by Josh Rossmeisl

The Growth Conundrum

I have watched this movie play out more times than I can count, and I have lived parts of it myself.  A business catches fire. Guests love it. Sales climb. The place becomes a talking point in the city because the vibe is real, the service feels personal, the food hits, and the experience has a pulse. Suddenly it feels like the market is pulling you forward. Investors call. Developers call. Brokers send sites. People start talking about scale and brand like it is the obvious next step.

Then leaders do what leaders often do when momentum shows up. They speed up. They sign leases.  They stack pipelines. They upgrade design. They tell themselves the next locations will be better because lessons were learned on the first one. They convince themselves growth itself will solve the hard parts.

This is where discipline matters most, and where many companies quietly lose their way. Growth does not break companies. Rushed growth does. When leaders move too fast, they miss signals. They miss people. They miss cultural cues that later turn into fractures. You cannot get the right people on the bus or the wrong people off the bus if the bus never slows down long enough to notice who is actually riding with you.

Leadership depth does not appear on a timeline. You cannot microwave it. 

The Devil You Know Versus the Devil You Don’t

This is the fork in the road I see across hospitality and business in general. Leaders look at the person already in the building, the one who has struggled, made mistakes, grown, and still shows up. That person feels risky because their flaws are visible. Then leaders look at a resume, polished, articulate, confident, untouched by the realities of their operation. That person feels safe because the flaws are still hidden.

The known employee becomes the devil you know. The resume becomes the devil you don’t.

That framing is backwards.

The person in your building has already given you real data. You know their work ethic. You know how they respond to feedback. You know how they treat others when no one is watching. You know how they behave on bad days. You know whether they recover or deflect. That knowledge is invaluable.

The resume is an unknown variable. They will make mistakes too. You will simply pay more to discover them. It will take longer. And while you are learning, they hold authority inside your culture. 

What I Learned Early

I learned this lesson early, before I had the luxury of theory. I started in quick service in hourly roles, prepping, washing dishes, cashiering, serving guests. Before I was nineteen, I was a GM running a small restaurant. That world removes illusions fast.

We were always short staffed. Always one call out away from chaos. Waiting for perfect candidates was not an option. If I did not learn to spot potential, coach it, and hand off real responsibility, the operation failed. Not eventually. Immediately.

That experience taught me something I still believe. If someone shows up, stays coachable, and takes pride in doing the work right, you can grow a leader. Not quickly. Not cleanly. Over time, through reps, feedback, standards, and trust earned one decision at a time.

It also taught me something harder. Taking chances on people means sometimes you will get let down. Some people will not rise to the moment. Some will outgrow the company and move on. Neither outcome is a reason to stop developing people. In this industry, refusing to take chances is a slower and more expensive failure.

Why Internal Leaders Endure

Enduring organizations understand something many leaders resist. Leadership is not imported. It is cultivated. The companies that last build benches before they build buildings. They spend time getting the right people on the bus and making hard decisions about the wrong ones, even when growth pressure pushes them to compromise.

This takes patience. It takes restraint. It requires leaders to slow down enough to observe behavior rather than chase appearances. When you rush growth, you miss warning signs. You miss quiet contributors. You miss small issues that later capsize teams.

Internal leaders carry context. They understand constraints because they lived them. They protect standards because they helped build them. They move faster under pressure because judgment is informed by experience rather than theory. Trust follows naturally.

What You Reward Is What You Get

This is where leadership behavior quietly shapes culture. Most organizations reward the firefighter. The person who arrives loud and visible when something is already broken. They get praise for saving the shift. Over time, this trains the wrong muscle.

Firefighters become addicted to being needed. They stop preventing problems because prevention removes their spotlight. Systems never get built. Chaos becomes currency. Eventually those people burn out, and leaders wonder why stability never arrived.

The real builders are the invisible superheroes. They prevent the fire. They tighten prep. They train the new hire. They close loops. They notice small issues early and fix them quietly. If you reward prevention, you get consistency. If you reward theatrics, you get more fires.

You always get what you reward.

The Training Question Leaders Ask

I hear the same concern every year from leaders at every level. What if we invest all this time and money training people and they leave.

The better question is the one most people avoid. What if you don’t, and they stay. Of you don’t have the time or money to do it right, you’ll never have enough to do it over.

Untrained leaders with authority cause more damage than turnover ever will. Investing in training and culture is not a risk. It is a filter. People who grow through responsibility either rise or self-select out. Both outcomes strengthen the organization.

Leadership takes time. Culture takes repetition. Neither responds to shortcuts.

Who This Is For

This is not a message only for founders. This applies to any leader with influence over people. Senior leaders. Business owners. Department heads. Anyone responsible for shaping others.

Growth exposes priorities. You either develop people or replace them. One compounds. The other drains energy, trust, and culture.

I have made the mistake of chasing resumes. I have paid for polish. I have learned the true cost of that decision. I have also seen the upside of building from within long enough to recognize the compounding effect when it shows up.

Features change. Menus evolve. Technology turns over. Design gets refreshed. People endure.

If you want something that lasts, slow down long enough to see who is already on your bus. The talent is there if you choose to look for it.