The ability to embrace change is a fundamental skill for any founder. Growing a business from the ground up requires being willing and able to adapt as your product evolves, your market changes, and your customer base grows.
And while entrepreneurs tend to be more inclined to embrace change than most people, that doesn’t mean it’s always easy for us. In fact, most of the time, it’s scary!
In my journey as founder of vChief, a fractional executive staffing service, I’ve learned to overcome my internal reluctance to change by using the Change Curve.
What is the Change Curve?
The Kübler-Ross Change Curve® is a model that outlines the emotional stages we experience during major changes. Adapted from the 5 Stages of Grief, the Change Curve helps us understand our own and others’ responses to unexpected and unwelcome changes. In the context of entrepreneurship, I use a simplified version of the Change Curve with four stages:
- Shock/Denial: Initially, we resist or ignore the need for change, trying to maintain the status quo.
- Anger/Fear: As we recognize the change is necessary or unavoidable, emotions like anger, worry, and fear emerge as we focus on the potential negative impact of the change.
- Acceptance/Exploration: Moving past negative emotions, we become more open and curious about the change, and begin exploring new routines and potential benefits.
- Integration: Finally, we fully embrace the change, optimizing processes and finding creative solutions to problems.
Applying the Change Curve While Scaling My Business
Like many founders, I started out wearing all the hats: sales, marketing, product development, and accounting. As the business grew, I outsourced tasks I disliked or weren’t in my zone of genius, such as accounting and marketing, to external consultants. But I was reluctant to delegate the core functions of the business: business development, interviewing every candidate, and matching clients with fractional executives. I believed that my personal involvement in those tasks was crucial to the business’s success — our secret sauce.
But unsurprisingly, my reluctance to delegate meant I eventually became the bottleneck to growth. For my business to achieve its full potential, I had to extract myself from its day-to-day operations. Instead of ripping off the Band-Aid and hoping for the best, I eased myself into it using the Change Curve. I believe that approach was critical to the ultimate success of the transition.
Phase 1: Denial that Change Was Necessary
Before I was ready to admit that I was the barrier to growth, I was trying to do more, and more, and more. But finally, I recognized that I was working too much, and the business was stagnating. To grow without delegating these responsibilities, I would have to work even harder. Once I realized that my actions weren’t aligned with my goals, I was willing to admit that it was time for a change.
Phase 2: Fear of Letting Go
Even though I recognized the change was necessary, I was still scared to let go. As entrepreneurs, we rely on our gut to guide us through critical decisions. My gut was telling me this change was risky. Instead of ignoring that instinct, I needled into that fear, and I discovered that I was afraid that no one else would care for my brand in the same way that I had. I had seen other entrepreneurs try to scale too quickly and delegate important tasks to people who didn’t bring the founder’s level of attention and care to the brand, and it hurt their business and damaged their personal reputation.
Phase 3: Exploring the First Step
Once I had identified the root of my fear, my entrepreneurial instincts kicked in. I knew what the problem was, and I was confident I could design a solution.
I identified the specific responsibilities where I thought my involvement was the most important, and prioritized them. The area I had less expertise in was business development, so I gave that up first. I hired a fractional executive to work on strategy and a part-time sales representative and stopped participating in every sales call.
Phase 4: Integrating the New Reality
Delegating business development allowed me to build trust and confidence in my team, and it helped me commit fully to the change. I applied what I learned from giving up the first responsibility to the next, and continued to extract myself from the day-to-day.
Finally, I let go of client-candidate matching. And I’ll be honest, at first, I only gave it up temporarily. I decided to take a real vacation for two weeks, and matching was one function that couldn’t go on pause until I got back. To fully step away from the business and enjoy my vacation, I had to delegate. And when I came back, it turned out that the team member who took it on was as good, if not better, than I ever was, and I completed my transition out of the core functions of my business.
Embracing Change Helped Me Achieve My Goals
Understanding the Change Curve helped me design a transition plan to navigate a huge change in my business — one that I could have easily resisted for much longer, but that was necessary in order to achieve my goals.
Extracting myself from the day-to-day running of my business unlocked a major phase of growth for vChief, landing us on the Inc. 5000 list four years in a row. Now I’m focused on setting the long-term vision to grow it even further. And, most importantly, I got in the right seat.
Contributed to EO by Maddy Niebauer, an EO Chicago member and Founder of vChief, a fractional executive staffing solution that helps organizations add capacity, fill gaps, and drive growth remotely. Hers is one of the 228 EO member-owned companies recognized on the prestigious Inc. 5000 list for 2024
For more insights and inspiration from today’s leading entrepreneurs, check out EO on Inc. and more articles from the EO blog.
