How Can Founding CEOs Empower Their Team to Succeed?
As a founder, your real job is to create the conditions for your team to deliver fast, without chaos, and with minimal input from you. In a startup, the line between speed and total chaos is razor-thin. It demands clarity, trust, and the ability to adapt on the fly.
Here’s how I help founders set their teams up for success:
1. Clear Processes
Set clear goals: For the business, teams, and individuals. Goals focus effort, drive progress, and give everyone a sense of speed even when they change week to week. Break them down into short cycles for regular wins and lighter, more frequent performance reviews.
Define roles and responsibilities: In startups, everyone wears multiple hats. Spell out what each hat means. Clear boundaries accelerate decision-making and make it easier to measure results. As you grow, redefine each hat as responsibilities are shared.
Decision-making authority: With roles defined, let your team own their patch. Trust them to make calls within their remit. Be available for support and feedback, but don’t micromanage: they’re the experts.
2. Clear Behaviours
Open communication & psychological safety: The more transparent you are, the faster issues surface and get solved. Make feedback a two-way street. Use light, regular processes: anonymous feedback, 1:1s, and reviews to keep the pulse.
Provide training and resources: Stretch your team. If the budget is tight, give them time to learn or work on self-driven projects. Think Google’s 20% time.
Reward success: Recognise every win, big or small, both 1:1 and in groups. It builds a positive culture and keeps everyone engaged.
3. Review and Adapt
Learn as you go: With goals and roles in place, you can see what’s working and what needs to change. As you scale, your processes must evolve. Set a regular review cycle and make it a habit across the business.
Balancing creativity and efficiency is critical if you want to scale and exit well. Set clear goals, empower decision-making, and communicate openly. That’s how you build a team that delivers without you having to carry them every step of the way.