I feel a lot of this. My work pattern has changed intuitively lately. I spend much more time thinking than “working.” My ability to grind through decisions and push my teams has diminished but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. At a certain level you just can’t drive everything yourself anymore. You have to be more of a symbolic figure and cheerleader. I feel guilty because I don’t produce the way I used to but that’s also because I’ve successfully implemented systems and hired and trained people so that I don’t have to do all of that stuff anymore. It still feels weird, like the more successful I am the less I do. Of course stage matters and we are on the edge of breaking through to multi billion valuation, investors successfully exiting, etc. I could not imagine 5 years ago that I would be saying any of this but it has aged me a lot and I don’t know if I could go back to that mode even if I wanted to.
Thanks for the comment. When we were scaling Concur, I went through that cycle. When I took over a team it was a lot of hands on work , getting the right people in the right roles and then focusing on execution. Over time I had to be less involved in the day to day and could focus on what was next. Initially I had similar emotions as you. Am I really working as hard as my team but what i realized was that it was what I should be doing to a) let my team scale and grow b) work on figuring out what was needed next and what might break and preparing for that. Sounds like you are doing the right activities for your team and hopefully setting them up for success as you continue to scale. Not always easy.
Work just looks different and different stages of growth.
Thanks for sharing your experience and congrats on the success of the company.
I’m feeling this way now. No matter how I try to shake it, it’s difficult especially when providing for children is involved. Compound this with immigration timer counting down (O1), it makes it worse.
I feel a lot of this. My work pattern has changed intuitively lately. I spend much more time thinking than “working.” My ability to grind through decisions and push my teams has diminished but I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. At a certain level you just can’t drive everything yourself anymore. You have to be more of a symbolic figure and cheerleader. I feel guilty because I don’t produce the way I used to but that’s also because I’ve successfully implemented systems and hired and trained people so that I don’t have to do all of that stuff anymore. It still feels weird, like the more successful I am the less I do. Of course stage matters and we are on the edge of breaking through to multi billion valuation, investors successfully exiting, etc. I could not imagine 5 years ago that I would be saying any of this but it has aged me a lot and I don’t know if I could go back to that mode even if I wanted to.
Thanks for the comment. When we were scaling Concur, I went through that cycle. When I took over a team it was a lot of hands on work , getting the right people in the right roles and then focusing on execution. Over time I had to be less involved in the day to day and could focus on what was next. Initially I had similar emotions as you. Am I really working as hard as my team but what i realized was that it was what I should be doing to a) let my team scale and grow b) work on figuring out what was needed next and what might break and preparing for that. Sounds like you are doing the right activities for your team and hopefully setting them up for success as you continue to scale. Not always easy.
Work just looks different and different stages of growth.
Thanks for sharing your experience and congrats on the success of the company.
I’m feeling this way now. No matter how I try to shake it, it’s difficult especially when providing for children is involved. Compound this with immigration timer counting down (O1), it makes it worse.