Your leadership team is blocking your growth - and you probably already know it

Across multiple startups and scale ups, I have seen the same thing. The leadership team has been promoted because they were there first, and are people who are good on the tools. They are outstanding operators; consultants, developers, and delivery leads. But are they people who can drive change, nurture capability in others and have vision? Often, no. 

Managers who lack confidence in themselves are a scaling business’s worst nightmare. 

They do not approach hiring and scaling with the same lens as others who are more secure in their own capabilities. They tend to reject candidates based on trivial reasoning e.g. the candidate only has 3 years experience versus 4 years. When briefing recruitment, they ask for everything… and nothing. They ask for senior and experienced candidates, only to turn around and hire people so junior that they will only ever need to manage them, rather than hiring anyone who might challenge them. This is a red flag. The most successful founders and leaders I have seen, hire people who will challenge them, who they consider to be worthy adversaries. This approach has driven success in ways that managers who don’t feel confident leading will struggle with. Resulting in below average performance from the team overall. 

Start-up / scaleups are inherently short on time. There are never enough hours in the day, so hiring becomes critical in the early stages. Being unable to compromise on skills, market knowledge or culture fit is a tricky puzzle to solve. Job descriptions become redundant quickly because they don’t do enough to cover the shape of a person. They are prescriptive and don't allow for creativity when the business is ever-evolving. 

The issue comes with immature leaders, who are unable to see the grey areas, and within the grey areas, the possibility and innovation. Instead they choose to hire the same type of people, who are not going to rock the boat, or question authority, but operate transactionally. There is a time and place for both, but in the early stages of growth, hiring people who are purpose driven, hungry to be a part of something bigger and look for business opportunities will see you grow much quicker than the ‘safe’ hires. 

The solution here isn't a people problem - it's a structure problem. The operators who got promoted aren't failing because they are bad. They are failing because they’re in the wrong shape of role. The founder’s job is to see that and act on it. Taking steps like investing in coaching to bring them into the leadership role, or even restructuring so they can focus their brilliance where it shines fully. It goes without saying that sometimes people are good for your business for a short period of time and then it’s time to part ways with them. Don’t be afraid to pull the plug. 

A strong leadership team can make or break a business and the more junior team members will not tell you what you really need to hear until it’s too late. 

If this resonated, I work with founders and C-Suite teams on how best to scale their businesses. Reach out for an initial chat.