When teams grow and change quickly, dynamics occur in the company that trigger predictable team reactions and leadership demands. Restrucuting, mergers and acquisitions, or launching an entirely new line of business are examples, but my founder friends are more often dealing with early stage high-growth sprints, where they need to rapidly expand their team. I love this example:
You have a small team: founders, early jack-of-all-trades hires, a few technical experts. Most on the team have not been a “manager”, and everyone does whatever is needed whether it’s going get lunch or helping to finish a product update. Over the last year, you’ve slogged it out together over long hours, had weeks of not knowing if sales would come in, scored big wins, and worked through big mess-ups.
Things are going consistently well, and you’ve just taken on your first big investment. You now have to hire 1-3X your current team size in the next few months, bringing on various levels of talent. In times of high growth, you could be going from 10 to 40 at first, and this could happen again when you’re at 100 people, and you’ll need to hire 200-250 over the next year).
The headlines are exciting. The energy with the founding team is off the charts, but then the concern and curiosity around the people and cultural challenges starts to set in.
Founders and leaders may find themselves asking:
Do any of my existing team members naturally move up? Can they? Should they? Do they expect that? How will I handle those conversations if I need to bring in someone else to lead them? Will they be offended and leave if I tell them they aren’t the right person for our new roles?
For those who do start to lead others, how do I help my talented technician or marketer learn to manage people when they never have before?
How will I manage more people at different levels? Even if I’ve done it before, will I do this well with this much growth?
What happens to the culture when all these new people join as a new cohort, and there are more of them than there are of us on the founding team?
I need more seasoned leaders on the team - how do I find someone who brings the experience we need but who won’t wreck our vibe and culture?
These questions and thoughts are natural and healthy to a degree, but they are predictable and addressable. Questions like these indicate you care and you are in a rapid-growth mode, but they also highlight very real risks.
Before the big hiring sprint, two steps will help:
1. Have a one on one conversation with each team member about:
Where you are going as a company and what enabling capabilities and talent are needed to get there. Share an overview of the new role descriptions
How you view their current role and their development path
How they view their current role and growth potential
Discuss how you feel they fit into that journey of the company, where their existing strengths are best applied
Some people will be getting a new role at this time, so speak to what that means for how they may need to think or operate differently and how you can support them as they take on new responsibilities
If you believe this job is best filled by someone else (internal or external): be honest about what they do well, what the role demands, why you need someone with different experience quickly, and how they can continue to grow in their current role
Given that discussion - what questions do they have?
As the company grows, what’s important to them? What are their “watch-outs”?
Share what you are excited about, but what you acknowledge are areas to stay close to/focus on/watch out for
Agree on how often to touch base, so they know there’s always a space to check-in if they have questions
2. After the 1x1s, have team meetings if relevant, and host a company town hall:
Overview the new roles you are searching for and talk about how those roles will enable the existing team and the company
Reinforce the company’s vision and direction, next phase of growth, and what that growth will specifically look like
Acknowledge that along with the excitement, change can also create some friction, and that you’ll have frequent check-ins to make sure you’re getting the best out of the new combined team.
Given the big task of hiring many people on top of the day-to-day technical work, ask for the assumption of positive intent, grace, and understanding, and for anyone to speak up if something is being missed
Ask for ideas and volunteers to welcome the new team members (buddy system, virtual or in-person coffee meetings, etc.)
If some people are qualified for those new roles and others are not, speak to that - if you know who will be elevated, and you’ve already had the conversations with those people, congratulate them
Ask the team for recommendations and referrals - no one knows the culture like this original team, and personal referrals often (not always) work out well if they eventually get hired
Answer qeustions and have open discussion on the above - listen for themes of ideas and concerns that you should consider
These tips won’t prevent all the challenges or address all the questions, but they show respect for the team, help you connect and understand their ideas and questions, and generally create an open forum for discussion for what otherwise might build up as stress and frustration from what is unknown or assumed.
Remember, in the absence of alternative information, people come to their own conclusions…and rarely the correct or positive ones. Business IS personal – it is filled with human beings with experiences, expectations, feelings, and personalities.
Once the hires start coming on board, there is a ton of good energy and progress, but in 60-90 days, the next level of challenging dynamics emerges:
A star team member from the original crew becomes quiet and less engaged
A new leader hired from the outside is more directive and difficult than was revealed in the interview, and it’s creating friction with the team and negatively affecting the culture and vibe
A few projects that previously ran smoothly start running into delays
A new executive has strong feelings about how the company should evolve and one of the founders disagrees and is struggling with the dynamic as a result
A member of the original team quits (the first to do so)
These things are normal to a degree and are more likely if the numbers of new hires are large relative to the existing base of team members. What’s required to prevent these dynamics or address them when they occur is a combination of art and science, head and heart – a theme of many of my posts.
Do your best to interview, screen and onboard knowing these are the risks of many new team members
Have more frequent check-ins than normal in the early days – it helps you catch things. I use a “MMDD Log”: Made My Day Difficult. Everyone fills it out – every day – and leaders can solve the processes and people issues that emerge
If ANY situations of disrespect occur – address them immediately – that never gets better on its own. Help people navigate the newness and natural friction, but make ‘how we work together’ a clearly understood ‘non-negotiable’
If many executives are hired at once, they may create work that doesn’t have a natural place to land with the current structure. Certain teams or team members are “a funnel not a tunnel” and can only handle so much. Watch out for shiny-object syndrome, overload of ops or dev teams and projects going off strategy
Have team-building and ‘get to know you’ sessions. Part of what makes small teams magic is the personal connection and relationships. That gets out of balance (OOB) very quickly with new team members coming on board quickly. You must be intentional about rebuilding that across the new cohort. It needs to be someone’s job (and everyone’s job) to get to know each other personally whenever possible.
If some team members seem to not be gelling after attempts to rightsize the work and build the team, then it may be time for them to go. Don’t drag it out. Have the conversations early; make it a mutual decision when possible. Take good care of those who got you to where you are and NEVER speak ill of those who leave (nor allow it from others).
Be honest and transparent when you make mistakes as a leader, share what you are learning with the team, embrace the what the new teams bring to complement and evolve the culture, and help the original team teach and preserve what makes the company special.
Communication is key, but there is a balance between actions and words and team vs. 1x1 that varies for each situation. Lean into the natural energy of growth, but don’t let predictable challenges distract from your momentum. Give yourself and your team grace. Embrace the new ideas your teams will have, and remember, FAIL stands for First Attempt In Learning.
Your bumps and mistakes in the high growth phase are a sign you and the team are evolving and the lessons will only make you stronger. Be easy on yourself, put your people first, bend toward transparency and communication, and be willing to admit misses, learn and move on.