Team Members Scaling From Front Line to Executive

When a company is just getting started it’s critical to get ‘A’ players on board that are excited to roll up their sleeves and do whatever it takes to be successful. As the startup grows and matures, one of the most difficult things is developing the early team members to scale as the business scales. It’s super tough to go from front-line team member to an executive managing a fast-growing department.

Here are some items to look for in team members that aspire to scale as the business scales:

• Executive presence – a level of confidence and professionalism that reflects strongly on the company
• Penchant for bigger-picture thinking – getting the job done is great but successful executives need to be thinking about long-term strategies, metrics, and ways to improve
• Strong communication skills – in-person discussions, team meetings, and conference calls should be productive and facilitated in an effective manner (great public speaking skills are a nice bonus)

As team members express a desire to scale with the organization, set proper expectations and ask hard questions regarding their ability to deliver as an executive at the next level.

What else? What other thoughts do you have on team members scaling from front line to executive?