Is the problem… actually you?
What is the elephant in the room today?
The founder who once drove growth can later stall it. And too few people will dare to say it.
The line between market forces slowing down a business and the founder slowing it down is thinner than most want to admit. Founders are quick to blame external conditions, competitors or funding cycles. But sometimes the problem is internal, and it starts at the very top.
In the early days, the founder’s vision and resilience are the fuel of the company. But as the business grows, the same traits that once built momentum can become friction. Decisions take longer, teams wait for approvals, and talented leaders are hired but never empowered. The company does not slow down because of the market alone, it slows down because of the founder.
When presence becomes disruption:
You override decisions instead of enabling them.
You insist on being in every detail, slowing execution.
You hire talent but do not give them authority.
You confuse visibility with control.
More signals it is time to step back:
You create pressure that feels unnecessary, and when you are absent the team actually performs better, sometimes even achieving more without you.
Innovation starts happening behind your back, because the team prefers to experiment without telling you first.
The leadership team has more clarity than you, but holds back waiting for your approval.
The founder’s real work: introspection and feedback
Recognizing this is never easy. Leaders are used to questioning others, not themselves. But founders need a discipline of introspection, asking where they are blocking instead of helping. Even more important is to invite and accept feedback openly, without defensiveness.
Questions to reflect on:
If I stepped out for three months, what would stop working? What would actually work better?
Do people tell me the truth, or what they think I want to hear?
Am I pushing for results, or am I creating pressure that drains energy?
When was the last time I truly listened to my leadership team without interrupting or justifying?
When there is more than one founder:
When a company has more than one founder, the challenge multiplies. Sometimes the issue is not one individual, but the way founders interact. Competing visions pull the company in different directions, unclear boundaries create tension and overlap, silent agreements are left unspoken to preserve harmony, but execution pays the price.
In these cases, the question is not “Am I the problem?” but “Are we the problem together?”
What to do if you are leading with co-founders:
Revisit roles and ownership, clarifying who decides what.
Align on decision-making, agreeing on how disagreements get resolved.
Create external accountability by bringing in a board member, advisor or trusted leader who can hold all founders to the same standard.
Name the tension early, because if co-founders avoid conflict, the team inherits the ambiguity.
What to do if the problem is also you:
Redefine your role: decide what only you can do, whether it is vision, culture or strategy, and delegate the rest.
Build a leadership team that decides without you: give them authority, not just responsibility.
Step out of operations: if you are still approving invoices or micromanaging projects, you are not leading, you are blocking.
Invite real feedback: ask your team directly, “Where am I slowing us down?” and act on it.
Choose agility over ego: the company does not need a hero, it needs a system that survives you.
Wrap-up:
If you are a founder, the hardest question is also the simplest: are you still adding leverage, or are you now the friction? The answer may not be comfortable, but ignoring it is far more dangerous.
