In my last email, I explained the value of understanding the Names of each Stage of Growth™. I’ve covered Stage 1 through 5 and In this email, I’ll talk about Stage 6 & Stage 7.
Strategic: With up to 160 employees, a CEO is facing some new challenges. They may be on the radar of larger competitors so their ability to land work may require a serious review of how professional they come across in order to compete. They are no longer a large fish in a small ocean. They are a much smaller fish in a much larger ocean and the mindset needs to shift as they land larger clients who expect a lot from their partners.
In order to keep up with the client load and the demands those clients place on the organization, systems may need to be upgraded, training must be a priority and it may be time to evaluate the Vision, Mission and Values of the organization. The CEO has to take a much longer view of where the company needs to go, hence their presence, their influence is Dominant again, and their Visionary Face jumps up to 45%.
The managers are now running the day-to-day operations and making the majority of decisions. Their Modality is Supportive, helping run the operations, helping the CEO to look at new opportunities and helping their staff recognize their Facilitative Modality. Because the managers have their hands full, the staff need to ‘make it easier’ for their managers to do their job.
The CEOs leadership style is Affiliative, a challenging style that has the leader caring more about the people than the tasks. This is appropriate because the CEO is still very much in charge of managing those managers, leaving the task work to the managers and their direct reports. Staff buy in raises its head again for all the right reasons. If the CEO isn’t paying attention, toxic managers can creep into the organization, causing staff to question everything about the organization. Why doesn’t Laurie (insert your CEOs name here) see how horrible my manager is? Doesn’t she care that he’s a bully and treats us like slaves? It can happen! It’s the CEOs job to make sure the culture and the climate they spent time developing doesn’t get destroyed by one or two bad managers.
The Builder/Protector Mindset is back up to 3:1 because that ability to take on a more strategic view is dependent upon that CEO to set a confident tone for the new adventures that may lie ahead.
Visionary: With up to 500 employees, it’s very easy for a company to discover that their products or services are no longer differentiated in the marketplace – a marketplace that changes regularly, which needs a CEO who is focused on People, exerts their influence and presence (Dominant Modality) to ensure that there is an entrepreneurial spirit that resides in the company in order to avoid complacency.
A company this size needs a strong vision and a visionary leader who can steer the ship even in turbulent waters. With this number of employees, it’s easy for non-performing employees to become invisible, they can sow seeds of discontent and create chaos. Poor managers can also hide behind past performance, eroding profits and creating customer service issues.
While the CEO is spending 75% of their time in Visionary Face, that 20% Manager Face is serious business. That time needs to be spent making sure there are daily key performance indicators coming from all managers, in order for that CEO to know when things are going according to plan, and more importantly, when they aren’t. Fixing problems takes longer so finding them sooner than later has to be a strategic focus for the CEO.
Vision isn’t always just about where the company is going. It also has to do with how employees, customers and vendors should be treated. It’s paying attention to the core values that continue to drive the right behaviors. Focusing on the critical competencies could be the hidden agent that can make a lot of difference. Those include Change Catalyst, Inspirational Leadership, Empathy, Transparency and Emotional Self Awareness.
The purpose of these emails, What’s In a Name? was to emphasize the importance of knowing and understanding the reason each stage of growth has a specific name. Use the name to help you walk a CEO through the hidden agents. You’ll find you know a lot about a company just knowing their stage of growth.
I know there is a lot of information to absorb as you learn the different aspects of the 7 Stages of Growth. Just a reminder: As soon as you start talking about the stages of growth to any and all audiences, small or large, the more confident you will become. And the sooner you actually deliver your first X-Ray, you’ll be on fire about the process and the results!
Remember:
If we HEAR something, we only remember 25% of it.
If we WRITE about something, we remember 50% of it.
If we TALK about something, we remember 75% of it.
If we DO IT, USE IT, APPLY IT, we remember 80+% of it.
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If you are looking for a resource that has ALL of the different aspects of the 7 Stages of Growth in ONE PLACE, check out my Flash Sheets by FlashPoint! It will become your go-to resource for everything you need to know about the model.
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Laurie Taylor, FlashPoint!
