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“After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.” Nelson Mandela
I have a friend, Joel, who climbs mountains. The first mountain he climbed was Kilimanjaro. He picked Killy because all he needed was a good pair of hiking boots and to be in reasonably good physical condition. After he climbed his first mountain he caught the climbing bug! He wanted to climb all the major peaks on each continent.
Whether it’s climbing mountains or leading businesses there are three leadership challenges that can stall growth, which could result in not reaching your growth objectives.
Challenge 1: Capacity
When Joel returned from climbing Killy he realized that he had reached his capacity. All he had were basic skills; he needed additional skills to do more technical climbs.
In business many of us reach our capacity. We reach a growth plateau and may not have the requisite skills to get to the next level. In fact, 85% of the barriers to growth are due to internal factors according to an Inc. study.
Perhaps reaching your capacity is caused by a growth spurt, where you as the owner or leader can no longer keep your finger on the pulse of everything going on in the business. You have to rely upon others. So how do you make that transition from being involved in all aspects of the business to relying upon others to make the right decisions?
Or, perhaps you have a good leadership team in place, but you’re not quite sure how to resource them so they are effective. You may vacillate between micromanaging and abdication because it’s hard for you to let go and when you do, things don’t go according to plan, or at least the plan you had in mind.
We all need new skills. What new skills do you need to overcome the capacity challenge that can stall growth in your business?
Challenge 2: Focus
To climb the next mountain Joel needed to focus on the goal and what he needed to do to accomplish it. With one mountain he needed to focus on his breathing, with another his strength and with others his technical abilities. He had a different focus in his training depending on which mountain he was going to climb in order to be successful reaching the summit.
One of my clients, John, would come to his team each month with a new initiative to implement. His team would stop what they were doing because it was no longer important and start working on the new initiative. After a while they went to John and said, “We don’t know what we’re suppose to do, how to prioritize things, or even where we’re going. How are we contributing to the success of the company?” John was obviously faced with some challenges in his growth as a leader.
How many of you find it hard to focus? What plan do you need to put in place to overcome this challenge so that it doesn’t stall growth in your business?
Challenge 3: Lack of Ownership
There was one mountain where Joel did not reach the summit and it was due to an ownership issue. An ownership issue occurs when there is a lack of communication; someone does not own what they should or when someone owns more than they should.
According to a global survey conducted by Ken Blanchard Companies, the biggest mistake leaders make when working with others is a lack of or inappropriate communication.
In business this can manifest in two ways. As a leader you have the responsibility to communicate the vision to your team: Why are you in business? Why is it important? Why should it matter? The second is when people don’t own the vision or values even if it is clearly communicated.
As your team grows, how many of you have fuzzy boundaries around what you own and what your team should own? Could you be owning too much? How effectively are you communicating and seeking buy-in to overcome the ownership challenge so that it doesn’t stall growth in your business?
Over the next several blog posts we will unpack each of these three challenges so your growth is not stalled.