RICK RITTMASTER, STRATEGIC TALENT PARTNERS – November 2024
I’ll never forget a conversation with an Owner of a construction company who was feeling stressed out and worn thin. We were discussing some of the many challenges that he had with his team, and finally I asked him, “if everything was perfect, what would that look like?”
He paused and responded, “The company would look like it did in 2016.”
I’ve thought about that interaction a lot. On the one hand, I understand and empathize with this Owner. Life really was easier for him in 2016. There were less “people problems” to solve. The work was actually “the work” of design and construction. So, on the one hand, the company was in a sweet spot. On the other hand, the challenges we discussed were the result of growing the company. In some respects, he had “earned” the right to confront these issues because he had more clients, bigger revenues, and a larger team. Not to mention that Strategic Talent Partners doesn’t actually have a time machine, so we can’t really help with the direct request.
Leadership Looks Different in Growing Companies
There’s a common dilemma that many companies struggle with as they grow. They need more leaders, because they have more people. But it isn’t just the number of leaders that is important – it is also the ability of these leaders to operate in a growth environment.
The first strategy is usually to ask technical experts to step up and fill the leadership gap. This usually works for a bit because the person is an expert and can easily determine right/wrong and good/bad in the performance of the team. The risk is that over time this person relies on (increasingly outdated) technical knowledge to instruct their team and often lacks leadership skills like setting goals, coaching and feedback, recognition, and holding people accountable. Over time technical experts struggle because their focus is on the work more than the people.
Ultimately, the best companies learn that they need leadership who can operate in a growth environment. Executives in these companies not only prioritize leadership as a skill set, but they can also define why certain skills are important and how those skills show up in the daily task of leading others.
The Opposite of Growth Leadership is Flat Leadership
It’s a myth that most leaders are bad. Bad leaders are easy to spot and usually are exited from the company or move to another role. It’s much riskier, and much more likely, that a company suffers from Flat Leadership. Flat Leadership is the opposite of Growth Leadership. It is defined by holding on to subject matter expertise, reinforcing the status quo, shying away from healthy conflict, and seeking easy, attainable goals.
In our experience, Flat Leadership is very common. It is often the result of elevating technical experts or people that have prolonged tenure with the company into leadership positions out of necessity. It also happens when a company isn’t thoughtful around the skills necessary to operate in a growth environment.
Prioritizing Growth Leadership
The first and most important step a company can take to embrace Growth Leadership is to prioritize leadership as its own skill set. Devote time, energy, and resources to making sure that leaders can work on the essential skills just the same as you’d expect your technical experts to work on their technical abilities. The work of a people leader is to lead people, and it takes effort to do that well.
Assuming I already have you onboard with this step, there are some important actions you can take:
- Define What Good Leadership Looks Like at Your Company: What do your best leaders do really well? What does the ideal leader do to make a positive impact? What skills do you wish your leaders had? Growth leadership emphasizes not just the skill, but how the skill is used. Often that means tailoring or adjusting how to use the skill at your company.
- Attach these skills to management processes: We like to refer to management processes as systems, or habits. These systems are helpful for leaders because they take the guesswork out of when and where to use the skills. When the manager is setting goals, they should be thinking about creating clear expectations. When the manager is doing a quarterly check-in, they should think about coaching and giving feedback.
It takes time to build familiarity with Growth Leadership. It can feel uncomfortable at first. But eventually, with attention on the right skills used at the right time, leaders get better. Teams become more collaborative and effective. Companies continue to grow and thrive.
You Can’t Go Back to 2016 – The Only Way is Forward
Remember our friend who wanted the time machine? Unfortunately, he did not get what he wanted, but I’d like to think he got something even better. He and his leadership team diligently worked to define what good leadership looks like at their specific company. Every leader in the company chose two skills to develop. We held bi-annual leadership workshops and connected these skills to annual management activities.
It wasn’t an overnight impact, but here is what ended up happening: they exited one leader from their leadership team after addressing overwhelmingly flat leadership tendencies. They improved their management team’s ability to engage in healthy conflict, uncovering a host of process improvements. They improved their ability to get more work done, faster. The business continued to grow. And, arguably most importantly, the Owner isn’t wishing it was 2016.
Curious to know if your company’s leaders are Flat or Growth oriented? Use this assessment to find out!
