When Your Company Outgrows a Senior Leader
Growth breeds complexity.
And I’ve had the privilege of watching many of my clients grow—significantly—over the past 3-5 years in particular.
Here’s an all-too-common scenario that I see when growth takes off: that talented, dedicated leader, who has been true-blue for years, begins to falter.
- They can’t consistently hit their targets.
- They struggle to know what to do next.
- They don’t have answers and, more importantly, they don’t know how to get them.
In short, the senior leader starts to look not-so-senior anymore.
But I think it’s important to know why this happens and what the best options are when it does.
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Years ago, EO founder Verne Harnish gave me the definition of a senior leader I still use to this day.
A senior leader is someone who doesn’t need to be managed.
In other words, a senior leader excels at driving what is needed for their function. They can take the vision of the organization and translate that into a plan of action for their role and their department.
(A key note here: a senior leader still needs to be led, even if they don’t need to be managed. It’s still the CEO’s job to set the course for the organization.)
As my clients have grown, I’m seeing this happen more and more. And I think it’s an important distinction to note that this is not about the leaders somehow going backwards.
They’re just as wonderful as they always were.
The issue is that the company has grown faster than their own capabilities.
So, someone who was a senior leader in a $10M company starts to lose their way when the company hits $50M.
They need more guidance. They don’t know the best course of action.
They need to be managed.
And if they need to be managed, by definition, they are no longer a senior leader.
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What happens next?
That depends on the person and the situation. But the first step should always be an open, honest conversation.
The cliche way to say it is that the role that leader was in has outgrown the person sitting in it. It’s cliche, but it’s also true.
Avoid blaming the leader for a failure to “keep up” with the pace of change. If you do this, even subconsciously, they’ll sense it.
You have, effectively, three choices:
- Hire their boss. Your senior leader is now a mid-level leader. They can still make a major impact, but they need to take direction from elsewhere. Can you bring in a new senior leader and allow your current leader to learn from them?
- Move them out of the organization. A move into a new company may be your choice, may be their choice, may be totally mutual. This could be the best option for everyone: allowing your team member to be a senior leader in an organization that’s a better fit.
- Coach/train your leader to operate at the next level. To be honest, I almost hate to offer this option. Why? It’s what most companies would choose, but it’s the least effective choice. It often doesn’t work, and it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the leader to grow and stretch. If they ultimately can’t make it, it can kill their confidence.
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These are not easy conversations to have, nor are they easy decisions to make.
If I could offer two things to help make them easier:
1. Your responsibility is to the business first. Your job is to help the company thrive, and that responsibility extends beyond any one individual on the team.
2. If you approach these situations with compassion and genuine caring, you’ll realize that moving somebody on or changing their role can truly be the best possible choice for them. Don’t assume staying with you, in their current position, is actually the ideal scenario.
I’ve seen every version of this situation play out across the companies we work with.
The leaders who are transparent, communicate with empathy, and understand their commitment to the business consistently have the best outcomes.
Conversations like these are the hard parts of growth. If you need help navigating this kind of situation, connect with our consulting team for assistance.
