We have been working with several fast-growing companies this year. Their business development is working, their reputations in their markets are dialed in. The pain for these teams are overworked and overwhelmed teammates.
XM Truth: You can’t microwave leadership capacity.
When an organization outgrows its humans, we get caught in the ultimate SMB dilemma. Should we take our foot off the marketing and sales gas? Or go find external leaders to fill our gaps?
One client said, ‘We don’t want to grow any bigger if it means we lose our culture.’ Their approach: invest in existing leaders, and only hire talent that is clearly aligned with their culture. This team and their revenue have doubled.
Other clients, without well-defined cultures, have hired outside executives to lead in critical roles. Lacking clarity and alignment allowed two of these newly hired leaders to pull the business in different directions. The result was fog, dysfunction, and strife on the leadership team. They got stuck and ended up terminating the new executives. The organizational PTSD created by this turnover has a significant recovery time.
In a fast-growing, SMB organization, the evolution and elevation of human capital must receive as much attention as your business development strategy. Tune in over the next two weeks as we share proven strategies to grow your humans in tandem with your business, and prevent getting stuck in growth.
Our M2L Workshop on January 24th provides a hands-on space for your leaders to utilize their company’s culture for future xceleration – the experience of collaborating with peers is invaluable.
