This informal CPD article ‘Effective Leader - Role Growth’ was provided by London Optimum Training & Consultancy (LOTC), a UK-based training and consultancy provider committed to professional development and organisational performance.
For most organisations and companies, growth plays a pivotal role in their vision. When a company grows, its leaders must be prepared to adapt with it. Your role as a leader may become bigger and more strategic with each organisational transition, so anticipating change is a cornerstone of thinking like an effective leader (1).
The challenges of growth
When a company starts up, it is entrepreneurial and highly innovative. It is focused on delivering a new service to new customers quickly and efficiently. Communication is informal, and people are prepared to put in long hours. Customer feedback is quick and the small group of people responds rapidly with energy and enthusiasm. Leadership, at this stage, is about staying close to customers and staff, encouraging new ideas, and being hands-on in day-to-day operations (2).
As the organisation grows, you may start to see problems with the quality of delivery. Communication with the team may become more formal, and some of the early momentum and initiative can gradually be lost over time. More of your time will be spent on designing and implementing systems, structures, and standards. At this stage, you need to work hard at remaining accessible to people who seek your advice and resist retreating into a purely management role (3).
Learning to delegate
The next organisational transition occurs when you begin to realise that you can no longer control everything - there are simply not enough hours in the day. You may notice that team members are complaining about how long it takes for decisions to be made. They may ask for greater freedom to make their own decisions. At this point, you should recognise the need to delegate. It is essential if you are to retain and develop staff (4). You should be putting increasing amounts of your time and effort into leadership skills and communication, and less into your original expertise – for example, sales, marketing, accounting, engineering, or operations.
Importance of strong communication
As the company continues to grow, you may be part of a core leadership management team directing strategy and co-ordination. You need to become a strong communicator, as a significant part of your role is resolving tensions between local teams and central leadership. You need to manage relationships to ensure that all parts of the organisation work collaboratively and are fully committed to the overall strategy. Bear in mind the development of future leaders is essential to the long-term survival of the organisation and is another one of your new responsibilities (5).
Final thoughts
It is interesting to note that effective leadership management means growing as the organisation grows. As an organisation, or company gets bigger, a leader’s role changes from doing everything themselves to guiding others and making bigger decisions. Strong leadership skills, such as clear communication, delegation, and supporting staff, become more important over time.
Leaders need to stay approachable, encourage teamwork, and help people develop their own skills. By preparing for change and supporting future leaders, organisations are more likely to stay focused, motivated, and successful in the long term, even as challenges increase and structures become more complex.
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REFERENCES
(1) Greiner, L. E. (1998). Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow. Harvard Business Review.
(2) Adizes, I. (1988). Corporate Lifecycles: How and Why Corporations Grow and Die and What to Do About It. Prentice Hall.
(3) Goldsmith, M. (2007). What Got You Here Won't Get You There. Hyperion.
(4) Charan, R., Drotter, S., & Noel, J. (2001). The Leadership Pipeline: How to Build the Leadership Powered Company. Jossey-Bass.
(5) Rothwell, W. J. (2010). Effective Succession Planning: Strategies for Systematically Developing Your Organization’s Talent. AMACOM.
