Six CEO traits that inhibit growth
[Editor’s Note: Many small and lower middle market businesses have early success due to the personalities, vision, and skills of the Founder or CEO. However, some of the very traits that may help build early success, can prevent the organization from being able to scale. This is an excerpt from Chief Executive magazine (8/26/2025) -dpm]
Below are six CEO traits that inhibit a business’ ability to scale. The symptoms include:
1. Micromanagement. Difficulty delegating tasks or trusting others with decision-making.
2. Resistance to change. Reluctance to adopt new systems, processes or leadership structures.
3. Identity fusion. The founder or CEO sees the organization as an extension of themselves, making objective decisions difficult.
4. Over-centralization. All decisions funnel through the founder or CEO, slowing down operations.
5. Poor succession planning. Avoidance of planning for leadership transitions or grooming successors.
6. Emotional decision-making. Decisions driven by personal attachment rather than strategic thinking.
During periods of uncertainty and stress, organizations can revert to known behavior and may have a tendency to centralize decision-making or other counter-productive traits.
We can help. Mead Consulting Group has worked with scores of organizations and leaders to help them move beyond these traits to develop a highly- functioning management team that plans and acts strategically and accomplishes its goals. If you would like to learn more about how we can help your organization, please contact me at meaddp@meadconsultinggroup.com or (303)660-8135.
For more information, see some of our success stories with organizations from $10M to $250M.
