5 Unsexy Systems Founders Put on Back-Burner (But Shouldn't)

Bottom Line Up Front: When growth stalls and scaling feels broken, it's rarely sales or marketing that's the problem. But that's where founders look first because growth is sexy and it was working before.

The truth is: Sometimes you have to fix the plumbing to get the champagne flowing again.

Ever watch a home improvement show? When they look behind the walls, there are hidden problems. Problems that aren't sexy, but are critical to the home functioning properly. The homeowners hate investing in what they can’t see. They'd rather have an updated kitchen over fixing plumbing in the walls.

It's the same with growth-stage companies. Let’s look at 5 unsexy operational systems growth-stage founders love to ignore but desperately need to fix to get growth back on track. Here's what's breaking and how you can start fixing them this week.

Why Growth Doesn't Feel Sexy Anymore

Remember when rapid growth felt exciting? When hitting new milestones gave you that champagne-worthy rush?

If growth now feels more like chaos than celebration, you're not alone.

You've outgrown your early systems. You're in that awkward in-between growth stage where you're not a scrappy startup anymore, but your systems aren't fully mature yet. Kind of like pre-teen growing pains.

Here's what founders tell me:

• "Growth stalled and we don't know why"

• "My team isn't aligned on priorities"

• "I'm the bottleneck for every decision"

• "Work feels chaotic, not energizing"

• "Our best people are getting frustrated"

Sound familiar? The problem isn't your product. It's not your market fit. It's not even your team.

It's those unsexy operational system growing pains that everyone ignores.

The 5 Systems Breakdown

I recorded a deep dive walking through what's breaking in each system and why it's holding back your growth.

Watch the full breakdown.

Here's the framework:

1. Leadership Systems

What's breaking: Scaling leadership, founder evolution, strategy, scaling trust and capacity

The problem: Your role as a founder is evolving. You’re likely shifting from doer to leader. This likely also means that you haven't developed other leaders, and you haven't built systems to scale leadership, trust and capacity. You have become a bottleneck.

Signs that you need to scale your leadership:

• You're in every decision

• No one feels empowered to make calls without you

• Your leadership team isn't actually leading

• Strategy happens ad-hoc instead of systematically

Pro Tip: By shifting from doer to leader, you reclaim free time to work on strategy and growth, while also empowering your team.

2. Decision & Prioritization Systems

What's breaking: Who owns what decisions, how they get made and stick, what gets prioritized

The problem: Decision-making is still centralized through you, ownership is unclear, and everything feels like priority #1. Teams keep revisiting the same decisions because no one knows who actually owns them.

Signs this is broken:

• Constantly revisiting decisions. "Why are we talking about this again?"

• Constant context switching

• Everything is urgent, nothing is prioritized

• People are unclear who makes the final call

Pro Tip: Fixing this can save your employees up to 13 hrs/week in productivity time lost to getting the information they need.

3. Communication Systems

What's breaking: Information flow, alignment, clarity, cross-functional communication, collaboration, transparency

The problem: You have Slack and Teams, but that's not a communication strategy. Information lives in silos, cross-functional projects fail, and people are constantly out of the loop.

Signs this is broken:

• Information silos resulting in teams stepping on each other’s toes

• Cross-functional stakeholders not aligned with the work

• Misalignment between company goals and the work being done

• Teams rowing in different directions

Pro Tip: Communicating with clarity drives team alignment and innovation.

4. Performance & Accountability Systems

What's breaking: Employee and team performance, results measurements, feedback loops, following through on commitments

The problem: You're measuring business metrics but not team performance. Accountability is inconsistent. People don't know how their work connects to company goals or their own career aspirations.

Signs this is broken:

• No clear metrics for team performance

• Inconsistent follow-through on commitments

• People don't see how their work impacts company goals

• Performance reviews are disconnected from employee and company goals

• Employees aren’t growing and don’t understand the path to growth

Pro Tip: Tying performance to employee aspirations increases both retention and engagement - people stay when they see a growth path.

5. Ways of Working Systems

What's breaking: Repeatable rhythms and workflows that define how work gets done and measured

The problem: Work happens differently every time. Processes live in people's heads. New team members struggle to get up to speed because there's no systematic way work gets done.

Signs this is broken:

• Work complexity is increasing as you grow

• New hires take forever to become productive

• Work quality is inconsistent

• You depend on tribal knowledge instead of documented processes

Pro Tip: By thinking about efficiency, you introduce lean operating. By rethinking “how we worked” I saved $400,000 in productivity year one with one company. The equivalent of hiring 4 people.

5 Unsexy Smart Goals You Can Use Right Away

Here are immediate actions you can take this week to start fixing these systems:

Leadership Takeaway:

Pick one decision you make weekly and delegate it to someone else this week. Give them the context and let them own it.

Decision & Prioritization Takeaway:

Write down 3 decisions your team keeps revisiting. For each one, write who owns it going forward and communicate that this week.

Communication Takeaway:

Start a 15-minute weekly team standup where each person shares: what they accomplished, what they're working on, where they're stuck.

Performance & Accountability Takeaway:

Pick 2 key metrics your team should track weekly. Set up a simple way to capture and review them every Friday.

Ways of Working Takeaway:

Document the steps for one process your team does repeatedly. Share it with the team and ask them to use it for the next week.

Next Steps: Today is Day 1

These 5 takeaways are just the starting point. Here's what typically comes next:

• Start with the 5 takeaways above

• Assess what systems would bring highest impact if updated

• Identify outcomes before making changes (what success looks like)

• Think about efficiency, not just lift & shift (don't just copy what you used to do)

• Account for complexities like remote work impact

• Pilot an MVP before broad rollouts (test before you scale)

The real work is building comprehensive, scalable systems for each area. Why is this important? You want sustainable systems that scale. This only happens with intention.

Ready to Get Back to Sexy?

When you fix the operational plumbing, the champagne flows again.

Want the self-assessment to identify which of these systems is causing you the biggest headache?

Take my quick 10-question diagnostic that helps you pinpoint your biggest areas of opportunity.

Want the assessment? Send me a message and I'll send you the download link:

• Message me @TiaAWilliams on Substack

• DM me @TiaAWilliams2 on LinkedIn

• Email me at [email protected]

Let's fix your operational plumbing so we can get the champagne flowing again.

I help growth-stage founders bring sexy back by fixing the unsexy operational systems they love to ignore. When growth stalls, teams aren't aligned, and work feels chaotic, that means it's time to fix the plumbing.