Recognizing the need for a change in leadership is one of the most difficult transitions for an entrepreneur to make. The skills needed to incubate an idea, demonstrate that it has value, and develop an initial product/proto-type are important to getting a company launched, and are key to the early success of an entrepreneurial venture. However, the skills needed to raise funding from external sources, commercialize a product, build capacity and lead a company toward growth and sustainability are very different, and most often not found in the same person. A wise entrepreneur knows that “firing” themselves as the chief executive, and bringing someone in with these critical complementary skills may very well make the difference between becoming a successful enterprise or a statistic in the landfill of attempted start-ups. I have seen many examples of this in my years of work with entrepreneurs, where the founders’ ability to recognize the difference between keeping control and creating value made that difference.
Tags: entrepreneurship, growth, leadership, sustainability
