Today, I’m here to talk to you about something that happens when six-figure business owners get stuck. Even very successful, multiple six-figure (or even seven-figure!) business owners will eventually hit a plateau in their growth. This isn’t because the business has reached its full potential…oftentimes it happens because of leadership. Or rather, lack thereof. If your ability to keep scaling your business has gone stagnant, you need to pause and take a look at yourself…and how you’re leading your team. Let’s talk about leadership.

Leadership: The Core of Scaling Your Business

Leadership really is at the core of scaling your business rapidly into the seven figures. Once your business grows past that point where you are unable to be in all of the places and watch all of the moves in your business, you have to rely on your team to build your vision for you. Once this happens, the only way to keep expanding is to boldly step into leadership. Operation systems, more hands to do the work, automations, marketing, and sales tactics will all help, but they won’t get the job done for you without unwavering leadership.

Be BOLD!

When I work with businesses already in the seven figures, the reason they plateau is often that the CEO is not leading boldly enough. Making the shift from only playing the role of CEO to employing fully embodied visionary leadership can be scary…and a little lonely, especially if you’re trying to do it on your own! But in spite of that, it really is necessary if you want to keep scaling your business. The reason it can be scary sometimes? Because you don’t want to step on the toes of your team.

When the Team Takes Over

So somewhere in the mid-six-figures, most CEOs have a core team that they trust implicitly. This team is often really making a difference in the business. The CEO has likely been relying on this core team for emotional support as they’ve been navigating the many challenges of a growing business and hitting all the milestones in a multiple six-figure. It’s such a relief for the CEO that they are no longer having to do it all by themselves…but oftentimes there is a mostly invisible line that gets crossed along the way. Of course, there’s going to be a collaboration between the team members and the CEO, but ultimately, the buck stops with the CEO. If the CEO isn’t boldly leading, strategic decisions will often be made by team members that never have built a seven-figure business themselves and don’t have what it takes to be strategic with those key decisions that you need to make when you’re growing a multiple seven-figure business.

With this dynamic, over time, the team starts feeling like they know best. So when the CEO starts proposing changes, there is often pushback from the team, and rather than ruffle the team’s feathers, the CEO oftentimes will take a step back because they are terrified of losing their team. It can even get to the point that CEOs will literally ask their team for permission to hire mentors or hire more team members in certain positions in the business, or invest in any specific marketing strategy or tactic! The CEO is no longer the leader of their own business. And this is absolutely disastrous to scaling your business past the plateau you’ve fallen into.

Take a Breath—You’re Not Alone!

The first thing you need to hear if you’re finding yourself in this position: you’re not alone. I’ve created this particular mess in my previous businesses, and I see it all the time in my clients’ businesses. The CEO ends up stuck in this Catch-22. They know that things need to change in their business, but because of the resistance from the team, they don’t wanna push the envelope and make those changes. Instead, they’ll say, “It’s not that bad. We can stay here. This business is running pretty well and making pretty good money.” And growth grinds to a halt! You can’t keep scaling your business, because you’re basically being held hostage by your team. And it’s really hard to get unstuck at that particular point because it feels like you have to blow your whole business up and start over to make the changes. And, let’s be honest: you worked way too hard to get to where you are right now to throw it all away on a whim like that.

So How Do You Fix It?

To help CEOs, we partner with them in a very unique way. My team and I will step in and make some of these changes in a way that doesn’t upset the team, but still gets phenomenal results in terms of re-upping your potential for scaling your business.

It’s kind of like putting your house on stilts and having a company come in to restore and rebuild your foundation. You’re still living in the house day to day while the work is taking place, but once that work is done, your foundation is so strong that you can literally build a skyscraper on top of it.

The reason this helps with scaling your business past the plateau is that many times, the reason your team is so resistant to big change is that they’re feeling really overworked. Because of the dynamic that’s been put in place, they’re carrying a lot of the burden of the business for the CEO. So if you want to build out the operational procedures of your business, it feels like one more thing that they are gonna have to do for the business to thrive. They may feel like they’re giving so much already that they aren’t willing or able to give more. So one of the ways that we partnered with you, your team, and your business is by helping you develop your standard operational procedures library so that everything that happens in your business is documented and easily replicated. We step in and collaborate with your team in a way that doesn’t put too much of the burden on them, but in a way that we can build these things out, take what’s there already, and then develop it further. While putting together your standard operational procedures isn’t a fun part of scaling your business, I find that it’s one of the most important things you can do.

Why SOPs?

Want to keep scaling your business? You need to invest time in SOPs. These are the true assets of your business. SOPs are what will give you true freedom as the CEO, and they’ll give your team freedom, too. So as much as your team may resist, these pieces are actually what’s going to help free them up and help you keep scaling your business. Once we put the context in the right perspective and your team can see the development of these pieces, that resistance should really start to lighten up.

Once we have security assets, I will actually personally step up and support you in becoming that fully embodied visionary leader. That takes away the loneliness aspect of it, right? With support, you can step into your authentic leadership style; and if you lead with heart, vision, and inspiration, it will really lift up your team in a whole new way.

And another thing? Your team will shift as you shift because they’ll finally have someone strong leading the charge. This is really what paves the way for that next-level growth that you want to see while scaling your business.

Lead Your Business Out of the Plateau!

So now you know! If you find yourself in a situation of not being able to continue scaling your business, there are ways to shift how you’re doing things that will give you a lot of ease, and you can do it when you have the right support.

Bold leadership is what it’s going to take for that seven-figure dream to become a reality; for your vision to change and transform the world to become a reality. And we need you. We need you to be a bold, authentic, strong leader, both in the world and for your team.

If you want to make sure you never miss an episode, come follow the 7 Figure Freedom Podcast on Spotify, subscribe on Google, or head over to Apple Podcasts. In the meantime, I’d love to connect with you over on Instagram or in the 7 Figure Freedom Club Facebook group so we can chat about what you got out of this episode!

Are you wondering if you’re ready to take the next step in your business? Curious about whether you’re a good fit for our services? Take the free business assessment quiz to find out! And if you want to learn more, you can visit my website or schedule a call with me today. I can’t wait to hear from you!