaling isn't just a business challenge- it’s a leadership challenge.
And so we set off to begin to optimize our leadership.
What Helped Us Move Faster
➡ Shifting from operator to orchestrator- seeing things from a higher vantage point helped us gain new perspectives and get out of the weeds when we were stuck
➡ Realizing we needed to keep developing ourselves- what got us here won't get us there
➡ Helping the team focus on building their leadership capacity too so we gained strength in all layers of the business
➡ Creating leverage so we didn't get so bogged down- working smarter to drive growth, not just keep up with it.
The Business Grows When Leadership Does
A business doesn't just grow. It takes intention and it takes energy from all parts of it to flourish into a business that can be sustainable. And that sustainability in growth comes from stepping into new levels of leadership, trusting the team, making faster calls, and focusing on what's next as well as what's now.
The Real Question
So my question isn't "how do I scale the business", it's "how do I grow my leadership to accelerate business growth".
Because the truth is the business will never outgrow our ability to lead it, and if we fine tune leadership it will scale with more speed, clarity, and impact.
