3 Biggest CEO Mistakes that Limit Growth with Gene Hammett, CEO Coach

In this episode of Grow Think Tank, I explore the biggest ceo mistakes frequently make that can hinder their long-term success. Drawing from my experience as a CEO coach, I highlight the importance of leadership cultivation within teams and the detrimental effects of being too central to the business's value. I discuss how founder-led companies often face lower valuations and emphasize the need for delegation and empowerment to foster team ownership. I address how the instinct to control can lead to micromanagement, ultimately alienating high performers. Finally, I stress the significance of recognizing blind spots for effective leadership. Listeners are invited to my free training session to delve deeper into these strategies for overcoming common CEO challenges and enhancing growth.

• Biggest CEO Mistakes
• Being the Most Important Person
• Outworking the Problem
• Holding onto Control

Being the Most Important Person

In this episode of Grow Think Tank, I delve into the critical mistakes CEOs often make that can undermine long-term success. One of the first and most common is believing you must be the most important person in the business. If everything revolves around you, your company is likely less valuable than it could be.

Research shows that founder-led businesses often receive a 30% lower valuation compared to those that run independently of their founders. Why? Businesses that rely too heavily on a single leader don't scale well and aren't attractive to investors or buyers.

As a CEO coach, I help leaders step out of the spotlight and develop leadership within their teams. Creating value means building a company that thrives without you at the center, where leadership is distributed and the organization is resilient beyond one individual.

Outworking the Problem

In the early stages of a company, CEOs often get by through sheer effort. You face a problem, and you work harder. But as the business grows, this “outworking the problem” mindset becomes a liability.

It’s a mistake to think hustle alone will solve scaling challenges. Eventually, this leads to burnout, bottlenecks, and a team that doesn’t grow because you’re still doing all the heavy lifting.

Instead, the focus must shift toward delegation and empowerment. Leadership is not about doing more; it's about enabling others to take ownership. This transition is where many founders struggle, but it’s also where true growth begins.

Holding onto Control

Finally, we address a trap that many founders fall into: holding onto control for too long. In the early days, this level of control can help maintain quality and speed. But as your business scales, that same control can strangle progress.

Micromanaging alienates high performers and slows innovation. I've seen it time and time again: capable leaders leave because they aren't trusted, and the company plateaus. Growth requires trust and trust means letting go.

Transitioning from founder to CEO demands a shift in mindset. You have to evolve from being the person doing everything to the person who builds the team that does everything. That shift is hard but absolutely necessary.

Final Thought

If you're serious about becoming the kind of leader your growing company needs, it starts with identifying these blind spots. Throughout this episode, I share insights, experiences, and strategies to help you make the shift from founder to CEO.

Join me in a free training session where we go deeper into each of these mistakes and how to overcome them so you can lead with intention and scale your business the right way.

Episode Transcript

Speaker0: If you're trying to be the most important person in your business, (00:00):
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Speaker0: your business isn't that valuable. (00:02):
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Speaker0: Founder-led businesses are typically 30% lower multiple than those that are (00:05):
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Speaker0: not founder-dependent. (00:14):
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Speaker0: Founder dependency measured in many different ways, but you're going to have a 30% lower multiple. (00:16):
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Speaker0: So the value of your company is going to be lower by 30%. (00:22):
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Speaker0: So if you think your company is worth, you know, 20 million, (00:26):
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Speaker0: take 30% off that if it's deemed founder dependent. (00:30):
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Speaker0: And so that means you're the most important person in the business. (00:35):
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Speaker0: And that mistake will continue to compound as your company grows. (00:38):
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Speaker0: If you don't get out of being that most important person and develop the leaders around you. (00:42):
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Speaker1: Welcome to Grow Think Tank. This is the one and only place where you will get (00:47):
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Speaker1: insight from the founders and the CEOs of the fastest growing privately held companies. (00:51):
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Speaker1: I am the host, my name is Gene Hammett. I help leaders and their teams navigate (00:56):
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Speaker1: the defining moments of their growth. (01:01):
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Speaker0: Are you ready to grow? (01:03):
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Speaker0: Today, we're going to talk about CEO mistakes. And these mistakes are quite common. (01:05):
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Speaker0: And they actually are very interesting because they work early in your business, (01:10):
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Speaker0: but they begin to work against you later into the business. So hopefully I've got your attention. (01:16):
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Speaker0: My name is Gene Hammett. I am a CEO coach. We work with founders. (01:22):
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Speaker0: We work with executives. (01:25):
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Speaker0: And we help them be better leaders in service of keeping their company growing (01:27):
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Speaker0: and keeping them breaking new levels through those plateaus, if you will. (01:33):
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Speaker0: I've been doing this for about 13 plus years. I am absolutely driven to help (01:39):
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Speaker0: companies grow and help leaders grow in that journey. (01:45):
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Speaker0: Now, I love doing what I do. And when I get to work with hundreds of people, primarily from the Inc. (01:49):
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Speaker0: 5000, these are the fastest growth companies out there. (01:56):
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Speaker0: We do have clients outside of that range that haven't made the list or haven't (01:59):
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Speaker0: applied before, but what they have in common is they are growing and they want (02:04):
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Speaker0: to keep growing or they want to activate new growth. (02:10):
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Speaker0: All of those things is the focus of our business. (02:13):
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Speaker0: Now, if I've got your attention, I'd love to just say, if you wanna go a little (02:17):
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Speaker0: bit deeper with the content that we have, because this is a little bit of an (02:20):
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Speaker0: excerpt of a training I've been giving to CEOs lately, and I'd love if you just (02:24):
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Speaker0: go check out the free training. (02:29):
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Speaker0: You can sign up today, training.coreelevation.com. (02:31):
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Speaker0: If you do, you will get a few emails you'll be able to put on your calendar (02:35):
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Speaker0: and you will be able to test drive working with me. I will actually coach you on the call. (02:38):
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Speaker0: You know, don't be afraid. It is actually in service of you, (02:45):
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Speaker0: helping you understand how to grow as a leader and what needs to shift in order for you to do that. (02:49):
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Speaker0: And the clarity behind that, that just showing up to this workshop will help (02:55):
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Speaker0: you. So just go to training.coelevation.com. (02:59):
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Speaker0: Now, all that being said, today we're going to talk about the three mistakes that CEOs make. (03:03):
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Speaker0: These CEO mistakes are very common. (03:09):
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Speaker0: And as I said earlier, they work for you early in your company, (03:13):
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Speaker0: but they don't work for you later. They start to work against you. (03:17):
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Speaker0: So let's dive in. The first one is being the most important person in your business. (03:20):
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Speaker0: If you are the most important in your business early, you are driving growth, (03:25):
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Speaker0: you are defining and prioritizing, and you are making things happen. (03:31):
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Speaker0: That is a good thing. But as you get deeper into this, you hire more people, (03:36):
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Speaker0: you want to hire A players, you've got to step out of being the most important to let them shine. (03:42):
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Speaker0: And your job is to develop them. Your job is to grow those people. (03:48):
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Speaker0: But if you continue to keep the mindset of, I'm the most important, (03:52):
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Speaker0: I make all the decisions, my ideas win. (03:56):
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Speaker0: You will be surrounded by people who don't want to do that or just followers. (04:00):
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Speaker0: And that both of those things, scenarios are bad for growth. (04:06):
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Speaker0: That being said, if you're trying to be the most important person in your business, (04:10):
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Speaker0: your business isn't that valuable. (04:14):
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Speaker0: Founder led businesses are typically 30% lower multiple than those that are not founder dependent. (04:17):
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Speaker0: Founder dependency measured in many different ways, but you're going to have a 30% lower multiple. (04:28):
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Speaker0: So the value of your company is going to be lower by 30%. (04:34):
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Speaker0: So if you think your company is worth, you know, 20 million, (04:38):
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Speaker0: take 30% off that if it's deemed founder dependent. (04:43):
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Speaker0: And so that means you're the most important person in the business and that (04:47):
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Speaker0: mistake will continue to compound as your company grows if you don't get out (04:50):
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Speaker0: of being that most important person and develop the leaders around you. (04:55):
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Speaker0: So that mistake is something that a lot of people kind of know, (04:59):
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Speaker0: but they don't know when the shift really happens. (05:03):
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Speaker0: And so that's the important part is to know when that shift happens to when (05:05):
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Speaker0: you should stop being founder dependent and the most important person in your business. (05:09):
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Speaker0: Mistake number two is very, very common. (05:15):
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Speaker0: Probably the most common of all of this is just trying to outwork the problem. (05:18):
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Speaker0: If you are growing your business and you feel like you've just got to get up (05:23):
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Speaker0: earlier, or you feel like you've got to put in an extra shift after dinner, (05:27):
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Speaker0: it gets in the way of you growing your business. (05:30):
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Speaker0: Here's how that happens. Early in your business, you can work hard. (05:34):
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Speaker0: You're expected to work hard. It is hard. And you've got to break through these (05:40):
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Speaker0: new barriers, reaching new customers and reaching new innovations or whatever it is. (05:44):
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Speaker0: Putting more work into it works short term. But over the years, (05:50):
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Speaker0: if you begin to hire people and you only see things as I put in more work instead of delegating more, (05:55):
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Speaker0: holding other people accountable and growing those people around you, (06:03):
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Speaker0: then you'll likely not have the kind of team that does grow as your company (06:06):
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Speaker0: continues to scale and it'll start to plateau and you'll have these leadership (06:11):
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Speaker0: breakdowns and cultural breakdowns and misalignment. (06:15):
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Speaker0: All of these happens because your only leverage point is work. (06:18):
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Speaker0: What if your leverage point were leadership and you developing and activating (06:22):
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Speaker0: others or a sense of ownership, (06:26):
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Speaker0: people really committed to the mission and committed to the work and they're (06:28):
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Speaker0: driven not because of hours that you put in, but they're driven internally. (06:32):
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Speaker0: All of those things kind of play a factor. But if you only see the solution (06:38):
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Speaker0: is work harder, get up earlier, stay up later, work weekends, (06:43):
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Speaker0: you're missing the point. (06:48):
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Speaker0: Of building a team and building people you can count on. (06:49):
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Speaker0: So that's mistake number two is trying to outwork the problem. (06:53):
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Speaker0: Number three is also interesting because it is something that I can relate to. (06:57):
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Speaker0: I have grown multiple businesses. And when you do this, it is really interesting. (07:05):
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Speaker0: But number three is holding onto control instead of building leaders. (07:11):
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Speaker0: Control inside of a business, again, works early because you're making the decisions. (07:16):
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Speaker0: You are prioritizing the business in the way you want to. (07:20):
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Speaker0: So you control it. You can do things better and faster early. (07:24):
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Speaker0: And that works because your speed is such an important piece, (07:30):
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Speaker0: early stage businesses, as you get to product market fit, as you get to a little (07:34):
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Speaker0: bit of a stability and the ability to get that business to that point and start hiring more people. (07:39):
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Speaker0: Holding on to control actually works because you probably could only afford (07:45):
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Speaker0: younger employees that don't have as much experience. (07:48):
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Speaker0: You only, you know, we are taught as entrepreneurs to hire the first person (07:52):
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Speaker0: in your business with the things that you can't do or don't want to do. (07:57):
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Speaker0: And you feel like you need to control those early employees. (08:01):
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Speaker0: But as you scale your business up and you get maybe 20 plus employees and you (08:05):
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Speaker0: start holding onto control, you begin to drive away A players. (08:10):
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Speaker0: You begin to drive away, you become the micromanager or anti-leader in our world. (08:14):
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Speaker0: And that micromanager focuses on control more than they focus on actually building others. (08:19):
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Speaker0: These three mistakes have to be addressed if you want to break through the next (08:26):
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Speaker0: plateau in your business. (08:31):
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Speaker0: And I say this from my heart, you've got to understand where your mistakes are, (08:32):
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Speaker0: where your weaknesses are, what has a grip on you. And many times it's a blind spot. (08:38):
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Speaker0: If you don't understand your blind spot, you can't grow as a leader. (08:44):
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Speaker0: And here's what, I've tried this before with AI tools out there. (08:49):
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Speaker0: You can't put a prompt in that says, this is my blind spot. (08:53):
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Speaker0: And it really has the details and the action items from this. (08:57):
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Speaker0: It'll give you a little bit of insight, but it doesn't talk back to you. (09:02):
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Speaker0: It doesn't challenge that thinking that you are so ingrained, (09:06):
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Speaker0: that you have worked over and over and you've justified. (09:09):
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Speaker0: You've got to be willing to grow and shift as a leader as your company grows. (09:12):
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Speaker0: That's what these mistakes have been about. These CEO mistakes are meant to (09:17):
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Speaker0: highlight how you have to change from early stage leader to CEO of your company. (09:20):
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Speaker0: So from founder to CEO, however you want to phrase that. (09:29):
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Speaker0: And so my name is Gene Hammett. I love working with people to help them do this. (09:32):
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Speaker0: I mentioned the training earlier. If you want to kind of see the work we do (09:36):
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Speaker0: and get a feel for the model that we use to create a different leadership model (09:40):
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Speaker0: inside businesses, then all you have to do is go to training.coreelevation.com. (09:45):
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Speaker0: You can find out more, sign up for free. (09:49):
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Speaker0: These three mistakes will be in there. We'll unpack them a little bit differently, (09:51):
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Speaker0: and we'll actually give you a playbook for how to address them as you move forward. (09:55):
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Speaker0: That being said, as you think of growth and you think of leadership, (10:00):
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Speaker0: think of growth think tank. (10:03):
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Speaker0: As always, see you next time. (10:05):
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