Is your company scaling or just sprinting?

Chris Sugden, Managing Partner at Edison Partners, explains the concept of "healthy urgency" and why it's a defining trait in high-growth leadership.

In this episode, he reflects on lessons from Edison's recent CEO Summit and outlines how urgency can either drive disciplined execution or spiral into chaos when left unchecked. He shares the patterns he sees as companies move from startup pace to scale-up maturity, and the key distinctions between founder energy and operational excellence.

If you're a CEO wondering whether your team is following your lead or just chasing chaos, Chris offers a clear lens into what sustainable leadership looks like as you grow your company.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why urgency without clarity erodes culture

• How to recognize when pace is outpacing impact

• The leadership behaviors that build trust across teams

• Why every CEO needs to know when to speed up and when to back off

Jump into the conversation: (00:00) Introduction (00:51) What defines healthy vs. unhealthy urgency (01:45) Why urgency peaks at $20M revenue(02:29) The danger of being "double-parked"(03:11) How chaos spreads across your org(03:59) Founder pace vs. professional CEO structure(05:37) Trusting the process when growth slows(06:24) Planning cycles and the power of consistency