I was talking to a client recently who is still wearing quite a few hats in his business.
He’s the MD, but he’s also getting involved in sales, operations and various other things that crop up during the week.
We were talking about how difficult it can be to move away from that, particularly when you’ve built the business yourself.
You’re used to being useful.
A problem comes up and you can probably solve it. Somebody needs some help and you know enough to get involved. A customer needs something and you can usually sort it.
There’s also something quite reassuring about being busy. You get to the end of the day having dealt with ten different things and it certainly feels like you’ve contributed.
But I’m not sure that’s always the right measure once you’re running a bigger business.
During the conversation I used the analogy of an orchestra.
I said: “My first job as conductor of the orchestra is to make sure everybody else in every section is working well and flat out before I start working flat out.
The more I thought about it afterwards, the more the analogy resonates.
A conductor doesn't demonstrate their value by noticing the violin section is busy and picking up a violin.
Their job is to make sure the whole orchestra works.
They need the right people in the right seats in every section.
Everybody needs to know their part.
They need to know when to come in, what everybody else is doing and what the piece is supposed to sound like when it all comes together.
If something isn't working, the conductor has to notice it.
But that doesn't necessarily mean they should start playing the instrument themselves.
I think that's a difficult transition for quite a lot of business owners.
Particularly if you’ve spent years being the person everybody relies on.
As the business grows, your contribution has to change. But that can sometimes feel like you’re doing less.
You might spend an hour with a manager helping them think through a problem rather than spending that hour solving it yourself.
You might spend a morning looking at where the business is going rather than dealing with what’s happening today.
You might decide not to get involved in something, even though you know you could probably sort it more quickly yourself.
None of those things necessarily give you the same immediate sense of achievement as ticking ten jobs off a list.
But perhaps that's the point.
If you're running a growing business, your job shouldn't be to prove that you can work harder than everybody else.
It should increasingly be about creating an environment where other people can do their jobs well without needing you to keep stepping in.
That doesn't mean sitting back while everybody else does the work.
Far from it.
There will always be things that genuinely require the owner or MD, and there will certainly be times when you need to roll your sleeves up.
The question is whether that's the exception or whether it has quietly become your normal way of operating.
I often ask business owners to look at their diary because it usually gives us a fairly honest answer.
How much of last week was spent doing things that genuinely needed you?
How much was spent doing something because you were the quickest or easiest person to ask?
And how much time did you actually spend doing the things only you can do?
I think there's another question worth asking as well.
When you're not incredibly busy, do you feel slightly guilty?
Because if the answer is yes, you might still be measuring your value to the business in the same way you did when there were only a handful of people in it.
Your job has changed since then.
Perhaps your measure of a good week needs to change with it.
The conductor doesn't need to be the busiest person in the orchestra.
They need to make sure everybody else knows what they're playing.
Ready to stop being the busiest person in the business?
If you’re still wearing too many hats, it might be time to step back and look at what your role really needs to be as the business grows.
Book a FREE Growth Strategy Session and let’s look at where your time is going, what’s keeping you stuck in the day-to-day, and what needs to change for you to spend more time working on the business:
