One of the surprises of growing a business is discovering that what used to work with people suddenly doesn’t.
You explain something perfectly clearly. At least, you think you do.
One person gets excited and runs with it. Another immediately starts pointing out everything that could go wrong. Someone else wants to know exactly what they’re supposed to do on Monday morning, while another looks slightly irritated because you’re drowning them in detail.
And the founder thinks: Why is this so difficult?
It isn’t necessarily because you’ve recruited the wrong people. Nor is it because they aren’t listening.
It may simply be because they don’t think like you do.
Growth makes communication harder
In the early days of a business, founders tend to work with a small group of people who know them extremely well.
Much of the communication is informal. People pick things up from conversations. They understand the founder’s shorthand. If something isn’t clear, they ask.
As the organisation grows, that stops being enough.
There are more people, more managers, more specialisms and more decisions being made without you in the room. You are increasingly trying to achieve things through other people rather than by doing them yourself.
That’s when communication becomes a leadership skill rather than simply a matter of talking to people.
And part of that skill is recognising that the message which motivates you may do absolutely nothing for somebody else.
Same message, different ears
Suppose you’re introducing a new way of managing client relationships because the founder can no longer personally look after every important client.
You might naturally say:
“This will give our managers much more ownership of their clients and create opportunities for them to develop.”
Somebody who is motivated by possibilities will hear that and think: Great. When can we start?
Another person may immediately think: What happens if a client complains? What if something gets missed?
They aren’t necessarily being negative. They’re scanning for risk.
With that person, you may need to explain how the change will reduce existing problems and what safeguards will be in place.
Same change. Different conversation.
Some people need to know what “good” looks like
This becomes particularly important as you introduce greater accountability.
Some people have a strong internal sense of whether they’ve done a good job. Give them an outcome and reasonable freedom, and they’ll work out how to achieve it.
Others need more external reference points.
What exactly are you expecting? How will success be measured? What does a good result look like? How will I know whether I’m on track?
Neither is inherently better.
But telling the second person to “use your initiative” while giving them no indication of the required outcome isn’t empowerment. It’s ambiguity.
Equally, giving the first person a twelve-stage procedure may drive them quietly mad.
Process or freedom?
This is another difference founders frequently encounter.
Some people love a process. Show them the steps, give them a proven method and they’ll follow it reliably.
Others want options. Give them the destination and they’ll immediately start finding a better route.
Growing businesses need both.
The difficulty comes when leaders assume everybody should work the way they do.
A highly entrepreneurial founder may become frustrated with someone who keeps asking for a process: Why can’t they just work it out?
Meanwhile, the employee may be thinking: Why can’t she just tell me what she wants?
Neither conversation is helping.
And please – how much detail?
Then there’s the eternal big-picture versus detail problem.
Founders are often several steps ahead in their own heads. They’ve been thinking about a change for six months and announce it to the team in six minutes.
“We’re restructuring slightly. Sarah will take responsibility for operations, which will free me up to concentrate on the next stage of growth. It’s all fairly straightforward.”
It may be straightforward to you; your team may have 47 questions.
Other leaders make the opposite mistake and explain every detail before people have understood the basic idea.
A useful discipline is to ask yourself: What does this person need to understand before they can act confidently?
Not: What do I want to tell them?
Leadership isn’t broadcasting
As businesses grow, founders have to give up something else besides tasks and decisions: the assumption that everybody should adapt to them.
You need people to take greater ownership. You need managers to make decisions without you. You need teams to work across boundaries and hold one another accountable.
That requires clarity – but clarity isn’t simply repeating the same message more loudly.
- Sometimes you need to talk about the opportunity. Sometimes the risk.
- Sometimes people need freedom. Sometimes they need a framework.
- Sometimes they need the vision. Sometimes they need to know what happens next Tuesday at 9am.
The skill is noticing the difference.
Because good leadership isn’t about becoming a brilliant communicator in one particular style.
It’s about becoming flexible enough to communicate in theirs.