The Un-Bottleneck Playbook: Balance Autonomy with Oversight
If you’re a founder, or really a leader in any capacity, you’ve probably wrestled with this fear:
“What if I give too much autonomy, and things go off the rails?”
“...or what if I give too little, and they’re dependent on me forever?”
This tension—between autonomy and oversight—is one of the hardest dynamics to navigate for leaders in entrepreneurial companies. Building your company with other people can feel like a lose/lose game…yet played well, it’s the key to unlocking true leverage in your business.
Delegate Decisions, Not Just Tasks
In the early days, delegating usually looks like handing off a list of tasks to someone else. It’s a great start, and continues to work well in certain situations.
But if you’ve been struggling with delegation for awhile and feel like you’re on the metaphorical hamster wheel, you might need to start thinking about delegation differently.
Because here’s the thing: Delegating tasks buys you time. Delegating decisions buys you leverage.
If every decision still flows through you, you might have a little more free time on your hands. But you’re still the bottleneck to your business.
The “Genius with a Thousand Helpers” Model
I’m a huge Jim Collins fan. In Good to Great, Collins coined the term “genius with a thousand helpers.” It often gets a bad rap, but this model does work in certain contexts:
Artists – You create; your team handles logistics like shipping, bookkeeping, and admin.
Thought leaders – You write, speak, and ideate while your team manages marketing, scheduling, and research.
Athletes – Your performance is the product; the team is built around supporting you.
The genius model works beautifully when the goal is to share an individual’s unique talent with the world.
But if your end goal is a sustainable, self-managing company? The genius model will fail you.
As the business grows, the “genius” becomes a bottleneck. If they step away, everything slows—or stops.
Delegate Thinking, Not Just Tasks
Making the shift starts by delegating the thinking behind the tasks. By communicating results, not just actions steps:
Here’s what “done” looks like…
Here’s the experience we want to create…
Here’s what’s non-negotiable…
Within those boundaries, your team is free to think, problem-solve, and make progress—without relying on you for 100% of the answers.
In fact, my EA Stevie is amazing at catching me in the middle of a micromanag-y sentence with: “So what do you want to happen here, Elizabeth?” God bless.
The Autonomy Spectrum
But autonomy is scary. You built this thing, founded this thing, funded this thing. So think of autonomy like a sliding scale with choices. You are in control of where you land:
Low autonomy: “Put the sandwich together using this recipe so it looks, tastes, and smells exactly like this every time. If something goes wrong, here are some options for troubleshooting.”
Mid autonomy: “Our customer onboarding process is taking too long. Map out where the bottlenecks are, propose 2–3 improvements, and let’s review together before you implement.”
High autonomy: “We need to enter a new market. Figure out how.”
Every role—and every person—sits somewhere on this spectrum. Your job is not to choose one extreme but to intentionally decide how much “thinking work” to delegate, and to whom.
The Risk of Never Letting Go
If you’re only comfortable delegating tasks but not decisions, ask yourself:
Do you really want to build a company, or do you want to be the genius with a thousand helpers? If it’s the latter, ain’t nothin’ wrong with that. Just know that’s what you’ll get.
But if what you want is to build a company where you’re not the bottleneck, then holding onto all the thinking will keep you stuck.
You’ll stay the single point of failure. You could eventually burn out. And worse, you might pay for help that frees your calendar—but not your mind.
The Bigger Picture
Building a business isn’t like assembling IKEA furniture—where clear instructions get you the same predictable outcome every time.
No one has ever built exactly what you’re trying to build. There’s no playbook for your business—until you write it.
That’s why this fall, we’re launching a first ever, one of a kind Process Cohort for those of you who feel stuck getting your business out of your brain, getting your processes done by other people, getting your work delegated.
Interested? I’ll be sharing more info in my email newsletter this weekend. Get on the list here.
