Admittedly, they've never had any training or coaching in how to nurture effective teams or develop healthy team culture. But they’re confident they intuitively know how to do it! What could possibly go wrong?

In reality, when it comes to building innovative, effective teams, many founders are making it up as they go along. This is understandable – there's so much else to focus on when building and growing your business – yet it's a risky strategy.

If you make mistakes with people and culture your business will become a stressful drain on your energy, and an unhappy place for people to work. I’ve seen far too many business owners and leaders burn out and whilst advice to avoid this often focuses on protecting individual wellbeing, many founders overlook a key strategy: leading and nurturing your teams with skill.

Common advice is to delegate more effectively and look after your people. Sounds obvious, but, when the pressure is on, and you’re already maxed out, perhaps this isn’t as simple as it may seem?

When you’re carrying accountability and risk for the success of your business, it can seem as if everything is your responsibility. After the initial adrenalin rush, so often this becomes a huge burden of worry and anxiety.

For many people, a reflex response to feeling overloaded is sucking up the responsibility to themselves, with a mindset of “it’s just easier to do it myself”

No one wins when you shoulder the burden of responsibility alone

With the best of intentions, business owners experiencing overwhelm often do whatever they can to feel in control. This can mean trying to control not just events and processes, but also the people around them.  It commonly shows up as micro-management. It’s a very human response to the pressure, yet, there are several downsides:

• By absorbing responsibility yourself, you inadvertently pull power away from other people
• This signals a lack of trust in your colleagues, and is disempowering
• It breeds dependency on you as ‘the boss’ – which means more stress
• It’s frustrating for team members, because most people thrive from being supported and enabled rather than being told and controlled
• You’re likely to  feel burdened, alone, exposed and overwhelmed

The burden of running the business potentially becomes even bigger, all on one set of shoulders – yours.

So, what’s the alternative?

Liberate yourself from overload: less gripping, more sharing

In the face of overload, instead of gripping on to control and shouldering all responsibility yourself, how could you more often create and share ownership among colleagues?

Two quick provisos here. This isn’t simply about ‘delegating’, although this might be part of what you choose to do. It also isn’t about abdicating the ultimate responsibility for decisions only you can make. Rather, it’s about asking yourself the question:

“If holding on to control isn’t helping me, my team or the business, how can I lead in a different way by sharing my power?”

The key shift is from gripping to sharing. It’s a form of letting go of the quest to be in complete control.  It can be scary but it opens up so many possibilities.

What would a shift from gripping to sharing power mean in practice?

It means sharing knowledge, data, information, intelligence, ideas, curiosities, questions, options, mistakes, learning … more openly, transparently and readily with your team.

How does this help to achieve startup success?

1. It encourages mature, mutual ownership and accountability, and collective responsibility
2. It opens the door for team members to add their unique knowledge and insights, creating a richer, more diverse set of perspectives to underpin joint decisions and action
3. It meets people’s human need to be significant and make a difference. When you engage team members in thinking, sharing and inquiring together, it’s a clear sign that you see them as having a key part to play and that you value their expertise, skill set and passion
4. It builds trust. When you share knowledge and information with others, it sends an implicit message: Itrust you with this knowledge. When you keep knowledge under a tight grip, it implies a lack of trust
5. It reduces the doubts and suspicions that can so quickly take root when people believe information is being withheld. You’ll cultivate more willingness to trust, more goodwill, more benefit of the doubt, more mutual respect – and more compassion for each other’s pressures
6. It models a culture of honesty and transparency. An acknowledgement that running a business can be complex and difficult shows respect for people’s intelligence and ability to handle uncomfortable truths. Your team are adults, after all

A collaborative, sharing approach to power and control

Try to reflect on the balance you are currently choosing between gripping and sharing power and control. What is the impact on your team, clients, customers, business results – and your own wellbeing?

What small thing could you change to nudge your approach more towards sharing? Where could you try this in the everyday running of the business, and with whom? If this feels uncomfortable, remember it isn’t about transforming your whole approach overnight. Consider it as a mini experiment in your leadership style. Then gently reflect on how your mini experiment went. Which aspects had the impact you were hoping for? Which bits don’t go so well? What difference does it make when you intentionally shift to sharing?

Remember that the way you lead and manage your teams, and the culture this creates - is a key health and wellbeing strategy, for you and for the people you employ.

Don't hope for the best and leave it to chance. Learning how to do this well is one of the best investments you can make for your business.