Do Less, Lead More.
Taking the reins of a business feels equal parts empowering and completely out of control.
For one CEO I worked with, the solution was to take on more.
A lot more.
He'd inherited a business that looked solid from the outside. Good reputation, strong foundations, nothing obviously broken. But inside, he was still finding his feet. So he did what a lot of smart, driven people do when they feel out of control. He leaned in. He got closer to the business. He started to understand every corner of it, and then quietly, without really meaning to, he started running every corner of it.
By the time I sat down with him, he had roughly twenty direct reports.
I asked how the strategy and business plan were tracking. He didn't have time for it.
So I started asking about other areas of the business. Marketing - who's the best contact? Him. IT? Him. Customer complaints? Him. Quoting and tenders, inventory, cashflow forecasting, admin emails, third party relationships?
Him. Him. Him. Him. Him.
I stopped asking after the third one but I kept going for the story.
He wasn't lazy or disorganised. He was genuinely across all of it. The problem was that the business now depended entirely on one person being across all of it, and that person had no time left to actually lead it.
We worked through it together. Some hats went to specialists - cashflow to a bookkeeper, marketing to an agency. Others went to the team around him, who it turned out were more than capable when given the chance. There were a couple of difficult conversations along the way. Some roles changed. Some people changed. Sometimes you also discover that a few people had been relying on the chaos to go unnoticed.
The CEO now has a small group of direct managers, a business plan he's actually working to, and more time with his family than he's had in years. The business is in the best shape it's ever been.
He didn't need to do less. He needed to lead more.
Which hat are you wearing that someone else should be wearing?
If you've got a hat you've been meaning to take off but haven't quite figured out how, I'd love to be the person you think out loud with. Drop me a message.
