I often hear from business owners like you. I spend all my time fixing problems but I do want to focus on growing the business. Welcome to my talk series Kakarum for business owners like you. I am Nalin Ma and today we will talk about how to move from being an operator from being working in your business to becoming a coach that is working on your business to develop your senior team. Many founders feel they need to be involved in every decision. They think that’s the only way to keep things on track. But
here is the trap. The more you solve, the less your team learns. And the business stays dependent on you instead of growing beyond you. The real shift starts with one practice. Stop answering, start asking. When your senior team brings you a problem, resist the urge to give the solution immediately. Instead, ask three questions. What do you think is causing this? What are the two options you have considered to solve this? And what would you do if I wasn’t available? This forces them to think, not just escalate,
but find solutions themselves. In the beginning it feels slower but within weeks they start coming to you with solutions and not just problems. Your job becomes validating their thinking and not doing their thinking. Second define decision authority clearly. Most teams don’t know which decisions they can make on their own and which need your approval. Create a simple decision matrix. You know sometimes you can define that in monetary value decisions under 50,000 or affecting this part of the department they can decide and
inform you and decisions above that are affecting multiple areas they propose solutions and you have to approve the solutions. This clarity eliminates the constant fear can I do this interruptions and build their own ownership. Third, replace daily firefighting with weekly scorecards. Track three to five key numbers for each senior leader. There could be revenue, margins, on-time delivery, customer complaints, rejections, which I spoke about in another video. Whatever moves their area forward, review those in a
30inut weekly meeting. If numbers are green, you coach on what’s next. If they are red, you don’t solve it. You ask what they will do differently this week. This rhythm keeps you connected without micromanaging. So if you feel stuck as the problem solver, make this shift. Ask questions instead of giving answers. Clarify what they can decide without you and review outcomes, not activities. Your job isn’t to be the smartest person in every room. is to build a team that doesn’t need you in every room. I hope this helps. Stay connected on LinkedIn for more such insights.
