A few months ago, I led a session with my executive advisory group on the topic, Releasing the Leader Who Got You Here. Some of the CEOs in the group are in growth mode, and others are in scale mode. While everyone needed to do some releasing, what was clear is that scaling requires a much more challenging level of release.
Why? Because scaling means that your business can grow without you personally having to touch every decision, transaction, and delivery. As the founder and CEO, you’ll realize that scaling is not about you working harder, but working more intentionally and strategically to lead a team that can serve even more customers or clients with excellence.
When you’re scaling, what used to be necessary for you to do is now making you a bottleneck. You have to be willing to release the leader who got you to your current point. It’s such an important aspect of the business leadership journey, because:
The instincts, habits, and involvement that got you where you are now don’t always support what’s next.
Some of what feels fixed in your business hasn’t been revisited in light of where you are now and where you are headed in the months ahead.
You’re a faithful and committed leader, but some of what you’re carrying isn’t yours to carry anymore.
This process isn’t always easy because it will surely test your underlying operating system: what you believe, how you see yourself and your team, and how you move accordingly.
If you believe you’re the only one who can close client deals, you’ll keep routing all the warm leads through you even after you’ve hired people who are more than capable of closing.
If you built your reputation on your fast and instinctive decision-making, that same instinct will tell you that slowing down to build a decision-making framework for your team is a waste of time.
If your identity and worth are tied up in being the one everyone depends on, you’ll struggle with releasing parts of the business to others and being needed less by the team.
I can confidently tell you, from both personal experience as a founder and as an advisor to many over the years, that you can’t grind out the release through sheer willpower or adrenaline. Even if you feel that’s what got you to where you are, it will not sustain you as you scale. What makes the release possible and sustainable is grace. Power beyond you. It’s that power beyond you that enables you to trust and surrender.
The roots and the fruit of grace as your operating system as you scale
Here are some questions to sit with today:
THE SHIFT: Where am I still leading from a version of me that was required in a previous business season?
THE UNLOCK: Where am I saying “this is just how it has to be”… but perhaps it doesn’t?
THE TRANSFER: What am I currently holding that isn’t mine to carry?
And after you reflect, consider one action step you can take within the next three business days as a result…and take that step.
Note: This is the third article in the series Scaling with Grace. Catch up on article one and article two.