Establishing the initial growth phase

Company goals
• Launch a product that offers something different
• Grow revenues
• Capture market share

Characteristics of this phase of growth
• Fast-paced
• Highly flexible/willing to experiment
• Often chaotic
• Sales-driven
• Close to customers
• Begin to feel like a "real" company

Problems you are likely to encounter
• Days are too short
• Physically/emotionally impossible to do everything you need to do
• People want your time but can't seem to get it
• Everyone is constantly fighting fires
• You don't know which of multiple growth opportunities to pursue
• You feel pressure because you are managing all the risks alone

Dangers of not changing
• You will be resented as micro-manager and bottleneck
• People will be demotivated and wait for you to make all the decisions
• Priorities will constantly change as a "strategy du jour" or "ideas of the moment" management style dominates
• The company will lose focus
• Growth will be impeded; the company will decline

Leadership roles needed
• Delegator
• Direction setter

Critical responsibilities
• Articulate and communicate your vision and values
• Understand your personal goals for the long term
• Use scarce resources creatively
• Watch critical performance indicators, especially financial ones
• Integrate input from stakeholders with your own perspective
• Hire multitalented people whose values match yours
• Use mentors

Personal changes required
• Focus, focus, focus
• Manage proactively, not reactively
• Begin delegating your responsibilities; establish systems and structure with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, and priorities
• Stop making all the decisions
• Stop solving all the problems and answering all questions
• Trust others; make them accountable for results
• Start planning for the future instead of shooting from the hip and reacting to every new opportunity
• Accept the need for process and structure
• Share credit and limelight with others
• Consciously spend a portion of your time working on the big picture of your business, not just the day-to-day operations

After "Leading at the speed of growth" by Catlin and Matthews.

If the above issues are present in your organisation, contact Mike Robson on 0207 100 1233 or via the contact us facility