The only way the chief executive can scale a business profitably, and keep their sanity, is to and get out of the middle, delegate day-to-day internal activity and let the team take over.
What To Delegate
It requires having highly capable people and of course the budget to pay for them, which can be tricky. On that, for now, I’ll just say that one must proceed gradually, always hire right and leverage standard, repeatable, processes to multiply peoples’ productivity and output.
Assuming you do all that, the question you want to ask yourself constantly, whenever you’re about to do something, is: “Who can I delegate this to?”
Delegating away everyday tasks is the only way to build a capable team and free yourself up to do your real job. But what exactly is that?
What Not To Delegate
The chief executive has a vitally important set of direction-setting and navigational duties. They are like the captain of a ship who is mostly on the bridge, looking out. The captain studies the external environment: the wind, the currents, and the position of other ships. And, always keeping in mind the ship’s capabilities and limitations, they chart the best course to their destination.
A business chief executive does the same. They establish a destination, a multi-year vision. They look outward at the market environment. They look inward, at their company’s capabilities. And they combine it all into a strategy and game plan to reach the destination.
The CEOs job therefore is mostly about vision, strategy and strategy execution. But to be truly effective, the CEO must also be the keeper of the company’s cultural values. and its purpose, its “why”.
Do Not Delegate DNA
We call all that DNA. DNA defines the business at its core. It’s the CEO’s world. It’s their primary responsibility and something they should absolutely NOT delegate.
So yes, as the chief executive of your business, go ahead and gradually rid yourself of the day-to-day operational work – all that “in the business” activity. Give it to your capable team but do NOT delegate your DNA duties.
You company and its destiny depend on it.
