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A twenty-something man once went to a French restaurant in New York\u2014the kind of place with tuxedoed servers. He told the waiter he had never eaten anywhere so fancy and had a hundred dollars to spend, then asked him to bring the best meal he could within that budget. What arrived was a feast worth at least $150, and he was treated like a king.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The experience stuck with him. That young man\u2014who would later become a well-known executive coach, profiled in The New Yorker<\/em><\/a>\u2014came to believe in the value of trusting expertise and putting decisions in other people\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a useful lesson for leaders: when you truly delegate, people often exceed your expectations.<\/p>\n As CEO of Jotform for two decades, I\u2019ve seen the same dynamic play out inside our company. Successful teams don\u2019t need more management; they operate better with less intervention. That said, leaders can help build communication patterns that reduce dependency and increase clarity. When information flows predictably and transparently, teams move faster with less friction\u2014without constant supervision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Here are the communication patterns that make that kind of autonomy possible.<\/p>\n As my company grew from a one-person startup to tens, then hundreds of employees, I realized that delegation was the only way to keep scaling. I had to focus my efforts on things that would make the biggest impact for our company. For the rest, I had to ensure there were people whom I could trust to execute as well or better than I could. Delegation enabled my company to become what it is today\u201435 million users and 800 employees.<\/p>\n That said, Airbnb founder Brian Chesky\u2019s concept of \u201cfounder mode<\/a>\u201d also resonates with me. It\u2019s a style of leadership that entails a founder taking a direct, hands-on approach across the board, rather than relying on a strictly top-down hierarchy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\nOwnership, not oversight<\/h2>\n