Growing Pains: How Scale Challenges Identity

Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash

Scaling a business is often framed as a success story - more people, bigger numbers, new markets. But beneath the surface, something quieter (and trickier) is unfolding: as your business grows, so does the complexity of your identity.

In my work with growing organisations, I often see a tension between who the business has been and who it needs to become. What once felt intuitive starts to feel ambiguous.

Decision-making slows. Teams begin to bump into each other. Long-held cultural values feel diluted. You hear things like:

• “We used to just get stuff done, now everything needs a meeting.”

• “I don’t know who owns what anymore.”

• “I’m not sure why we’re doing it this way.”

These aren’t signs of failure, they’re normal growing pains. But they’re also signals. Signals that your organisational identity is shifting, and that you need to be intentional about how you evolve.

Scaling isn’t just about adding - it’s about evolving

At early stages, identity is often shaped by a few passionate founders. Culture is transmitted through osmosis. Structures are flat, roles are fluid, and values are lived rather than written down.

But as headcount climbs, what worked intuitively starts to fray. The informality that once created speed can now create noise. Without adaptation, the organisation’s original essence can start to drift, not because people don’t care, but because growth without reflection creates disconnect and fragmentation.

What does this look like in practice?

Here are a few patterns that show up again and again:

• Cultural drift - You hired for values early on, but now new joiners are unsure what those values really look like in action. The original culture still exists, but only in pockets.

• Org design tension - There are growing calls for clarity: who owns what, where decisions get made, how teams work together. People start describing the structure as “fuzzy” or “unclear,” even if roles exist on paper.

• Performance misalignment - People want to do great work, but expectations feel ambiguous. Is this still a ‘move fast’ culture, or are we tightening processes now? What does great performance look like here?

• EVP assumptions - What you once assumed people loved about working with you might no longer be true. As scale changes the employee experience can quietly become outdated.

So how do you respond?

There’s no one-size-fits-all playbook, but here’s what I’ve found helpful:

• Check in on your identity - Reconnect with what made the company great in the first place and consciously decide which parts still serve you now, and which need to evolve.

• Name the growing pains - Create space to reflect (especially at leadership level) on what’s feeling tight, unclear, or misaligned. Make it okay to acknowledge growing pains as part of progress.

• Clarify your EVP - Go beyond assumptions. What are people actually experiencing now? What do they value most? And how can you communicate that clearly, inside and out?

• Align design with intent - Revisit your structure, ways of working, and decision making,  not just to make things neater, but to ensure they reflect who you are becoming.

• Support leadership growth - Growing companies need leaders who can grow too. Invest in supporting your people to lead through ambiguity, evolve their identity, and stay connected to purpose.

Final thought

Scale doesn't have to mean dilution. With deliberate reflection, it can mean integration - bringing the best of who you've been into the next stage of who you're becoming. Growth challenges identity. But it also invites a deeper kind of clarity if you're willing to look for it.