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Key Takeaways Apply an overqualification test: This will tell you if you’re spending your valuable time on tasks that should be outsourced to a more appropriate resource.
Convert your intuition into SOPs, embrace small amounts of imperfection, and shift from fixer to facilitator.
Become the least important person in the room, and let clear metrics define success and failure.
In the early years of building a business, being the best at everything is a survival mechanism. You are the lead salesperson because you have the most passion, the head of product because you have the vision, and the fixer because you have the most at stake. Your talent is the high-performance engine that compensates for a lack of systems and brand recognition in the marketplace. The challenge is that this skill also becomes a huge liability as you scale.
Many businesses stall because the founder is chronically overqualified for their daily task list. They spend their day working on tasks that can and should be delegated to someone else on the team. They end up polishing a team member’s deck because it will only take 10 minutes, or jump on a client call to finalize a deal because they know the client the best. While this feels like heroic leadership, it is actually unintentional sabotage. You are solving today’s problem at the expense of tomorrow’s scalability.
If you are the best at everything in your company, the business can never grow beyond the limits of your own capacity. To break this cycle, it’s important for leaders to learn how to transition from the person who makes the machine run to the engineer who focuses their efforts on building a better machine.
1. Apply an overqualification test
Take a moment to reflect on how you spent your time over the last two weeks. Ask yourself, “If I hired someone with my exact resume and experience to perform these tasks, would it be a wise use of the company’s money?”
If the answer is no, you’re likely spending your valuable time on tasks that should be outsourced to a more appropriate resource. If a task doesn’t require a founder’s skillset and DNA, it shouldn’t be on your plate.
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