Fast Growth
The Leadership Journeys: Fast Growth
It was a tech startup coming out of Northwestern University. I met the founder through a mutual acquaintance. We were both young and ambitious—and rather full of ourselves. I jumped in to help up in the early stages. I had lots of contacts in the real estate sector, a market the startup was keen to start with. When I introduced my founder friend to a large whale, things went really fast.
Fast forward three months. We won the deal and had a huge windfall of cash coming our way.
Then things went south.
The founder assembled all the contributors to define ownership percentages and technology rights. He brought in a CEO with years of experience, a guy no one met before. Everyone was on their heels. The vibe of the meeting was … weird. People were being strong-armed into agreeing to things they didn’t quite understand. I was pretty much left out of things. I thought this was more than odd given my sweat equity up to that point.
When the meeting was over my friend asked me to come on and lead sales. I respectfully declined. He was shocked. When pressed to give an explanation, I just said “I don’t know man, it just doesn’t feel right”.
Fast forward two years. My founder friend and his CEO fought tooth and nail ever since that first meeting. Most of the originators were gone. The CEO wrestled the tech away from the founder and continued to develop the company his way with his people. My founder friend went to get an MBA and reassess.
When things go fast, intentionality is a must! We suggest there are three things to be intentional about:
Being a person worth following
Providing crucial clarity around mission, vision and values
Building a great team
Being a person worth following is all about being authentic and approachable. Being an authentic leader in fast growth mode is to roll with the punches with grace and lean on your values when forks in the road come at you. Being approachable is about letting others have an opinion that may differ from your own and being open to feedback.
You will also need to provide crucial clarity in the areas of Purpose, Vision and Values. You will need to passionately articulate your why (Purpose) and remind people over and over again what it is and why it matters. You need to set a course and provide the plan to get there (Vision) and you will need to keep your culture intact (Values) as you navigate wherever the journey takes your organization.
You also need to build a great team. You need to get the right people in the right seats. You need to motivate and develop them. You need to give them a path to grow. And you need to help them lean into healthy conflict when necessary to maintain a healthy culture. Most of all, you need to build and maintain trust at all times, because you’ll need to move fast and trust allows you to do that well.
How we focus you in on these three pillars is outlined in our Rootstock Fast Growth Journey Map.