Got Growing Pains? 5 Steps to Scale Your Team Successfully

Author and speaker Joe Girard once said: “The elevator to success is out of order. You’ll have to use the stairs…one step at a time.”

There is a lot we can take away from this quote when it comes to managing rapid growth within a business or team. Like we have experienced at HorizonOne, we know many Canberra businesses have also faced accelerated expansion in recent years – and while it’s a great problem to have, it isn’t always easy!

When I came to HorizonOne nearly 5 years ago, one of the strongest reasons to join was the desire to grow the team and the services we offer. Back in 2018 we were a team of 12, we’re now at 35 having had sprints of rapid growth and more organic phases throughout that period. This growth is all down to the hard work and dedication of our team and the want to improve our services, our processes and therefore increase our capacity.

If your team is growing rapidly and you’re unsure how to manage it, remember that growth is change and every business change should be approached with careful consideration and planning. Otherwise, you run the risk of taking actions that work against you.

Here are 5 steps you can follow to help successfully navigate rapid growth and change in your team:

1. Understand if and why you need to grow

When you see your team struggling with a volume of work they can’t keep up with, remember that it’s not always a case of not having enough people.

To find out, you could ask:

• How are people spending their time?
• Are our processes efficient and scalable?
• Who is doing well and how do we replicate that?
• Who is struggling and why?
• Do we have effective onboarding and training processes in place?
• Are we properly rewarding people for their efforts?
• Are our high performers empowered to reach their full potential?

After you evaluate any concerns within the team, it’s important to consider if your leadership approach could be contributing to any issues.

2. Take time out for self-reflection

It’s easy for leaders to get swept up in their vision and forget to bring their people along for the journey. It’s also easy to get caught up in your day-to-day, and never stop to think about whether the trajectory you’re on aligns with business goals.

As a leader, it’s worth taking time out to self-reflect and ask:

• Am I on the right path?
• Have I communicated my vision properly?
• Have I brought everyone along for the journey?
• Is what we’re doing in line with the business strategy?

You don’t want to make change for the sake of change. So knowing exactly why you’re changing will ensure that your roadmap leads to the type of growth you want and need.

3. Lay the foundations for successful growth

Now that you have clarity on what you’re working towards, you need to design the steps to get there.

Some of these could include:

• Streamlining processes
• Leveraging technology
• Uplifting the capability of existing staff
• Rewarding individual and team efforts
• Hiring new people

You’ll also want to make sure that you have strong foundations for a positive team culture before you grow. Measure the sentiment in your team, and look for ways to improve it. This could be through initiatives such as team building exercises, leading by example, getting to know individual personalities better, and cultivating a growth mindset by keeping everyone focussed on agreed values and goals.

The people in your team are ultimately your customers. So before you make a change, make sure everyone feels valued and knows the journey they’re on and why.

4. Hire with purpose

Hiring for the sake of hiring can have devastating impacts. Not only does it waste time (which is in short supply when you’re experiencing growth), but the wrong hire can bring everybody else down and actually reverse productivity.

Take the time to hire with purpose and find people who align with your team’s values and culture. Remember that the best person on paper is not always the best person for the role. Prioritise finding the right mindset over the perfect skillset, because skills can always be taught. Well-conducted interviews and psychometric testing can be really useful in understanding someone’s personality and how well they will fit into your team.

Lastly, don’t drag the recruitment process out longer than it needs to be. Especially in the current candidate market, you could miss out on securing the perfect person if you leave it too long to offer them the role.

5. Value continual improvement and feedback

As you move through your growth plan, remember to keep circling back to check everything is going smoothly. Of course, sometimes things won’t go to plan and you’ll need to pivot, so it helps to be flexible and agile.

Make sure there are feedback loops in place at all levels so people can share what they feel is working or not working. Review the effectiveness of onboarding and training, and ensure that all staff – new and existing – are being effectively set up for success.

As you move forward in this way, you’ll find that you have created a blueprint for scale that meets the specific needs of your team. This is an exciting achievement, because it means you can apply the blueprint again and again as you continue your growth journey towards your goals.

If you would like help finding right-fit candidates to support your business or team growth, please contact us.