Growth is built in to the vision of most organizations; and when an organization grows, its leaders must be prepared to adapt with it. Your role as a leader may become bigger and more strategic with each organizational transition, so anticipating change is a cornerstone of thinking like an effective leader.

Start-up

When an organization starts up, it is entrepreneurial—focused on delivering a new service to new customers. Often, 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 enthusiasm and energy. Leadership at this stage is about
keeping close to customers and staff, and encouraging new ideas. As a leader, you may well be involved in frontline activities as well as decisions.

Continued growth

The next organizational transition occurs when you realize 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 begin to recognize the need to delegate— essential if you are to retain and develop staff. You should put more of your time and effort into leadership and communication and less into your original expertise—for example, accounting, sales, marketing, engineering, or operations.

Rapid growth

As the organization grows, you may start to see problems with the quality of delivery. Communication with the team may become more formal and some of the initial energy and initiative can be lost. 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.

90%
of the fastest-growing US companies are run by their founders

You should be putting increasing amounts of your time and effort into leadership and communication

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Devolution

As the organization continues to grow, you may become part of a high-level leadership team directing strategy and coordination, while a group of managers in business units lead teams on a devolved basis. You need to become a strong
communicator because a significant part of your role is resolving tensions between devolved units and the center. You need to manage relationships to ensure that all parts of the organization 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 organization and is another one of your new responsibilities