When a startup moves to scale up, the biggest blocker happens to be the people that actually made that happen.
Early leaders that don’t build for their future team are doomed to becoming the leader that “got them here but won’t get them there.”
Moving from a doer to a delegator means knowing that the work may not be done the way it was intended right away. The work may suffer. It may take more time. But more work will get done once the responsibility of ownership is shifted.
This transition doesn’t mean that quality should suffer long term — never settle for “ok”.
This transition doesn’t mean the abdication of responsibility — outcomes are still owned.
This transition doesn’t mean it will work with the current team — leading means monitoring and adjusting constantly.
The hardest thing to do is to trust that the work will get done without you actually doing it. The worst thing to do is make this leap and fall back to old habits because it isn’t happening fast enough or the way it was done before. Have faith in the team, give it a time limit, don’t revert and always move forward.
Stalling at this moment most certainly is the inhibitor to growth and for a company at this stage that cannot happen.