In my last post I wrote about delegation but I thought I would bang that drum again because the most common mistake I see made by people trying to grow their start-ups is spending too much time working in their business and not on it.
Founders often wear many hats during the start-up phase of their businesses and may perform most or all of the tasks associated with it. This may be necessary at first when they have no resources to hire assistance but it does mean they can give less time to their vision and strategy.
My experience aligns completely with Forbes contributor Geri Stengel’s article in which she wrote that moving a business ahead requires the founder to step back from its day-to-day running. The real function of the business leader is to concentrate on their vision for the future, setting goals and leaving it up to others to bring them to fruition.
The thing is that nobody can be a master of all the skills required in a business and the leader will be wise to recognise this and be self-aware about the areas where their own skills are lacking. If the leader persists in trying to do everything, they will hold the business back in areas where others could do the job better.
I always recommend that leaders keep themselves focused on the tasks that support the growth and future direction of their businesses and delegate the rest. To do this effectively additional team members must be recruited who have skills the leaders do not.
They must be then developed and trained to take over the tasks they are skilled at and free up the leaders to lead. They, in turn, have to resist the temptation to micromanage their staff but instead, trust them to perform the tasks they were hired for and stick to what they are best at.
