Before we jump into how to manage a growing team, let’s cover four of the most common growing pains teams experience when managers grow and scale teams: 1- There’s a ramp-up period for new hires This can cause productivity to drop. According to the 2012 Allied Workforce Mobility Survey, it takes, on average, eight months, for a new employee to reach full productivity.  So, when you hire a high volume of new people, you can expect the overall productivity of your team to decline—at least for a while. 2- A growing team is a changing team Some teams struggle to adapt to those changes. Things change when you add new employees to your team. And while some teams adapt well to those changes, others struggle—and that struggle to adjust can’t negatively impact their work. According to a 2017 study from ClearCompany, a whopping 97% of employees and executives believe that lack of alignment within a team impacts the outcome of that team’s tasks or projects.  3- Growing teams can lead to conflict. When a team has been working together for a while, there’s a certain level of trust that develops, which enables them to collaborate and perform. But when you grow your team and throw new employees into the mix (known as the “forming” stage of the team development model) that trust hasn’t yet developed, which can lead to conflict between team members—known as the “storming” phase. 4- Managers can be stretched thin—and Keeping track of employees’ needs can fall through the cracks. Managing a team of two is a completely different experience than managing a team of 20. As a manager, you have a finite amount of time, energy, and resources to dedicate to your team. And as your team grows, you need to learn how to reallocate those resources to cover your existing team and new employees—and during that transition period, it can be easy for your team’s needs to fall through the cracks. Clearly, growing your team can lead to some serious growing pains. But with the right management strategies, you can grow and scale your team—without going through that awkward growth period.