In Stage 2, the leader is ideally spending 40 percent of their time and energy wearing the Visionary Face, 20 percent wearing the Manager Face, and 40 percent wearing the Specialist Face.
As in Stage 1, leaders are spending most of their time and energy between the Visionary and Specialist Faces. The addition of more employees means there are more resources to help with delivering services to customers, which frees up the leader’s Specialist time, allowing it to decrease from 50% in Stage 1 to 40% in Stage 2. More employees also means that time spent wearing the Management Face increases from Stage 1 (from 10% to 20%).
In Stage 2, the organization is still owner-centric, which means the leader is heavily involved in the work. As a Specialist, the leader is involved with things like creating the products for customers, delivering the services to clients, and applying their personal expertise to the company’s offerings.
Equally important at Stage 2, however, is for the owner to spend the same amount of time wearing the Visionary Face. This is time spent setting the vision for the company and tying that vision back to daily tasks. Without time spent thinking critically about where the organization is headed, it’s challenging to get buy-in from the team, and the team must maintain a high level of organizational confidence to keep the company advancing.
With more employees, and more specialization with the work that they are doing, the leader must invest time wearing the Manager Face. Instead of doing all the work themselves, leaders should spend more energy (compared to a Stage 1 leader) providing oversight and direction.
It’s common for a Stage 2 leader to spend too much time wearing the Specialist Face because their focus is on continuing to grow revenue. Oftentimes, they also feel most comfortable and accomplished as a Specialist—after all, there’s a good chance they have natural talent in the area in which they started a business (i.e., they’re a great electrician or a talented designer). But a Stage 2 business needs its leader to be more than a Specialist; it needs a Visionary as well.
Being a Visionary can be a new responsibility for many business owners. It’s a necessary component of a Stage 2 leader because they are recruiting new employees and working to retain the staff they already have. They must be willing to spend the energy painting a vision of the future that inspires others to want to help achieve it, or they will be left to achieve it alone (an impossible task, no matter how much talent they possess).
Stage 2 leaders can also struggle to allocate the necessary time to wearing the Manager Face. It’s important, though, not only for the employees that are currently on the team, but also in preparation for Stage 3, when the leader will focus on delegating more work to the team (Stage 3 is the Delegation Stage). The leader must begin to empower and develop key members of the staff to position the organization for that critical transition.
Three Faces of a Leader Misalignment
A veterinary doctor opened her own clinic to achieve a simple mission: to provide the best care possible to animals. Gifted and hard-working, she attracts a loyal client base who appreciates her attention to detail and personal touch. It isn’t long before she starts to get more clients than she can handle, leading her to hire another vet and more technicians. As the workload increases, she keeps giving more of her time and energy to the day-to-day work. Her main concern is that the animals won’t receive the same high level of care, so she spends a lot of time not only with her own patients but also monitoring the work of the rest of the staff.
Despite all of her efforts, complaints are starting to come in. Customers say they no longer know what to expect—the quality of their interactions with the clinic vary greatly from one day to the next. The vet techs are feeling micro-managed, and there is a general sense of confusion and impotency. The worst part for the owner is that she is on the verge of burnout. She can’t work any harder but doesn’t know how else to help her team.
For this business owner, the Specialist Face is the only one she’s truly comfortable wearing. As long as she is with her patients, doing the work, she loves her job. Though she was enough of a Visionary to start a clinic, she must adjust to the needs of a growing business in order to better serve it. By spending more time wearing the Visionary Face, she could be cultivating enthusiasm and unity within her team. And even a few hours each week spent wearing the Manager Face would go a long way towards setting expectations, improving communication, and developing new leaders.
The concepts from this article were taken from The Ramp-Up Stage: Organizational ReWilding Rules for Business Growth. Available through The ReWild Group and Amazon, the book explores this and other concepts in-depth while providing illustrations to help business leaders incorporate the ideas into their organizations. Get your copy today to learn the rules for growth for companies with 11-19 employees.