Despite years of recession and more recent uncertainties brought on by unexpected geopolitical change, many companies across the industrial spectrum are focusing once again on growth. But, in any market climate, sustained growth is difficult to achieve. It requires strategic vision, a laser focus on tangible opportunities and the luck of good timing. Most importantly, if you plan to expand and thrive, you'll need growth-oriented business leaders.
In a strong economy, it's especially challenging to discover, attract and retain growth-driven executives. This raises the question: What are the characteristics of a leader who, given the opportunity, can most reliably deliver measurable business growth? Based on my experience working in large companies, and having co-founded two successful startups, here is my take on the five essential qualities growth-oriented leaders exhibit:
1. Focus on results.
Growth objectives are quantifiable, whether measured in higher sales, improved profits, greater market share or increased shareholder value. To achieve a specific business goal, leaders must be results-oriented and able to identify the measurable outcomes that reflect its success (or failure). Results-driven executives are able to take ownership of both process and outcome. By focusing on outcome, persuasive, results-driven leaders can sort through available process steps, select the best path forward, engage the team to embrace this decision and overcome potential dissent from colleagues and subordinates.
2. Manage risk.
To achieve positive returns, businesses may take risks. Successful entrepreneurs understand risk, and are uniquely able to assess the upside/downside realities of a given opportunity. I often say to my team that we should never use risk as the reason not to do something. Managing risk means taking full advantage of available information and analytics, even if the data set is incomplete. Good risk managers live in the present, acknowledge without blame what occurred in the past and anticipate (and work around) future probabilities.
3. Recognize and exploit patterns.
There are consistent elements to growth across organizations, industries and timeframes. Growth-oriented leaders can identify and leverage patterns in data, people and accumulated activities—whether it's spotting a competitor's repeated mistakes and playing against them, finding and correcting a failing sales technique or spotting an employee's best practice and quickly replicating it throughout an entire team. Pattern recognition enables these leaders to quickly eliminate constraining business behavior and/or optimize sustainable activities that support business growth.
4. Have enthusiasm, energy and generosity.
Change-oriented executives exhibit high levels of enthusiasm and energy, qualities that drive positive contributions from everyone across the enterprise. Strong leaders are typically good at multitasking and handling new responsibilities, especially valuable in growth businesses (such as tech), where increasing complexity of scale can often stifle progress. Growth leaders are quick to identify errors and poor decisions, but also recognize the power and motivation of giving credit where it's due.
5. Be hungry and agile.
Growth leaders are never fully satisfied—a constant “What if? What else?" mindset can often lead to delivering better results more rapidly. An important guiding principle at my company is “Inertia is our enemy," where we pledge to continuously challenge ourselves to innovate and stay close to our customers. I believe this mindset has helped us achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
These are unique and specific traits, but not every leader has them. Is it possible to nurture and encourage growth-friendly qualities? Can organizations and individual executives develop tools and behaviors that can help yield positive and sustainable growth?
I think so. Here's how:
First, make sure everyone in the organization—from the C suite down—understands the tangible initiatives that define growth for the company, whether they be mergers and acquisitions, geographic expansion, acquiring new customers or increasing sales or profits. Define the pathways to success: What are the steps needed to achieve this growth? Set incentives to reward specific growth-oriented achievements, and then be willing to invest in the people, business processes and technologies, such as mobility and data analytics, to drive that growth.
As companies expand, especially rapidly, even the best executives can get overwhelmed, so it's important to challenge them to think differently—to re-imagine their responsibilities within the context of an expanding, changing organization. Scaling rapidly in the midst of change is one of the hardest challenges a leader will face. Encourage executives to rely on each other for problem-solving and to seek out external advice in order to avoid pitfalls or missteps.
Sustained business growth requires many things: Thoughtful strategic planning, deep insights into customers and markets, agile decision-making, differentiated innovation, good timing… and the growth-oriented leaders capable of translating those factors into measurable results. Look for these five qualities and develop them—and you can encourage the kind of leadership that delivers real growth.
