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When a company grows quickly, the work can outpace the informal systems that once made it manageable. The answer is not simply to become more resilient: identify where demand and decisions are piling up, redesign how work gets done, clarify who can decide, and make recovery part of the way the company operates.
Why growth can make work feel overwhelming
Success and overload can coexist. As a company expands, leaders may work harder while losing the informal visibility, close-knit team, customer contact, and shared understanding they depended on when the business was smaller. Chris Zook describes this pattern in Harvard Business Review’s account of overload in fast-growing companies.
That strain is not, by itself, evidence that you are failing. It can signal that the business has outgrown its routines: too many approvals still route through the founder, responsibilities overlap, or teams cannot see how their work fits together.
Find where the pressure is coming from
Start by looking at how work actually flows, not just how busy people feel. For a week or two, review workload, working hours, meeting time, interruptions, decision queues, role conflicts, and access to support. Ask employees where tasks wait, which decisions are unclear, and where the load falls disproportionately on particular people.
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The World Health Organization identifies time pressure, low control over work, long hours, and lack of support as occupational stress risks. Its guidance is specifically about health workers, so it should not be treated as a study of fast-growing companies. The workplace factors are still useful prompts for a company-level review. The WHO says: “Time pressure, lack of control over work tasks, long working hours, shift work, lack of support and moral injury are important risk factors for occupational stress, burnout and fatigue among health workers.” See its occupational stress, burnout and fatigue guidance.
- Demand: Is the amount of work realistic for available staffing and working time?
- Control: Can people make decisions within their responsibilities, or must they wait for repeated approvals?
- Clarity: Do teams know who owns a task, what success looks like, and when to escalate?
- Support: Can employees raise workload problems and get help before a backlog becomes a crisis?
- Recovery: Are breaks and time away possible in practice, or does the culture reward constant availability?
Redesign work and team norms
Once the pressure points are visible, change the workflow or expectation causing them. Map how employee time is spent; then examine recurring meetings, duplicated approvals, unclear ownership, and assumptions that messages require an immediate reply. Harvard Business Review’s guidance on company norms and burnout recommends looking at time use and changing workflows and shared norms, rather than treating burnout only as an individual problem.
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- Cancel or shorten meetings that have no clear decision, owner, or purpose.
- Combine approval steps that duplicate the same review, while preserving checks that manage real risk.
- Assign one accountable owner to cross-team work and specify which teams must be consulted.
- Set response-time expectations so routine messages do not create an always-on culture.
- Review workloads and deadlines when new work is added instead of assuming teams can absorb it.
These changes require management ownership. A wellness message or resilience workshop cannot compensate for persistently excessive demand, unclear roles, or working conditions that deny people control and support.
Reset the leader’s role and decision system
List the work that still depends on you personally: approvals, customer escalations, hiring decisions, information routing, and cross-team coordination. Compare that list with the leadership role the company now needs and the time you can realistically give it. If routine work repeatedly waits for the founder, the issue is partly a decision-system bottleneck.
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Move routine decisions to the person closest to the relevant information, with clear goals, authority, and escalation rules. Keep oversight for consequential risks, but make explicit which decisions need your input and which do not. Fast growth can strain alignment, operational complexity, financial management, and oversight; replacing founder control of every detail with vague delegation does not solve those problems. Harvard Business Review’s guidance on decision-making in fast-growing companies addresses these fault lines.
As the team expands, revisit your availability, your place in decisions, and the team’s routines rather than carrying over the small-team approach unchanged. Harvard Business Review’s guidance on managing a sprawling team focuses on adjusting leadership as teams grow.
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- Define decision ownership: Name who decides, who provides input, and who needs to know.
- Set escalation thresholds: Identify the risks or circumstances that require a senior decision; handle routine cases at the appropriate level.
- Establish predictable access: Set regular times for questions and escalation so people are not left guessing when you are available.
- Review the system: Look for recurring delays, reversals, or conflicts and adjust authority or goals where needed.
Protect recovery and seek appropriate support
Build regular breaks and time away into expectations and schedules, rather than leaving them to individual willpower. The WHO guidance recommends breaks and flexible schedules as prevention measures. Leaders can also make their own availability boundaries visible so employees do not infer that constant responsiveness is required.
If anxiety or distress persists, consider speaking with an appropriately qualified professional. Harvard Business Review’s article on leading through anxiety discusses reflection and support for leaders. It is not a diagnosis or a substitute for care suited to an individual’s circumstances. Employers may also consider work-focused consultation or employee assistance, but those services should complement—not replace—changes to harmful workloads or unclear working conditions.
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Choose the response that addresses the cause
| Option | What it addresses | Who controls the change | Likely role in relief | Important limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Work redesign | Excess demand, duplicated work, meetings, or always-on norms | Managers and teams responsible for the workflow | Can reduce or redistribute the work itself | Requires diagnosis and follow-through |
| Delegation and decision clarity | Founder dependence and waiting for approvals | Leaders who set authority, goals, and escalation paths | Can reduce bottlenecks when ownership is clear | Vague delegation may create confusion rather than capacity |
| Personal recovery practices | Day-to-day need for breaks and time away | Individuals, supported by workable team expectations | Can support coping and recovery | Cannot compensate for persistently excessive workload or unsafe conditions |
| Coaching or professional consultation | Leadership challenges or persistent difficulty | The person seeking help and, where applicable, their employer | May offer appropriate support for the situation | Check credentials, scope, and suitability; support does not replace fixing harmful work design |
For a deeper account of predictable growth crises, see The Founder’s Mentality: How to Overcome the Predictable Crises of Growth by Chris Zook and James Allen, which Zook identifies as related reading in his article on overload. It is supplementary reading, not a substitute for changing work that has become unsustainable.
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