You've hired good people. You hold one on ones, you give feedback. You've even promoted the right person and it's still all coming back to you. Before you write one more person off as just not ready, I need you to hear why. That is coming up next.
Welcome to the Chris LoCurto Show, where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.
Welcome to the show, folks. I hope you're having a fabulous day wherever you are.
We have been running through a series of episodes hitting on tough subjects of why it is still a struggle for you to be able to just leave your business and things run well.
What Happens When You Disappear (00:00:57)
So here's what we're talking about today. I want you to just think about this two weeks from now, starting tomorrow, no laptop, no phone.
What actually happens to your business?
I think you already know kind of the shape of the answer. Everything is probably going to sit until you're back, right?
Here's what makes this episode different than what most people put out there about "you just need to delegate more". I want to tell you why this is the way that things are and I want you to-- And it's probably not what you think it is.
So let's get into this. Like I said, just the hypothetical. I just want you to picture this. Two weeks from now, starting tomorrow, no laptop, no phone, you're actually gone.
You're out of the business. You're doing everything you can to stay focused on whatever you're doing, whether it's just, you know, spending time with your family or sitting on a beach somewhere. What is going to happen to your business?
Probably somebody makes a call. It's not that it's wrong. It's that you can feel the nervousness in the way that they tell you about. About it after the fact, right?
Decisions stack up. Your manager probably texts you, hey, quick question four times before you even get to lunch right now.
Here's what makes this one sting. You've hired people you actually trust. You know, you're not skipping your-one on-ones.
You're showing up every week. You've had the hard feedback conversations. You've promoted somebody you believe in. On paper, you've done the things that a good leader is supposed to do.
None of this is because you hired badly. That's the part that messes with people. You did the things you know you're supposed to do. You're not lazy. You're not checked out. You're not ignoring your team. You're actually a pretty engaged leader.
And it's still all coming back to you as it did, say, three years ago, right?
Why the Obvious Fixes Don't Work (00:02:51)
So here's what most owners go to next: They start looking for the next fix.
Maybe I just need one more really strong hire. Maybe I need to give this more time. They're still new to the role. Maybe I just need to practice letting go more. Stop micromanaging, folks. I get it. All of those thoughts aren't necessarily wrong, right?
But none of them are probably the actual issue and chasing them is why you can hire well, coach well, promote well, and still be exactly where you started.
So here's why: A stronger hire without a clear standard just gives you a talented person guessing at what good looks like. More time without a real decision boundary just makes you wait longer before the same question lands back on your desk.
Biting your tongue without a system underneath, it just means you're quietly still doing the work yourself. You've just stopped saying so out loud.
You can pour every ounce of your leadership energy into people and if nothing, structural changes underneath them, the business will keep routing everything through you.
Not because they can't carry it, because you never actually built anything that lets them carry it without you standing right there.
It's not your fault. It's not something that you were taught. It's what we do. We do the same thing that we've learned from the people before us, right? The leaders that we've had.
The Real Problem: Nothing Was Built, Not That People Can't Carry It (00:04:25)
So if you've been with me the these last few weeks, some of it is going to sound familiar. The manager who keeps checking in. The leader who gets the same feedback and still, you know, slides back.
The promoted person who's stuck. The one on ones that never go anywhere. The. I'm not recovering any of those today. You've already got those. Every one of those is true on its own.
But here's the piece underneath all of them, none of those are separate problems with separate team members. They're the same missing thing showing up in four different places.
Think about it this way. If I ask you, you know, what decision did you make without me this week without coming to me?
And your honest answer is nothing. Is that because you're incapable of deciding things? Or is it because nobody ever told you what you're allowed to decide? What good looks like?
And when you decide it, what happens if you get it wrong? Most of the time it's the second one. And that's not a them problem, right? That's a business problem. It's a... it's a business that has, you know, smart, capable, trustworthy people in it.
And nothing built around them that tells them where their judgment is actually welcome. Leaders assume if they hire sharp people and treat them well. Ownership just naturally shows up over time, folks.
It does not. Ownership shows up when the business has actually been built to hand it off. Otherwise, you've just got good people standing next to a business that was never designed to let go of you. And that is exactly where you need to be.
In a place where you can step away, you can get away for two weeks, you can spend time doing what you need to do. And the business runs itself. And not just run itself. I'm not just talking about, you know, praise God, two weeks.
Everybody's holding their breath. I'm talking about legitimately. It runs well. That's why I've been able to leave for long periods of time. And my business runs well. All of them do.
The Four Things That Have to Be in Place (00:06:48)
So the four things that have to be in place, line them up and you'll see it. There are four specific things that have to exist before business can actually run without the owner in the room.
And when everyone is missing, everything defaults back to you. No matter how good your people are, it just doesn't matter. First thing is decision rights. We already covered this one in episode 685.
That was the one conversation, one map, one specific person. Here's the piece that episode didn't get to. That conversation isn't a one time fix for a struggling manager.
It's a system that has to exist for every hire and every promotion from day one. Or you're having the same 30 minute conversation over and over every time someone new joins. Because nobody ever built it into how you bring people into your business.
Second thing, real development on purpose. Once again, we covered that in episode 686. You know the three move fix in that episode works and it works fast.
Here's what it didn't have room for. That conversation shouldn't wait until you've already repeated the same feedback three times. If development is a system instead of a rescue, you're building the skill the first time a gap shows up, not the fourth.
Right? Third thing is a standard. You have to have a standard. That new leader who couldn't shake their old identity. That's episode 687. Nobody had ever defined what good looks like in the new world.
Separate from, you know, your gut and your memory. Here's what that episode didn't get to. The standard can't just exist in your head waiting to be handed over the day someone's already stuck.
It has to be written down and given well before the promotion or you're writing it under pressure, maybe you're writing it mid crisis.
And for someone who's already six months into guessing things incorrectly, that's the wrong time to be giving them the correct standard or standards.
Number four. The next thing that needs to be in place is accountability. That holds when you're not in the room. That was episode 688. So here's the layer underneath that one. Even a great one on one only catches what somebody says out loud in the room to you, right?
Accountability has to hold on the day that you're not in the room. It has to hold when you're not there asking the question. This means that it can't just live in you.
It has to be something built, it has to be something practiced. It has to be something that gets checked off when you're not there. So I'm not unpacking all four in full today. That's exactly what we're doing together on August 6th when we do our workshop.
But sit with this. If your business is still running through you, it's not because you haven't found the right people. It's because one or more of those four things was never actually built.
Example + Your Assignment (00:10:06)
So let's put this in its most basic illustration. So we're looking at accountability. I want you to picture an owner running a small contracting crew. Now his project lead commits every Friday to a punch list for the following week.
Which client walkthroughs happen, which permits get pulled, which materials get ordered. And in almost every single week, one of those quietly slides a few days without anyone even flagging it.
Now ask him what happens when one slips and he'll tell you, well, we catch it in our Monday call and you know, we adjust it and it's fine. Now ask him what happens on a week he slammed and he skips that Monday call.
Or he misses it because there's a fire to put out or something happens and most owners land in the same exact spot. What would they say? Well, honestly, it probably slides another few days before I even notice it, folks.
That's the gap in its most basic form. And it happens on much higher levels than this, right? This is just a simplistic version of it. The accountability was never in the business, it was in the leader.
The owner personally showing up on that Monday call. Those aren't the same thing. The fix isn't more check ins. It's a shared punch list. It's a document that the project lead updates every single Friday by the end of the day.
And it's flagged red for anything that didn't move. It's visible whether the owner opens his laptop that day or not. The accountability isn't riding on the owner's attention anymore.
It's sitting in a document that tells the truth with or without him. Now, once again, that's the absolute most basic simplistic version of this that I'm sharing for you. That one tiny piece.
Think about this. If that one piece isn't getting done on a weekly basis, think of the much larger things that are not getting done that that owner has to be a part of. That that owner cannot walk away from his business for a week or two week vacation.
Heck, maybe not even a four day long weekend. That is what we're talking about here. So you have an assignment this week. Just one thing. One thing.
This week, I want you to stop asking whether you hired the wrong people or whether you just need to be more patient and ask instead which of the four foundational pieces, whether it's decision rights, right?
Whether it's standards, whether it's real development or whether it's accountability, which one of those four is actually missing in your business right now?
Now, you probably have a guess, but I want you to sit with it. And it's probably the truth is, here's what I'm going to tell you. Guaranteed, accountability is missing big time because that's always missing.
But it's probably more than one of those things. It may be all four, right? Sit with it this week, watch where things default back to you and notice which of the four would have caught it before it ever reached your desk.
This is your one assignment. Just pick on one thing that comes back to you and ask yourself which one of those four areas would have solved this? That is what's important.
And here's why it matters more than it probably feels like right now and why I've spent the last month on this. You can keep coaching one on ones. You can keep giving feedback, keep promoting good people and still be the bottleneck five years from now.
If the structure underneath your team was never actually built, it'll cost you time. It'll cap how fast the business can grow. And every single time you step in and make the call for someone, you've quietly told them their judgment wasn't needed there after all, right?
I've watched too many good owners burn years chasing the wrong fix. Everything we've covered these last few weeks, decision rights, the standard, real development, accountability, all of it points to the same root question.
Where is your business still depending on you that it shouldn't be. That's exactly where I am going to start in the workshop this Thursday, August 6th at 11 Central. It is a free live workshop called Four Steps to Build a Business that Runs Without You.
We'll go through it in four parts, identifying exactly where the dependency lives in your business right now, building leaders who actually think for themselves instead of defaulting back to you, creating a culture that holds people accountable when you're not in the room and what it looks like to lead from strength instead of survival once your team can actually run without you.
Here's the deal. Seats are limited, so don't just make a mental note. Go register now.
And if Thursday doesn't work, register anyway. The replay is available for everyone who does register, but it's only for a short window afterward.
On top of that, there is a bonus that you are not going to want to miss and it's only if you go and register. So register at chrislocurto.com/build. Again, that is chrislocurto.com/build and I hope I get to see you there.
Well, folks, that's all the time that we have for today. I hope this has helped you immensely. As always, take this information. Change your leadership, change your business, change your life, and join us on the next episode.
