Congratulations! Your business is in Stage 4, the Professional Stage. As the leader of a Stage 4 business, you’ve got a lot of demands on your time and attention. Where do you focus? How do you prioritize?
What research has shown us is that each Stage has its own rules and guidelines. The more you understand the rules, the better you can navigate growth. In other words, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel and figure everything out on your own. Instead, you can benefit from what hundreds of other business owners have learned.
Following is a brief overview of what those rules look like for a Stage 4 business. If you’d like to go deeper, keep reading and explore the resources linked below.
A Quick Overview of Stage 4
A Stage 4 business has reached a point of complexity that requires a professional team of managers—a team with the skills and mindset to become the driving force of the organization. The company is simply too big for one person to effectively lead alone. Focus on process—on developing the structures and systems at a department level that can meet the increasing scale of business.
As the various departments begin to form at this stage and become their own distinct units, they should each be led by someone responsible to develop and account for an annual budget and track measurable markers of success (or Key Performance Indicators). As the company leader, you should hold quarterly planning meetings with all department heads to ensure that the company, while functioning independently in many ways, stays aligned with enterprise goals and priorities.
Be careful of leaning too much on any one person to handle all of one area, such as sales or marketing. In the area of business development, put structure into place that can be duplicated by others—structure that generates leads, turns leads into revenue, and keeps the revenue coming. Your priorities as a leader are to empower your team, ensure that your employees are valued as individuals, and continually find ways to improve.
Go Deeper
Stage 4 Guidebook
The 60-minute Guide to Growth for businesses with between 35-57 employees is a must-have for every owner of a Stage 4 business. The Guidebook explains the primary dimensions of a Stage 4 business, including Leadership Style, Modality, Classic Challenges, and Transition Zones. Each chapter includes illustrations that bring the concepts to life along with practical applications questions you can apply to your business. Get your copy today!
Stage Card
The two-sided Stage Card is an easy way to keep the rules that are most beneficial for your Stage 4 business close at hand. Print a copy and keep it on your desk. Share it with your team. The better you understand the rules, the more focus and clarity you will provide as a leader. Get your free copy now!
Assessments
There are a variety of assessments you can access on our website. Each one addresses a specific area of business, such as leadership, finance, and workplace community. They only take about two minutes to submit, and you’ll receive a valuable download that explains how the rules in that particular area apply to a business of your size. Best of all, these assessments are free! Click the button to start exploring.
The 11 Elements of an Exceptional Business
In this new series—Organizational ReWilding: Elements of an Exceptional Business—we explore each element individually. Each book takes on a different element, explaining the underlying principles and illustrating what the application of those principles looks like in a business. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a list of application questions designed to help you think through the concepts and apply them to your own situation.
Online Video Series
For those who prefer learning by video, the Stages of Growth Online Series is an excellent resource. Through a series of ten videos, you will learn about the key dimensions, or areas, that make up a business. For every dimension, there is an illustrative story, followed by the principles underlying that dimension, a quiz, and activities to help you apply the knowledge directly to your business.
“We’ve always had growth on our minds, and there are always challenges that come up. Working with the ReWild Group has helped us navigate those challenges, and instead of being so reactive, helped us be a lot more proactive, which has made everything a lot smoother.”
Find out what other business owners are saying about The ReWild Group.
Visit our Testimonials page to hear first-hand accounts of what other business owners have experienced with Organizational ReWilding®. You’ll find short videos, quotes, and case studies that illustrate the power of the methodology. Check back often for updates! The stories are growing rapidly. (Who knows? Yours might be next …)