As a business coach in Cape Town, I’ve seen many entrepreneurs and CEOs face moments when their progress stalls. You’re not alone. Most business leaders reach a point where progress feels painfully slow, or worse—stagnant. The good news? Getting unstuck is possible, and it starts with clarity.
Here are five practical steps to regain momentum, find direction, and lead with confidence:
1. Get Clear on Your Business Strategy
One of the most common reasons leaders feel stuck is not having a clear, actionable strategy. If you’re uncertain about your direction, your team will be too. In my business coaching practice, I use the Strategy Choice Cascade (from “Playing to Win” by A.G. Lafley). Answer these key questions:
- What is your Winning Aspiration? Define your Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).
- Where to Play? Identify your ideal customer segments, products/services, geographies, strategic partnerships, and distribution channels to focus on to get closer to your BHAG.
- How Will You Win? Clarify what sets your business apart from competitors.
- What Core Capabilities Do You Need? Determine which capabilities are core to delivering your ‘How Will You Win’ strategy. Some you may already have and some you may not have yet.
- What is Your Economic Model? Understand clearly how your business generates sustainable profit using tools like the Flywheel and Profit per X from Jim Collins’ book “Good to Great.” Profit per X specifically refers to the key metric showing how much profit your business consistently generates from each unit sold, customer served, or transaction completed.
Having clear answers here creates a solid strategic foundation.
2. Create an Effective Execution Game Plan
Once your strategy is clear, it’s all about execution. Many businesses stall because daily operations (the whirlwind) overshadow strategic priorities. Using the Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) framework, clearly define:
Objectives: What critical outcomes must you achieve?
Key Results: How will you measure progress?
Regularly review and adapt these OKRs with your team to stay aligned and maintain momentum.
However, even the best strategy and clearly defined OKRs are wasted if you don’t have the right team in place.
3. Shift From Doing to Leading
One significant hurdle for growing businesses is transitioning from doing everything yourself to effectively managing and leading a team to do the work. Your role must evolve for your business to scale.
This means:
Getting the right people on the bus, as Jim Collins highlights in “From Good to Great.”
Trusting your team and delegating responsibilities, not just tasks.
Focusing on coaching, mentoring, and developing your team’s accountability.
Setting clear expectations and empowering your team to own their outcomes.
For more detailed strategies on shifting your leadership approach, read my previous article on Scaling Your Business.
4. Build Accountability Into Your Team
Lack of accountability and cohesion can stall even the most promising businesses. Create clear accountability by:
Defining roles explicitly.
Establishing consistent meeting rhythms to monitor progress.
Openly discussing goals, responsibilities, and consequences.
When team members own their responsibilities, momentum naturally increases, and progress becomes visible. For further practical guidance on improving accountability and team ownership, refer to my detailed article on Scaling Your Business.
5. Get an Objective, Experienced Perspective
You’re tired of trying to solve everything alone—and you don’t have to. Working with a trusted business coaching partner provides fresh perspectives, strategic insights, and crucial accountability. These steps, although practical, can be challenging to implement on your own. A business coach helps you see your blind spots clearly and can significantly accelerate your growth.
You don’t need to stay frustrated. Finding clarity and the confidence to lead are both within your reach.
Ready to move forward?
Schedule a free business coaching consultation in Cape Town today and get unstuck—your business deserves to thrive.
About Me
I’m Graham Cherrington, a business coach at GROW Business Coaching in Cape Town, with diverse and well-rounded experience in a variety of fields, having worked for both large corporates and start-ups.
GROW’s purpose is to unlock the potential of the leaders and their teams that we coach so that they can go on to build profitable, impactful, and enduring businesses. We use the methodology encapsulated in the business GROWth Formula and our years of experience in building and scaling companies across South Africa to deliver measurable results for the businesses we coach.