Was reflecting on this recent Friday Leadership share and the...

Was reflecting on this recent Friday Leadership share and the conflicted position Mark F (CEO) is in. Mark, if you're reading this, might be time to ask yourself the 2 important questions below (What do I love to do? What does my current role or business require?)

Wednesday was an emotional day for me as I officially handed over the CEO reins at AccelerationPartners to my long-time number two, Matt Wool. This is a transition we have been planning together for over two years, as I shared this week in a speech to the company and in a blog post.

I have been at the head of the company I founded for almost15 years, leading it from inception to almost 270 global employees today. It’sbeen the joy of a lifetime and one of my proudest accomplishments. This promptstwo questions: why step aside, and why now?

Over the years I’ve seen too many cases where a leader’s identity becomesintertwined with their business; this is especially common with founders. Thissituation creates a reality distortion field, where leaders struggle torecognize both what they actually enjoy doing and what is best for theirbusiness.

Startingand growing a business is often an entrepreneur’s greatest accomplishmentoutside of their family, and part of that reward is taking the coveted title ofCEO. It’s a badge of achievement and validation that is tough to give up onceit has been earned.

Butthat title, and everything it requires, can cause leaders to lose sight of whatthey really want. As with many things in life, it’s important to put your egoaside, pick up your head every once in a while, and ask yourself two importantquestions:

What do I love to do?

Whatdoes my current role or business require?

Formany people, the answers are not the same.

Overthe past few years, I came to realize that what I love most is building,creating and teaching. The moments I enjoy most as CEO are elevating people onmy team, identifying a vision for the future of our industry, fulfilling once in a lifetime wishes for employees, helping our emerging leaders discover their whys and core values, and seeing team members reap the rewards of something they helped to build.

Whilethese priorities might perfectly suit the CEO of a 50-person company, these arenot the primary responsibilities of a CEO of a global company with over 270employees. I have always asked my team to be objective in their decision-makingand to prioritize what is best for the business, their teams and themselves, inthat order. From that lens, I concluded that the current responsibilities ofthe CEO at AP are more aligned to the abilities of someone else on my team.

PatrickLencioni addressed this exact phenomenon in his 2020 book, The Motive. While Ihad already come to this conclusion, this book really illuminated andsolidified the why behind that choice.

Thereare a few key responsibilities of a CEO. The first is to set the organization’sstrategy, the second is to be accountable for its results and the third is tobuild, lead and manage the team of executive officers. Lencioni argues thatthis last responsibility is actually the most important. The foremostresponsibility of a CEO is literally to be the chief executive; yet theleadership team at the company I lead does not report to me today, by design.

As AP has grown over the past several years, I am fortunate that I have been ableto focus on the aspects of the business I enjoyed most. This was possiblebecause I had someone who complemented my skillset and had their eye on theday-to-day operations of the company.

Ihave many flaws as a leader, but I have always tried to hire people who aresmarter than me. It makes little sense to hire talented people just to tellthem what to do; it should be the other way around. Likewise, any leader whoprioritizes the growth of their team should genuinely want their best people tobe positioned to take their job one day. And I am happy to see that day arrivefor me, on schedule.

Asfor the future, I will continue to be an active employee at AccelerationPartners and am looking forward to embracing my new role of Founder andChairman of the Board. I am going to continue to focus on our culture, ourM&A strategy, industry thought leadership, and developing our nextgeneration of leaders. At the same time, I will be learning how to be a more valuable board member bothinside and outside of AP.

Bydecoupling my identity from my title, I also expect to learn some new thingsabout myself, find new ways to make my biggest contribution and discoverunexpected sources of fulfillment and meaning. I am excited for Matt, I am excited for myself and I am excited for company.