This twist on Marshall Goldsmith’s What Got You Here Won’t Get You There serves to illustrate something we see time and time again in growing businesses. Companies often outgrow their original leadership. This applies not only to the senior leadership team, but to the CEO/owner as well. The talent you have at your company may have been great when you were a company of 20. Now that you are a company of 40 things are not working as well.

• The staff is finger-pointing.
• No one is being held accountable.
• Team members do not communicate even the simplest of things.
• Decisions seem to take forever.
• Problems are being brought all the way to the C suite, even minor ones.

Changes need to be made in order to move forward. As a company grows, so does the need for strong, experienced department heads. A team of professional managers. These managers can either be developed internally or hired externally. Some of the original leadership team will be able to grow with the needs of the company. Some will not. Hence, who got you here may not be able to get you to there. It can be a painful process.

This growth and development has to start at the top, with the CEO. They need to take a closer look at how they may be contributing to the issues. Sometimes it is the CEO, him or herself, that is causing the problems by remaining the hub of the wheel. They either don’t know they should be delegating more, don’t know how to delegate, and/or simply like being “in the know”.

Delegating is one of the hardest management skills to develop. It takes a mix of talent, trust, accountability, and mentorship. You need a talented team of managers that you can trust to get things done. You have to be able to hold them accountable and help them continue to develop as leaders themselves. It takes a lot of work to master, but it must be done or growth will stall.

Take a minute to understand where you are in your growth cycle. Do you have the professional managers you need to lead your organization? If you don’t, are you becoming a bottleneck by not being able to delegate properly? Get yourself in the right spot. Find the talent you need to continue the growth of your company.