It starts with a well-worn pattern.
A founder walks into the office on Monday morning, ready to tackle the week. Within five minutes, someone pops in: “Can you review this quote before I send it?” Another team member wants approval on a marketing initiative. A third is waiting to run a hiring decision by you. By lunch, you’ve made 20 micro-decisions no one else felt empowered to own. And before you know it, it’s Thursday, and you haven’t had the time for the projects you really needed to tackle.
You built the company. You’re proud of it. But now, you’ve become the default decision-maker. And it’s costing you more than time. It’s costing your peace of mind.
The Hidden Cost of Being the Hero
What begins as value-adding involvement often turns into organizational dependency. Teams look up instead of stepping up. Managers hesitate, unsure whether they’re empowered. You feel increasingly stretched, and the growth you worked so hard for begins to slow.
- Your team stays in task mode
- Leadership gaps go unfilled
- You spend your days solving other people’s problems
- Your strategic work gets delayed
- You can’t step away without the machine stalling
When leadership doesn’t multiply, it caps your growth and freedom. And your passion is gone.
The Reframe: From Hero to Hero-Maker
We call this the shift from control to liberation. The goal isn’t to “let go” completely. The goal is to build others up so your presence becomes optional daily. You’re not just building a company. You’re building people who can build the company with you.
The move from hero to multiplier requires intentional tools, language, and support systems. That’s where we come in.
Case Study: Joe’s Construction Firm
Joe built a successful regional construction firm a decade ago. But by the time he reached 100 employees, everything came back to him. Project managers weren’t leading. Supervisors waited for direction. Joe couldn’t take more than a few days off without a string of fires following him.
When Joe started working with our team, we walked him through the Growth Cycle to identify pain points: over-functioning, under-delegating, and opportunities to share authority.
Joe realized this wasn’t like when he had to do it all in the early days. He started to see that what came naturally to him needed to be multiplied, and now he had hired a team that could handle the delegation.
His managers learned how to “own” outcomes, not just tasks. Joe delegated authority to a team of executive leaders. Six months in, Joe reported taking his first uninterrupted vacation in over a decade.
And his team? They solved challenges confidently. And without him.
Tools That Drive Multiplication: Work the Loop
Each rung of the ladder is a mindset — a level of maturity or autonomy your team member currently operates from. Your job is to help them climb.
This helps leaders progress team members from needing direction to owning outcomes. It becomes a coaching map and accountability framework.
There are 5 steps to the cycle:
1. The Opportunity: “Tell Me What to Do”
This is the first stage of onboarding someone new or introducing a complex task. The individual is incredibly excited to get started, but they know nothing about the work they need to accomplish.
- Mindset: “I need clear direction.”
- Reality: They lack confidence, skill, or understanding. But they’re really excited to get started.
- What to Do: You provide step-by-step guidance. Teach, explain, model.
⚠️ Staying here too long creates dependency.
2. Name It: “I Think I Know What to Do, Can I Check?”
Once you have initiated the training process, your mentee begins learning new information and trying out the application. It is easy to get overwhelmed because they have not developed the muscle around expertise.
- Mentee’s Mindset: I’m learning, but I need confirmation.
- Reality: They want to do it right, but still lack confidence. They are likely overwhelmed by how much they don’t know yet.
- What to Do: Ask questions to confirm understanding. Be highly encouraging. Affirm what’s right. Coach what’s missing.
Say: “Walk me through your plan.” Help them build decision-making muscles.
⚠️ Watch out for the Trap Door.
Trap Door: Where you could lose the person.
If you’re supporting the person well, they have the encouragement and direction they need to succeed. But too often, we take a hands-off approach to development and delegation. That leaves the person frustrated and missing key insights into problem-solving.
How does this happen?
- We don’t take enough time with them.
- We try to take over when they make a misstep.
- We blow up at a mistake instead of coaching them through.
These are all natural reactions. As leaders, we need to train ourselves to coach appropriately through the process. If we aren’t careful, the Trap Door will put the person right back where they started, frustrated and questioning their abilities.
3. Take It On: “I’ve Done This Before — Here’s My Plan.”
This is the transition zone where confidence grows and your time frees up. The mentee largely knows what to do, but there may still be the rare occasion where you need to fill in gaps about situations they have not faced yet.
- Mindset: I have experience and want to lead.
- Reality: They’re taking initiative and asking for buy-in.
- What to Do: Review the plan briefly. Offer input. Let them execute.
⚠️ Don’t stop coaching yet! There’s still one more step.
4. Onward: “I’m Doing This — I’ll Let You Know If There’s a Problem.”
Once you reach this stage, this is true empowerment. You’ve developed a leader! How does it feel to know someone else possesses the same skills you have? This is multiplication at its best.
- Mindset: I own this task. I’ll escalate only if needed.
- Reality: They’re leading with full autonomy and high trust.
- What to Do: Monitor outcomes, not methods. Offer support only when needed.
The Goal: “I’ve Got This — And I’m Developing Someone Else Now.”
At this phase, you are approaching “World Class Capabilities.” You are skilled at the craft and can multiply your expertise and knowledge into others.
- Mindset: I’m multiplying. I’m not just doing — I’m teaching.
- Reality: They’ve become the multiplier.
- What to Do: Celebrate, elevate, and ask: “Who are you developing?”
2 Steps You Can Take This Month
- Map your team on the Growth Cycle. Identify who’s ready to rise — and where you’re still keeping too much control.
- Schedule a development rhythm, like bi-weekly coaching, that creates space to grow others. Do you need scheduled, hands-on training sessions? Or maybe a quick message or pop-in to encourage your mentee.
Closing Thought
You don’t have to carry everything.
The real legacy of a great founder isn’t in what they built by themselves — it’s in who they built. When you shift from being the center to building centers of leadership, you unlock exponential growth and reclaim your time.
