The single most important secret to a business owner developing an awesome business is to figure out how much to be involved after employing a manager or managers to run the business … The answer is not too much and not too little. For many finding the sweet spot, is a hard balance to strike.

People are either incapable of letting go of the reins (it’s just too scary) or they are too hands-off. Take Steve for example, he said “My team surprised me the other day. They told me just how much they wanted my business to improve. They said that they were worried it wouldn’t survive now that one of our competitors had started to get aggressive and sniffing around our loyal customers. They said that they were concerned about how little profit the business was making. And they wanted to know how much latitude I was prepared to give them so that they could try some new things that might improve the business. I thought I had given them carte blanche but it seems they didn’t really believe that I meant that.”

He realised that he’d neglected the fundamental need of his managers. They didn’t have any clear direction or goals and so they were being managed by him by telepathy. A management technique that rarely works…

The team felt unsure and directionless now that he had got way too removed from it. He organised a Business Planning Session with his team. It took a few hours as he hadn’t set any goals for a while. By the end though, with goals set and plans drawn up, the morale of the team was on the up. Now they had something to get their teeth into.