QUEST ADVISINGText Max (210) 880-5690Why everything in your company still runs through you, and how much of it should.
For the owner of a $5M to $15M company with managers already in place.
You already have capable managers, so the question is not whether to trust them. It is which decisions really need you, and what a manager should do when two good instructions you gave him point in opposite directions.
The plain answer is that some of it should run through you and most should not. From your chair the two look alike, because each one needs an answer today. Three questions tell them apart.
A short list of decisions belongs to the owner and nobody else.
Most of what reaches you is a call a manager could make, if he knew it was his and knew what you expect.
Some things return after you settle them, because the cause is somewhere else.
He has started companies of his own and has advised owners for seventeen years.
If you would rather talk it through than read, start a conversation with Max. It starts with fifteen minutes, there is nothing to prepare, and he tells you either way whether this is his kind of problem and whether the timing is right.
What it costs when all of it comes to you
The day's questions have a deadline and the direction of the company does not. So the questions win, week after week.
Your managers pay for it too. A capable manager who brings you every close call gets no practice making one, and the next close call comes to you as well.
Owners, in their own words
To talk with the person they are describing, start a conversation with Max, or text him.
One request, three different answers
This company is made up. It is not a client and none of it is Max's words. A long-time customer asks each of a service company's three managers for the same thing: extra work at no charge.
- The operations manager said yes and did the work.He was told to keep customers happy, and never told where that stops.
- The sales manager said no and quoted a price.He was told to protect the margin. Nobody ever told him when a customer matters more than the margin.
- The office manager said she would ask the owner.She had heard both instructions and was not sure the choice between them was hers.
Three questions for whatever reaches you
Is this one really yours?
Some decisions belong to the owner, and a manager who brings you one of those is doing his job. If the customer in the sample were one of the few who could hurt the company, stopping to ask you would be the right move.
The list is short, and the chart below has ours.
Whose call: yours, if a wrong answer could hurt the company or change where it is going. If it could not, go to the next question.
Could a manager have decided it?
Take the office manager in the sample. She knows how. She is checking whether she is allowed. So ask: does she know the call is hers?
The other two did decide, and they decided opposite ways, each following something you really did tell him. Keep customers happy. Protect the margin. Which of the two comes first was left open. Then ask: do they know what you expect when two good instructions collide?
Whose call: theirs. What comes first is yours to say. Once it is said, a request like this is theirs to settle.
Has it been here before?
Suppose you settle the sample request yourself. It will be back, from a different manager, because the request was never the cause.
The cause is the three different answers, and settling the request leaves them as they were. It is the same thing that happens when a manager is replaced and the new one brings you the same questions.
Whose call: the request is theirs. Finding why it keeps returning is yours, and it is the hardest of the three to see from inside the company.
If that is the one you cannot see, start a conversation with Max, or text him.
Whose call it usually is
| Usually stays with the owner | Usually the team's to decide |
|---|---|
| Where the company is going | How this week's work gets done |
| Who is on the leadership team | Who gets hired onto each manager's own team |
| The few customers and commitments that could hurt the company | The everyday customer request |
| What the company will not do | How to turn down a job that does not fit |
| What comes first when two priorities collide | Settling a disagreement, once the team knows what comes first |
What you have probably tried
You put managers between you and the daily work, and that was the right move. You ran a set of meetings from a book. You may have decided it was a people problem and replaced a manager.
All three fixed something. The managers took the routine work, the meetings put the week in order, and the new person was better at the job.
The hard calls kept coming to you anyway. More managers, a meeting schedule and a different person all leave the same two things unsaid: which calls belong to a manager, and which of your instructions wins when two of them disagree.
When an advisor is the right help, and when he is not
An advisor does not run the operation and does not take the decisions off you. He helps you see which are yours.
Right, if you cannot sort it from inside. The people who could tell you that you are part of the cause all work for you.
Right, if two managers would answer "whose call is that" differently. Then what comes first has not been said, which is the second question above.
Right, if the same problem returned after you fixed it once. What you fixed was likely not the cause.
Wrong, if you already know whose call each thing is. Say it to your managers, no advisor needed.
Wrong, if the gap is a person or a skill. A person to run the day is a hire, a missing skill is training, and Max says so.
If one of the first three is your company, tell Max which one. It starts with fifteen minutes, and he tells you either way whether this is his kind of problem and whether the timing is right.
The short version
- Some of what reaches you should run through you and most should not, and from inside the two look the same.
- What stays yours is short: where the company is going, who leads it, the few customers and commitments that could hurt it, and what it will not do.
- Three questions sort the rest: is it really yours, could a manager have decided it, has it been here before.
- An advisor is the right help when you cannot sort it from inside, and the wrong hire when the gap is a person or a skill.
You can sort your own week with the three questions and the chart, and never talk to Max. If you want a second opinion on it, start a conversation, or text him.
Questions owners ask
Why does everything still run through me when I have managers?
Usually because which calls belong to a manager has never been said out loud. A manager who is unsure brings it to you. He is being careful. He is not a weak manager.
Is it me? Am I the problem?
Partly, most likely. For years the answers had to come from you, and the company still works that way. That habit built the company, and now it takes up your whole day.
What should an owner never give away?
In our judgment, the decisions where a wrong answer could hurt the company or change where it is going. The chart above has our list. Every company draws that line in a different place.
Can a business advisor fix this for me?
No. He does not run the operation, and the decisions stay with you. He helps you see which of them are yours, and he says so when what you need is a hire or training.
I already tried a system and a peer group. Why would this be different?
It may not be. A system gives you meetings and a peer group gives you other owners. An advisor is one person asking about your company until the real problem is named.
I do not have time for another meeting.
The first one is fifteen minutes, with nothing to prepare. Max tells you either way whether this is his kind of problem and whether the timing is right.
If you are weighing who to bring in, Who to hire between $5M and $50M lays out what each kind of outside help is built to do, and what a business advisor does in the room covers the meeting itself.
Start with what reached you this week
Text Max or pick a time, and say what is going on in your own words. He tells you either way whether this is his kind of problem and whether the timing is right.
If it is not a fit, he says so and that is the end of it, no follow-up.
He reads it himself and texts or calls back, typically the same day, or early the next. Nothing to prepare.