I will be the first to admit that I graduated Magna Cum Laude from “If You Want Something Done Right, Do It Yourself” University. That’s code for ‘I used to be a control freak’ preventing my team from moving the business forward. The challenge was, if I had to do everything, what I could actually get done was severely limited and kept my business on a plateau instead of soaring with profits.
As a mid-6-figure CEO scaling toward seven or eight figures, there’s one truth you need to embrace: you cannot do it all. To grow your business, you must grow your ability to trust your team. Period.
But for many CEOs, letting go of control feels risky. After all, you’ve built this business, maybe you even consider it to be “your baby, ” and it’s hard to hand over responsibility without fear of mistakes or misalignment. Yet, the bottleneck isn’t your team—it’s your reluctance to trust them fully.
This week, let’s explore how to let go of the reins and empower your team to rise to the occasion.
Now, it’s not lost on me that you have standards and as a result, you have a way that you want things done. I get it. And with these tips you can still leverage your team to help you move your business forward.
1. Start with Clear Expectations
I have long believed that people support what they help to create. And, when you help someone understand the reason behind what you would like done, it’s a gateway to them being able to take full ownership to produce the result you desire. So, your first goal is to be clear with your team. Trust begins with clarity. When your team knows exactly what success looks like, they’re more likely to deliver results you can trust.
- Define Success: Before delegating a task or project, clearly outline the outcome you expect. Be specific about deliverables, timelines, and quality standards. Personally, I love to create a brief to accompany a task, especially when the task might be a little more complex. By creating a task brief, you can provide your team with everything they need to know to perform the task to your specifications.
- Document Processes: Provide written SOPs (standard operating procedures) or checklists for recurring tasks. This minimizes confusion and ensures consistency. Also, take the next step by developing an SOP directory that houses all of the procedures and their coordinate documents.
- Communicate the “Why”: Help your team understand how their work connects to the company’s bigger goals. When they see the impact of their contributions, they’ll take greater ownership. By becoming a transparent leader and openly sharing the every important detail with my team, I have reinforced that I trust them and that has given them the permission they need to show up fully in their roles.
2. Delegate Authority, Not Just Tasks
If you truly desire to become a CEO, you will have to have other members of the team that can make decisions. If you’re the only one who can decide, you will keep bottlenecking your business. This puts undue stress and pressure on yourself and prevents you from growing the business by NOT being IN it on a daily basis. Delegation isn’t about handing off busywork—it’s about transferring ownership of outcomes.
- Assign Decision-Making Power: When you delegate, give your team the authority to make decisions within the scope of their work. Trust them to use their judgment. I believe in creating a decision making matrix so that they your entire team is aware of the decisions they can make and when they need to communicate with you to resolve an issue.
- Encourage Problem-Solving: Instead of jumping in to fix issues, ask your team how they’d solve the problem. This builds their confidence and capability. By establishing one of your core values to include only sharing a problem if you also share a viable solution, you will help your team shift from just being doers into being thinkers. This will be good for your business growth goals.
- Create Feedback Loops: Regularly check in on progress, not to micromanage but to offer guidance and celebrate wins. Whether this is at your weekly all-hands meeting or you have frequent 1:1s with your team, this will help you keep the lines open while you keep the business moving forward.
3. Release Perfectionism and Embrace Growth
Your team wants to do a good job for you. The way you respond when they make mistakes will determine their readiness to step out on their own as they make decisions. Fear of mistakes often leads CEOs to hold onto tasks that should be delegated. But mistakes are part of growth—for you and your team. When a mistake occurs, use it as a teachable moment to make sure that everyone is on the same page going forward.
- Shift Your Perspective: Instead of seeing mistakes as failures, view them as opportunities for learning and improvement.
- Celebrate Effort: Recognize when your team steps up, even if the results aren’t perfect. Acknowledge progress, not just outcomes.
- Focus on What Matters: Ask yourself: Does this task require perfection, or is “good enough” sufficient to move forward?
4. Build a Culture of Trust
Trust isn’t just about delegation—it’s about creating an environment where your team feels supported and valued.
- Model Vulnerability: Share your own challenges and lessons learned as a leader. This fosters a culture of openness and mutual respect. Carve out time during every team meeting to be vulnerable and transparent and to offer your team the opportunity to do the same in a safe and aligned space.
- Empower Initiative: Encourage your team to suggest ideas, experiment, and take ownership of their roles.
- Recognize Contributions: Publicly celebrate team wins and individual contributions. When your team feels seen and appreciated, trust grows naturally.
5. Measure Results, Not Methods
As your business grows, how your team achieves results matters less than the results themselves.
- Focus on Outcomes: Instead of micromanaging how tasks are completed, evaluate whether the goals were met.
- Encourage Innovation: Give your team the freedom to find better, faster, or more creative ways to achieve results.
- Let Go of “Your Way”: Trust your team to bring their unique strengths to the table, even if their approach differs from yours. As long as it gets done and the outcome is achieved, being flexible to the how – the how is not your job anyway.
Why This Matters
Your business can’t grow if you’re doing everything yourself. Trusting your team is the gateway to scaling with grace and ease. When you let go of the reins and empower your team, you create a business that doesn’t rely solely on you—and that’s the ultimate freedom.
This week, take one small step toward trusting your team more. Start by delegating a decision, providing clearer expectations, or simply recognizing their contributions.
Scaling isn’t about doing more—it’s about leading more.
Need help with becoming a trusting leader? We’d love to help you show up as the CEO your business needs to generate 7 figures a year. Here are a few ways we can help:
- Grab a copy of Move to Millions: The Proven Framework to Become a Million Dollar CEO with Grace & Ease Instead of Hustle & Grind available on Audible and paperback wherever you love to buy books or www.movetomillionsbook.com
- Register to join us at Move to Millions Live 2025 – BIGGER. Move to Millions Live is our signature annual live event experience for 7 figure CEOs and 7 figure CEOs in the making ready to learn the principles, assets and legacy of business leadership at the 7-figure level and beyond. For 3 powerful days you’ll gain insights, inspiration and implementation strategies to leverage and scale your business with grace and ease instead of hustle and grind. Learn more and secure your seat at www.movetomillionsevent.com
- Don’t want to wait until May for support growing your business? Apply to work with us in one of our Haus of Millions Business Advisory Programs. Learn more today at www.partnerwithdarnyelle.com
