Kimberley, thank you for sharing about this struggle so openly! It's something I often see from where I sit, with founders wanting to grow the organization, but that growth requiring the founder to hand things over to others in a way that's new (and often uncomfortable) for them.
I wonder if the thinking around servant leadership might be valuable to you? It's a style of leadership that aims to foster trust and encourage ownership from others (potentially including a COO) for the greater good of the organization. But it also requires the leader taking a step back from the traditional style of directive leadership. The traits required for this style of leadership are often not the same traits that allow founders to be initially successful, so I suspect it would be a learning curve for many successful founders... It might not be useful to you, but I wanted to share just in case!
Wishing you all the best in the journey ahead on this!
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Kimberley, thank you for sharing about this struggle so openly! It's something I often see from where I sit, with founders wanting to grow the organization, but that growth requiring the founder to hand things over to others in a way that's new (and often uncomfortable) for them.
I wonder if the thinking around servant leadership might be valuable to you? It's a style of leadership that aims to foster trust and encourage ownership from others (potentially including a COO) for the greater good of the organization. But it also requires the leader taking a step back from the traditional style of directive leadership. The traits required for this style of leadership are often not the same traits that allow founders to be initially successful, so I suspect it would be a learning curve for many successful founders... It might not be useful to you, but I wanted to share just in case!
Wishing you all the best in the journey ahead on this!