Conscious Leadership – The High Growth Talent Conundrum

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Conscious Leadership Scenario:

Venture capital funding has been driving the innovation engine in high-tech for decades, now with hundreds of high growth businesses being catapulted out of the machine. The rate of change in these businesses is astounding, with rapid changes in maturity on a monthly basis. So how do you find and then hire the right talent for the right maturity in this type of business? Too early and you risk underutilizing talent, too late and you miss an opportunity window – is there a good balance?

Leadership Fail:

Executives in these fast-changing environments often try and look for the utopian individual that somehow can magically alter their core skills over time as the business matures. Looking for the perfect candidate is admirable, but waiting on finding the proverbial needle in the haystack will often lead to missing the window of opportunity. Failures often arise by leadership not being able to dial in the right amount of talent at the right time and most importantly thinking forward and building a maturity plan. 

Negative Effect on Cultural and Organizational Performance:

• Underutilized Potential

• Poor Productivity

• Low Morale

• High Attrition

Conscious Leadership Solution:

High growth leaders need to take the time to assess the pace and change of business maturity, look at what is critical to the business from a skills perspective in a rolling 6-month window. Weigh the risks of finding the right long-term individual versus obtaining best in class talent now that can help move the needle. We need to learn that certain individuals may not scale or mature with the business, and that’s ok, but look to build a forward-looking plan that can leverage their skills elsewhere in the organization.

Written by: Peter Doggart
Published by: The Conscious Leadership Blog