GrowthForge: Field Notes #4

One of the most common frustrations I hear from business owners is expressed simply.

“My team just isn’t stepping up.”

It’s often said without anger, sometimes with resignation, and usually after a period of genuine effort. The owner has tried to be clear. They’ve invested time. They’ve explained expectations more than once. And yet decisions still come back to them, standards drift, and accountability feels harder than it should.

What makes it particularly draining is the sense that the owner is carrying more responsibility as the business grows, not less.

The natural assumption is that this is a people problem.

Perhaps the team isn’t motivated enough. Perhaps they lack capability. Perhaps they don’t care as much as they should. It’s not an unreasonable conclusion, especially when the owner feels personally invested and is working hard themselves.

Most advice reinforces this view. Push accountability harder. Have tougher conversations. Invest in more training. Find better people.

Sometimes those things are necessary. Often, they don’t change much.

What’s usually happening underneath is more subtle.

As businesses grow, roles evolve faster than clarity does. Decision boundaries blur. Informal agreements replace explicit ownership. People do what they think is expected, which isn’t always what the system actually needs.

From the outside, it looks like a lack of accountability. From the inside, it often feels like uncertainty.

People hesitate not because they’re unwilling, but because they’re unsure. Decisions feel risky when authority isn’t clear. Initiative becomes cautious when consequences are ambiguous.

Over time, this creates a pattern where work naturally flows back to the owner, not because they insist on it, but because the system quietly points everything in that direction.

There’s usually a moment when the owner realises they’re still the final decision-maker on far too many things.

Questions interrupt the day. Small issues escalate unnecessarily. Meetings happen, but outcomes don’t always stick. The calendar fills, yet progress feels incremental rather than compounding.

At that point, frustration often turns inward. “Why can’t they just take ownership?” becomes a recurring thought.

What’s rarely considered is whether ownership has actually been designed into the system, or simply hoped for.

Applying pressure at this stage often backfires.

Tighter oversight, more checking, and repeated reminders can create the appearance of control, but they often reduce confidence and initiative. People wait to be told rather than risk getting it wrong.

From the owner’s perspective, this looks like disengagement. From the team’s perspective, it feels safer to defer.

Effort increases on both sides, but trust and momentum quietly erode.

The teams that genuinely step up usually do so after something structural changes.

Decision rights become clearer. Expectations are made explicit. The operating rhythm supports ownership instead of undermining it. Accountability feels fair because it’s grounded in clarity, not personality.

This doesn’t require dramatic cultural programs or endless workshops. It requires deliberate design.

When the system makes ownership easier, people often surprise you with how capable they already are.

This pattern shows up so consistently that it became a core part of how I think about growth and leadership.

GrowthForge treats team performance not as a motivation problem, but as a structural one. The question shifts from “why aren’t they stepping up?” to “what is the system making easy, hard, or risky for them to do?”

That change in lens tends to unlock progress where pressure never did.

If a team feels reluctant to step up, it’s worth pausing before assuming unwillingness.

Sometimes the more useful question is whether the system actually supports the behaviour you’re asking for.

If that feels familiar and you’d like to talk it through, you’re welcome to book a short exploratory conversation.