Leadership in Growing Companies – Why It Suddenly Becomes More Difficult

As companies grow, complexity often grows faster than the organisation itself.

Through my work as an External HR Partner, advising growing companies on leadership and organisational development, I often meet founders who tell me that leadership suddenly feels very different.

This Perspective explores why that happens—and the questions worth asking before looking for quick solutions.

I often meet founders who tell me that leadership has become more difficult.

There are more questions than before. Employees challenge decisions. Expectations have changed. Opinions are stronger. And many leaders suddenly find themselves feeling like they should always have the answer.

That makes perfect sense.

When you've built a company from the ground up, it's difficult to simply step back and trust that others will make the same decisions you would have made yourself.

At the same time, the company isn't the same anymore. New people have joined. New skills. New perspectives. Perhaps you've hired your first experienced sales leader. Or brought in a manager to take ownership of an area you've always handled yourself.

This is exactly the kind of growth most founders hope for.

It's also the point where leadership starts to change.

I meet founders who are trying to find the balance between holding on and letting go. Some struggle to delegate because they're unsure what will happen if things don't go as planned. Others give people a great deal of freedom, only to realise later that different teams have started moving in different directions.

When you're a small company, alignment often happens naturally. You sit close together. You overhear conversations. You quickly notice when something is heading in the wrong direction.

That luxury gradually disappears as the business grows.

The more people who join the organisation, the more important it becomes to communicate direction clearly. And interestingly, the more complex the organisation becomes, the simpler the communication needs to be.

I often say that communication is probably one of the hardest things we do as human beings. We believe we've been clear because the message makes perfect sense in our own minds. The only way to know whether it also makes sense to someone else is to become curious about how it has actually been understood.

That's when you discover whether you're truly talking about the same thing.

Over the years I've heard leaders say things like:

• "I'm sure she already knows."
• "We covered that at the town hall."
• "I sent an email."

Maybe.

But strong organisations are not built on assumptions.

The same applies when mistakes happen.

Very few people come to work intending to create problems for their colleagues or the business. Most people genuinely want to do a good job.

That's why I'm rarely interested in who made the mistake.

If I were in the room, I'd start here:

• Was the context clear enough?
• Did the employee understand what mattered most?
• Was the decision-making mandate clear?
• Was something missing in terms of knowledge, expectations or direction?

Those questions usually tell us far more than the mistake itself.

They also give us a much better starting point for strengthening the organisation the next time a similar situation occurs.

Because if our first reaction to a mistake is to take responsibility back or tighten control, the organisation quickly learns that the safest option is to ask for permission, stick to familiar solutions and avoid taking initiative.

And that's exactly how businesses slowly lose what most founders are actually looking for:

• People who take ownership.
• People who think for themselves.
• People who dare to bring new ideas to the table.

I believe people can achieve remarkable things when they're given trust, clear responsibility and a well-defined mandate.

But trust isn't enough on its own.

Trust needs direction.

Responsibility needs context.

And a mandate only works when people know which decisions they own—and when it's time to ask for support.

Building a company is one discipline.

Building an organisation where other people can succeed without everything depending on the founder is a completely different one.

And that's often where the next stage of growth begins.

A Question to Take With You

Perhaps that's why I rarely start by asking who made the mistake.

I'm much more interested in understanding what kind of environment the organisation created for people to succeed.

Because when we change the environment, we often change the behaviour.

If you take just one thing away from this Perspective, let it be this question:

Have I been clear enough about what I expect—or am I simply assuming that everyone has understood it the same way I have?