Why new managers can’t keep their old responsibilities.

When I started working, I let the leadership team know that eventually I aspired to moving into a leadership position. When the opportunity came to become a lead after the close of a seed funding round, I was very excited. I said to the CTO “I’m really excited about this and I know the team can accomplish our goals. There’s just one thing I don’t want to give up.” There was a major project that our department had been working on over multiple quarters, where I had written the training material, coordinated with data engineers to increase our efficiency with the project, and had rallied the team around improving our data related to this objective. I was emotionally invested in the project and still wanted to be the driver.

The CTO shared the following article with me

https://review.firstround.com/give-away-your-legos-and-other-commandments-for-scaling-startups/

Over the next few weeks, there were a few conversations with the leadership team about the content of that article and how we could all give away some of our Legos.

Developing your team at the speed of company growth

We were getting ready for a growth phase in the company, and that meant hiring more people, creating management layers (which included myself), and generally doing more things faster. Even though I was really passionate about that project, we all realized that this project was better suited for an IC on my team, so that I could focus on new responsibilities that would come with this growth phase of the company. I gave away some Lego so I would have the space to build new things. In turn, the ICs got new Lego to build. We were all learning and growing. By giving away your Legos, you can focus on new priorities. Bigger goals and greater impact.

Just remember that when you give away your Legos, you can’t just abandon them. Remember the DACI framework, and record who is now driving.

As a company grows, if you want to grow with it, you have to become comfortable with the idea that your role, and the role of your ICs will change rapidly. When I think back to what my role was like 3 years ago vs now, it’s almost unrecognizable. The kinds of responsibilities we have now, the capabilities of people on the team. I could never have imagined that we would be able to do the things we do now.

Rule #1: Talk to your team

As a leader in your organization, remember that you’re not the only one who feels this way when there are Legos to give away, and new Legos to build. After the CTO shared the article with me, I spent weeks talking about it with my team and anyone else who would listen. If you let your team know that this feeling of uncertainty and difficulty letting go is common for everyone at this stage of company growth, it will be easier for everyone to get to the point where they feel ok trade Legos.

Wrapping up

From 1-30 employees, you know what everyone is doing, past that nobody knows what everyone is doing. You need to formalize things (Really it would have been best to do it earlier, but the next best time is today). Write down your company’s mission, vision, values, processes, and who is responsible for what. When you get past 30 employees, you just keep updating the documentation as Legos change hands.

Just remember to keep having the conversation with your team that things will keep changing, and everyone will keep feeling anxiety about changing responsibilities. But if we acknowledge it and talk about it, it will smooth out the rough parts of change.