In the early stages of a company, Founder CEOs are closer to peers than bosses. Everyone is working around the clock to make the business work. Relationships are often personal and somewhat informal.

In our previous blog, we discussed three of the common challenges new leaders face: (1) Communicating with your team in a way that boosts engagement and productivity; (2) Delegating effectively; (3) Managing your time. In this blog, we are continuing our conversation.

We Over the past two years, I have seen a dramatic rise in the number of middle managers seeking coaching because they are overwhelmed and uncertain of how to effectively manage their teams. They are putting pressure on themselves, but they are also feeling dissatisfaction from their team and their senior leaders.

We all remember that old game of “Telephone” or “Pass It Down.” You whisper a phrase to the person next to you, they pass it on, and by the time it reaches the end of the line, “Three Blind Mice” has transformed into “Freeze, Pine, Rice.” The changes are amusing. Now imagine playing that game with your team’s goals and objectives. It’s not nearly as amusing, and could cost you both significant time and money.

Hundreds of millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of hours are spent worldwide on leadership development. Yet, study after study shows that most leadership programs don’t result in any meaningful improvement long term.

Where’s the disconnect?

In the world of coaching and development, middle managers are gaining more attention. While executives and senior leaders often receive coaching, it's crucial to invest in the growth of middle managers too.

We created The Growth Gauntlet to help leaders build high performing and sustainable organizations. The framework charts the evolution of our Six Imperatives: Sharpen Focus, Calibrate Culture, Strengthen Leadership, Elevate Talent, Align Structure and Amplify Communication across four Stages of High Growth: Emerge, Operationalize, Grow, Explore & Expand. Over the years we have used this framework to guide investors and leaders in their growth journeys. Read more to learn a few of the ways that we have used the framework.

Your organization can’t outperform its talent. As you grow and your organization becomes more complex, it becomes necessary to level up your talent. Current employees may need to step up into new responsibilities and new hires with different skills will be required. There are essentially three ways to elevate your team.

Our practice has largely focused on high growth companies who have raised capital from private equity investors. High growth businesses, particularly those that are private equity backed, have an added dimension of complexity - limited time and resources. The PE investment brings the resources (the carrot), but also brings with it time bound goals for achieving the return (the stick). The investment acts as the catalyst for the business to move to the next level of growth. As we worked with these companies fighting to grow and build a sustainable organization quickly, we realized that the stage of growth a company is in is very important context

Growth is hard. Taking an idea from inception and turning it into a stable, predictable, sustainable double-digit year over year high growth company is one of the most exciting and excruciating challenges a leader will face.

Years ago, McKinsey popularized the phrase “The War for Talent,” and warned that the companies who were best at acquiring and developing high quality talent would be the most successful. Fortune 100 companies answered the call, as did many companies in Silicon Valley, where there was an urgent need to stay on the cutting edge.