People Power: How to Align Roles, Maximize Talent, and Build Your Company for Growth
You’ve got a vision. Now it’s time to build the team to get you there.
In our last post, we talked about defining your company’s North Star—your 10-Year Vision. But a vision without the right people to bring it to life is just a dream. If you’re serious about overcoming your growth plateau, you need to move from vision to execution by focusing on People—getting the right people in the right seats, giving them clarity, and setting the stage for scalable growth.
If you're feeling friction or stalled growth, this is your people-plan roadmap.
4 Steps to Align Your People for Scalable
Step 1: Get Clear on “Who Does What”
Before you can build a high-performing team, everyone needs a clear lane to operate in. That means:
Defined roles and responsibilities
An org chart that evolves with growth
Accountability lines that prevent overlap and confusion
When everyone knows what they’re accountable for and who they report to, your team will stop tripping over each other—and start moving faster.
Think of it like painting white lines on the road: everyone can drive faster and more confidently when they know where the lanes are.
Step 2: Assess Capabilities and Capacity
As your company grows, your people must grow too—but not everyone will grow at the same pace. That’s why we assess two critical factors:
Capability: Do they have the right skills and knowledge?
Capacity: Do they have enough bandwidth—or are they wearing too many hats?
These two factors signal when it’s time to:
Elevate and delegate functions
Bring in new talent
Or temporarily “rent” expertise (e.g., fractional CFO or outsourced HR) before making full-time hires.
Growth often reveals organizational strain. If your people are playing too many roles, it may be time to specialize and scale.
Step 3: Clarify the CEO and COO Roles
Many small businesses hit a wall when the founder tries to stay involved in everything – he or she might spend too much time working “in the business” and not enough time working “on the business”.
To break through, you must define two distinct leadership lanes:
COO – The Integrator
Responsible for:
Translating the business plan into an operating plan
Running quarterly planning and weekly execution meetings
Driving KPIs, process improvements, and cross-functional alignment
Leading managers and keeping the business on track
Ensuring operational excellence and compliance
CEO – The Visionary
Responsible for:
Owning the 10-Year Vision and Business Plan
Setting company culture
Leading the executive team
Serving as the public face of the company
Holding the COO accountable to execute
This dynamic duo—Visionary and Executor—creates a powerful structure that allows the CEO to move “up and out” of daily operations while the COO ensures things run like clockwork.
Step 4: Design for Growth with a Scalable Org Chart
Your org chart isn’t just a hierarchy—it’s a blueprint for your future. As you grow, functions must move from ad-hoc to specialized, and eventually into leadership-supported pyramids.
Start simple:
Define your Leadership Level (CEO/COO)
Build out Core Functions (Sales, Ops, Finance, HR, etc.)
Then map Future Roles needed as demand increases
This forward-looking structure helps you proactively identify when roles need to be split, when new talent is needed, and how your company will look at scale.
Ready for Your Next Growth Breakthrough?
If you’re hitting the limits of what your current team can do, it may be time to pause and reframe:
Who’s doing what?
Are they clear?
Are they stretched too thin or misaligned?
Do we need to upgrade or augment talent?
The right people, in the right seats, doing the right things—that’s how companies grow. Let’s make sure your People strategy is aligned with your Vision.
Is Your Team Built for What’s Next?
Let’s align your people strategy to your growth strategy.
or message me on LinkedIn to start the conversation.