By Mary Nutting, Co-Founder, Strategic Talent Partners
At Strategic Talent Partners, we’ve spent decades helping growing companies strengthen their leadership structures – and we’ve learned that scaling a business is never just about hitting the next number. It’s about building the leadership capacity to take you there.
That’s why we created the Growth Leadership Model™, a framework rooted in experience that helps leadership teams evolve in step with their company’s growth. The model outlines four stages: Foundational, Emerging, Scaling, and Enterprise. Each stage reflects a shift in how leadership must operate to support growth.
Foundational
Leading Individuals
Establish leadership clarity and foundational structure to support growth
- Focus on shorter term growth plan
- Flat structure
- CEO/Owner involved in day to day
- Multi-functional leadership
Emerging
Leading Leaders
Formalize leadership accountability to include middle management and professionalize management abilities
- Plan for 3+ year growth
- Introduce middle management
- CEO/Owner/Leaders specialize in functional leadership
- Professionalize people management abilities
- Leaders working cross functionally
Scaling
Leading Functions
Strengthen the leadership team and organizational structure, introduce succession planning and measure leadership effectiveness
- Plan for 5+ year growth
- Align departments and functions to support scale
- Coach leaders to develop other leaders
- Introduce succession and talent pathways
- Develop KPI’s to measure leadership effectiveness
Enterprise
Leading Enterprise
Drive growth and transformation through leadership evolution, strategic clarity, and cultural alignment
- Plan for 10-year growth including a new strategic plan for next horizon (2.0)
- Identify new departments/functions/roles to support growth
- Implement company-wide succession plan
- Build enterprise-wide talent management systems
- Reassess and reinforce cultural alignment at scale
If you’ve moved beyond the start-up phase, added your first dozen or more employees, and are now facing the realities of building a leadership team – welcome to the Emerging Stage.
The Emerging Stage: Leading Leaders
This is the phase of leading leaders. The business has outgrown flatness. A founder-led model – where one or two people are making all the decisions – starts to become a bottleneck. You’re now building a leadership layer, and your success hinges on whether those new leaders are equipped to lead.
At this stage, the CEO or owner is still deeply involved, but the Company now needs to start specializing in functional leadership, and empowering others to take ownership of their respective areas of accountability. Teams begin to plan for 3+ year growth, and leadership becomes more formalized.
Many of the leaders in Emerging-stage companies are first-timers. They’ve grown with the company and bring deep institutional knowledge – but they may lack experience in people management. Without intentional development and structure, this can lead to friction, burnout, or inconsistency.
Startups that fail to build in structure and middle management around 30 employees often stall or hit coordination challenges.
What to Prioritize
1. Introduce Middle Management with Clear Accountability
This is the time to create a true leadership layer. Functions like Head of Sales or Head of Operations start to emerge. Define specific levels and titles of roles, responsibilities, and performance expectations clearly.
2. Professionalize People Management Skills
Strong individual performers aren’t always natural managers. Invest in foundational leadership development – things like coaching, feedback, and delegation. The ability to lead others is now a business imperative.
3. Specialize Functional Leadership
Founders begin to step back from wearing all the hats. Functional leaders now take ownership of results in their area. Specialization creates focus and allows for deeper strategic thinking and the Founder to work ‘on’ the business.
4. Encourage Cross-Functional Collaboration
As roles become more defined, silos can emerge. Create opportunities for cross-functional teamwork through shared projects, aligned KPIs, and leadership team cadences. This maintains agility as complexity increases.
5. Extend the Planning Horizon
Move beyond short-term firefighting. Begin looking 3-5 years out. What leadership will the business need then? Which current team members can grow into that? How do you start preparing now?
How STP Helps
We support companies in the Emerging stage by:
- Coaching first-time managers and rising leaders
- Clarifying leadership team structure and responsibilities
- Creating early-stage development plans and accountability systems
- Guiding founders through the transition from operator to strategic leader
We also help you navigate one of the hardest transitions: letting go. Many founders struggle with this – not because they don’t trust their people, but because the business has been so personal. We help make that shift smoother and more strategic.
Final Thought
The Emerging stage is where leadership starts to scale. It’s where a founder becomes a CEO – and where individual contributors begin leading others.
It’s also one of the most transformative stages of business. With the right structure and support, your leaders grow in step with your company. And that’s what builds the momentum for everything that comes next.
If you’re beginning to feel the strain of growth or the weight of leading alone, we’d be honored to help you build a leadership team that can carry the business forward – together.
