Episode 36

The Hidden Growth Killer: A Stagnant Team

​​When your leadership team can’t evolve with your business, scaling challenges become even harder to navigate. How do you know when it’s time to make tough decisions about key positions in your organization?

In this episode, Maartje van Krieken talks about the uncomfortable reality that the leaders who helped you get to where you are may not be the ones who can take you further. As businesses grow, the need for leadership change becomes more evident. So, how do you spot the signs like decision bottlenecks or a shift from proactive to reactive thinking before they derail your progress?

Maartje shares insights on how to approach leadership transitions strategically, with a focus on redefining roles before filling them and knowing when to seek external help. She challenges leaders to take emotion out of tough decisions and be proactive about putting the right leadership in place to drive long-term success.


Episode Breakdown:

00:00 The Challenge: Evolving Teams for Growth

02:10 Leadership Gaps: A Universal Problem

04:52 Recognizing the Signs of Leadership Issues

08:29 Taking Action: How to Navigate Change

09:56 Business First: Making Hard Decisions

12:14 Moving Fast but Smart

14:26 Delegation and Interim Solutions

18:00 The Value of External Perspective

22:02 The Importance of Clear Expectations

24:46 Act Quickly and Strategically

26:02 Invitation to Strategize and Seek Help


Links

Connect with Maartje van Krieken:

https://www.thechaosgamesconsulting.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/maartje/

https://maartjeturnschaosaround.substack.com/



Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

About the Podcast

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The Business Emergency Room Podcast
Triage, Tools & Tactics to recover from or prevent business chaos in this VUCA business environment

About your host

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Maartje van Krieken

Maartje van Krieken is a crisis strategist, executive consultant, and your at host of The Business Emergency Room podcast, where growing businesses go when things get messy. With a career that began in frontier oil and gas and spanned war zones, boardrooms, and billion-dollar pivots, Maartje has spent over two decades helping organizations steer through chaos and come out stronger.
Now through her consulting firm, The Chaos Games, Maartje works with medium-sized businesses, especially those scaling rapidly or navigating uncertainty, to diagnose breakdowns in leadership, collaboration, and decision-making before they become business emergencies. Her signature approach blends practical triage, people-first strategy, and blunt Dutch honesty to help teams realign fast.

​The Business Emergency Room delivers high-impact insights for business leaders, board members, and investors who are tired of the symptoms, disconnection, friction, paralysis, and want the tools to fix what’s really going wrong. Maartje’s episodes cut through fluff with stories, frameworks, and metaphors that turn even the most complex chaos into something leaders can act on.
Maartje is based in New Orleans and speaks regularly on navigating organizational storms, building business resilience, and turning reactive firefighting into proactive leadership. Whether you’re scaling a business, running a team, or dealing with dysfunction, The Business Emergency Room is the place to find straight talk and smarter tools.