From Bottleneck to Scale: The Strategic Move That Changed My Career
- Oct 8
- 3 min read
By Filip Pesek
In the early days of my career, I wore every hat. One moment I was negotiating contracts, the next I was firefighting a client project or clearing my inbox at midnight. I took pride in being the hardest-working person in the room, thinking it was the purest form of leadership. But over time, I realised I wasn’t just leading—I was slowing us down. I had become the bottleneck.
The turning point came during a quarterly review. We’d hit our targets, but I left the meeting with a sinking feeling. The wins we celebrated were smaller than they could have been, and the opportunities we’d missed all had one thing in common: they’d stalled waiting for my input. That’s when I understood that my “do-it-all” approach wasn’t a badge of honour—it was a ceiling on our growth.
The uncomfortable truth was that my attention was fractured. Every hour I spent on admin, inbox triage, or operational firefighting was an hour I wasn’t thinking about strategy, culture, or long-term positioning. I knew something had to change.
I made a decision that felt, at the time, almost gauche: I was going to deliberately remove myself from the centre of operations. Not because I didn’t care, but because I cared too much about the future of the business to keep running it at my current pace.
The move started with one hire—an executive assistant whose job was not just to “help” but to build systems that could run without me. I treated the role as a strategic investment, not an administrative convenience. We mapped every recurring process, created decision frameworks, and built a communication rhythm that kept me informed without pulling me into every detail.
The shift was immediate. Projects that used to wait days for my sign-off began moving within hours. Clients got faster responses, my team had more autonomy, and I suddenly had breathing room to focus on growth initiatives. It was the first time I could think weeks and months ahead rather than reacting to the day in front of me.
This experience became the foundation for DonnaPro’s ( https://donnapro.com) core offer. I realised that if I—someone who lived and breathed efficiency—could fall into the over-functioning trap, so could other founders. And they did, every day. We began offering part-time executive assistants trained not just in task execution, but in anticipating needs, managing complex workflows, and protecting a founder’s focus. Our clients didn’t just get “more done”—they operated differently.
The measurable impact for me was clear: within months of implementing strategic delegation, new business opportunities moved faster, client relationships deepened, and I was spending the majority of my week on high-leverage activities like partnerships, vision, and innovation. Our team became more engaged because they had real ownership over outcomes, and I noticed decisions being made without my constant involvement—without sacrificing quality.
Looking back, letting go of control—something I once thought was almost gauche—turned out to be the boldest move I could make. It taught me that leadership isn’t about how much you can carry; it’s about building systems that work when you’re not there.
For any founder stuck in the cycle of doing everything, my advice is simple: stop being the bottleneck. Find the right people, give them the tools and authority to act, and protect your own focus like it’s your most valuable asset—because it is.
When you step out of the weeds, you stop being just an operator and start becoming the leader your business needs to scale. And sometimes, the smartest strategic move is to get out of your own way.
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