Support can be outsourced. Leadership ownership cannot.

If you read my last blog, you will see I'm a big fan of outsourcing. Many things can be outsourced, leading and managing your people shouldn't be one of them. People management combines accountability, development and decision making, which cannot and should not be outsourced. If you do, you are setting your team, yourself and your business up for failure. For many outsourcing management feels like the easy button, and as most things, the easy button will lead to a long-term headache. To be clear: building a leadership team, bringing in strategic support, coaching, or interim leadership to strengthen your management systems is different than avoiding management altogether.

Many outsource management because they feel too busy or are afraid of being the 'bad guy.' Here are four common mistakes where I've seen management outsourced when the manager should actually lean in:

Living on a Job Description and a Prayer

You’re a small company or a big vision CEO. It may be tough to find the time to manage the people on your team. It's possible you've fallen into the trap of your team managing themselves. In this area accountability will be lacking as will development for your future leaders of your company as you grow. Job descriptions will not create accountability, managers do. I do believe employees deserve autonomy to do their best, yet autonomy and self-managing are not the same.

Delegating Incorrectly

Delegation is a great tool for helping expand the capacity of a c-suite or senior leader and it is also a development tool. Good delegation also means you are checking the work of those you delegated to. Without this, many people will not learn the skill (lack development), they may make decisions that are not good for the long-term (lack decision making), and many will see the task as a side project versus something they will be held accountable to. Delegation is an important resource in a company, ensure you're using it right.

Committees for Management

Employee committees were designed for project and advisory work. They were not meant to be an outsource for true management. This pitfall tends to happen at larger companies when they begin to hire roles that were meant to help managers train, communicate or manage work. I've also seen leaders do this who are less skilled in communication and change management. In the end, when managers are not a part of decision making or communication of big changes, teams will be less accountable and managers will have less trust from the team.

AI & Systems as Managers

AI and Systems are tools not people. Even when we have the ability to have a 'computer' manager, 99.9% of humanity will not want to be managed by a robot. AI/Systems still require oversight of a person to ensure accountability is in place and a person to make decisions based on what they are seeing in the systems. Let me say it for those in the back: AI is a tool, not a person. We still need people leaders.

Final thought: Would you outsource discipline of your child to a committee or having a tough conversation with your husband to a group of your friends? You wouldn't do this in your personal life, so why are you doing it in your business?

If your team lacks ownership, clarity, or consistent management, adding more people or AI won’t solve it.

I work with founders to build the structure, accountability, and leadership needed to actually scale.

If that’s where you are, I'd love to connect.