Finding your ideal growth rate is a bit of a Goldilocks situation. You can’t grow too fast (it's unsustainable and leads to future issues), but you also can’t take things too slow (you’ll likely lose momentum), so things need to be “just right.” When this happens, you’ll know it — because your overall success will be tempered with just the right amount of setbacks and failures to encourage learning, trying, and progressing.
The good news is that, unlike Goldilocks, you have much more control over the situation. Founders set the pace and tone for how their companies expand. It’s just about determining how to find that optimal zone for growth and then ensuring that your organization stays there.
As a founder, you and your Senior Leadership Team (SLT) need to agree on a growth rate to be marked by short- and long-term revenue and profit goals. I also strongly advise defining up to three key performance indicators (KPIs) needed to achieve these financial performance goals. Your targets should be challenging yet feasible. This helps your teams stay engaged, focused, and on track to hit these important goals.
PERSPECTIVES
“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.” — Harriet Braiker
“Rarely are opportunities presented to you in a perfect way, in a nice little box with a yellow bow on top. 'Here, open it, it's perfect. You'll love it.' Opportunities — the good ones — are messy, confusing, and hard to recognize. They're risky. They challenge you.” ― Susan Wojcicki
MARK MY WORDS
Something I deeply believe in is not just the inevitability but the necessity of failure. If you’re hitting 100% of your goals 100% of the time, it likely means you aren’t being challenged enough. And if you aren’t being challenged, you aren’t reaching your full potential.
Finding your company’s ideal growth zone means allowing yourself room for some failure so that people stay in what’s known as the “optimal stress zone” (more on that in the blog) instead of becoming complacent or overwhelmed. If things are too slow or too easy, then people can become disengaged. Entropy will begin to take over. But if everything just feels like too much, then you run the risk of people getting burnt out or spread too thin. Remember: A key component of sustainable growth is a culture in which people can focus, align, and thrive.
Striking this precarious balance means getting crystal clear on the unique needs of your company, industry, and Ideal Customers. It means having truly great people in leadership positions to help steer the ship in times of both celebration and struggle. It means enabling your team members to be appropriately challenged and fully immersed in their Work. And, perhaps most importantly, it means understanding that these targets are never static — in order to grow, we must be willing to adapt.
STAY TUNED
This episode focuses on the importance of “structure first, people second” when building a successful organization. I also share some common mistakes people make when developing structure and offer insights on how to avoid these issues.
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