As an entrepreneur’s small business grows their focus has to shift from managing projects and people to managing internal and external alignment. When this happens, much of the management and some leadership level decisions gets delegated to others. This is a hard transition for many entrepreneurs to make. It certainly was for me.
Usually, I hear people celebrating others when they are successful here by saying something like, “She put the work in.” It’s sort of a vague statement, but those of us who have put the work in get it. There is a ton of up-front thought work that needs to get done in a successful leadership position.
Abdication vs. delegation
For example, I used to abdicate instead of delegate work to folks in my company. It was a sink-or-swim approach. I’d give someone a project with very little guidance. This is mostly because that’s how I would start projects – dive in and figure it out as I go. I didn’t know any better. I wasn’t thinking about it this way, but they’d either succeed with the project and be successful at the company or fail and try again another day. If they were struggling, my “coaching” approach was to jump in and take it over the project.
This left me with were some incredibly strong leaders who would succeed anywhere and, by luck, they chose us. It also left me with a bunch of frustrated people who tried, failed early, and, instead of learning from those failures, got steamrolled when I flew in and saved the day. Yay me!
Of course, that project success represents a systemic failure. No one learned. I set the stage that whenever there was a problem, it was totally cool just to give it to me. In fact, I set the stage that if there was a problem I knew about, I’d take the project from you. Naturally, folks who wanted their projects hid problems from me. I wasn’t talking about issues with my team. We weren’t growing together. Our talented leaders were frustrated. The of rest our leaders were happy to hand things off and let me run with them.
I had a ton of monkeys on my back that I was supposedly paying other people to handle and I was frustrating the best talent we had. Fortunately, I wore a big cape, so there was plenty of room for the monkeys.
Why we end up here
How did I get there? I think this is the story of many entrepreneurs. I was used to being the hero for our customers. When we were little, I was on the front line. I frequently pulled all-nighters at the office to make miracles happen for our clients. My partners were in exactly the same boat, as were our first round of employees. It worked. By year two, we smashed through the $1M revenue mark. We eventually grew to nearly $10M.
Putting the work in
What I wish I knew then was how important it is to put the work in up front.
For projects, that means clarifying the purpose of the project, communicating the problem we are trying to solve and the desired outcomes. It means active coaching along the way instead of just putting your cape on and taking over.
Of course, it also means being very clear to yourself and your team what you are looking to delegate, what you are expecting your leadership team to own, and what you are expecting to keep for yourself. And then sticking to that, even in times of stress when you just want to take over and make everything better.
Finally, you gotta put the work in for leading your entire company. What are your personal values, personal mission, your company’s values, and your company’s mission?
This is hard work. It is so much easier to just jump into the day-to-day projects and problems that are always buzzing around the daily whirlwind of important distractions. It is also the stuff that makes you a leader and drives alignment. Putting the work in makes everyone’s job easier and helps your company grow.
Thanks to Adele Payman for the photo!