Episode 7: An Overlooked Solution for Accelerating Organizational Growth | 12MinuteLeadership

What's truly holding back your organization's growth? While most leaders focus on revenue metrics and headcount, the real accelerators often hide in plain sight. Leadership expert Elise Boggs Morales draws from 17 years of experience to reveal the overlooked solution that can transform your growth trajectory.

Growth is multidimensional, extending far beyond financial indicators. Four critical internal leadership factors determine whether your organization can reach its full potential: clear vision/strategy, leadership maturity, effective talent management, and a strong aligned culture. When leaders lack clarity or alignment in these areas, even the most promising companies stagnate. As Jack Welch famously stated, "An organization's ability to learn and translate that learning into action rapidly is the ultimate competitive advantage."

The key breakthrough comes from recognizing that you can't improve what you don't measure. Leadership 360 assessments provide the data-driven insights needed to identify specific growth barriers. Organizations that embrace this approach gain remarkable advantages—especially during uncertain times. During the pandemic, Elise observed firsthand how companies utilizing Leadership 360s stabilized and pivoted with significantly greater agility. By collecting feedback from diverse stakeholders and translating it into actionable priorities, these assessments eliminate guesswork from your growth strategy.

Ready to discover what's truly holding back your organization's potential?

Visit eliseboggs.com/leadership-360s to learn how our team of experts can facilitate this transformative process. Subscribe to the 12MinuteLeadership Podcast for more practical wisdom to increase engagement, inspire performance and retain your best talent—all in 12 minutes or less.

Follow on Instagram: @12minuteleadership

Order my book, Lead Anyone!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the 12-Minute Leadership Podcast
where, in 12 minutes or less,I'll share small things that you
can put into immediate practicethat will make a big difference
in your leadershipeffectiveness.
I'm your host, eliseBoggs-Morales leadership
professor, consultant and coach.
For the last 17 years, I havehelped thousands of leaders

(00:25):
level up their influence andachieve remarkable results.
If you want to trade compliancefor true commitment and create
your dream team, you are in theright place.
Get ready for a quick hit ofpractical wisdom to increase
your team's engagement, inspiretop performance and retain your
best talent.
Ready to level up yourinfluence and get better results

(00:47):
.
12 Minutes starts now.
Hi everyone, elise here,welcome to episode seven an
overlooked solution foraccelerating organizational
growth.
I'm gonna start with a quote bythe late Jack Welch, the former
chairman and CEO of GeneralElectric, who said an

(01:07):
organization's ability to learnand translate that learning into
action rapidly is the ultimatecompetitive advantage.
As leaders, we all want to beleading organizations that are
growing, so when we experienceunexpected dry seasons or
stagnancy, it can sometimes bechallenging to know where to

(01:28):
look for clues for why thismight be happening.
While revenue and headcount aretwo obvious indicators of
growth, they don't tell thewhole story.
Growth is multi-dimensional andthere are additional marks of
growth that signal yourorganization is moving forward
in a healthy and sustainable way.
In this episode, I'm going toshare the key indicators every

(01:52):
leader must look at to continuegrowing and offer an overlooked
solution for accelerating yourorganization's growth.
It's a solution you're probablynot expecting.
So let's start with the keyindicators for growth.
I like to break these up intothree categories.
The first is internalleadership factors, which is my

(02:15):
specialty and where I will spendmost of our time today.
Number two internal operationalfactors.
These have to do with yoursystems, processes, financial
management, marketing, customerservice, etc.
And then, finally, externalfactors, which include any
economic or industry challenges.

(02:36):
All three of these areas play arole in your organization's
ability to grow, but sinceeverything rises and falls on
leadership, I'm going to focusthere.
If we can get the leadershippiece right, everything else
flows from that alignment.
So what are the internalleadership factors that have the
biggest impact on growth?

(02:57):
I'm glad you asked.
Here are four major factors.
Number one having a clearvision and strategy for your
organization.
This means a long-termdirection and focus.
Leaders are proactive insteadof reactive, carving out time to
work on the business versusjust in the business.

(03:18):
Strategy is also adaptedquickly as market conditions
change.
I'm always surprised that evenat the highest levels of
leadership, oftentimes a clearvision isn't being articulated.
And if that's the case, thatmeans the leadership team is not
aligned.
And if the leadership team isnot aligned, the organization

(03:40):
can't grow.
Growth factor number two isleadership maturity.
Leaders are no longermicromanaging, but they're
delegating effectively and notjust creating more followers,
but more leaders.
Decision-making isdata-informed and values-aligned
.
Leadership also actively seeksfeedback and is able to adapt to

(04:04):
change.
When leadership isn't mature,great talent is lost and the
strengths of a team aren't fullyleveraged to meet the client
and customer needs.
And if those needs aren't met,the organization can't grow.
Growth factor number three iseffective talent management.
This means leadership is hiringthe right people and developing

(04:26):
the existing talent.
It means that there are highlevels of employee engagement
and low turnover.
It also means that there's aninvestment in strong leadership
development programs andsuccession planning.
And also a key indicator hereis that employees demonstrate
ownership and growth in theirperformance reviews.

(04:46):
Employees demonstrate ownershipand growth in their performance
reviews.
Organizational growth isdependent on the right people
being hired, developed andretained.
And finally, growth factornumber four is a strong and
aligned culture, and this isreflected in teams.
They understand and live themission, the values and the
vision of the company.
There's a sense ofpsychological safety where ideas

(05:10):
can be shared and feedback canbe given without fear.
There's also a breakdown insilos and there's a sense of
camaraderie among departmentsfor that cross-functional
collaboration.
Organizations with a strongcultural identity have the
alignment needed to grow.
So, to recap, the four internalleadership indicators that

(05:33):
determine growth are number one,having a clear vision and
strategy.
Number two, leadership maturity.
Number three, effective talentmanagement.
And number four, a strong andaligned culture.
So let's go back to the quote byJack Welch I shared at the top
of the episode.
He said an organization'sability to learn and translate

(05:54):
that learning into actionrapidly is the ultimate
competitive advantage.
So your competitive advantagecomes down to two things your
ability to learn and yourability to translate that
learning into action quickly.
So in order to learn what'sneeded in these four areas, you
need feedback and data.

(06:15):
The quickest and most efficientway to get that data is by
doing a Leadership 360, whichprovides an opportunity for
feedback to be collected from across-section of sources on
these specific competencies.
This is an overlooked solutionfor accelerating organizational
growth.
In my work, I often see leaderstrying to put the pressure on

(06:39):
fixing things without any kindof hard data to guide their
efforts.
Leadership 360s provide thedata needed to productively
focus your actions and efforts.
So for those that haven't yetdone Leadership 360s, here's
what the process looks like.
First you select the executiveand senior leaders to be rated

(07:02):
the ones that you want toreceive feedback.
Then you handpick theleadership competencies you want
to measure, especially thosemost related to growth.
Then you pick a cross-sectionof people from inside and
outside of the organization toprovide quality feedback.
Typically, these groups includea supervisor or board, peers,

(07:23):
direct reports and other supportstaff or clients.
That data is then compiled intoa comprehensive report and then
a trained consultant can helpyou debrief your report and
translate the data intomeasurable actions by priority.
In working with thousands ofleaders over the last 17 years,

(07:44):
this is the quickest way I knowto get the information you need
to address needed areas ofleadership growth that may be
stunting your overallorganizational growth.
During COVID, I noticed that theorganizations I work with that
have embraced Leadership 360swere able to stabilize and pivot

(08:05):
fairly quickly because theirleadership was strong and
aligned.
So has your executive andsenior leadership teams
completed a Leadership 360?
If not, it may just be anoverlooked solution for
accelerating your organizationalgrowth.
Many organizations do 360sinternally, but if you're

(08:27):
looking for the support of anoutside consultant, my team of
experts can help.
We can facilitate the processfor you, start to finish,
ensuring you get exactly whatyou need to accelerate your
growth.
To learn more about 360s, youcan go to my website,
wwweliseboggscom.
Forward slash leadership 360s.

(08:49):
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode and felt inspired and
empowered to grow yourorganization through your
leadership.
I'll see you next time.
Like what you heard on today'sepisode and want to go deeper,
subscribe to this podcast so younever miss an episode.
You can also pick up my bookLead Anyone on Amazon.

(09:12):
Then go to my website to checkout ways that we can support
your leadership goals.
From executive retreats tocustomized training and coaching
, my team of experts will helpyou level up your leadership.
And From executive retreats tocustomized training and coaching
, my team of experts will helpyou level up your leadership and
accelerate your results.
Go to wwweliseboggscom for moreinfo.