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January 14, 2026 • 21 mins

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Stepping out of a solo role and into team leadership is one of the most challenging transitions a business owner or leader will make. It is not because hiring is hard. It is because leadership requires a different way of thinking once other people are involved.

In this episode, I break down the core mindset shifts every leader must make to successfully move from doing everything themselves to leading a team that performs consistently and sustainably. These shifts are not about tactics or tools. They are about how you think about leadership, responsibility, and capacity.

If you are preparing to hire, have recently hired, or already lead a small team but still feel overly involved in the day to day, this episode will help you see where the disconnect is and what needs to change.

Key takeaway:
You cannot lead a team with a solo operator mindset. If your thinking does not shift, your team never will.


1:1 leadership development and advisory experience, designed for real implementation, for business owners who want more capacity, stronger structure, and a clear path to bringing on support the right way.

If that resonates, you can learn more at https://go.cignalpartners.com/leadershipshift

Ready to close the gap between goals and results?

For a clear and consistent way to lead your business, download the free GAP Guide.
Grab the download 👉🏾 https://go.cignalpartners.com/gap

If this episode helped you:

If this episode resonated, share it with a leader who needs it or leave a review to help more leaders find these conversations.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the podcast.
If you are a business owner orleader who is moving from doing
everything yourself to leading ateam, today's episode is just
for you.
This is episode 55, so I'mexcited.
We are continuing in year 2026,but this is episode 55.

(00:27):
Sorry, got a little excited.
And we are talking about themindset shifts required to move
from solo leadership to teamleadership.
I find that many of the peoplethat I work with, they haven't
made these shifts.

(00:59):
I got support now.
But in practice, this is wheremany leaders get stuck,
frustrated or disappointed.
Not because their team isincapable, but because the
leadership mindset nevershifted.
And this is bigger than werealize, right?

(01:20):
Because we carry that mindsetinto a team and then we wonder
why things aren't working.
And this could be why 70% ofbusiness owners say that one of
the things that frustrates themthe most, or one of the things
that they have the biggest issuewith, is managing teams.

(01:42):
Many of us start out as solo byourselves.
We're doing everything.
And then business grows or picksup and we start to hire, but we
haven't made these mindsetshifts that we need to make.

(02:04):
And if you try to do it, that'swhere you're going to feel
stretched and resentful andconstantly pull back into the
work you thought you delegated.
You're like back into the weeds.
So today I want to really talkthrough the key mindset shifts
every leader must make whenmoving from solo to team.

(02:28):
And we're not going to go into alot of tactical tips, but these
are foundational shifts thatchange how you lead, how you
show up for your team, how youcreate sustainability within
your business.
So let's start.
Let's go ahead and dig in.

(02:50):
The first shift that I want totalk about is actually moving
from being a doer to nowbecoming a designer.
When we are solo, we're doing itall ourselves.

(03:16):
And that works when everythingruns through you.
It's just you.
But when you have a team, yourvalue has to shift.
Your job is no longer doing allof the work.
Are there some things that youstill have to do?
Yes.
But your job isn't doingeverything.
Your job is to design how thework gets done.

(03:42):
You have to determine what thislooks like.
So this means that you have toput some structure in place.
There are some foundationalthings that you have to make
sure that you have in place sothat your team is successful.
So you gotta have roles and jobdescriptions.
You gotta uh have expectationsthat are clear so people

(04:05):
understand and they know whatsuccess looks like.
You need to have decision-makingauthority so they know where to
draw the line, right?
What things that they can make adecision on versus what things
they need to escalate to you orwhoever they report to.
Standard operating proceduresare going to be big so they know

(04:27):
how to do the work, workflows,priorities, all of these things
have to be put in place.
You become the person thatdesigns all of this, and you
want to have some things alreadyin place before you start
hiring, and then as you hire, ofcourse, people can help you

(04:48):
revise or update as thingschange, but you need to have
something for when they getthere.
If you do not design thesethings intentionally, your team
will create their own versionthat when they come on, if you
don't have things in place,they'll start to make

(05:09):
assumptions and and do thingsthe way they think is best to be
done.
Or you're gonna have people thatare going to consume a lot of
your time because they have alot of questions, because they
don't know.
So making sure you have thesethings in place is going to be
extremely helpful because if youdon't, that is where confusion

(05:35):
and the rework and the timedrains and the tension starts.
So the hard truth is ifeverything still depends on you,
you do not have a team.
You want to make sure that youare giving them all of the tools
that you need, they need to besuccessful.
So this is the mindset shiftthat all of this stuff that's in

(05:57):
your head, because you're a doerand you're doing it by yourself,
it now needs to live somewhere.
You now need to design this in away that a team can come in and
they could utilize it andthey're not draining all of your
time.
Okay, so from doer to designer.

(06:18):
First, I'm doing it all, it'sonly me.
Second, I'm now designing it.
What does my team need to besuccessful so that they're not
fully dependent on me?

(07:16):
That's the first shift.
The second shift is moving frompersonal productivity to team
capacity.
When you are a solo leader, it'sabout managing your time and
your energy.
It's only you.
But when you have a team and nowyou're moving into team
leadership, it's about creatingcollective capacity.

(07:41):
It's not just you.
This is another area thatleaders get stuck and sometimes
stay stuck.
They ask, how do I get this donefaster?
instead of asking, What wouldallow this to be done without
me?
We don't want our team to befully dependent on us.

(08:03):
So we need to be asking theright questions.
And capacity is created throughclarity, repeatable processes.
A lot of the things that wetalked about in mindset shift
number one, being able toprovide your team with this.
Busy teams are not productiveteams, but structured teams,

(08:25):
they are productive teams.
If your team is constantly busy,but progress feels slow, that's
not a motivational problem.
It's a design problem, it's acapacity problem, it's something
that you need to fix.

(08:46):
So really think about not justmy productivity, because I'm
still I still have to manage mytime.
But now as a team collectively,how do we get more done and the
right things done?
Of course.
That was shift number two.

(09:07):
The third shift is moving fromcontrol to clarity.
I need to say that one again.
The third shift is moving fromcontrol to clarity.
A lot of leaders struggle to letgo.

(09:29):
But what they are actuallystruggling with is control,
right?
But when you replace that withclarity, that is where you
really start to shine.
This is why when this shift isnot made, you have leaders that

(09:49):
are say, oh, I'll just do it.
It's quicker if I just do itmyself.
But then you're always doing ityourself.
That's not serving the purpose.
How does someone else get up andgoing?
You know, how does someone elseget up to speed if you're always
doing it because it's quicker todo it yourself?
You have to be able to identifythese are the things that I have

(10:11):
to do because only I can do,versus these are the things that
I can delegate.
It doesn't matter if you'refaster at it.
You're probably going to befaster at it initially anyway,
which is fine, but you have togive people an opportunity.
So you have to make that shiftfrom control to clarity.

(10:32):
Control shows up whenexpectations live in your head,
when success is not clearlydefined, and when feedback is
reactive instead of intentional.
Clarity replaces control whenyou define what good or success
looks like, how decisions aremade, when and how work is

(10:58):
reviewed.
Micromanagement is usually asymptom, not a root issue.
When leaders get clear, crystalclear, they naturally loosen
their grip.
It's automatic.

(11:18):
I have clarity, I have myprocesses, my workflows,
everything is in place.
It becomes easier, justnaturally easier.
I know that I've given them allof the tools to be successful,
and then you could havecheckpoints in there where you
randomly go and sample, but youdon't have to micromanage.

(11:41):
All right, so that is a big onemoving from control to clarity.
Let them do it.
And let me just add thissometimes the work doesn't get
done exactly how you would doit.

(12:03):
But are they doing what'sexpected?
Sometimes we have to look atthat.
I just need to say that becausewe have a certain way of doing
things.
Maybe something needs to getdone by 12, and your normal
habit is you do it first thingin the morning.
They may do it second thing inthe morning.
Is it getting done by 12?

(12:23):
Is it right?
Is it what you expected?
As long as they're not missingsteps and it's getting done on
time and all of the things.
Loosen up.
You gotta loosen up.
Okay.
The fourth shift is moving fromtrusting yourself to building

(12:44):
trust systems.
This is another big one.
Sometimes I get it, I get it.
Sometimes it can be tough totrust, right?
We don't we don't know.
We don't know these people.
As a solo leader, you must trustyourself because you know how
you think, you know how youwork, but with a team, trust

(13:09):
isn't automatic and it must bedesigned both ways.
You have to develop trust inthem, and then you have to build
systems that allow them to buildtrust in you.
But keep in mind that trust isbuilt through consistent
communication rhythms, clearownership, we know who owns

(13:33):
what, and follow through.
Once they see that in you, thenit makes it easier to trust.
So trust is is less aboutpersonality and chemistry, it is
about systems that support realreliability.

(13:57):
As a leader, not only do youhave to be clear, but you have
to be consistent, you have toshow up consistently, you have
to make sure everybodyunderstands who owns what.
And you have to follow through.
If you say you're gonna dosomething, you have to do it.
But it's the same thing with theteam.
You want the same thing fromthem as well, right?

(14:20):
So it goes both ways.
When leaders say they do nottrust their team, what they
often mean is there is no systemin place that supports
consistent performance, and youhave to build that.
This is part of what you'redesigning.

(14:41):
You want them to consistentlyperform well.
Well, there's things that youhave to put in place to make
sure that is happening.
But first, the mindset has to bethat I have to build some trust
systems.
All right, so our last shift,the fifth shift, is moving from

(15:05):
reacting to leadingintentionally.
Solo leaders often live anynotice, any van's notice two
days ahead of time.
It's me.
I know everything that needs toget done.
I know when it needs to getdone.
So I can be reactive if that'swhat I want to be.

(15:27):
When something comes up, youjust jump in and you fix it and
you move on.
But teams need leaders who setpriorities before urgency hits.
They need leaders that makedecisions visible.
They need leaders that createspace to think instead of

(15:51):
constantly responding.
This is a big one, which is whatI say.
All of them are big, but thisone is why I save the best for
labs.
You have to get out of thereacting mode and you have to
lead with intentional.
You have to plan things out, youhave to set priorities.
People need to know what theyneed to do when it needs to be

(16:15):
done.
Are there going to be somethings that come up at the last
minute sometimes?
Of course, absolutely, but youneed to be ahead of the game.
Intentional leadership createsstability, and then confidence
grows.
And once they are confident inyou, then performance grows.

(16:36):
It's really hard.
Think about it.
You probably have been a part ofteams where everything is a
fire.
Every time you turn around,there's a fire, and that's a
that's a difficult place to beas a team member.
So kind of put yourself in theirshoes.
So you want you want to makesure that you are being more
intentional.

(16:57):
If your leadership day is drivenentirely by what is loud or
urgent, your team will neverfeel grounded.
They'll never feel grounded, andthen their performance is going
to suffer because they're allover the place.
Let me just give you one bonusshift, and this is the shift of

(17:23):
moving from success as output tosuccess as sustainability.
As a solo leader, success ismeasured by what you can
produce.
As a team leader, success ismeasured by what you can
continue without burning youout.

(17:44):
It's about sustainability.
So if your team cannot operatewithout you or without your
constant involvement, if thingsfall apart when you step away,
if everything depends on youcoming in and saving the day
instead of systems, thenleadership capacity has not been

(18:06):
built yet.
You want your team to be able tosustain certain things.
If I need to step away, if Ihave a conference that I have to
go to and I'm not fully there,your team should be able to
depend on some systems, someworkflows, some things that you

(18:30):
this structure that you've putin place.
They should not have to dependon you every minute of the day.
You shouldn't have to haveconstant involvement.
So think about that.
If you have a team and you'reconstantly being pulled into the
day-to-day, then you really needto, first of all, acknowledge

(18:52):
that leadership capacity has notbeen built yet.
And secondly, you need to goback and review the questions
that they have and the thingsthat they need your involvement
in and put some structure, putsome systems in place so that
they can be dependent on thosethings instead of always
depending on you.

(19:14):
Because if you still have tohave that continued involvement,
what you've built is dependency.
They've become dependent on youinstead of relying on the
systems and tools and structurethat you have in place.

So here's the bottom line: moving from solo to team is not (19:30):
undefined
about hiring fast or delegatingharder.
It's about thinking differentlyabout leadership and having
structure and responsibility inplace.
If your mindset does not shift,your team never will.

(19:52):
So you can hire as many peopleas you want to, but you're still
going to have those limitationsbecause your team is depending
on you.
This should be an awesome time,especially if you are in
business, that you are hiring ateam.
It says that you are growing andyou need support, which is fine,

(20:18):
but you want to make sure thatyou are actually getting what
you need.
It starts with you, it startswith shifting your mindset.
And just remember, like I saidbefore, if your mindset does not
shift, your team never will.
You are just incurringadditional expenses if they

(20:38):
still have to be totallydependent on you.
All right, that is it.
I hope this helps.
And thanks for spending thistime with me today.
If this episode resonated, besure to share it with a leader
who is in the middle of thistransition.
And if you are realizing thatyou need support redesigning how

(20:59):
you lead as you grow, that isexactly the work that I do.
That is exactly who I work with.
So you go ahead and check outthe leadership shift.
Say that three times.
The leadership shift.
It is a one-on-one program whereI help you, if you are in solo

(21:20):
mode, I help you put thesethings in place and build
capacity so that you cancontinue to grow and be prepared
to hire a team.
All right.
I will see you in the nextepisode.
Have a wonderful day.
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