Recruit—It’s even more important in fast growth situations you be constantly looking for new and developing leadership. There must be an intentional effort in every area to empower people and train volunteers for leadership positions. Again, you may not feel you can pick your head up from the “real work” to recruit—but you must. Make sure someone has this as one of their key roles on the team, but it should be the responsibility of everyone.
Systematize—As much as possible, you should add structure to the organization along the way. You may never catch up with growth, but as problems are discovered it will often be a systems problem. Again, the more ahead of this issue you can be the better. Continually think strategically of what is needed to ensure you can continue to grow at the current rate. This is another area it helps to have someone specifically designated—someone who is wired to think systematically—to specialize in this vital area.
Communicate—The faster you are growing the better your communication must become. Communication is always a struggle in any organization, but healthy organizations continually analyze their approach and attempt to improve. In stressful times, communication must receive even more attention.
Planning—It’s important, even during explosive growth—maybe especially—to discipline yourself enough to plan for the future. Leaders need to be visionary enough to look for what’s coming next and attempt to get some forward-thinking goals and objectives in place. In spite of the constant demand due to growth, leaders must take time away from doing the work to evaluate and ensure operations are improved to maintain growth and momentum.
Sometimes God brings supernatural growth, and during those seasons leaders should be especially aware of potential dangers. (Can you imagine the first-century church adding 3,000 to their numbers in a single day?)
Have you ever been in an organization with explosive growth? What would you add to my list?
