Common Pitfalls of Business Growth

Our coaching team has worked with hundreds of scaling companies over the years, and here are three of the most common and important pitfalls leadership teams face, and how to avoid them.  

1. Weak Company Culture

Having a strong company culture is at the heart of a successful company.  Think about some of the most successful companies in the world and how those companies use their strong culture as a solid foundation to build upon.   

When I say culture, what I am referring to is having a strong purpose (Why you exist), Core Values (internal rules on how to behave), and a BHAG (Big Harry Audacious Goal) that guides the leadership team and the entire company daily. Every company has a culture, even if you didn’t create it intentionally, so you better create it yourself instead of it happening on its own.   

As you continue to scale the company, the culture will guide you to stay true to your purpose and long-term goals.  The core values will keep the team focused on the right behaviors. Culture comes to life when you constantly talk about and live it.  

2. Unclear Communication

Leaders need to be consistent with communicating your purpose, core values, and BHAG to your team every chance you get.  It takes people 21 times to hear something before it really starts to stick, so you have to repeat, repeat, and repeat yourself.  

Your people are busy with their daily tasks and aren’t thinking “Big Picture” the way you are. Often leaders fail to consistently communicate due to their own assumptions.  These assumptions can be the thought that everyone is on the same page, or that repeating yourself is insulting to the team. Taking a step back and reflecting, asking yourself what your assumptions are, or justifications are, can be extremely beneficial in avoiding this pitfall or recovering from it.    

You should be talking about the goals for the year, quarter, or week. Communicate and rally the team about a big initiative you are working on and need everyone to participate. Communicate anything that is important, and everyone needs to know.   

We see all the time how the lack of communication causes the team to be misaligned, misinformed, or unmotivated.  The more you communicate with your team, the more they will understand their part in helping the company achieve its goals.

3. Lack of Accountability

This is probably the biggest obstacle we see when helping a company scale. You need to create a culture of accountability.  How do you make that happen?  Well, let’s start with the first two pitfalls we have already discussed.  

It is hard to hold people accountable if they don’t know what is expected, so you must always communicate your culture to your team.  You also need to communicate what you expect everyone on the team to accomplish.   

Does every team member know the metrics they are responsible for achieving? Are their goals clear and visible to all?   

Follow this simple formula: Create a process or goal, teach and communicate it to everyone on the team, get them to commit and agree that they have all the tools to accomplish it, and then have a time and place to hold them accountable.  If you do all these steps, you can then hold everyone accountable to do them all.  

To build organizational strength, you need to create a strong culture to guide the organization, communicate regularly what the team needs to know, and hold everyone accountable to company processes, metrics, and living your core values.  If you do all this effectively, you will have a much greater chance of hitting all your goals and, creating a more dependable team, and preparing for the next stage of growth.