There was a point in my career when I knew pretty much everything that was going on in the business.
I knew the customers, what the teams were working on, where the problems were and, more often than not, what needed to happen next.
And actually, when a business is smaller, that's often a really good thing.
The problem comes when the business grows but the way we lead it doesn't grow with it.
More people join. Roles become more specialised. There are more customers, more conversations and more decisions being made every day. At some point, it becomes impossible to know everything.
But letting go of that can be surprisingly difficult.
I've seen leaders still copied into emails they don't really need to see, sitting in meetings they don't really need to attend and being asked to make decisions that somebody else is perfectly capable of making.
And I've seen the other side too. People who genuinely want to take more ownership but aren't quite sure where their authority starts and stops.
So they ask. And the leader answers. And before long, you've accidentally trained everyone to keep coming back to you.
I don't think the answer is simply to “delegate more”. That's far too easy to say. As a business grows, the structures around decision making need to grow with it. People need clarity about what sits within their role. They need sensible guardrails so they understand the boundaries they're working within. They need to know which decisions they can make themselves and what genuinely needs to be escalated.
And, importantly, they need the information and context to make good decisions. That's the bit I think sometimes gets missed when we talk about empowerment. Giving someone authority without giving them clarity isn't particularly empowering. Neither is saying “I trust you” and then overriding every decision they make. 😄
The founder's role gradually has to change from being the person who knows everything and decides everything, to creating an environment where other people can make really good decisions without them. And that doesn't mean losing control of the business.
I'd argue it's actually how you gain a different kind of control. Instead of control coming from being involved in everything, it comes from knowing you've got good people, clear expectations and the right guardrails in place.
So rather than another list of things you should be doing, here are a few questions I'd be asking as the business grows:
What am I still involved in simply because I've always been involved in it?
This one can be uncomfortable. Just because something needed you two years ago doesn't necessarily mean it needs you now.
Where are people waiting for my approval before they can move forward?
If the same types of decisions keep coming back to you, it might not be a people problem. It might simply be that nobody has ever made it clear who owns the decision.
Do people know where their decision-making authority starts and stops?
“Use your judgement” sounds empowering until someone makes the wrong call and discovers there was an invisible boundary they didn't know existed.
Have responsibilities changed as roles have grown?
As people become more experienced and roles become more developed, what they own should probably develop too. It's worth checking that your decision-making structure has actually kept up.
When something does need escalating, is it obvious when and why?
Good guardrails aren't about controlling every decision. They're about helping people recognise the decisions that genuinely need another level of input.
And perhaps the biggest one: am I giving people enough context to make the decisions I want them to make?
It's much easier for someone to make a good decision when they understand what you're trying to achieve, what matters to the customer and what the business is prioritising.
That's where releasing control becomes less scary. You're not stepping away and hoping for the best, you're creating the clarity that means you don't need to be involved in everything in the first place.
And that's a very different thing.
If this has got you thinking about what else might need to change as your business grows, I've put together a practical guide, How to Scale Without Breaking What You've Built. You can download a copy here:
https://tips.connectedcx.org.uk/ceo-guide
Clare
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