Escaping the Founder Bottleneck
The team is growing. Decisions are flying. But progress feels slow and somehow, everything still routes through you.
You’re not a control freak. You’re just stuck in the founder bottleneck.
Here’s how high-leverage founders escape it:
1. Realize the bottleneck is a compliment
You got here because you’re excellent. But excellence doesn’t scale when it’s centralized.
→ High standards must become shared standards. Or you’ll stay the hero and never become the builder.
2. Influence ≠ Involvement
→ Start asking: Where am I inserted out of habit, not value? What would I do if I trusted them 10% more?
3. Delegate outcomes, not steps
When you hand off tasks, they ask for approval. When you hand off ownership, they make progress.
→ Define what success looks like. Then get out of the way and support, don’t steer.
4. Build failure capacity into your leadership
If your team can’t fail safely, they won’t lead bravely.
→ Celebrate clean mistakes. → Protect bold experiments. → Say: “That was your call, what did you learn?”
That’s how leaders grow inside your business not just next to it.
Ask yourself: If I stepped away for two weeks, what decisions would grind to a halt?
All my best,
Peter
ps: you might also like this: https://petersorgenfrei.kit.com/
I like this perspective on leadership. Particularly about letting go.
The moment you can step away and the system still runs that’s when you know you’ve built leadership, not dependency.
Peter Absoultely not. I won't break.
A dictator can only grow a project to the level of their own personal cognitive ability... but a leader can grow exponentially, by building more leaders. Thanks for articulating this so simply Peter. Saving this for future, love the wording/phrasings.
True leadership is about empowering your team to take ownership, not controlling every decision.