All in!

An all too common question working with entrepreneurs and investors who are experiencing accelerated growth is succession at the top. Leadership.

As a young company the founder is the sole steward of engagment and alignment. He/she defines the organization’s culture, it’s purpose, and it’s strategy. With growth the founder’s passion for building something bigger gets systems, processes, and more formal structures to grow and flourish. A leadership team is added. Transformation, scaling, leading indicators, margin, top line growth, risk, rotating, pivoting, growth, long tail all become much used words. The founder often at this point passes the torch to a new leader of the organization. Now talented men and women are entrusted with inspiring the organization and leading the charge for revenue growth.

The race for revenue growth is dependant on your Leadership and Culture. They are two sides of the same coin. The leaders in most small to medium size businesses are attracted to the entrepreneurial culture, the opportunity to be seen, the opportunity to make an impact, to work with a dynamic leader. The culture is founded on values of transparency, do what it takes, a family, trust, inclusiveness, and being part of something that matters. The organization transformation that often follows is a well tread path. Growth, awards, annual increases, bonus payments, long term incentives. Success becomes the enemy. No one is hungry. The voice of the founder remains strong but the new leadership stumbles. They don’t share the founder’s values, they don’t think like owners, they lose their sense of urgency, people start to track headcount as a measure of success, margins erode, sales slip, the revenue line slows, engagement scores slip. People are looking for the company they joined. Talent leaves. What happened? Leadership and Culture.

So how do you win? Leaders contribute most and engage People when they can articulate a vision and communicate consistently about the changes being made, where there are clear definitions of roles and responsibilities, where the organization takes a strategic approach to Talent management. Leaders have the greatest impact on organization success and culture when they model the new thinking and behaviours for others to follow. That way all People in the organization have the opportunity to develop their capabilities and align with the new way of doing things.

But that is not enough! To win leaders and their teams have to be all in. It is a game of performance not of potential. Last year's touchdowns don’t win today’s game. The expectation is that each and every person is committed to bringing their best. That is what “all in” means. It is about how we prepare, how we think, and how we handle our business. It is not enough to show up. Leaders are entrusted with creating a culture of accountability. Where we have an edge on the competition. Where there is a drive to be the best not just better than the average. It’s work to win! All in.