Growth is one of the corporate world’s favourite buzzwords but few company leaders know how to plan, manage or communicate it properly. You often hear: grow the profit; grow the team; grow your markets.
I use the G-word myself but, as leaders, we need to remember we are not operating robots in a Miracle-Gro garden centre, we’re managing people in a high-stress environment.
Working in a fast-growing, highly profitable company is very exciting professionally and intellectually, but what’s the human cost of doing business at such speed?
Wellbeing expert Jen Fisher, who spent 30 years with Deloitte, believes the current target-based approach isn’t working. “We need a systems approach that aligns human thriving with business performance. The truth is stark: the systems we have built were not designed to optimise both.”
Fisher thinks a focus on “human sustainability”, a blend of purpose and wellbeing, is the way to solve workplace issues like burnout, quiet quitting and low performance. We need to see the whole system, not just our part in it.
She has coined the term Wellbeing Intelligence and says the approach is about “understanding how our organisational structures, leadership behaviours, team dynamics and individual experiences interconnect to create the conditions for sustainable human potential. It’s about moving beyond surface solutions to address the deeper patterns that shape our workforce experience.”
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Growth for growth’s sake is a waste of time and resources. Companies need to strategically decide on the pace of growth, ensure it is sustainable longer term and match the human, financial and organisational parts of the business with that level of expansion. So if you work in this type of environment, how can you effectively manage yourself, your workload and your team?
First you need to realise – whether you’re the boss or the employee – that growing pains are natural for any expanding company. Organisations are made up of people. It will take time and effort for them to embrace the company’s new direction.
Humans don’t generally like change. Growth means roles and reporting lines may be adjusted. Employees may also need to take on additional work after colleagues get promoted, new workers join the team or others leave and are not replaced. They might be afraid that they’re losing something in the transition: status, friendships, identity or power.
When high-growth clients come to us for help, they tend to lack clarity on how to motivate their teams during this change. If they’re so excited about the opportunity, why isn’t everyone else, they wonder?
Creative visualisation and role-play are powerful ways to help senior management teams agree on their growth strategy and how to communicate it. I usually start with a simple drawing exercise, no artistic talent required, where each participant draws a bus.
The bus represents the business. What tends to emerge as the exercise progresses is that the team has been happily boarding this reliable model of bus for years. It’s well designed, durable and they all know where everything is located. Occasionally, outdated items or processes are replaced. Everyone, despite not knowing where the bus is going, has been sitting in the same seats and happily plodding along for years.
Then, from their point of view, the founder/chief executive has a figary or whim and decides – without asking – that they all want a bigger, better bus. Not only that but the chief executive has decided on something ambitious and, in their eyes, possibly unattainable. Perhaps they’re going to enter a competition to race their super bus in France? Nobody speaks French or knows how to drive the bus but it’s very important apparently that they grow into this new challenge. How would that make you feel?
When a manager asks you take on something new, always say yes and then ask ‘What do you want me to stop doing?’
Founders and leaders are hyperfocused on the outside world – market and economic conditions, funders, customers, board demands, politics – so they sometimes forget that they haven’t communicated the “why” to the staff. Why is this change needed? What happens if we don’t change? What are the wonderful opportunities for everyone if we make these changes together? How can we help one another to overcome the barriers to change?
Once the senior management team has those answers, they need to share them with every member of the team. It can’t just be a one-off like a town hall, it has to be repeated in almost every interaction to ensure the idea gains traction.
In your company, a growth strategy might be communicated by a poster on the wall, a PowerPoint deck, a written report with lots of infographics or all three. But, those tools mean nothing if managers have not interpreted what this means for you as an individual.
They want you and the team to get on the super bus but you don’t know where to sit or what you’re meant to do. It’s not a formula for a successful journey.
Helen Tynan, a HR leader in multinational companies in Ireland over the past 20 years, says it is hugely important that you invest in your team, especially during times of change. “Weekly team meetings and one-to-ones with everyone are sacred times. You can do so much with a team meeting: have fun, allow for decompression, enable learning and create a safe environment.”
Team time should always be two-way communication as a loyal team is developed by feeling listened to and heard, she says. Psychologically, safety is everything.
“Your job is to remove the obstacles that hold them back. Let them talk out loud, bounce things off you. Trust them and give them the space to succeed. And always give them credit when they do make suggestion,” says Tynan.
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In periods of growth there’s the very real issue of more work coming at you than you can possibly manage, says Tynan. “You definitely need to ask about how to prioritise and manage your time and help others do the same.”
Individuals may naturally be a bit reticent when asked to assume more responsibilities. “When a manager asks you take on something new, always say yes and then ask ‘What do you want me to stop doing?’,” says Tynan. “It’s even better to do it in a visual way on a whiteboard or flip chart or using post-its. What can be delegated? What work is nobody missing? What are the pet projects?
“Get the whole team to do it, then move it into buckets and ask: what can we park for a while? What are the must-dos? What’s the new stuff?
“When you’re holding it all in your head, it feels bigger and more overwhelming. On paper, a spreadsheet or a board, it’s easy to see what you don’t need to do any more. Getting organised together is really important.”
If the company is truly serious about growing the business, then the organisational chart you have today is unlikely to be the same in three years. This can be a painful realisation as you’ve probably built strong personal relationships with your team. Be realistic about this and write up the organisational chart of the future together. It should include the skills, attitudes and behaviours you need to get where you want to go.
With smart planning and strong communication, you’ll all get the wheels on the super bus going in no time.
Margaret E Ward is chief executive of Clear Eye, a leadership consultancy. margaret@cleareye.ie
