Knowing when to step aside

This post is inspired by the fantastic Michelle Rodger of Tartan Cat Communications. Read her full Scotland on Sunday article here.
Over the years I’ve seen this time & time again. People seem to think that as they were the founder of the business they have to be the leader / CEO too. That’s okay in the startup phase, where their inspirational vision is absolutely what’s necessary.
But once the business becomes established it morphs into a different animal, and the skills needed to run it are quite different.
Too many don’t recognise this, or feel they need to cling on to “power”. What then happens is that the business growth slows down, it loses the culture it once had, and it starts to lose good people. They also find themselves doing less and less of the “technical” work they used to enjoy and more and more time on admin / HR / management and it becomes a grind rather than being fun.
So from time to time it’s important to sit back and ask yourself – am I the right person to be running this company? Paul & Tim in Michelle’s article did, and made smart decisions. Will you?