Business Owners Matthew Pohl Business Owners Matthew Pohl

Stage 1: Starting Up a Company?  Embrace the Chaos.

Understanding the stages of business growth, and how companies progress through these stages, is essential for any entrepreneur hoping to thrive in the chaotic beginnings of starting a company.

Starting Up a Company?  Embrace the Chaos.

Starting a business has never been easy; the beginning stages of a new venture can feel like a whirlwind of chaos and uncertainty. An entrepreneur needs to have courage and confidence to navigate these stormy waters. Understanding the stages of business growth, and how companies progress through these stages, is essential for any entrepreneur hoping to thrive in the chaotic beginnings of starting a company.

As a Stage 1 - or Start Up – passion and guts are the fuel.  To envision a company where none existed before and to transform that vision into a living reality is not a simple task.  The key objectives at the Start Up stage include:

  • Creating a cohesive, cooperative team

  • Embrace the chaotic environment

  • Generate and preserve as much cash (revenue) as possible

  • Focus first on Profit, then your People, and lastly Process

Innovate Quickly – Discover, Explore, Experiment

A Stage 1 company should be structured to innovate quickly; it is not designed to be locked into any one specific focus at the beginning. A Start Up company is meant to quickly discover, explore, experiment and find the right product or service that the company intends to bring out into the world. 

Stage 1 is comprised of businesses with 1 – 10 employees.  At this Stage, you do not have a lot of people to lead. It is more about making quick business decisions and embracing the inherent chaos.

Stage 1 is about survival; it is about getting a product or service out to the correct target market. As a Stage 1 company, you are better off if you hire people based on how they fit into your organization, rather than strictly for their level of competency. Be sure to look for generalists who can wear multiple hats.

The Rules

In order to grow your company into Stage 2 without losing your mind or stagnating in Stage 1, you must abide by and implement the Non-Negotiable Rules. Some of the Non-Negotiable Rules for Stage 1 are:

  • Focus 80% of your resources on selling 2-3 of your highest margin offerings.

  • Set in place a basic Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.

  • Generate, track, and preserve cash.

  • Create a basic monthly KPI Flash Sheet.

  • Embrace the chaos inherent to a new organization; develop process only where necessary.

  • Command the team and inspire the employees.

The proper implementation of these rules could be the key element that defines the success or failure of a Stage 1 company.

The Leader Must Change as the Company Changes

As a company grows, so must the leader.  Each Stage of Growth requires something different from the leader.  Understanding what is required of you as your company evolves can either propel the company forward or cause the company to become ‘stuck’ – profits never materialize; sales suffer; and there is high employee turnover. 

In Stage 1, your business needs you to be a leader that guides the team with a strong vision, focuses on people’s potential, and takes charge to lead the organization through chaos.

As the leader of a Stage 1 company, you should be spending at least 40% of your time in a visionary mode – you need to provide your team with a vision of where the company is going and how you are going to get there. A Stage 1 company is CEO-centric – meaning the CEO is likely the ‘specialist’ who has created a product or service and is now getting their idea to take shape. Therefore, 50% of your time should be spent as the technician or the specialist while only 10% of your time will be spent as a manager.

What’s next?

Where survival is the name of the game in a Stage 1 company, that’s not the case going into Stage 2.  Now it’s all about growth.

Next Stage

Stage 2 - Ramp-Up


To learn more about the Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth methodology, start by downloading your Stage Card to learn which Stage of Growth your company is in.


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Business Owners Matthew Pohl Business Owners Matthew Pohl

Stage 2: Ready to Ramp Up?

When a company has grown to 11 – 19 employees, survival mode is quickly replaced with growth as the top priority. This is called Stage 2, or Ramp Up.

Ready to Ramp Up?

When a company has grown to 11 – 19 employees, survival mode is quickly replaced with growth as the top priority.  This is called Stage 2, or Ramp Up. This is a critical stage for the business owner who is starting to worry about the management of their growing staff and many other issues that can arise as a company begins to ramp up. 

The CEO of a Stage 2 company is still the center of the business.  All decisions run past the leader and this aspect doesn’t change until Stage 3.  But what does change is that growth now becomes critical.  The company needs to support higher sales levels and must start to generate consistent positive cash flow. The key objectives at the Ramp Up stage include:

  • Setting Key Performance Indicators to keep informed about how the company is performing

  • Organize and refine three revenue groups and customer segments

  • Preparing to transition to an enterprise-centric as the company approaches Stage 3

  • Focus first on Profit, then Process, and lastly People

Organize, Diversify, and Ramp

In the chaos of rapid growth, it’s easy for a leader to ignore key indicators of how the company is doing.  Cash flow, for example, can get very thin quickly and without much warning. 

As a Stage 2 company, the leader is going to find his or her range of capability and influence being pushed to the edge. This is a time where leaders can really get burned out.  It’s at this time when the proper delegation of responsibility and authority can advance the company into the next stage of growth. However, failing to delegate appropriately will surely prevent advancement into the next stage.

As a Stage 2 company, we also start seeing the beginning of diversification within the organization and infrastructure.  In contrast with Stage 1 where everyone was wearing all the hats and could do everything, in Stage 2 people begin to differentiate their tasks and start to specialize.

The Rules

Some of the Non-Negotiable Rules of Stage 2 are:

  • Organize Business Development (Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service) around the company's 3 Customer Segments.

  • Expand to a basic daily, weekly, and monthly KPI Flash Sheet.

  • Ensure employees know how the company makes and keeps money.

  • Clarify positions and roles in all departments.

  • Develop 3 employee supervisors to be responsible, accountable, and proactive.

  • Set in place an effective Team Mindset throughout the company supported by clear Core Values.

How do you lead a rapidly growing company?

If Stage 1 was about surviving the chaos, Stage 2 is all about corralling the chaos. The ability to take the initiative, develop your employees, and have a positive influence on them are critical competencies of a Stage 2 Leader. A “head coach” leadership style is required as you begin to hire quality people and continue to improve sales.

In Stage 2, your business needs you to be a leader that coaches the team, exemplifies a standard of high performance, and exerts influence to achieve success.

A Stage 2 leader is still spending significant energy as a Specialist (40%) and Visionary (40%) , but their Manager time is increasing from 10% in Stage 1, to 20% in Stage 2.  Because the leader must start delegating authority and responsibility, this is a perilous stage for most entrepreneurs.  Many leaders will try to hold onto all the control, continuing to make all the decisions, but this is a mistake.  This is the stage where entrepreneurs begin to feel stretched too thin, frustrated that people aren’t doing their jobs and worried that things are getting out of control.

A leader who is open-minded, willing to look at themselves first when things go wrong, and who is constantly in ‘learning mode’, can take their company through Stage 2 and have the all the pieces in place to begin Stage 3. 

Once you’ve made it through Stage 2, Ramp Up, you’ll head into Stage 3, Delegation.  In Stage 3 the CEO starts to delegate decision making and if they aren’t a self-aware leader, danger lurks just around the corner.


To learn more about the Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth methodology, start by downloading your Stage Card to learn which Stage of Growth your company is in.


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Business Owners Matthew Pohl Business Owners Matthew Pohl

Stage 3: The Art of Delegation Takes on New Meaning

As a Stage Three company (20-34 employees), it’s critical to understand that what has worked in the past may not work any longer.

As companies grow and move through the Stages of Growth, new dynamics arise that test the leadership capabilities of the CEO. As a Stage Three company (20-34 employees), it’s critical to understand that what has worked in the past may not work any longer. 

One of the most significant changes that occurs when a business reaches Stage 3 is that the leader is no longer in control of the organization entirely on his or her own.  Work and decision-making authority must now be delegated.

The key objectives at the Delegation stage include:

  • Moving from a leader-centric to an enterprise-centric organization

  • Setting a productive organizational climate by defining clear expectations, supporting the team to reach those expectations, and rewarding them when the expectations are met.

  • Creating a manager/supervisor layer within the organization, providing training and empowering them with decision-making authority.

  • Focus first on People, then Process, and finally Profit

What To Do When Things Change

Leaders that fail to adapt to the changing “rules of the game” will eventually hit a wall – their organization will become stuck.  Stage 3 is the most dramatic change for the founder/owner of a business.  If you insist on doing things the same way, you greatly increase the risk of ‘entrepreneurial burnout’ due to the inability to effectively delegate work and responsibility. 

As a Stage 3 company, the organization has grown beyond the CEO’s span of control. It is now enterprise-centric, meaning that the organization needs to learn how to function without the leader being involved in every facet and decision. 

It’s typical in Stage 3 to notice work being handed out, but there is no actual empowerment of the supervisory layer of the company.  The supervisors are simply expected to “do the work”.  If something goes wrong the leader responds, “What happened, they didn’t do it the way they were trained” or “They didn’t do it the way I would have done it”. 

This gap is addressed by the Owner/CEO focusing a significantly increased amount of energy toward the Manager “face of a leader”.  This new emphasis on the Manager “face” can be difficult for the CEO, especially if they have little experience as a manager or lack the skills. (Learn about ReWild Group’s Exceptional Manager Program)

The Rules

Some of the Non-Negotiable Leadership Rules for Stage 3 are:

  • Differentiate components of Business Development by separating Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service into three distinct teams.

  • Revamp the company's Business Model to optimize margins, refine Revenue Groups, and adjust Customer Segments.

  • Establish a 3-Year Strategic Plan and a 1-Year Operational Plan.

  • Make sure every employee understands their positions and roles.

  • Delegate both responsibility and authority to 3-5 capable managers and mentor them with regular meetings.

  • Clarify and strengthen communication with all employees.

Focus on your People

With the increased level of complexity brought on by the addition of new employees, the leader must delegate authority and responsibility. This hand-off is one of the toughest challenges for a typical entrepreneur to do. Making the necessary changes as a company moves into and through Stage 3 requires diligence, hard work and the willingness of the leader to ‘let go’ of many of the things they feel comfortable doing and begin to focus on themselves as a Manager.

In Stage 3, your business needs you to be a leader that mentors the team, fosters a collaborative environment of trust and respect, and upholds high standards of success.

So, for a Stage 3 company, the leader has now shifted their Face of a Leader to 60% Manager, 10% Visionary and 30% Specialist. 

Coaching maintains its place as the primary leadership style, but it is not blended with Democratic and Pace-setting as secondary and tertiary styles

Until Stage 3, it has been a juggling act for the CEO or leader to manage, lead, and perform the work. Now, the juggling must stop.  It’s important that the company starts to act more like an independent entity, separate from the leader.  The newly revitalized entity becomes much more tangible and measurable. As a leader, this is the first time you must begin to rely on your leadership skills to run the company instead of your technical skills.  And it’s the first time the leader is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the company.

Once you’ve mastered the art of Delegation, it’s time to move onto the Professional Stage. 


To learn more about the Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth methodology, start by downloading your Stage Card to learn which Stage of Growth your company is in.


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Business Owners Matthew Pohl Business Owners Matthew Pohl

Stage 4: Complexity Drives Need for Experienced Managers

In a Stage 4 company, comprised of 35 – 57 employees, the changes that occur are exponentially more impactful than anything the company has experienced to date.

In a Stage 4 company, comprised of 35 – 57 employees, the changes that occur are exponentially more impactful than anything the company has experienced to date. So, when we look at Stage 4, addressing the change becomes the top priority and the focus must be on getting processes and infrastructure in place to manage this Stage of Growth.

The key objectives of Stage 4 include:

  • Hiring or training up a professional management team

  • Establishing a shared project management process

  • Creating strong, performance-driven departments that compete between each other

  • Keeping a pulse on the company’s health by establishing a KPI Flash Sheet

  • Focus first on Process, then Profit, and finally People

Don’t Just Throw People At The Problem

In many companies, as the leader reaches this Stage, activity levels within the company increase ten-fold and the leader starts throwing people at the activity.  The irony is that when they do this, they create a more complex organization that is more difficult to manage.  As a result of throwing people at the problem, they end up in Stage 5 too quickly and find they haven’t set the necessary systems in place to create a sustainable infrastructure to handle these new levels of complexity.

One of the primary ways to address this problem is to hire experienced or professional managers.  A leader may want to start with their sales area or their operational area first.  By bringing on managers who know what their job is – individual who have been there, seen it and done it – a Stage 4 company stands a better chance of getting the necessary systems in place needed to manage this Stage of Growth.  If you decide to promote managers from within your organization rather than via outside hires, it will be critical to provide them structure education and training to help them be effective managers. (Are you in Stage 4 and need Effective Managers? Learn about ReWild Group’s Exceptional Manager Program

One of the goals in Stage 4 is to strengthen internal departments – work on making them individual fiefdoms in which there is friendly competition among the different departments.  By strengthening the internal structure and operational efficiency of individual departments, the entire company becomes stronger. Having strong managers of these departments to define and implement the necessary small department structures will be key to successfully navigating through this Stage.

The Rules

Some of the Non-Negotiable Rules of Stage 4 are:

  • Make sure Business Development has an effective marketing campaign management system, a repeatable sales process, and a systematic customer care program.

  • Set in place an advanced daily, weekly, and monthly KPI Flash Sheet.

  • Allocate 5-10% of gross revenue to identification, acquisition, and implementation of new systems and processes.

  • Hire or train professional-level managers in every department who are responsible, accountable, proactive, and committed, and who set in place solid department infrastructure and processes.

  • Create strong, performance-driven departments that compete with each other.

 Professional Leadership

The biggest risk for a leader in Stage 4 is to think they are saving money by not hiring great talent and not getting the necessary systems in place.  The CEO at this Professional Stage must put their ego aside, invest the time and money, and either hire or train strong professional managers. Having a strong management team in place will help the company through this Stage of complexity, as well as set the company up for future success.  Failing to invest and grow this critical layer of the organization will cause the company to stall or potentially implode.

In Stage 4, the business needs the leader to empower the team, value employees as people, and continually find ways to improve.

Stage 4 sees the leader spending 70% of their time as a Manager, 20% as a Specialist and only 10% as a Visionary.

Coaching is the Stage 4 leader’s primary style of leadership, which is blended with Affiliative and Pacesetting.

As the complexity of an organization increases, it becomes even more important that the leader fully understands the health of their company. Financial statements only supply periodic information and really doesn’t go into much detail about the company’s operations. At this Stage, having a KPI Flash Sheet in place is vital. This tool is used to collect key indicators that tell the daily, weekly and monthly story of what is happening in the company.  If KPI’s are not being utilized at this Stage, the leader and their team are flying blind, forcing the leader to go back to a trial and error mindset, centralize authority and not utilize the competency of the experienced management staff.

Some Classic Challenges that are a signature of this Stage are weak project management, difficulty diagnosing problems, employee turnover, not getting systems in place, and seeing the organization uninformed about company growth. A well-intentioned leader is not as effective as a well-informed leader and understanding that they must begin to hire people that know more about certain aspects of the business than they do is the most successful step a leader in this Stage can take to assure the company’s future success. 


To learn more about the Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth methodology, start by downloading your Stage Card to learn which Stage of Growth your company is in.


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Business Owners Matthew Pohl Business Owners Matthew Pohl

Stage 5: Synergy Equals Strength As Company Matures

With the company size ranging from 58-95 employees, integration between departments is the key to success in Stage 5..

Stage 5, known as the Integration Stage, is where you must take the independent group of managers from Stage 4 and get them to work together as a harmonious, synergistic team. With the company size ranging from 58-95 employees, integration between departments is the key to success.  

The key objectives of Stage 5 include:

  • Creating an integrated team of experienced managers

  • Move away from a reactive way of doing business

  • Work towards attaining efficiencies of scale

  • Full integration of the Culture Building Blocks

  • Focus first on Profit, then People, and finally Process

Stride Towards Company Unification

The key objective for Stage 5 is integrating all departments so the right hand knows what the left hand is doing. Decisions should be made according to a plan. The risk for a Stage 5 company is that without integration, the size and complexity of the company will not allow the company to attain efficiencies of scale.  An interesting dynamic occurs in Stage 5 – the company starts getting noticed by its competition.  Your competitors start seeing the company as a viable player in the market and the stakes go up.

Having a strong, integrated leadership team that provides a sounding board for the leader of the organization is incredibly important. A leader who has this type of team will make more informed decisions, have a better support system, and therefore be a more effective leader.

The Rules

Some of the Non-Negotiable Rules of Stage Five include:

  • Ensure strong managers lead the Marketing, Sales, and Customer Service departments/teams and are part of the Management Team.

  • Leadership and Management Team lead Business Plan SCRUB every 12 weeks.

  • Establish a 1-year, fully integrated budget for each department and by each revenue group.

  • Revitalize KPIs throughout the organization.

Democratic Leadership

A Stage 5 business needs a leader that guides through collaboration, inspires the team with a grand vision, and builds loyalty through comradery.

The leader must be willing to admit what they don’t know and support the rest of the company in stepping up and making decisions, based on a strong sense of values.  A new competency must be developed in conflict management and collaboration through the Primary and Tertiary leadership styles (Democratic and Affiliative). For the first time since Stage 1, the leader gets to put their Visionary hat back on. However, this time it’s a little different. You’re not just leading a few people with your own vision – you’re leading a large group of people with a shared vision. Clearly defining the company’s values will help the leader to guide the team towards success.

It is the job of the leader to know and understand the Stages of Growth, so that they can effectively prepare their staff for the issues faced in each Stage. A staff that’s aware of what’s coming, that can anticipate challenges as they appear, creates synergy verses unchanneled energy. And in the chaos of Stage 5 – synergy is the goal.


To learn more about the Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth methodology, start by downloading your Stage Card to learn which Stage of Growth your company is in.


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Business Owners Matthew Pohl Business Owners Matthew Pohl

Stage 6: Lack of Strategy Will Kill You

Stage 6 is called the Strategic Stage because the risk of not seeing the larger strategic picture could cause the ‘too little, too late’ syndrome.

 Stage 6 is called the Strategic Stage because the risk of not seeing the larger strategic picture could cause the ‘too little, too late’ syndrome.  In Stages 1 - 4, the leader acts nearly exclusively with an immediate focus, dealing with only the current issues and opportunities. The leader doesn’t really have to tackle serious budgets and long-term planning until Stage 5. Now that the company has reached Stage 6, the planning horizon must go beyond a year in order to compete in the marketplace.  At 96-160 employees, the company is likely on the radar of much larger competitors, and strategic planning and product development must extend further into the future than the 6 – 12 month plans that were effective up to this point.

The key objectives in Stage 6 are to:

  • Ensure Business Development has an integrated system and comprehensive strategy to sustain company growth.

  • Establish a 3-year budget and a financial system that can handle the needs of a larger company.

  • Complete Infrastructure Building Blocks

  • Focus first on People, then Profit, and finally Process.

 Engaged Employees = Successful Company

This is true at any Stage, but especially visible in Stage 6. A Stage 6 company struggles with staff buy-in, hiring quality staff, a lack of understanding between staff satisfaction and company profit, difficulty establishing new staff orientation processes, and a weak business model.

To mitigate these challenges, the leader needs to focus on people through establishing a comprehensive orientation program to immerse new hires into the culture of the organization. Conducting annual organization health surveys are also key to increasing staff buy-in and engagement.

By strategizing the big picture of the company over the next 2 – 5 years, a business owner can begin to bring back the visionary atmosphere that was so engrained in earlier Stages. This phase does not mean simply dreaming about the future. Rather, the leader with active involvement from the leadership team must develop and communicate a strategy for each department.

The Rules

Some of the Non-Negotiable Rules of Stage 6 are:

  • Establish 2-year fully integrated budget and forecast for each department and Revenue Group.

  • Task Operations teams to lower costs through the identification, acquisition, and implementation of advanced systems and processes.

  • Leaders and managers must demonstrate Core Values daily.

  • Establish an advanced orientation program that immerses new hires into culture and processes.

Strategic Orientation

The CEO must have the personal ability to develop a strategic orientation. The awareness of the CEO in Stage 6 is to set in motion the longer view and to drive the organizational culture as a visible leader.

The workplace community – a dynamic ecosystem – changes almost overnight as a result of the additional complexity.  The distribution of authority and accountability becomes a major Stage 6 issue. So, in order to begin to tie these things together within the workplace, the CEO must establish:

  • A very clear vision for the enterprise

  • A strong set of core values

  • A clearly defined corporate culture

  • A powerful strategic plan that spans the next two – five years

The CEO must be able to propagate and communicate these four key items to the employees as well as infuse them into the leadership and management teams.

In Stage 6, the business needs the leader to set the bar for success, foster connectedness in the team, and instill pride in the organization. This is accomplished through a blend of Pacesetting, Affiliative, and Visionary leadership styles.

Stage 5 introduced the Affiliative style – a style that connects people to each other – helps facilitate the healing of rifts between teams and providing motivation during stressful times. The leader must rely on this connection among the team to facilitate change. This emphasis on the team is important, because without a strong competency in empathy, this can be a tough time for a leader as 50% of their time is spent in the Manager “face of a leader”.

Remember – a company that lacks strategic vision is stagnant. To keep the company growing and successful, it is up to the leader and the leadership team to strategize and clearly communicate that strategy to the organization.


To learn more about the Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth methodology, start by downloading your Stage Card to learn which Stage of Growth your company is in.


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Business Owners Matthew Pohl Business Owners Matthew Pohl

Stage 7: Creating a Vision for the Future

Stage 7 is not an easy transformation for a CEO, but a critical one to think about in this largest Stage of Growth.

Stage 7 – called the Visionary Stage – is a very different world than previous Stages. In Stage 7, the size of the company ranges from 160 to 350 employees.  

The challenge at this Stage lies in addressing the enormous shift in complexity in the organization as the number of employees can double from just the prior Stage.  By looking at the business from the perspective of an ideal business model, providing an integrated yet holistic template of how the enterprise could perform, you can apply solutions from a more informed viewpoint.  Not an easy transformation for a CEO, but a critical one to think about as a Stage 7 company.

The key objectives in Stage 7 are:

  • The Leadership team must have a clear vision and communicate that to the organization.

  • The company must always be selling to keep profitability sustainable.

  • Setting in place a strong corporate culture that unites the team.

  • Refining the business model for this largest Stage of Growth.

  • Focusing first on People, then Process, and finally Profit.

Innovation and Disequilibrium: Great Tools for Larger Companies

In Stage 7, the company has entered a phase that begins to form layers of bureaucracy which quickly impede performance and growth.  When a company grows to this size there is an overwhelming tendency for it to gravitate toward safety and equilibrium.  It starts to act like a large company, its decision making is slower, the product innovation process is lengthier, and the bureaucracy is formidable.  The CEO must recapture the entrepreneurial spirit.  In short, he or she needs to systematically ‘break’ parts of the company.

The job of the leader, along with sustaining and propagating the vision of the company, is to create a degree of disequilibrium and chaos within the enterprise.  The CEO’s mission is to improve performance by stimulating higher levels of innovation and employee authorship.  Stage 7 is a visionary stage of growth wherein the CEO makes an internal entrepreneurial “call to arms.”

A leader can accomplish this transformation by creating a corporate culture that expects, supports and rewards entrepreneurial endeavors.  The leader must foster a company-wide paradigm that directs them to identify new opportunities, foster exploration, develop action plans and assign the resources to manifest those plans.

Challenges facing a Stage 7 company include products not differentiated in the marketplace, inadequate profits, too slow getting products to market, marketplaces that change too quickly and again, weak business model. 

Why is business model so important in Stage 7? Having a strong business model creates the profit architecture of your company.  Not understanding what is driving your profit, what your revenue groups are, and how the company makes and keeps money can cause a company to flounder and potentially die.  Many organizations reach Stage 7 and think they’ve got it figured out. They grew this far, right? However, taking a critical look at the business model to evaluate profitability is key to sustainable growth.

The Rules

Some of the Non-Negotiable Leadership Rules for Stage 7 are:

  • Revamp the company's Business Model to optimize company margins, rethink 3 Revenue Groups, innovate new Offers, and set future strategic direction of the company.

  • Generate, track, and preserve cash.

  • Ensure employees know how company makes and keeps money.

  • Leadership Team practices "management by walking around" daily and interacts at personal level with employees.

  • Revitalize workplace community by innovating the company core values program and infusing the culture with a specific citizenship recognition and reward program.

Visionary Leadership Is Vital

A Stage 7 leader must ignite the spirit of innovation, grow future leaders, and listen to their people. These traits have not been needed at this scale by the organization yet, so it is up to the leader to hone their skills and navigate the company through the largest Stage. The leader of a Stage 7 organization must be able to act as steward of the company culture and vision.

The leader must ignite a spirit of inspiration and innovation and be relentless in allowing mistakes in the pursuit of these new ideas.

To balance the Visionary leadership style, a leader must incorporate Coaching and Democratic styles as well. The organization needs a leader who can communicate well with employees and coach them to be their best. 

The bottom line in understanding the Stages of Growth is that the complexity of an organization will always extract its due. Never be fooled. There is always a price to pay for growth. If you don’t get the infrastructure in place and the workplace community aligned as you grow, the pain of lost performance and profitability will inevitably send you back to the areas that you thought or hoped that you could drive past. Every company goes through the Stages of Growth. Some are aware of it, and some are not. It is up to the leader of the organization to make the choice – to be aware, and to take steps to mitigate the challenges of complexity.


 This concludes the Stages of Growth blog series. We hope you’ve enjoyed the journey!

To learn more about the Organizational ReWilding Stages of Growth methodology, start by downloading your Stage Card to learn which Stage of Growth your company is in.


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