The 3 most common growth errors that must be corrected early 

In a previous post we looked at how correcting fundamental strategic errors early in the year helps you avoid the law of compounded organizational growth loss and turn in a dramatically better annual performance.

In today's post, I want to draw your attention to the most likely places where those strategic errors are lurking.

Here are the three areas where I see growth-oriented leaders most frequently stumble out of the gate in executing their growth strategy – and fail to correct it soon enough: 

1. A bad hire 

Otherwise entirely rational leaders routinely recoil from acting early on expensive new hires gone wrong - it’s by far the most common early strategic error that is recognized by growth leaders, but not acted on until way too late.

By the time most bad hires are purged, a lot of cultural and performance damage has typically been inflicted on the organization – including a weakening of the hiring leader’s credibility in the eyes of her team, who (of course) knew way ahead of her that a mistake had been made.

Why do leaders hesitate to make such a vital correction?

Mostly because the hire is expensive, the opportunity cost of failure is high, there’s a lot of sunk cost in the relationship-building that led up to the hire, the leader’s own judgment is at stake, there’s another person involved, the steps needed to unravel the hire are icky, and the thought of having to go through the whole process again is daunting to say the least.

Nonetheless, if you want to hit your growth goals this year, and you know you’ve made a strategic hiring error, now is the time to deal with it, not mid-year. 

2. A failed product launch

This failure pattern is a bit like watching someone give CPR to a corpse (a gruesome metaphor, I know – but accurate).

All the bystanders know that the subject is dead, but the boss insists on either trying repeatedly to resuscitate it, or whistling nonchalantly while stepping round the corpse, hoping to give the impression that it will soon rise up and walk despite all available evidence to the contrary. 

The reason this particular mess tends not to be tidied up promptly is almost always down to a combination of ego and hubris. It's embarrassing to admit that that new idea you were all in on three months ago is a clear dud, and hey, you've pulled worse disasters around in your day, so maybe you'll do the same here.

Except you won't, and instead you'll leech resources (and your team's enthusiasm and commitment) until you admit the inadmissible and pull the plug, 

3. A squirelly alignment or association 

Toward the end of last year you talked yourself into doing a joint venture with someone, or you found a new supplier, or you hired a new PR agency, or you outsourced your call center – whatever. And now, just weeks into the new year, you know it was a ghastly strategic mistake.

Same deal applies as above – act now and you cut your losses, or act later and get hammered by the law of compounding organizational growth loss. 

In a later post I’ll help you decide whether you really have made a strategic error that need fixed immediately, or whether you’re just harboring natural doubts that don’t require dramatic action just yet, but in the meantime:

What about you? Have you made a strategic error that needs fixing immediately?

Let Me Know In The Comments Below!