There are clearly two types of owners in small businesses, those with big egos who need to be in control and those who have learned how to delegate and empower the people who work for them.

Knowing what you don’t know can be a huge problem for bright entrepreneurs who believe they can learn anything and master it better than most people.  Related to this is the axiom “your greatest strength is also your greatest weakness.”  Ambition, drive, emotion,  and control are great strengths for entrepreneurs and even greater weaknesses!

I have several clients for whom I’ve been working just about every month for 37 years.  During that period their companies have grown dramatically and the one thing they all share in common is that they delegate well.  They hire me because I’m an expert at my craft and they let me do my job. It is no coincidence that my clients with the biggest gains are the ones who give me the greatest freedom to do my work on their behalf.

The above is validated in every episode of “The Profit” on CNBC where Marcus Leonis, a billionaire invests in struggling small businesses and fixes them.  The biggest problem revealed in each episode always involves the entrepreneur’s lack of objectivity with respect to three elements which Leonis believes are critical to the success of any business: people, process, and products.

###

© Steven M. Stroum