Your business is stuck. Growth has slowed or stalled. You can’t agree on a path forward.
Ultimately, getting unstuck is your job. But so are a lot of other things, and getting unstuck is hard.
You need help.
But who is in the best position to help you get unstuck?
Functional leaders are conflicted
Your leaders are part of the solution, a better future of sustained growth and value creation. But they are also part of the problem.
They each lack awareness of how they are keeping you stuck. It’s easier to point out problems in their peers than to confront their own causality.
Peer relationships in stuck organizations become increasingly complex. They perceive each other as threats even when they are genuinely trying to collaborate.
Ultimately, each leader’s loyalty to the team conflicts with their self-interest. Job security, rewards, and advancement are zero-sum. Especially in organizations whose investors exert strong pressure on operating expenses.
This internal tension can spawn an endless cycle of drama that keeps you stuck without outside help.
Coaches help individuals
Coaches help many clients in these situations. They work with leaders to become more self-aware, more effective, and achieve their goals.
This work is important. But it may or may not translate to a better, more mature organization.
Team dynamics can undermine the impact of individual growth. Leaders who achieve meaningful growth often become frustrated and leave for a more mature team. They are replaced by a new leader who is willing to tolerate the immaturity, and the team remains stuck.
Getting a business unstuck is a team sport that requires more than individual coaching. It requires a playbook of mature practices for the organization, not just an individual leader or function.
Consultants are expensive and temporary
Consultants do work you can’t do yourself, either because you lack the capacity or the expertise.
You pay a steep premium for that capacity and expertise when you’re stuck. So you can’t afford to keep them forever.
When they leave, you might implement their recommendations. But you still can’t duplicate their work yourself.
This is a problem when it comes to strategy decisions. Even if a consultant delivers an ideal strategy, markets are dynamic. Strategies don’t survive for long.
You’ll need to do this work again if you want to stay unstuck and unlock value creation. Which means you’ll either bring the consultant back or learn how to do the work yourself.
Advisors strike the right balance
An advisor has the experience and skill of a consultant. But unlike consultants, advisors aren’t a temporary shortcut for doing important work.
Instead, they guide your organization while it learns to do important work better. You spend far less money, your organization learns and becomes more mature, and that maturity unlocks value creation.
An advisor guides you like a coach. But unlike a coach, an advisor’s client is the organization, not an individual. Advisors focus on guiding the organization through the process of maturing.
And unlike functional leaders, advisors are not conflicted by self-interest in your status quo. They describe a better future for your organization and a path to get there. And at each step of the way they offer feedback that isn’t filtered through complex peer relationships.
Finding the right advisor can be the key to getting unstuck and staying that way.