According to Greiner (Harvard Business Review   May-Jun 1998) you are suffering from normal symptoms of growth.  He says that businesses go through stages of evolutionary growth and suddenly what worked for that age and size of business no longer works.  Then it is time for a revolutionary change to have continued growth or a contraction of the business.

Phase 1 : Creativity

Originally the founders of businesses are technically or entrepreneurially orientated.  They dislike management activities.  Communication is informal.  The market dictates and management reacts to customer needs.

Over time “the way we do things here” develop from trial and error.  These ways become entrenched and are difficult to change. As the business grows, the number of employees and activity increases, and problems of coordination and communication emerge.  The management style that worked for a smaller size no longer work and top level managers/owners experience frustration and lower level supervisors become disillusioned.

The challenges at this stage include:

• Founders find themselves burdened with unwanted management responsibilities
• Everyone longs for the good old days and they try and act as they did in the past
• Additional financing is needed
• Business systems for control becomes important
• Manufacturing efficiency is needed to return to profitability

The Crisis is of leadership and the solutions include a strong manager who has the necessary knowledge and skill to introduce new business techniques and controls. It is likely that the founders will resist stepping aside so the business manager must be acceptable to the founders.

Phase 2:  Direction

Organisations that install capable business managers then move onto a sustained stage of evolutionary growth.  The characteristic in this stage are:

There is a functional organisational structure. Job assignments become increasingly specialised

• Control systems for inventory and purchasing are introduced
• Accounting systems become more sophisticated
• Incentives, budgets and work standards are adopted
• Communication becomes more formal and impersonal
• The new manager and his/her key supervisors assume most of the responsibility for implementing strategic direction and lower level supervisors are treated as functional specialists with little autonomy

The solution at each stage, over time, creates the next crisis of management.  It is at the points of crisis that coaches can assist founders with a space where they can experiment with possible solutions, including how they see their own role in a business that will look and function very differently in the future.

I have only covered the first section of Greiner’s article.  For more on the Greiner theory, or to find out how a business coach can assist you through these revolutionary phases, please send a request to mariane@mybusinesscoach.co.za.

This is best illustrated with a case study. In a recent coaching assignment, 8 branch managers were selected for coaching. During the coaching process one branch manager, let’s call him Jeff, asked a sales manager where a certain sales representative, Zodwa, was. His only reply was that she had absconded. Jeff was uncomfortable about the reply and visited the Zodwa at home, only to find her severely beaten and abused by her husband. Jeff arranged a meeting with the husband to explain the whole process the job entails. The husband was worried that his wife would have an affair and leave him. Jeff asked for some time to work with the representative and to give it one more chance. Jeff mentored and paid special attention to the Zodwa and within a month she was earning R16000.00 in commission. The business this one representative generated paid for the whole coaching assignment.

This case illustrates that there was no way we could have predicted that scenario in our ROI discussions up front. Coaching creates the space for solutions to evolve but we are awake and aware enough to respond in a new way. ROI with coaching depends on you. Coaches provide the stimulus for extraordinary things to happen.

Through Coaching, a person can realise their true potential by following a process of uncovering and then eliminating destructive behavioural and thinking patterns in their life – and doing this in a fully supportive, caring and inspirational environment.

Going through a coaching process however is not a soft and fluffy process. It requires hard work and commitment from both the coach and coachee. One coach defined a coach’s job as kick-starting the next phase of your life.

Coaching traditionally takes place as one hour face-to-face sessions but is developing to meet the needs of our modern world and includes telephone, on-line video, email and the multitude of electronic communication options.

The coach helps you to expand the kind of observer you are, in order to see patterns, contexts and questions that you haven’t been able to see. The spectrums of possible actions that we have at any moment are determined by the observer that we are. Imagine someone listening, not only to your words, but also to what’s behind them; someone who even listens to the spaces between your words; someone in tune with the nuances of your voice, your emotion, and your energy – who is intent on receiving everything you communicate; someone who listens to the very best in you, even when you can’t hear it in yourself. Imagine hearing the truth about yourself. Where you are strong, and where you sell yourself short.

Imagine hearing that without judgment? The process is set to help you break free from self-limiting conversations and take action that will lead to a more fulfilling life. It is about unlocking your true potential.