Feeling uncomfortable and stretched: Cues that you are challenging your personal and organizational growth

The theme of our upcoming 2019 PEO Leadership Conference, The GROWTH Dilemma, is centered around the challenges and opportunities of growth in a rapidly changing world. As we approach the second decade of the 21st century, leaders are challenged with how to meet the business imperatives of today while positioning their companies for growth in a volatile and uncertain future. In a world that is changing so rapidly – ideologies about how to grow are complex, timelines are truncating, and errors are more difficult to recover from. So, what do leaders need to think about and do to position their companies for growth?

• Understand that “growth and comfort never co-exist” as quoted by Ginni Rommetty, CEO and Chairman of IBM. Strategizing and executing on growth is difficult at the best of times – it commands courage, passion, and a tremendous amount of resilience from you and your leadership team.
• Recognize that playing defense in the new world environment will quickly leave you on the sidelines with declining revenue and profitability. As a leader, you cannot afford your company to stall.
• Don’t define your organization by a product and/or the competition. It’s all about the customer – keep your eyes and ears focused on the expectations and demands of your customers with a particular focus on their pain points. As for your competitors, it’s essential to understand the fundamentals like market share, where they play, and how they play. However, minimize analysis paralysis and reallocate time to learning about your customers, new opportunities, and where your company needs to be in the next few years to continue to succeed.
• Know that relying on your past successes is not a sustainable path to growth. You and your leadership team need to continuously rethink, reimagine, and become relentless in what your company can do to delight your customers today and, even more importantly, tomorrow.
• Ensure that you, your leadership team, and your employees dedicate the necessary time to learning to have a chance of keeping up with the rapid pace of change.

On November 13th and 14th in Toronto, PEO Leadership will bring together 200 C-level executives, members of their leadership teams, and various thought leaders from around the world to focus on The GROWTH Dilemma. We’ll explore key growth questions, including which avenues of growth to fund, M&A versus organic growth, industry-changing trends, where possible future engines of growth exist, how to become a passionate, resilient leader, and the timing of when to be bold and make big investments versus when to make small bets. We’ll look at growth through various lenses and provide leaders with the time to challenge their thinking in conversation with their peers. If you haven’t attended our annual conference in the past, please feel free to reach out to us at info@PEO-Leadership for more information.