Life was great. I was experiencing explosive growth. It felt like we were on a rocket going to the moon! Everything felt great. Then one day, the problems started happening. A couple of balls fell through the cracks. That's ok. That's the price of growth, we said. We picked up the dropped balls, apologized to the customers and continued our merry path of growth.
Then one day, it just seemed like we had too many balls falling through the cracks. Oh… and the cracks no longer felt like cracks. They felt like gaping holes! My team that seemed so reliable previously was suddenly making so many mistakes. How did this happen? How did we get here? It felt like we got here suddenly. But actually, we got here slowly, one dropped ball at a time, until we could no longer handle all the dropped and bouncing balls. Execution deteriorates slowly, then suddenly one day, we reach a critical point, and it feels like everything around us is broken.
I have seen this movie before many times. The same movie, just with different actors in different companies. I have even experienced this pain myself in my first company, as we rocketed to 151 on the Inc500 list. Growth brings its own wonderful challenges. Growth challenges us to stretch, to improve our capabilities, all while our day jobs get ever so increasingly challenging. If the team does not find ways and make time to improve their capabilities and leadership, the company will outgrow the team. The CEO then has to make a very difficult choice. "Do I replace the team that got us here? Or, do I slow down and find a way to make it happen with them?" That's what I call a Tough-Tough decision.
The hockey great Wayne Gretsky is famous for saying, "I skate to where the puck is going to
Here are 3 leading indicators that you need to work on skating to where the puck is going to be before the pain comes:
The above are all signs that execution is beginning to go from great back to good because our people are getting stretched. Time to fix your cracks. Abraham Lincoln said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe." It's time to sharpen your axe. It's time to figure out how to skate to where the puck is going to be! Here are 4 steps to skate to where the puck is going to be:
Nobody wants to replace team members. No team member wants to be replaced. I don't think any of your team members would come to work for you and say, "Hey, I totally expect the company to out grow me in 3 years, and therefore, I totally expect you to replace me. It's cool, dude." No, I don't think so!
Please share with us your experiences. How are you doing helping your executive team and other team members grow? What are your plans to skate to where the puck is going to be?