Growth often feels like success. More customers, more people, more opportunities.
Yet many entrepreneurs tell me the same thing:
“I do not get to anything anymore. I am only solving problems.”
That is exactly what happens when you keep working the way you did in the early days.
What worked with 5 people no longer works with 15.
From Leader to Firefighter
In the beginning you do everything yourself.
You answer questions. You fix problems. You know every client.
But as the company grows, your role changes.
More people means more questions and more dependency.
Before you know it, you become the point where everything flows through.
This usually leads to the same pattern:
❌ You pick up everything
❌ The team waits
❌ You work harder and harder
You keep the company running, but you stop building it.
Why Working Harder Does Not Help
Most leaders respond by doing more of the same.
Starting earlier, finishing later, switching faster.
It works for a moment, but slows everything down in the long run.
Your team does not learn to make decisions.
You are no longer working on direction, only reacting.
The result: you are no longer leading, you are firefighting.
The Shift Back to Leadership
Growth requires a different way of working.
Not doing more, but letting others do more.
This helps in practice:
1. Do not answer immediately
Ask: “What do you think is needed?”
Your team knows more than you expect.
2. Make ownership clear
Who decides? Who executes? What is not your responsibility?
3. Build simple systems
Small templates, agreements, fixed communication moments.
Do not start big, start consistent.
4. Protect your strategic time
If you do not create the space, daily operations will take it.
Strategic work never happens by accident.
Strong leaders do not build on control.
They build on trust.
That is how growth creates calm, clarity and direction.
