I was recently a guest on Kimberly Seldon’s “Business of Design” podcast, and she hit me with a zinger right off the top.

What one thing are people doing that is really ruining their chances of succession?

Immediately, I said, “  Staying involved in the client’s work.” The more time you spend on client work, the slower your business will grow and the more challenging it is to take a vacation or transition your business successfully.

There’s one job in your business that only you can do, and that’s to be the leader of the enterprise. During the time you spend doing other jobs in your firm, no one is doing the job of leading your firm. It’s just not getting done! And that job is critical for growth.

What does that job entail?

I advocate creating a job description for your role as a business owner. Everyone might put some different things on theirs, but I think four are essential.

1. The business owner must set a strategy. You need to see the current situation and develop a perspective for how you and your firm will “win” in that situation, now and in the future. You are the only one who can develop and communicate that effectively.
2. The business owner must oversee the culture and brand. Only you can define your values and communicate to your team how you will live those values both inside and outside the company. Without clearly articulated values, your team’s ability to make independent decisions is limited!
3. The business owner must hire, train, and develop key team members. If the firm intends to grow, it needs to hire. Even if you are terrible at hiring and training, the only way to reinforce those values in your team and how you work together is to be involved in hiring and training key team members.
4. The business owner is the most effective salesperson for the company. You don’t have to be involved in every step of the sales process or lead every deal. But no one has the credibility to close a deal like you do. You’ve got to be there for the big ones.

The sooner you can eliminate your client work and focus on these things, the more quickly your firm will grow.

What’s one of these tasks that you want to spend more time on this quarter? How can you shift things to be more focused on that one task?