Building a senior team for a growing or established business is difficult, really difficult. The founders, partners or family will have created an organisation and as that changes they know how important it is to build the capability to allow the business to evolve.
Often the founders will play lip-service to delegation and more often than not on failure this is cited as reasons why companies struggle to grow and evolve from early-start to high-growth. But this is not the core problem.
Nor is the core problem the technology, business processes or culture. These are again cited reasons a business has stagnated. “We can’t sell enough widgets as we don’t have a good CRM / Cashflow is a major issue as Accounts Receivables is not automated etc”.
Getting any sort of Transformation right (whether growth, automation, digital or cost efficiency) requires a sustained and courageous team effort.
If one considers any top-of-the-league sports team they will have stars with varying levels of talent but they take to the field as equals. They play for each other and they individually use the other members of the team to increase their own capability. By way of example, Lionel Messi is without equal with the ball at his feet but without a talented team he would win nothing. He has the capability to lift an average team and the team will elevate their play towards him but overall he is part of a successful unit that single-mindedly acts as a team.
Modern founders need to act the same way, they are uber passionate, committed and experienced in their business. They are the Lionel Messi of their trade. But, if they can’t structure a team and work as part of that team they can’t elevate to the success they desire. In many cases the founders need to match their strategy to the capability of the team rather than design a strategy which can only be implemented if they cookie cutter themselves.
This is often reflected on by many great chefs who make their name initially by an outlandishly successful first restaurant. Those that make it to build a successful restaurant group show they can build a talented team and learn to work with them and lift them gradually to a scale operation.
The challenge to a founder is threefold.
Firstly, to find those that are proven team players and assemble a team that can play for each other, that recognises talent and capability ahead of title and that each member of the team plays for, develops and learns from each other.
Secondly, the founder needs to adapt to become a team player, they remain the manager but must also be the team captain, accountable to their stakeholders but they are also part of the team that must work as one with joined up laser focus on how the company steps through growth and stabilisation phases.
Finally, they need to lead, to find, to innovate and to strategise — it is their ambition, vision and crazy goals that will create the momentum and opportunities to drive the company forward.
Founders, if you want your Enterprise to change invest your energy first in building the right team AND becoming a team player. Together you’ll then be able to take on your Transformation challenges and reach for the stars.