Independence from the Founders

There are some signs you probably observed before asking this question. For example, you might frequently feel overwhelmed with business activities, with no possibility to delegate or empower. Or you noticed most critical aspects of the business are going through your decision making.

These could have direct consequences on the business. If you, as founder, become the bottleneck, the business growth may slow down, or even stop.

This is one of the most difficult questions to answer. As a founder, you invested a lot in the company, not only money and time, but also emotions. How could you easily step back, let others take control?

However, if you succeed, and done the responsibility transfer successfully, it will be in the benefit of the company and you will have different kinds of satisfaction.

The founder is not the only key player in this moment of the Company Journey. Independence from the founders can be done only through delegation and empowerment. The people in the company must be ready to assume new responsibilities, to take over more control over key aspects of the business.

This is where a professional management will make the difference, where a change in mindset of the employees may be required.

You reached the conclusion that you are not yet prepared to give the company the independence it needs, but you decide to do it. First, you must address the issues you identified when challenging yourself on how prepared you are.

Like in your personal case, this is about addressing the issues discovered in the organization. Whether we are talking about professionalizing people, changing their mindset, or going through the existing processes and infrastructure to adjust them for distributed responsibilities, a transformation program must be defined: a new destination is set, a new Company Journey road is chosen.

You can transform this part of the Company Journey in a meaningful journey for the people inside the organization, too. Responsibility delegation, empowerment and professionalization are good opportunities for personal growth.

You follow the decided path, looking for the desired destination. Most likely, this Company Journey path will be difficult, taking many of the “passengers” out of the comfort zone. The proper steering, the capacity of reacting fast to challenges and deviations will keep the Company on track.