September 28, 2024: A Reflection on Growth and Skills
Walking and swimming require different skills, and this serves as a metaphor for personal and professional transitions. What inspired this topic? I recently discussed Stellar’s growth with foundational members Rachel, Yvonne, Samuel, and Doreen. It’s a reflection on recent developments and what has brought us to where we are today.
Walking and Swimming: Two Distinct Skills
Walking into deeper ocean water is like scaling a business: initially, it’s easy to maintain control, but deeper waters require you to swim—or adapt new strategies—to stay afloat. Similarly, in business, initial growth allows for direct control, but scaling requires new skills—letting go of the familiar and adapting to navigate uncharted depths.
If you decide to turn back to where the water is more shallow, you regain control, but you remain in your comfort zone. If you choose to go deeper, you face new challenges. At a certain depth, you can no longer feel the ground beneath your feet, and you have to learn new skills just to stay afloat. This is the transition where you need to start swimming instead of walking. This shift demands new abilities, just like a business scaling from simple operations to advanced management. There’s no right or wrong choice—it depends on your goals and what you aim to achieve.
The Struggle of Transition
Reaching deeper water can be overwhelming, like facing new business challenges. This is where true growth happens—as we learn to swim. The skills required for walking are not enough anymore—you need to learn how to swim.
Experienced swimmers know it’s easier to float in deep water than in a shallow pool. The vastness of the water supports you—if you know how to work with it. In a corporate context, consider the growth of tech startups like Airbnb. Initially, founders managed every detail, from customer interactions to website development. But as the company grew, they had to develop new systems for scaling operations, entrusting managers to handle customer service, and automating workflows. Without mastering these ‘swimming skills,’ the company would have remained a small player. Once you master the skill of swimming, the depth of the water no longer matters.
Applying the Metaphor to Corporate Growth
As Stellar grew, I remember doing everything from installing IKEA cupboards, planting vegetables in our edible garden, to driving students and cleaning up the center after the last one left. It was rewarding but unsustainable as we ventured into deeper waters. Many of our leadership team at Stellar today started as teachers or interns, transitioning from hands-on roles like designing lesson plans, teaching, answering every parent inquiry, and packing for events. I knew that this model couldn’t last as we scaled, so I had to let go of some responsibilities to focus on training the next line of leaders.
Mentorship: Building the Next Line of Leaders
One effective strategy we’ve implemented is the mentor-mentee system. We identify potential leaders, invest time with them, explain why we do things a certain way, and empower them to take over those responsibilities. It’s been key in preparing Stellar to scale, ensuring that these new leaders can thrive in the deeper waters of expansion. Mentoring not only develops individual leaders but also fosters a culture of trust and empowerment within the organization.
The Importance of Letting Go
A study shows that 61% of businesses struggle to grow because leaders hold on too tightly to control. Learning to delegate is key to overcoming this barrier. Learning new management skills is critical for scaling successfully. In the corporate world, this might mean letting go of micromanagement and learning how to empower others.
Delegation and Empowerment: The Key to Growth
As companies grow, the art of delegation becomes crucial. True delegation isn’t about offloading tasks but empowering others to grow. Ever since the beginning of Stellar, I knew from experience that managing everything myself wasn’t feasible in the long run. Having previously managed a team of 30 before starting Stellar, I was prepared to delegate early on. But the real challenge lay in helping my team transition from hands-on roles to leadership.
Many of our team members had grown from the ground up, initially taking responsibility for every detail, from teaching to event management. To empower them for deeper roles, the mentor-mentee system became instrumental in building a culture of empowerment, embracing the principle of going slow to go fast. This allowed leaders to transfer both tasks and decision-making processes gradually, ensuring that the next line of leaders was fully equipped to lead. By investing time and trust in them, they were able to grow, and Stellar was able to scale effectively.
Richard Branson, a proponent of smart delegation, succinctly captures this approach: “The art of delegation is one of the key skills any entrepreneur must master” This philosophy has been pivotal in our strategy, enabling us to not just offload tasks but to cultivate future leaders who can carry the mantle of growth and innovation.
Effective delegation follows the ‘Five Levels of Delegation’ framework. For instance, when delegating a new project:
- Level 1: Give detailed instructions.
- Level 2: Allow minor decisions within guidelines.
- Level 3: Encourage them to propose plans before feedback.
- Level 4: Let them decide while keeping you informed.
- Level 5: Grant full autonomy and review after completion.
By progressively moving through these levels, you empower your team while ensuring alignment with business goals. This mindful approach prevents the pitfalls of dumping responsibilities and fosters genuine growth and accountability within your team.
Personal Reflections on Delegation
In personal life, this lesson also holds true. As a parent, I’ve had to learn how to delegate responsibilities to my eldest child to manage the household more effectively. It wasn’t easy at first, but it helped my children learn responsibility and contributed to the overall harmony of the family.
Conclusion: Mastering the Art of Swimming
Delegating, empowering others, and adapting to changes are vital whether you’re leading a business, managing a family, or pursuing personal growth. Walking may serve us well in shallow water, but as we venture into deeper waters, we must learn to swim.
To master the art of swimming in business, we need to:
- Evaluate Our Skill Set: Identify the ‘walking’ skills we can let go of and the ‘swimming’ skills we need to develop for navigating deeper waters.
- Empower Our Team: Use a delegation framework to gradually entrust more responsibility to our team, ensuring they grow alongside the business.
- Adapt Continuously: Stay flexible in our approach, regularly reassessing the methods and systems we’ve put in place to ensure they still align with the company’s growth trajectory.
Just as the depth of the water doesn’t matter to a skilled swimmer, the scale of a challenge doesn’t matter once you’ve developed the necessary skills to face it. As you navigate your own business depths, remember that the scale of challenges diminishes in the face of well-honed skills. Evaluate, delegate, and adapt continuously to turn daunting depths into navigable waters.
Applying Lessons Beyond Business
The deeper waters are daunting, but they also offer limitless opportunity for those willing to adapt. In the coming week, as you evaluate your own journey transiting from walking to swimming, consider: What specific skills have you recognized as necessary for navigating deeper waters? How can you apply the art of swimming to your leadership challenges? Identify one ‘walking’ skill you can delegate this week and one ‘swimming’ skill you aim to develop. The journey may be challenging, but the depths offer impactful opportunities the shore never will.
Fun Fact: While both walking and swimming are excellent forms of exercise that help us stay fit, swimming can burn calories more quickly than walking. This makes it a highly efficient workout, especially if you’re looking to maximize health benefits within a shorter time frame. As we reflect on the necessary skills for navigating the depths, remember that the method we choose to move forward can make all the difference!
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