Over the last 1.5 years, I have been working with many companies that have the potential to scale. However, despite all the factors being in their favor, their growth plateaus. The primary reason for this is that the leadership loses its ability to make good predictions.
Defining a vision is a difficult task. None of us have a crystal ball to see the future. Long-range estimates are very challenging to make. For example, experts from IEA went wrong in estimating the installation of solar power units by a whopping margin of several hundred percentages. They projected linear growth while the solar installations grew exponentially. It is, therefore, not worthwhile outsourcing this task to consultants and experts outside the organization.
In most business scenarios, we do not need to make a forecast beyond a few quarters. But as the organizations grow, the leaders lose connection with the ground reality. They disengage from the employees, suppliers, customers, and investors. The information reaches them filtered through layers of bureaucracy. When the leader speaks with various stakeholders, they spot issues and opportunities ahead of the competition. That sliver of an advantage compounds in the long run.
But why do leaders not speak directly with all the stakeholders?
They continue to work in the business rather than working on it. The day-to-day matters just take away all their time. They do not develop leaders and effectively delegate the tasks. So, delegation is the first responsibility of the leader. It frees time for the prediction work. Also, it provides an opportunity for communicating and aligning everyone with the values, purpose, goals, and priorities of the organization.
Delegation is the first rung of the leadership ladder. The prediction and reinforcements are the subsequent ones. Let us fix the broken ladder urgently.
Subodh Gadgil
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