最佳成长期CEO的五大特征

    创始人是初创公司的最佳CEO人选，因为他们有激情，更专注，有胆识。但在成长阶段，公司领导人的职责则从启动变成了执行，从开拓变成了规模化扩张。

    优秀的成长期CEO需要具备一些独特的技能，对促成初期成功的特性进行补充。以下为笔者曾经共事过的最优秀的成长期CEO所共有的五大特质：

    1. 不懈地追求合适的团队。在初期，成功招聘意味着寻找那些具有文化认同感的超级天才们。而在成长阶段，最优秀的领导人很清楚，何时应该引进拥有专业知识，并有能力推动公司规模化扩张的技术型人才。你无法承担文化彻底错位的风险，但随着你寻求的技能变得越来越稀缺，你针对每一个职位引进的人才，不可能全都成为公司文化的忠诚守护者。而且持续提高团队的能力与素质可能伤害一些人的感情，尤其是当个别早期员工跟不上团队提升速度的时候。但无论如何，在公司规模化扩张的过程中，为自己网罗最优秀的人才至关重要。

    2. 专注“附加赌注”的能力。高效的成长期领导人会让自己的团队高度关注成功的主要推动因素。这种单一的专注对于度过初创阶段很有必要，但在成长阶段则可能使侧翼门户大开。聪明的竞争对手会抓住本属于你的机会，削弱你的整体运营。最出色的成长期CEO们在使公司保持专注的同时，也会确定并重点发展适当的“附加赌注”。所谓“附加赌注”是指最初的非常规项目。项目涉及的人数有限，造成的颠覆效应也有限，在短期内似乎并不合理，但最终随着时间的推移，它会成为公司基本业务的重要补充。“附加赌注”需要有正确的监督，要限制数量，而且一旦无效必须立即放弃。只要这些项目能够成功，便会给公司带来重要影响，保护公司的运营。

    3. 崇尚学习。作为一名成长期的公司CEO，你需要能够胜任公司的多个方面，甚至要做到出类拔萃，其中包括销售、营销、产品与财务。没有人天生就样样精通。最优秀的CEO会将学习作为每天工作生活的一部分。他们会请教专家，同时还会鼓励团队也不断学习，将学习融入到公司文化当中。这种对学习的投入能帮助公司在大规模扩张过程中保持灵活，不断提高。

    4. 建立一种能自力更生的机制。在初创阶段，你会遇到数量有限的大问题（例如：技术是否有效，是否有合适的产品市场等）。而在成长阶段，你更有可能遇到更多较为普通的问题（如消费者不满意，关键员工打算离职，销售佣金结构等）。这样的问题会越来越多，让人疲于应付。最优秀的CEO会建立一种机制，来持续解决这种问题。怎么做？授权给团队，给他们提供文化上的总体方向，帮助他们进行有效的决策，信任他们无需通过微观管理也能把工作做好。

    Founders are the best start-up CEOs, thanks to their passion, focus and audacity. In the growth stage, however, the job of a company leader changes from inception to execution, from development to scale.

    Great growth-stage CEOs require unique skills to complement the attributes that contributed to their success as early stage leaders. Below are five common traits among the best growth stage CEOs with whom I've worked.

    1. Relentless Pursuit of the Right Team. Successful recruiting in the early stage is more about finding super talented folks with tight cultural alignment. In the growth stage, the best leaders recognize when to bring in skill players with functional expertise and capacity to scale. You can never take a risk on a complete cultural misfit, but as the skill sets you seek become rarer, not every position player you bring in will be a strong steward of your company culture. Continually upping the capacity and quality of your team may hurt feelings, especially if some of the early employees are unable to keep up, but surrounding yourself with the very best as you're scaling is critical.

    2. Focus with Aptitude for "Side Bets." Effective growth-stage leaders keep their teams hyper-focused on the key drivers of success. This type of singular concentration, necessary to get through the start-up phase, can leave flanks open in the growth stage. Clever competitors will seek to grab opportunities that otherwise would have been yours, weakening your overall franchise. While keeping their companies extremely focused, the best growth stage CEOs also are able to identify and prioritize the right "side bets" – projects that start as skunk works, involve a limited number of people and disruption, never seem justified in the short run, but can grow to become important compliments to the base business over time. Side bets need the right oversight, should be limited in number and need to be killed quickly if they're not working. Those that do work can have great impact and protect your franchise.

    3. Commitment to Learning. As a growth-stage company CEO, you'll need to become competent, even great, in multiple aspects and dimensions of your business -- including sales, marketing, product and finance. No one starts as a master of all. The best CEOs make learning an active part of their day, seeking out experts, encouraging the same of their team and build this into their culture. This commitment helps companies stay agile and improve as they scale.

    4. Building a Self-Reliant Organization. While a start-up, you encounter a limited number of very large problems (e.g., does the technology work, is there product market fit, etc.). When you graduate to the growth stage, you're more likely to encounter a longer list of medium-sized problems (unhappy customers, key employees thinking about leaving, sales compensation structures, etc.). The list quickly gets too long for any one person to manage. The best CEOs build an organization prepared to tackle these medium-sized issues consistently. How? By empowering their teams, giving them the cultural rudders to help direct good decision-making and trusting them to get the job done without micro-managing.