Small business doesn’t mean the owner by themselves … businesses with up to 249 employees make up almost 90% of the U.S. businesses.
Here’s the thing:
The need for “leadership” (or “management” if you prefer*) begins with employee number 1 … or employee 2 if number 1 is the founder :-).
Whether someone is actually leading or managing is another thing.
Growth in sales, number of employees, and other factors can only be supported so long by a weak leadership base.
One way to think about it is business functions as the limbs of the business org chart “tree” and leadership as the trunk. Weak trunk and lots of growth off the trunk = trunk cracks and tree falls over.
Strong employees and appropriate autonomy are great and can facilitate faster growth; however, there still needs to be some level of leadership even in a “flat” company.
As you grow, don’t neglect leadership development and coaching. This is an area that is truly worth an “ounce of prevention instead of a pound of cure.” And one that most founders and small business CEOs overlook or deprioritize until the pain is unbearable.
One thing that helps is including leadership development and coaching in your plans/budgets just like anything else.
* don’t want to get into the leadership vs. management definition battle at the moment!
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