GoKawiilOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways Constant availability isn’t leadership — it’s a bottleneck. Always being reachable often prevents teams from developing their own judgment and slows long-term business growth.
Stepping back seems risky because reduced availability feels like reduced value. But ask yourself: Is my availability strengthening the business, or simply nurturing my need for control?
True leadership means building a business that can run without you. Scaling sustainably requires tolerating some short-term discomfort so the business grows stronger in the long run.
Business owners pride themselves on productivity.
We answer messages late at night, even though we’re not supposed to, we take unscheduled meetings in between scheduled meetings as we’re sitting in traffic, we reply to emails within minutes and step into conversations that — let’s face it — don’t always require us being there.
We stay reachable at all times and wear that “access” as a badge of honor, convinced it proves we are responsible and committed.
I, too, have done this more times than I care to admit, because it feels like leadership.
But I am going to say something you may not like: It is not. Ouch.
Did that hurt? You’re likely a fellow entrepreneur, and that hit too close to home. The good news is this is far more common than you think, and there’s a solution (read on).
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