Sometimes the most important thing an organization can do is stop trying to grow.

Orgnanizational growth is an important part of almost any organization, but sometimes trying to grow can be more detrimental than it’s worth. Here’s why.

Growth for Growth’s Sake

When in doubt, leaders start throwing around buzzwords and hope something sticks; “growth” is one of those words. How do we overcome stagnation? We grow. How do we build our brand? We grow. How do we reach more customers? We grow.

Sure, these all seem like natural progressions. After all, how do you improve your business without growth? Well, sometimes growth for growth’s sake is not only going to cause financial strain, it could undermine your organization.

From the Ground Up

I’m not usually one for metaphors, but this one just works. Imagine a huge tree in your backyard. The tree is massive, and it took years for it to grow. What is the key to the tree’s success? The answer is not that it grew quickly, or even that it grew tall. The key to the success of that tree is the underground root system.

Much like a tree, your organization’s success in the outside world – whether that is business, government, non-profit, or otherwise – is first and foremost dependent upon the internal structure.

If a tree grows too high without the proper root structure, it will be coming over in the first big wind storm. In the same way, if your organization grows so fast that its internal structure can’t keep up, you won’t be able to support it when you run into problems – and trust me, you will run into problems.

Building Something Great

Too many leaders/organizations are scared to take their foot off the gas pedal in case they are run over by the competition. This mindset says that if we aren’t growing, we are stagnating, and our competitors will take over. But here is the problem with that:

Growth is not the only indicator of success.

At no point am I suggesting that you try to prevent growth; I’m saying that maybe you shouldn’t be focusing on growth. First make sure that you have the internal structure to support growth. Sometimes you will need to reorganize your organizational chart, or shift responsibilities to allow people to take on projects that fit their expertise.

Second, you have to make sure that you have something worth growing. If you are selling a product, you’d better make sure that your product is the best that it can be. If you provide a service, your customer satisfaction better be through the roof. If you are in government or politics, you’d better make sure that your support base is fully behind you. In short, sometimes you need to focus more on the products/clients you already have before you should even think about expanding.

Growing Up

Eventually, it will be time for you and your organization to focus on growth. You have an internal structure that will support growth, you have a product/service that you are proud of, and your team is excited to move to the next stage. If you do all of this right, the first sign that it’s time to start focusing on growth will be that your organization has started growing without you even trying.

New customers are lining up outside your doors, your employees are coming up with new and innovative ideas for your organization, your support numbers are steadily on the rise, or whatever your indicator of growth may be. When you have something worth growing, it will start growing on its own. That’s when you know it’s time to start focusing your efforts on growth.

Dynamic Lessons

Growing for growth’s sake can actually do more harm to your organization than good. In order to sustain growth, an organization must have the internal structure to support growth, as well as a product/service that deserves to grow.

When a leader pushes the pause button and focuses on SUPPORTING growth, it will put that organization in a position to SUSTAIN growth at a later date.

Have you ever had to push the pause button on growth in order to improve what already exists? Or have you had different experiences with growth, either positive or negative? I’d love to hear about them in the comments section below!

The post Why You Need to Stop Focusing on Organizational Growth appeared first on Great North Dynamics.

In previous leadership roles, I would lead a group of peers to complete a certain task. In this position, my job was to mentor and cultivate young leaders.

Your job as a leader is to replace yourself

When I first started in this role, I had a sit-down meeting with my supervisor who ran the program. In that meeting, he told me something that I will never forget. “Kyle,” he said, “your job as a leader is to replace yourself.” It took me three years to figure out what that meant and why it was the best advice anyone had ever given me..

As a new leader, I didn’t want to be replaced. After all, I had worked hard to get to where I was and I liked my position. I worked with high school students and got to play games and goof off. I had just the right amount of responsibility: enough to be a part of the leadership team but not enough to have to worry about anything particularly difficult. I had a good gig and didn’t want to lose it. But then I grew as a leader.

Leaders should never be stagnant

Leaders should never be stagnant — perhaps the topic of a future post.

The day you stop developing as a leader is the day you should consider changing positions.

Over the next couple of years I developed and matured as a leader and I became ready for more responsibility and for a new and exciting role in the program. Not only was I ready to move up, but our program went through a two-year period of high attrition where we lost most of our long-term, senior leaders. In three years I went from being a rookie junior leader to one of the longest-serving leaders.

It was time for me to move to a more senior position inside the organization, but to do that I had to replace myself. Luckily, thanks to the advice and counsel of my supervisor and mentor, I had been mentoring other people to become leaders, and there were people ready and willing to step into my role. The transition from one position to the next was made that much simpler by the fact that I had someone ready to step into my role.

Do not let an opportunity pass you by because you failed to create a succession plan

You may be thinking that you will not be getting a promotion any time soon, so why bother mentoring someone to take over your position? That’s a good question. The answer lies in organizational growth.

When your organization grows, your organizational need for leaders will also grow. Maybe that person you are mentoring is not going to replace you; maybe there will be a new position that is created that needs to be filled and you have already mentored this person to take on the leadership responsibilities of that role.

On the other hand, as an organization grows, maybe there will be a new position created for you and even though you are not being promoted, you still need someone to take over the role you held previously.

The point of replacing yourself is to be ready for organizational change. You never know when an opportunity will arise, and if you are not ready to grow not only as an organization but as an individual, you can miss the opportunity. Do not let an opportunity pass you by because you failed to create a succession plan.

No room for insecurity

There is an instinctive fear within human beings of being replaced. It is the classic dictator mentality: if someone else becomes too powerful, they might depose me. This is why some leaders choose to not groom their own replacements.

This mentality will stifle the growth of your organization and will turn you into an ineffective leader. If you are worried about someone replacing you, you should focus on making yourself better, not on making everyone else worse.

There is no room for insecurity in leadership.

You are paralyzing your team if you do not mentor your team members to be the best leaders that they can be. Edwin Catmull, head of Pixar Studios, wrote in his book, Creativity Inc. (co-authored by Amy Wallace), that he promotes independence, leadership, and responsibility among all of his staff. He empowers his staff to fix issues as they come up rather than have to go through an approval process. Leaders empower others.

A strong leader should always be looking for someone to replace them.

Such a mentality profits the organization as a whole. Your protege will bring new ideas to the table that you never would have considered; their experience will provide a new lens that could benefit everyone. Even if your protege does not end up replacing you, by involving them in the leadership process, you open yourself up to the influence of their creativity. This addition to your vision is invaluable.

So, if you are insecure about your position in your organization and are worried that if you begin mentoring someone that they may replace you, it is time to take a gut check.

Your insecurity is paralyzing your organization and you need to start empowering the people you work with rather than compete with them.

Dynamic lessons

Stagnancy not only kills leaders, it kills organizations. You should always be looking for people who can replace you so that you can move forward to bigger and better things. If you fail to create a succession plan, you may miss out on an opportunity simply because you can’t afford to pass the torch on to someone else.

If you are insecure about your position and find yourself competing with your team rather than empowering them, you have a problem. While healthy competition is good for an organization, leaders should be focused on the future, not on maintaining the present.

Have you ever made a succession plan or been involved in such a plan? How did it work? What worked well for you? What didn’t work?

Books that influenced this article:

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You by John C. Maxwell

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace

The post Leadership Succession: Why You Need to Find Your Replacement appeared first on Great North Dynamics.