Being the leader of a high growth business is like skiing ahead of an avalanche.
What a RUSH!
But it’s not sustainable, for a few months, maybe a year you can do it and enjoy it but something needs to change.
That old adage what got you here it’s going to get you there applies.
At the car wash, yeah.
As a start-up founder your superpower has been being across the detail. You’re the business and the business is you.
From sales, to product, to code, to emails to customer support there was nothing you couldn’t do. You hustled it. But hustle can only get you so far.
A friend’s daughter comes to you for business advice, she has a car washing business. She’s hustling, working 18 hours a day and making pretty good money and she knows there is a better way to run her business.
Give her some advice, write her an email with exactly what she should do. Write it down, trust me, go on, do it.
Follow your instinct and your own advice
Ok, read that advice. That’s exactly what you need to do.
What did you tell her?
- Focus on building the business not doing the work
- Hire more people, but not just any people, people who care about cleaning cars, who have experience, that you can trust to clean your customers cars when you aren’t there.
- Put your prices up
The details aren’t important what’s important is that you do what you need to do. GET ON WITH IT.
You know you need to let go of the detail, but that has what’s made you great. That is your superpower.
Right now, that superpower is holding you back. It’s time to uncover your next super power.
How to uncover your superpower
I wish this were easy, just answer these three quick questions etc. It’s not. I do this with the CEOs I work with.
Step 1: Understand your old superpower isn’t going to drive you forward
Step 2: Understand if you are Visionary or an Integrator (there’s a quiz here) aka Laying the Tracks vs Running the Trains
Step 3: Don’t slip back to bad habits, especially true of engineer-founders
Step 4: Uncover your Zone of Genius. To dig deeper, I highly recommend, Gay Hendricks book. The Big Leap – don’t get put off by the book’s subtitle. It’s not about fear, it’s about something holding you back from being the hero you need to be.
I’m offering a limited number of 90 minute coaching sessions to my email community. If you want to talk superpower. Insight for Leaders: A Newsletter from MrJoe
If this has helped you, please drop me an email. I’d love to hear from you.