Most entrepreneurs, myself included, have trouble letting go. They create their venture from nothing and nurture it into a profitable enterprise, so they’re understandably reluctant to relinquish responsibility, even if it’s the right path for both the business and the entrepreneur themself.

Beneath this reluctance, in my experience, is a stubborn need for control that could stifle both their business and happiness.

Below is a model for entrepreneurs and leaders looking to shift from a position of total self-reliance to empowering others.

Doing

Doing is the default setting for anyone who has created something, and it’s a fundamental right of passage. Launching a successful venture requires grit and endurance. You need to do a bit of everything and be responsible for the results. However, it isn’t sustainable when you start to gain traction and can no longer do or even oversee all of the critical work.

Refusing to relinquish control signals that you’ve tied your self-worth to that control and that you’re operating in a self-centred way. You’re in striving mode. This compulsion to put the entire venture on your back after it has outgrown you isn’t heroic, either. It doesn’t signal confidence or courage, but instead, a deep fear of both letting go and trusting others.

I was stuck in this stage for years when I launched my first venture, pulling all-nighters, forgetting to eat, living in constant anxiety. The experience helped me grow as an entrepreneur early on, but as my company grew, it consumed me. I wasn’t triumphant and fearless in the arena; I was hanging on for dear life. I was suffering in order to maintain my control.

Growing Beyond Doing

Questions for Reflection

• Are you aware of your strengths and weaknesses?
• Can you identify who complements those strengths and weaknesses?
• Do you see the value in hiring people who can complement your skill set?
• Are you aware of the opportunity cost of doing work outside your area of expertise?
• Do you see the opportunity cost of working on lower-priority tasks?
• To what extent are you optimizing for power or control?
• To what extent are you optimizing for long-term value creation that would include other people?

Stage Specific Growth Dimensions

Delegating

When you realize that many others can do the work you’ve been doing, and do it better than you, it shouldn’t threaten you; it should free you. It lifts off a burden and opens up new and exciting possibilities. You can celebrate the strengths that both you and others bring to your organization.

If you’ve progressed to a delegation mentality, you’ve abdicated some of the “doing” responsibility. You’ve hired a team to help you get work done and execute your vision. But if you remain in this stage, you’re only creating the illusion of shared responsibility.

For me, this looked like an org chart with 16 people reporting to me and daily lineups outside my office of staff waiting for approval. I was spread just as thin as I was when I was in doing mode, and I wasn’t empowering my team to grow as leaders and take ownership over their work. I still had trust issues, and I still wanted control, although now it was control over what work was done rather than how it was done. Once again, this was unsustainable and certainly not scalable.

Growing Beyond Delegating

Questions for Reflection

• What is your unique capability and advantage?
• Do you see the best in others and regard them as better than you at what they do best?
• Are you looking out for the interests of others over your own?
• Could you grow in humility?
• Have you clearly passed the baton to others on your team?
• Do people around you own their responsibilities?

Stage Specific Growth Dimensions

Co-creating

Delegation and co-creation appear very similar, but I’ve experienced the fundamental difference, and it was so profound that it led me to the work I’ve dedicated my career to and the creation of FutureSight.

When my attempts at delegating reached a breaking point, a mentor of mine stepped in to assess the situation, eventually suggesting a workshop at our upcoming staff retreat at Niagara on the Lake. It had one key requirement: I wouldn’t be able to speak. We wanted the leaders to envision what the future of the company could be and get their buy-in. I initially felt the panic of losing control, but my terror quickly turned into liberation. These leaders, many of whom I had hired out of university, happily and skillfully rose to the occasion, and I realized I no longer needed to be in control. In fact, it was better when they were in control and accountable.

Growing Beyond Co-creation

Questions for Reflection

• Do you have skin in the game?
• Do you want to have more skin in the game?
• How much are you willing to sacrifice to reach your goal?
• Do others see you as world-class in what you do?
• Do you have the financial capacity to take risks?
• Are you ready to strap yourself to the mast?

Stage Specific Growth Dimensions

Co-founding

Relinquishing control over strategic responsibilities is a significant mindset shift, but there’s an even greater shift when a venture’s financial risk is also shared. Along with being a co-creator, a co-founder must have an appetite (and capacity) for risk-taking fuelled by their belief in their venture’s purpose and trust in their other co-founders. But it isn’t only about mindset. To reach this level as a leader and compete in an unforgiving market, you need to be exceptionally competent or world-class in your discipline.

One of my best personal examples of this leadership transition came when I was running a company called Intrafinity. I had an exceptional leader on my team named Padraig who was growing restless in his role and looking for a change. I offered to let him run two of Intrafinity’s three companies, CivicLive and Talentova, inheriting both the accountability and the potential for significant financial upside if he was successful. Letting go like this was terrifying for me at first, but it’s one of the best decisions I’ve made. Padraig thrived, and CivicLive’s revenue tripled.

This strengthened my conviction that I could make a much more significant impact through sharing accountability and financial risk when building with world-class leaders who possessed courage and a deep commitment to our cause.

Conclusion

This evolution from doing to co-creation doesn’t happen naturally. Starting a venture or any major project requires getting your hands dirty, understanding it inside out, and being personally responsible for its success. And it’s in this “doing” stage that your identity becomes enmeshed. Moving from doing to co-creation, then, means being consumed by your venture and then learning to detach in a way that empowers your team and multiplies your venture’s potential.

FYI, I’m looking to co-found new ventures with world-class leaders. Visit us at futuresight.ventures to learn more.

The Full Co-Creation Maturity Model

Download the above PDF here to learn more about what it looks like when you and your venture move from leading by doing to leading by co-creating in a variety of different dimensions. You can use this chart as a reference to measure your progress towards a co-creation mindset.