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Startups lead very exciting lives. They are born of a core group of people coming together to give shape to an idea and go through many transformations before they reach an outcome. While many times the outcome is dissolution or sale, some companies make the leap to big company land.

During this process, there is a key transition step where they are no longer a small startup, but haven’t fully made the transition to a established company. This is similar to adolescence among humans, where we begin to form our identity and understand our place in the world. Successfully making this transition involves active guidance and support from the founder and management.

Although the strongest leaders in the start-up world have very different personalities and management styles, they tend to share the philosophy that communication and staff development are key factors in building a strong company. Here are a few management pointers from the pros:

1. Keep in touch with your employees: It’s easy during the growth phase to lose touch with your employees as management levels are added. While this distance is natural, bridging it by talking to employees regularly will give you insights into how the transition is proceeding
2. Communicate clearly and often: When you are small, communication via hallway and water cooler conversations might work, but as you grow, you need to evolve strong communication channels that work both ways.
3. Develop Mentors: In addition to the founders and execs, develop other senior leaders into mentors. Take steps to ensure that any employee who needs help or has growth aspirations has an advocate to talk to and learn from.
4. Hire carefully: There is usually a lot of pressure to grow quickly, and that typically leads to the pressure to staff up quickly as well. However a few bad hires can really cause a lot of pain. So pay close attention to your new hires and assist people in making alternative career choices if they don’t fit your organization anymore.

Let me know what you think of these and feel free to chime in with your own!