It has been said, “The ultimate purpose of any company is to grow.” Consequently, every step of growth requires planning, hard work and sacrifice. So, how do we accelerate our company’s growth without risking an employee rebellion, cash flow crisis or owner burnout?
Having experienced the realities and demands of high growth in my own companies (and as a coach/mentor to dozens), I have discovered many tools that support growth while keeping the leadership team from rebelling along the way:
Effectively communicate your high-growth mindset: If you are a visionary owner/leader, thinking big may be second nature. Your challenge then is to find effective ways to translate your vision into understandable ideas, plans and actions that motivate (rather than intimidate) fellow leaders and employees. Most people don’t share your ability for big-picture thinking, so slow down when you are introducing a concept designed to stress the company into higher performance. It is much better to invest extra time bringing others into the conversation than simply making them a part of implementation.
Continually monitor your high-growth environment: Creating and supporting a high-growth culture can be tricky. On the one hand, you recognize and reward people for innovation and aggressive actions. On the other hand, it is easy to lose sight of the company’s value for people over progress in the high-growth process. Gains created by growth can be canceled out by employee dissatisfaction and turnover. Installing consistent, creative employee feedback systems (performance reviews) will help leaders stay in touch with attitudes and allow for adjustments to maintain a healthy culture.
Choose a high-growth goal-set: When we as owners/leaders overreach, we risk losing credibility with our people. When we become complacent and settle for lesser performance, we send a message that mediocrity is acceptable. The key here is to become serious students of our own performance history, capacities, market opportunities, and relative energy level of our employees. When taken together, these key indicators will help us choose a growth goal that requires a reasonable level of healthy self-sacrifice on everyone’s part, while also offering commensurate rewards for achievement.
Identify high-growth-oriented employees: Do we take the time to really use the best predictive tools available to determine their real potential? These days, we have a host of tools that allow us to identify employees and candidates who best fit our high-growth culture. Three of my favorites are Culture Index, DISC and Ideogram.
Select a high-growth market niche: It’s critical to focus on a market niche and be the obvious choice to customers. By taking a hard look at the kinds of customers, product/service offerings and processes that combine to maximize profitability, we take a major step in securing long-term growth. As owner/leaders, we must resist the pull of more is better, because, in most instances, it is not. More is only better when it fits squarely in our lane to produce it.
Apply a high-growth marketing strategy: There has never been a time when consumers have been more bombarded with competing marketing messages. Selectivity and focus are the keys to high growth. By choosing the most laser-focused messaging methods available, we capture our target market’s attention. One such methodology (story branding) is proving to be quite effective at communicating a company’s benefits to targeted customers. This process makes the consumer the “hero” of the story and empowers them to choose what works best for them.
Provide a high-growth reward to stakeholders: Our fellow leaders, employees, vendors and community all have a stake in how we achieve our growth goals, but we often underestimate their needs. Ultimately, they will determine our success or failure. By always considering their individual and group needs, we can create an ongoing win-win company culture. Here, everyone understands exactly how they will be rewarded for their contributions to high growth and profitability.