Rapid Growth?
Moving into rapid growth feels like moving from a swiftly moving stream into whitewater rapids: it's exhilarating, but very scary. The pace is so fast that your adrenaline seems to be flowing constantly. This period feels drastically different from Initial Growth, when you had more time to consider the pros and cons of decisions and to learn new things. Now, you feel like you are betting the company's future every day without adequate time or information for decision making. At the same time, you have to do everything exactly right or it will all blow up.

Here are some of the signals that your company is moving into Rapid Growth stage and that your leadership role needs to change once again:

1. The pressures are mounting, and it's beginning to be way too hard to get things done. You feel like you're always behind the curve and find yourself wishing for more and faster systems for all kinds of processes: information management, lead qualification, sales-pipeline management, product development and launch, quality control, shipping and delivery, inventory control, and hiring/training new people.
2. You realize that product and market development must expand because customers are demanding more from you.
3. You constantly face shortages or delays because you haven't planned for this kind of growth. The systems you do have in place aren't adequate to keep pace with customers' demands for delivery and service.
4. You start to feel competitive heat as other companies begin to recognize and respond to your presence in the market.
5. You have to hire a lot of people quickly, but finding talent when you need it is really tough.
6. You find yourself longing for true experts because there are big gaps in the company's areas of functional expertise.
7. Some of your original employees are growing and taking on bigger responsibilities, but other look like they're not going to make it - and it's painful to think what that means for their future at the company.
8. You want to mold your management team into a well-oiled machine, with each person fully understanding the part he or she must play, but you're not sure how to do it.
9. You worry that your managers are not proactive enough; that they have their heads down, focusing only on operational issues; and that they aren't keeping their eyes open on the big picture and planning ahead.
10. There is so much going on internally, you worry that people are losing touch with what's happening in the external environment.
11. With all the growth you're experiencing, you haven't yet figured out the best kind of financing for continued growth.
12. The original culture is changing drastically. The small-family feeling has disappeared, and people miss it. You don't even know anyone's name any more.
13. It's hard to imagine the pace getting any busier, but it seems to go up a notch every day. You realize how easy it would be to lose control.