One of the greatest traps in growing a business is also a pitfall for self management: if you don’t trust your leadership team or systems that you have created, you can’t let go of operational details, you’ll limit your ability to create at a higher level. In the words of Patagonia founder, Yvon Chouinard in “Let My People Go Surfing”, he expresses how important it is to trust in your staff, let them in on the process and live the experience of what they are working toward.
Many successful managers and business owners have been characterized as “highly creative control freaks.” It’s understandable because usually it takes that kind of strong, directed energy to create a business, to make something out of nothing. It takes tremendous focus and determination to create something new and get it to stick around in for more then just the trend period.
But protectionism can inevitably becomes your undoing. In order to continue in the “visionary” capacity, to grow and expand your business, you must learn to let go, trust the team you have built as well as the systems that have been put into place. However, trust is not something you can just do because you should; you learn to build trust over time, and do that by creating a solid set of systems and working it along side your key staff and leadership team. Once you do that, you let go of the lower operational functions and continue on to see the bigger picture of what you’re trying to accomplish.
Entrepreneurs and high-level managers have to break out of their comfort zone of operational control, get good people in the right places, hold them accountable for the right things, but don’t forget to motivate appropriately and often.
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