If your company is growing from 150 to 500 employees, 2–3 of these patterns are probably working against you right now.

If your company is growing from 150 to 500 employees, 2–3 of these patterns are probably working against you right now.

Five leadership patterns that were strengths in a small company — and become serious brakes in medium-sized structures.

1. Leadership through presence

   The managing director is everywhere. Decisions run through one person. What works for 30 people creates a bottleneck for 300.

2. Decisions by gut feeling

   No criteria, no documentation. The error rate rises — but nobody sees why.

3. Communication through personal networks

   Those who know the managing director know more. Those who do not work with outdated information. Silos do not emerge from bad intentions — but from missing structure.

4. Control through trust

   ‘I trust my people.’ Good. But without transparency, there is no steering. Trust does not replace a system.

5. Structure through habit

   The organisation chart shows how things used to be. Reality shows how they actually work. The two no longer match.

The problem is not size. It is the model.

#Leadership #Mittelstand #Growth