"It's no longer my job to be somebody's friend, or be somebody's peer, but it's really setting the expectations of the organization and of the culture."
Listen to excerpt
Megan Walton has navigated the transition from small to mid-sized twice. First at Amara, a foster care and adoption nonprofit in Seattle that grew from 20 to nearly 70 people during her tenure. Now as CEO of Southern Maine Agency on Aging, where she leads approximately 70 employees with an $8.5 million budget.
The growth at Amara came through program expansion—from one core service to three, adding 24/7 emergency shelters for children entering foster care and a post-adoption program. With that expansion came something Megan hadn’t anticipated: communication became work.
“I can’t really remember having to have meetings to make announcements, or overthinking an email that our director was going to send to staff. It felt like we lost the kind of automatic communication that used to happen.”
At a small organization, everyone could turn their desk chair around and see each other. Information flowed naturally. As Amara grew, some staff felt momentum and excitement. Others worried that new programs meant their work would become less important. The organization gained external credibility—people wanted to be part of something growing—but lost the ease of staying connected.
Growth also created a gap between what staff expected and what the organization could provide. Once you cross a certain threshold, everyone assumes you can afford an HR manager or more robust infrastructure. The reality is messier.
Megan’s own leadership transformation came when she became Amara’s first Chief Operating Officer. Two peers—including the person who had originally hired her seven years earlier—suddenly reported to her. They’d been accustomed to a hands-off CEO. Megan arrived with questions: What’s our plan? What’s going to change? How is this coming along?
That shift forced a recognition that still guides her today: the job isn’t being a friend or peer anymore. It’s setting the expectations that define what the organization can become.
When she thinks about the biggest challenge facing managers in growing organizations, her answer is direct: managing people.
“It’s just like a muscle that when you get in the habit of doing it over and over again, you kind of just get used to, like, ‘Oh yeah! This is the job.’ Versus when you’re first starting, I felt more of a sense of, again, like, ‘I can fix this, I’m going to do it differently.’”
Early on, she wanted to fix everything. Experience taught her otherwise: you can’t make everyone happy. Some people will resist change no matter how well you communicate it. The realization that not every problem is fixable became its own kind of growth.
What’s worked for developing leaders? Good training—especially when multiple managers attend together so they can hold each other accountable. One-on-one coaching. And a culture where struggles aren’t hidden.
“We’re trying to foster the culture of, like, ‘what have you tried? What worked? How did that conversation go?’ I think the biggest issue is when things are not addressed. That’s when I get worried about the culture.”
She’s also learned something harder: some people simply don’t want to grow as leaders. They’re content at their current level with their current responsibilities. Megan used to invest heavily in trying to change that. Now she sees it more clearly—if someone doesn’t want to grow, they probably won’t last on her leadership team.
If she had unlimited resources, Megan would build training and education into every leader’s annual calendar. She’d give everyone access to an executive coach. And she’d invest in better ways to assess management potential before promoting someone into a role they might not be ready for.
Her advice for leaders at organizations crossing into mid-size territory: have a plan for communication, and be honest about what’s coming.
“Could there be a conversation with each employee to say, ‘here’s where we’re going, here’s what’s likely going to change in crossing into a mid-sized organization. You might want to think about whether this is still the same culture you want to be part of, or not.’”
When growth happens to people rather than with them, it feels destabilizing. But if someone tells you in advance—yes, this will be different, yes, that will change—you can decide whether you’re still in. That clarity, Megan believes, is a kindness leaders owe their people.