Growing companies, no matter what size, experience growth trauma at some point as they grow. Asking a CEO if they are experiencing any growth trauma, is a great conversation starter.
The language may stop them for a minute or they may react right away and talk about some aspect of their company that is struggling. In my case, because of my personal experience, I can give them examples of what growth trauma looked like for us as we grew.
Causes of Growth Trauma:
Internal:
Business as a machine model (people are cogs in wheels)
Imbalance of builders and protectors
I’m right, you’re wrong syndrome
Not doing the right thing
I can do it better myself syndrome
External:
Market forces
Vendor forces
Customer migration
Shifts in strategic partners
Symptoms of Growth Trauma:
Low voltage of low morale
Staff turnover
Prevalent gossip
Growing customer service problems
Loss of confidence
Loss of trust
Getting a CEO to talk about these concerns is easy. If you can help a CEO recognize the growth trauma that’s building up in their organization (think the 27 challenges), you can eventually explain that your process, the Stages of Growth X-Ray™ helps combat growth trauma in three distinct ways:
- Through the use of online assessments that are stage-specific, people can get to the heart of their issues quickly
- Provides a language of growth that gets to the root cause of that growth trauma in a short period of time
- Creates alignment around the top issues that everyone agrees must be addressed right away
Solutions to Growth Trauma:
We start with better communications. According to a recent Harvard Business School article:
“Managers need to be trained to have more frequent meaningful and individualized conversations with employees. The reality is that most employees rarely have conversations with their managers. Nearly 47% of employees say they receive feedback from their manager a few times a year or less.”
Having every single employee create their own key indicators that help show them when they are being successful! Growth trauma hits employees hard many times because they don’t understand what’s going on in the company. When information isn’t being shared, people start making up their own version of what’s going on. That creates gossip and gossip creates growth trauma.
And ultimately, the best cure for Growth Trauma is:
You guessed it! The Stages of Growth X-Ray™!
Remember to spend time on the Membership Site and get familiar with all the tools and resources available. Holler if I can help!
Your success. My passion.
Laurie Taylor, FlashPoint!
