In response to my last post on “Know Your Sweetspot (And Act Accordingly)” I received a bunch of email from founders saying that they feel stuck in the conundrum of doing what is required of them (given the stage of the company) and wanting to keep doing what they truly love doing.
As the company grows, founders often find themselves at a crossroad: Become a “CEO” not just in title but in the way you act, or stick with what you know (and often like).
Marissa Mayer (of Google and Yahoo fame) once described this as:
Good CEOs confuse themselves when they think they actually get to do things. You don’t get to design web pages, you don’t get to create the marketing campaign for your app, you don’t get to code. Your job is to set the direction and get stuff out of the way for your people.
I think it’s an important note — and we, as founders (and the same is true for employees in companies who are moving up the ranks), need to ask ourselves if we want to be doers or managers.
What are you? And what do you want to become?