It’s common for SMEs to experience a structural shift due to growth before their brand identity changes.
Rather than an expansion in office space or a large increase in customers, a more typical first indicator of growth is the transition of strong individuals who were previously contributing individually to now being Managers. A high performing salesperson transitions from selling alone to managing a team of salespeople. An operations specialist who was responsible for delivering products now manages other delivery specialists. The founder begins delegating decision-making responsibility for areas of the business formerly run out of the founder’s office.
Promoting employees solved one problem and created another
There are good reasons why SMEs typically promote employees from inside. Candidates who come from inside the organization are familiar with the product(s), know the organizational culture, and have earned the respect and trust of their coworkers. Therefore, promoting from inside is generally efficient; however, it is not low risk.
A manager must be able to prioritize, make decisions based upon incomplete data, conduct performance reviews, and establish clear direction among departments. Technical expertise does not provide assurance that a manager will be successful in these areas. A highly competent employee may be very effective at doing his/her work but ineffective at coordinating the work of others.
At this stage of the company, a structured leadership development programme provides newly promoted Managers with a framework for addressing the responsibilities associated with their new role. Responsibilities such as delegation, communication, providing feedback, allocating time appropriately, and making informed decisions are not consistently taught on the job.
If no support system exists, many first-time Managers fall into a pattern of behavior that is familiar. first-time Managers tend to continue to perform specialty tasks on their own, spend too much time directly involved in day-to-day activities, and avoid difficult conversation. As a result, the team continues to rely heavily on the first-time manager, limiting the potential for scale.
Accidental management
As newly promoted Managers advance through the ranks of the company without proper support systems in place, companies often experience “accidental” management. No one intentionally sets out to manage this way. However, the management style becomes reactionary rather than intentional. Work is assigned, but expectations are unclear. Meetings occur, but nothing results from those meetings. Issues are identified late because team members are uncertain about when to bring concerns to someone else’s attention.
In addition to creating inefficiencies throughout the organization, there are several types of friction created in various areas:
Delegation weakens: Newly promoted Managers often feel safe continuing to complete important tasks themselves. While protecting the quality of the task in the short-term, this approach weakens the ability to develop future teams. If all decisions still flow through one person, then scaling output cannot occur.
Feedback becomes unreliable: Many newly appointed Managers either do not want to discuss underperformance with peers due to relationship preservation and/or over-correct by becoming overly controlling. Both patterns destroy trust in the manager.
Priorities become unclear: Founders often believe that newly appointed Managers will automatically be able to translate corporate objectives into actionable team initiatives.
Unfortunately, translating business objectives into specific team actions requires a managerial skillset. Without this skillset, teams continue to be busy while little if any progress toward corporate strategy occurs.
While these problems may appear non-dramatic on the surface (e.g., revenue continues to grow for a period) the damage caused by lack of adequate development of new Managers can show itself in slow execution times, repetition of past errors by team members, dissatisfaction from team members, and increased workload for the founder.
Why founder led businesses experience these problems more intensely
Founder-led businesses experience this problem most intensely due to how they function during earlier Growth phases. Early phase Growth is characterized by the founder serving as both strategist/decision-maker/recruiter/culture carrier/final escalation point. As team sizes expand and complexities rise, businesses require a management layer capable of absorbing decision-making responsibilities. If newly promoted Managers are unable to act independently, then decisions simply revert upward to the founder. The founder is then forced to focus on daily operations as opposed to focusing on expanding/growing their business through new partnerships, financial planning or positioning their business in their competitive market.
Therefore, founder-led organizations often appear larger than they are on the inside. The organization appears larger externally by having increased headcount, but its level of operating maturity does not match. Instead of true scalability; additional activity just accumulates as the organization grows.
Supporting newly appointed Managers is not just soft leadership – it’s part of operational design
Therefore, supporting newly appointed Managers is not just another example of soft leadership; it is part of operational design. If an organization’s management layer is weak or unprepared to handle growing responsibilities, then the organization will never achieve true scalability. Instead, additional activity will merely accumulate.
Read more:
Why SME Growth stalls when Managers are promoted but don’t have support