The Leadership Gear Shift Most CEOs Miss as Their Company Grows

The Leadership Gear Shift Most CEOs Miss as Their Company Grows

Something changes when a company grows past a certain size. It’s not gradual. It’s not subtle. It feels like a gear shift.

I spent five years as a Junior Officer on nuclear submarines. The leadership structure was simple: three Department Heads, one Executive Officer, one Commanding Officer, overseeing about 15 Junior Officers and 150 enlisted and non-commissioned officers. During that time, I served under more than a dozen Department Heads, and a pattern emerged quickly.

Some officers were excellent Junior Officers. They were smart, detail-oriented, reliable, and respected by their teams. They knew the systems. They solved problems fast. They worked hard. Then they were promoted, and that’s where things broke.

When What Made You Great Starts to Hold You Back

Being a Department Head required a different job. You couldn’t do everything yourself. You had to delegate decisions, set priorities, oversee systems, and trust others to execute.

Some officers never made that shift. They kept operating like Junior Officers. They stayed in the weeds, fixed problems personally, and tried to outwork complexity. It didn’t scale. Many struggled badly in the new role, not because they were incapable, but because they refused to change how they led.

I now work with CEOs across growth stages, and the same leadership shift shows up again. The breakpoint is consistent. It usually happens between 20 employees and 50 employees. What worked before stops working. The job changes.

Life Below 20 Employees

At 20 employees or fewer, a CEO can still be everywhere. You can sell personally, approve most decisions, stay close to every hire, and fix problems yourself. Your presence fills gaps. Your network drives growth. Communication is direct and informal. Most leadership happens through action, not narrative.

This is the Junior Officer phase. Hands-on works here.

Life Above 50 Employees

At 50 employees or more, the company pulls you upward whether you like it or not. You’re no longer close to everything. Distance appears. If you don’t adjust, confusion fills the gaps.

This is where leadership must become intentional. Your job shifts from doing to shaping. From solving to signaling. From effort to direction. This is where many CEOs stall.

The First Shift: From Execution to Communication

As companies grow, your voice matters more, not less. Your team no longer sees you daily. They rely on signals – what you emphasize, what you repeat, what you ignore.

Strong CEOs communicate through multiple channels: town halls, internal emails or newsletters, team forums or Slack, ask-me-anything sessions, and public channels like LinkedIn. No single channel reaches everyone, and that’s fine. Reinforcement is the goal. If you’re not reinforcing priorities, someone else is.

The Second Shift: From Hiring Volume to Hiring Fit

Hiring breaks at scale. More resumes, more interviews, more risk. The best CEOs stop optimizing for volume and optimize for alignment instead.

They use their voice to set expectations early. Clear content does this quietly. It attracts the right people and repels the wrong ones. This isn’t about being liked. It’s about being understood. If your best performers share traits, say so. If the work is demanding, show it. Silence invites misalignment.

The Third Shift: From Selling to Perception

Past a certain size, perception becomes reality. People form opinions before meetings happen. This includes candidates, partners, and investors. They ask themselves simple questions: Do these leaders seem clear? Does this company feel stable? Are they going somewhere?

If you’re not shaping that story, it forms anyway, usually poorly. Leadership at this stage is narrative work, not marketing.

The Fourth Shift: From Internal to External Leadership

Here’s where most CEOs resist the hardest. As your company grows, your leadership doesn’t just extend downward into your organization. It extends outward into your market.

This feels uncomfortable at first. Many CEOs tell me they hate “personal branding” or “being on social media.” But that’s missing the point. At scale, external communication isn’t marketing. It’s leadership.

Your voice shapes how investors evaluate you before meetings. It influences whether top candidates accept your offers. It affects how customers and partners perceive your company’s stability and direction. Whether you’re communicating intentionally or staying silent, people are forming opinions about your leadership.

Some CEOs use platforms like LinkedIn for this. Others use industry publications, podcasts, or speaking engagements. The channel matters less than the consistency. If you’re not shaping the narrative about your company and your leadership, someone else is doing it for you. Usually poorly.

The Real Question to Ask

I left the Navy before I ever became a Department Head. I went to business school instead. But I think about that gear shift a lot. Would I have made a good Department Head? Could I have grown into the role?

I ask myself the same question about my company. If I’m fortunate enough to build it into a larger, more established organization, will I be able to adapt? Will I recognize when the job has changed?

Part of what I’m doing now is building these traits early. Getting better at sharing my story publicly. Installing communication channels with my team before I desperately need them. Learning to shape direction instead of just executing it.

The question isn’t “Is this driving revenue?” The better question is “What story does this tell about how we lead?”

That’s the shift. Junior Officers execute. Department Heads lead through others. Early CEOs do everything. Later-stage CEOs shape direction.

If your company has grown, your leadership must grow with it. Otherwise, you stay underwater too long.