One of the biggest complaints I hear from business owners in growth mode is that they’re too busy to focus on growth.
It’s a frustrating paradox. It isn’t happening because you aren’t willing to put in the effort—it’s actually because you are too willing to do it all yourself.
One of my coaches recently reminded me of a hard truth: You can’t scale genius. If you are the smartest person in the room, you aren’t the solution to your business’s growth—you are the bottleneck. When you are the “best doer” on the team, the business relies on you far too much. You end up on a hamster wheel, running faster and faster but never actually getting anywhere.
To break this cycle and move from essential employee to effective leader, you need to shift the paradigm for your team using these three pillars:
1. Leadership over Urgency.
When you lead, your team should see less fire-fighting and more focus. By leaning on systems, expectations, and your core values, you allow the culture to take root. This is how you move the responsibility for results from your shoulders to theirs.
2. Training as Facilitation.
Your job is not to do the work; it is to be the facilitator of it. Provide the tools, the training, and the environment your team needs to deliver excellence. If they know exactly what they are accountable for, they won’t need to wait for you to step in and fix everything.
3. Self-Discipline, One Step at a Time.
You don’t offload a thousand tasks overnight. Every week, look at your calendar and select just one thing to reassign. Ensure the new owner has the tools and standards they need, and then—this is the hard part—let it go. Rinse and repeat next week.
If you’re ready to stop being the genius and start being the leader your business needs to scale, I’d love to help.
The ActionCOACH Business Operating System (ABOS) is designed specifically to help owners make this transition. We are currently offering a 2 Weeks of Free Coaching program to help you learn how to do less and achieve more with ABOS. Schedule an intro call if you’d like to see if it’s a fit for you.
Author, Mark McNulty, Business Coach in Louisville, KY