How Founder-CEOs Can Break The Growth Plateau Running a fast-growing business as a founder-CEO can feel exhilarating and terrifying. You are the visionary, the decision-maker, the strategist and often the bottleneck.

Many founder-CEOs unintentionally hold back their own companies. It happens subtly. You may be so immersed in operations, firefighting, or strategic control that you become the single point of failure. No one makes a move without you. Progress slows. Opportunities stall. Teams defer instead of lead. Sound familiar?

Welcome to the "Fighting for Position" stage, a phase many private companies find themselves in. The business is established, generating revenue, and showing promise. But growth has plateaued. Stress is high. Talent is under-utilised. Decisions pile up on your desk. The very traits that fuelled your early success (control, grit, hands-on leadership) now become limitations. So how do you break free?

Acknowledge You Are Commercially Lonely

One of the most revealing truths from working with over 180 businesses is this: CEOs are often Commercially Lonely. You are surrounded by people, yet no one truly understands the pressures of your role. You can't always share doubts with your team or co-founders. This loneliness can lead to insular thinking and stagnation. The antidote is not more effort or hustle. It's perspective. It's support. It's challenge.

Shift from Exertion to Elevation

Founder-CEOs often operate in "Exertion Mode": pushing the business forward through sheer will. But true growth comes when you shift to "Elevation Mode," creating structures that pull the business forward without relying solely on you.

This means:

• Hiring leaders with both broad and deep commercial experience
• Letting go of non-critical decisions
• Investing in your own development as CEO

Appoint an Advisory Board

This is where transformation begins. An Advisory Board is your hand-picked team of independent experts who are vested in your success. They bring fresh thinking, hold you accountable, and expand your strategic lens. They don't run your business, you retain control, but they make sure you're not running it alone. The shift that happens when CEOs appoint this board is profound. Suddenly, they have a sounding board for high-stakes decisions, a source of constructive challenge, and a mechanism for holding themselves and their leadership teams accountable. It creates both altitude and confidence. Patterns of inertia give way to progress. Strategic clarity replaces overwhelm.

Embrace the Growth Mindset

As a founder-CEO, you are not just building a business. You are building yourself. Your mindset, skills, and support structure are the most important leverage points in the organisation. Ask yourself:

• Do I have the right people to execute my vision?
• Is my leadership team capable of scaling?
• Who challenges my thinking and expands my horizon?

If the answer is unclear, it's time to act.

The hardest truth for many founder-CEOs to accept is this: you are the ceiling. But that also means you are the key. The bottleneck can become the breakthrough. You don't need to figure it out alone. With the right Advisory Board, you get clarity, confidence, and capability, all on your terms. It's not about losing control. It's about gaining altitude. The game changes when you stop pushing and start pulling.