You Haven’t Delegated. You’ve Automated Yourself.

The post: Kevin wrote about how founders become bottlenecks without meaning to, and why growth requires handing other people real authority, even when they'll sometimes make a worse call.

Read Kevin McDonnell's original post on LinkedIn →

My comment:

The inverse of this is also dangerous, and I lived it.

By 2012 my company ran without me. I'd delegated everything. The protocol was the protocol, the specialists executed, the billing flowed, and I could review revenue from a phone anywhere. A few meetings a week, that was it.

I was proud of that. Look how well I built this — it doesn't even need me.

Here's what I'd actually done. I hadn't distributed authority. I'd distributed execution and kept every decision that mattered embedded in a protocol I wrote once. Nobody was waiting on me because nobody was permitted to question the thing I'd already decided.

Ten years, not one complaint ever reached my desk. I cited that as proof we were excellent. The absence of bad news isn't health — it usually means you've removed the channels bad news travels through.

I pleaded guilty to a $150 million healthcare fraud, served eight and a half years, and still owe $51 million in restitution.

So I'd add one line to your post: a founder who becomes unnecessary hasn't necessarily succeeded. Ask whether the people now deciding can overrule you. If they can't, you haven't delegated authority. You've just automated yourself.

Originally posted as a comment on LinkedIn.