I wake up at 4:30 AM, arrive at Kaser Blasting & Coatings by 5 AM, and stay there until 7 or 9 PM.
I do this seven days a week, and have for seven years.
I’m in constant motion all day long – I have to be, in order to sustain Kaser’s explosive growth. Every day brings something new: a new hire, more new business, new equipment malfunctions to repair.
On one hand, I love it. On the other, I’m bored.
I’ve been wondering what would happen if, instead of spending sixteen hours a day at Kaser, I spent twelve at Kaser and four doing something else, like reviving the Super Late Model racing team I set aside (when I started working full time at Kaser) and turning it into a self-sustaining business.
In order to pursue that, I have to find a way to extricate myself from Kaser.
To be clear, the Kaser team is talented, smart, and exceptionally capable. My deep enmeshment in daily operations is not born out of a need to micromanage anyone. It’s simply the result of my having (intentionally) built an extremely lean business. For most of the last decade, I’ve been Kaser Blasting & Coatings’ C suite, scheduler, HR, customer service, office manager, and maintenance department.
That doesn’t leave a lot of room in my life for anything else, nor does it allow me to leave campus for more than a few hours at a time.
The last couple of years, I’ve prioritized hiring. More hands make less work, after all. But that’s not enough. Hiring a thousand new people won’t make any difference in my workload if I am unable – or unwilling – to relinquish control.
The question becomes, what needs to change in order for Kaser to function at a high level without me spending all of my time there? What tasks do I need to relinquish, and to whom? And, perhaps most importantly: what adjustments do I need to make to my management style in order to instill confidence and independence in my team?
Showing up and taking charge has worked well as my default MO. I’m starting to realize, however, that doing so contributes to my enmeshment. In order for the team to step up, I’m going to have to step aside. 2022 is all about figuring out how.
