What are the best practices for scaling your leadership team as your business grows?

Aristotle wrote, to persuade others, you need ethos (character); logos (logic and supporting data); and pathos (ability to make an emotional connection). A mission statement should be simple and effective to implement across your organization as well as a solid onboarding system for new employees. This provides an understanding of expectations, and creates a sense of shared purpose and identity. When your teams understand the core values of your business, it will lead to better decision-making, greater customer satisfaction and loyalty, and improved financial results.

As a business grows and your leadership team is looking to grow with it as a principal you have to hold meetings not just with the team but with each person individually. You have to mentor the person on the direction you and the person wants to grow as well as what your business needs. I have seen in my experience that you can overlook someone’s talent and they end up leaving the business to pursue other interests.

In my experience as the business grows, you'll need leaders with different skills and expertise to manage different areas of the business. It's important to hire leaders who complement each other's skills with diverse perspectives and have the willingness to collaborate effectively

As a leader, when you think of delegating this first comes down to what can and should be delegated. TRY this exercise: On a piece of paper create 3 columns with these titles: 1. Things only I can do 2. Things I can immediately delegate 3. Things I can delegate with some training Then list all of the items under the appropriate columns and work on communicating to your team what is being asked of each of them. For those that need training ask them to put a 15 minute check in on your calendar each week to assess progress. When you do this well as a leader you are giving the gift of responsibility and growth to your team.

Effective communication is essential for scaling your leadership team. You must establish clear lines of communication, provide regular feedback, and ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities.

No two businesses are the same. As a leader, do you focus on growing in size, or on increasing the output of your teams and deliver value? If you are value driven, you understand talent is the most important asset, followed by a formal onboarding process to introduce and enforce the mission statement, how to implement, understand the importance of their position, define their level of autonomy, how they contribute to the success of business, daily/weekly goals to maintain focus, and continually looking for ways to prepare and develop employees. Correctly implemented, reviewed on a regular basis for two-way feedback, the internal pipeline grows substantially so output and employee growth scales with business growth.

As a sales leader, I always say - “We are on the same team!” It’s so important that everyone feels like they are on the same team working for a common goal. Communication is so important.

In my experience, I've seen in the A/E/C industry a challenge with encouraging team members to "fail". The fear of failure is greater than the desire to risk it and learn from it. The organizations that understand the importance of failure, and provide a safe environment to do so, flourish!

In my opinion, more companies should hire fractional leaders. Fractional leaders are the best because they can help companies without the hefty price tag of a full-time executive. It's like having specialists on speed dial for specific projects, so you only pay for what you need. Plus, these leaders often bring smart ideas from their varied experiences, adding a touch of innovation to company strategies.