Do You Want To Scale Yourself? Hiring More People Is Not The Answer.

‘How can I scale myself?’ is one of the most pressing questions I hear from CEOs.

Spoiler alert: hiring more people is not the (real) answer. 

The more people you hire, the more people you have to manage, the more complexity you get as the org grows, and with all the misunderstandings, miscommunication, and lost information, well, it just becomes counter-productive. 

And you are still: 

• Working 14+ hours a day

• Spending most of your time in reactive mode 

• The main decision-maker, a.k.a. the bottleneck, who slows things down 

• Finding yourself repeating the same things frequently 

• Unsure whether you are able to keep people accountable 

• Wondering why people are not clear on the top priorities or the strategy for the company 

• Finding your 1:1s as more of a tick-box exercise 

• Dreading your leadership meetings that feel like luke-warm catchups and a waste of time 

• And so on. A total drag. 

You know when you are on the right track when you can honestly say to yourself: 

Me 

• I am growing into my role as CEO (from Founder) so that I can build a business, not just a product. 

• I am able to spend my time on what has the highest impact for my company. 

• I have an intentional schedule, both daily and weekly that is aligned with my energy and zone of genius (I do the things only I can do exceptionally well in the company)

• I have protected time for learning and unstructured ideating. 

My team 

• My direct reports feel supported, cared for and appreciated by me. 

• I am leading a cohesive, high-performing leadership team that is more like an A-team rather than a team of A-players. 

• I am able to have difficult conversations and receive uncomfortable feedback from my team. 

• I hire people better than I am in their field and then get out of their way. 

• We have weekly and monthly/quarterly reviews to ensure that we are on track with our 3-6 months goals and our overall strategy. 

My company 

• I have scaled decison-making in the company, which has created trust, transparency and removed me as the constant bottleneck. 

• Everyone knows, understand and can articulate where we are going (strategy) and why (vision).

• Everyone is clear on our execution plan, and how their individual work supports that directly or indirectly. 

• People live our core values and demonstrate their in their day-to-day work.