Organisational Coaching – Great Organisations and Great Managers

I have the privilege of working with a number of business owners and senior managers as they grow their companies.

Often a company will reach a certain level and then plateau. Try as they might, they can't get past the ceiling. These barriers often occur around the $20 million, $100 million, $500 million and $2 billion in revenue levels.

These plateaus occur for many complex reasons.

One of the more common causes is that our company's growth is being blocked by our personal growth.

In these cases the senior manager can't see where they are going personally and so undermines the opportunities they provide provide for everyone else to grow. This applies as much to the entrepreneur who "won't let go" as the business grows and it does to the senior managers of much larger organizations.

The barrier comes in many forms. Sometimes we just don't know what to do next. Sometimes we have been doing our current jobs for so long, it is a habit. Sometimes it is a fear of letting go. Sometimes we are being held back by a strength, an area we believe we do better than anyone else.

To unlock this issue, we can consider this question:

When our company is generating $[current revenue x 10], what position will we hold in the company?

"Position" in this question is unrelated to title or location in the organization chart. We already hold influential positions. It is about responsibilities, role and the unique value that we will be bringing to the company.

The question asks us to seriously consider two outcomes; firstly to acknowledge that our company could actually grow ten times and secondly to consider how our life will change when that happens. Once someone accepts personal growth, consciously and subconsciously they direct their energy to making it happen.

So, what will you be doing when your company is generating ten times it's current revenue?