Rikki:

 I always think of as a leader, you're in effect, trying to orchestrate. You're like a conductor of an orchestra. 

There's a lot of moving parts that actually, in the main, don't need you.  They're all specialist in what they do, but every now and then they can go out of tune. Every now and then they can just lose a bit of concentration. 

You're there to keep that flow going and keep them all at the pace they want to be at. And you're there to facilitate any hurdles and any barriers that get in their way.

Bob:

I agree. And I also agree with something that you mentioned in passing there, which is they don't need you. 

One of the biggest challenges that all of us face in scaling businesses up, because the typical startup entrepreneur does everything themselves, controls everything out of their pocket. 

The challenge they face is when they get to 20 or 30 or 40 or 50 people, which is a typical MD2MD member (actually slightly bigger than that. Probably more like 70 is our average.).

When they get to that stage, you cannot control everything yourself. You have to be able to find a way of getting other people to do things, lead them without managing them the detail, because you can't do it when you get to that scale.