Is Fear Interfering with Your Strategy?

Photo by Sivani Bandaru on Unsplash

Hey Founder,

So, you’re having a hard time letting go of the control you held over your company — the control that worked very well in turning an idea into a viable and fast-growing business?

I get it. During the Go-Go phase of your company, you had a handful of employees who looked to you to solve all the problems, big and small. That played well with you because you’ve always seen yourself as a problem solver and multi-tasker, right?

But now your hands-on approach is starting to get in the way, although you might not see it that way. You hired some new people who you looked to for additional leadership — people with some serious marketing, sales and operations chops — as you grew from your handful to several dozen people. The idea was to empower your vice presidents and directors to run the business so you could get out in front of it by more than a few days or hours. 

And you did empower them. You spent a lot of time helping them understand your values and mission so they could help you take your company to the next level. Those retreats that are happening every 90 days or so are serving their purpose. You have an aligned, clear Playbook that your entire company, especially your leaders, can use to accelerate the business. 

The problem is that your empowerment only extends through periods when things are going well. It falls apart when, halfway through the month, something goes wrong or sideways or not according to plan and fear sets in. A couple of missed sales or revenue goals and all that careful work you put in to empower your new leadership vanishes in an all-hands-on-deck call to get those numbers up today!

I know you’re scared of not hitting your revenue or monthly sales goal. I mean, those 50 salaries and all that overhead aren’t going to pay for themselves, right? But you have to remember that a goal is not a strategy. And meeting a sales goal or revenue goal won’t get you safely through Adolescence because this period requires, by definition, that you become more strategic and long-term in your thinking. That’s what Adolescence means.

You have to get past this idea that navigating the Adolescence phase means meeting one monthly revenue or sales goal after another. Can you get past this? I think you have to. When you pull every member of your team off whatever they’re doing halfway through each month to meet goal, you are effectively hitting a restart on your growth plan every month. I’ve seen this done before and it won’t work. You will lose people. You will lose market share. You will lose your passion for what got you there.

The solution is to return to your strategic playbook, the one you nailed with your team that defined who you are, who your customer and market are, what you stand for in the deepest possible way and what is most important to do right now. Up to a point, this may have meant trying to be a lot of things to a lot of people, but now this has changed. You did your research and planning and realized you have reached a point where you need to focus on generating the right kind of sales to the right kind of customer. 

So do it. You’ve hired good people and trained good people and given them the strategy or playbook they need to make good decisions without you. That's how you scale, right? Scaling is a process. It may take many months or, more likely, several years with all the usual ups and downs to begin working. It rarely, and probably never, works by whipsawing back and forth every month as budgeting forecasts are met or not.

Let me leave you with this suggestion. You have got to where you are today by trusting your gut and inspiring others with your vision. I urge you to see your decision to scale your business by empowering others to run the day-to-day as a smart one and a good gut call on your part. Follow your head and your gut and focus on easing off the control switch.

Be patient. Your strategy is well-thought-out and will work… just breathe and practice faith and patience. 

And let me know if there’s anything I can do to help.

Sincerely,

Rob Craven, ScalePassion

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