A lot has been written about founder entrepreneurs remaining at the center of the company’s universe for too long. Initially, it may be necessary for the entrepreneur to make all decisions and manage or perform all activities, but when their business starts to grow and take shape, they need to make room for others. There is a difference between the ‘scale up’ and ‘grow up’ phases of growth. In the scale up phase, the business is adding bodies to get the work done, but not necessarily filling out the leadership ranks to strategically position the company for the future. As an example, think of the entrepreneur who creates a widget for sale. Initially, as orders come in, the entrepreneur can fulfill them in her garage, but when the business picks up, she needs to hire people to help fill orders, and maybe she needs to rent a space and move out of the garage. This is scaling up, but not necessarily growing up. The entrepreneur may still be doing and directing all of the activities, just working harder with a few extra bodies to help get it all done.
Growing up includes creating management and leadership roles, filling them with experienced individuals, and giving them responsibility and authority to succeed. As these changes occur, the entrepreneur CEO needs to step back and create space for the new leaders. This is much easier said than done, and many CEOs remain at the center of the company’s universe way too long. In so doing, they stifle the opportunity for leaders and managers to truly contribute, and they limit the company’s ability to mature. At the same time, this type of CEO behavior limits their own ability to mature and contribute in new ways.
I have often written about the ‘tyranny of the urgent.’ This is the situation where urgent matters consume all of the available time and energy, and there is nothing left to address anything else. When a CEO ‘needs’ to be a part of every decision and involved in every activity, they quickly run out of time in the day, and the tyranny of the urgent becomes overwhelming. Some CEOs become addicted to the maelstrom of urgency and think they are heroes by staying on top of everything. The reality is that this behavior almost certainly is limiting the success of the business and the success of the CEO.
Stepping out of the tyranny of the urgent enables the CEO to create space to look around and see the whole picture of the business. When daily operations no longer consume the CEO, they are in a better position to contemplate the future of the business and actually lead the company forward, rather than tread water every day. CEOs need the space to lead.
The same is true for boards of directors. When boards become too operationally minded, they lose perspective. Board meetings that grind away at past financial performance and operational metrics are attempting to lead by looking in the rearview mirror. The more a board crosses the line into operations, the less it is contributing to building the foundation for sustainable success. Just as it is important for a CEO to create space to lead, it is important for a board to create space to truly be helpful to the CEO. For the board, it may mean taking a step back to consider their role and what they bring to the table. Companies grow through leadership phases, and boards need to grow with them. A best practice to create space is to periodically set a formal time aside to discuss the purpose of the board, and its contribution, and to ask the CEO how the board can be more helpful. The benefits of creating space can sometimes be quite surprising and lead to significant breakthroughs.
note: There is a book by Tutti Taygerly similarly titled “Make Space to Lead: Break Patterns to Find Flow and Focus on What Matters” which addresses more personal aspects of making space for one’s well being. It was not a source in any way for this post.