“I like being in control. I don’t like to listen to anything from anybody.”
The above is from the owner of a struggling business on the TV show Restaurant Impossible. When my wife and I heard it we immediately hit rewind so we could play it again and transcribe it.
I’m sure there are all kinds of fancy names for this as it’s one of the most common traits of business owners, especially founders. Ironically, in my opinion, the strongest statements about being in control come from owners of business not firing on all cylinders. No wonder there are over 1,000 books on Amazon when searching by “delegation” and over 300,000 when searching by “management.”
The top “blemish” I see in the hundreds of companies I come in contact with every year is a controlling owner who:
- Has his or her hands in everything
- Thinks they’re the only person who can do it right
- Believes delegating is a sign of weakness
I recently visited my friend and past client Keith Jackson, owner of Industrial Revolution. He told me his four-person management team pretty much runs the day-to-day. On a personal note, Jessica has been with me since January 1. I turned over some client-based office work and she’s doing things I don’t know how to do, getting it done faster than I could, and this allows us to grow the business.
Being in control doesn’t mean doing it all. It means making sure it gets done and done right, and that makes the business more valuable.
“Only the educated are free.” Epictetus
