Leading at Scale
When to Re-evaluate Your Approach
First things first, what do we mean when we talk about leading at scale?
Leading at scale means your skills, expertise, and bandwidth is growing proportionally to your remit. When done well, it allows you to effectively handle the current needs of your role. If done really well, leading at scale allows you to look at long-term needs of your role, and the broader organization.
What happens when you don’t scale as a leader?
I won’t sugarcoat it. If you can’t scale yourself effectively, you are going to plateau in your career. That is probably the best case. Worse-case leads you to burn-out, your team becomes rudderless and starts to leave, and you fail to meet critical objectives.
Sounds horrible, so when should I think about scale?
Here are three situations where you should rethink how you are scaling as a leader.
Business Growth: Growth is a strong indicator that you should take some time to ask what’s working and what’s not working anymore? I was working with a team where the Managing Director had an all employee town-hall every month. That made sense when the team was small and it was important that everyone was in lock-step with each other. As the employee headcount grew, it became clear most people were there for the catering. The information wasn’t relevant to everyone anymore. It was time to re-think this approach.
Change: If you have moved into a new role or your existing role has changed significantly, it’s time to think about scale. Unfortunately, too many people do this reactively. When they realize their old way of doing things are no longer working. Proactively, take some time to be a scholar of your business. Examine the role’s goals, objectives, and team dynamics. Ask yourself: How do you align your team, resources, and yourself to effectively meet these needs? What processes, systems, and and structure will help you and the team achieve these goals and objectives? How do you need to change your approach to influence to achieve results?
Capacity: If you find yourself at capacity and not able to keep up, you need to reassess your scale. Your time is finite and you need to ensure you are working on the “right” things. Ask yourself: What should you start, stop or continue? What can I delegate? Where can I empower the team? Am I spending too much time in the weeds? What are my needle-movers? If you stay in a state of maxing out your capacity for too long, you will burn out. It impacts you, your team, and your business. Don’t wait until your head is under water to take action.
Been there, Done that
No, assessing your scale is an ongoing process. Growth, change, and capacity are just three factors that might signal it is time to rethink your approach to work. There are several others. Subscribe to learn more about enhancing your leadership, scaling yourself, and thriving in your career.