Are You Making Decisions as a Founder or as an Employee?
Prefer to listen rather than read? Listen to the podcast episode covering this same topic here → The Quietly Disruptive Business Podcast
Every founder wears multiple hats. One day you’re the marketing department, the next you’re finance, the next you’re sales. We all smile about it because we’ve all been there. I vividly remember answering the phone in one of my first businesses and being asked for the finance department, politely putting the caller on hold so I could compose myself and switch into my best professional voice. 😀
But there’s a layer underneath the hat-wearing that doesn’t get talked about nearly enough, and it’s not about which department you’re running on any given day. It’s about the mindset you’re wearing while you do it. Are you the employee or the founder?
What the Employee Mindset Looks Like When It’s Running Your Business
Most founders were employees before they started their businesses. They worked for someone else, fulfilled a list of tasks set by a manager, and spent their days doing and being as productive as possible. That experience teaches you a lot — soft skills, hard skills, things you don’t even realise you’ve absorbed. But it also teaches you something more subtle and harder to spot: a set of beliefs about what work should look like that can quietly run your business if you’re not paying attention.
An employee says yes to a project because it arrived on their desk and there was space in the diary. A founder looks at the same project and asks whether it adds to the business they’re building.
An employee attends an online meeting or a virtual coffee because declining feels rude. A founder asks whether their presence is actually needed and whether it’s the best use of their time.
An employee fills the week with tasks to feel productive. A founder designs the week around what actually needs to move forward.
The pattern is the same every time. An employee does without question. A founder questions before doing anything.
Why the Shift Matters More Than You Think
This isn’t about working less or being difficult. It’s about understanding that the hat you’re wearing — employee or founder — produces completely different outcomes from the same set of decisions. When you’re in employee mode, there’s a pressure to always be busy, always be productive, always be doing. That pressure feels responsible. It feels professional. But it keeps you moving in circles rather than forward, because doing more is not the same as doing the right things.
When you channel the founder mindset, something shifts. Instead of doing things because you feel you have to or you’re supposed to, you choose the things that are right for you and your business. You make decisions that contribute to your vision. You understand that your time and your energy are precious resources that need to be used wisely, not just spent.
How to Spot Which Mindset Is in the Driver’s Seat
If you’ve worked for someone else in the past, you will have picked up beliefs about work that you carry into your own business without realising it. The belief that you have to be available. The belief that an empty diary means you’re not doing enough. The belief that saying no is unprofessional. These beliefs don’t announce themselves but instead they run in the background, making decisions on your behalf.
It took me a long time to figure this out, especially when I was stuck in what I now call employee mode, saying yes to everything, every client, every project, every demand, constantly doing. Looking back, if someone had asked me whether my decisions were serving the business or just keeping me busy, I think that would have been the thing that changed everything.
So here’s what I’d like you to sit with. Think back to the last three decisions you made in your business. Did you make them as an employee or as a founder? Did you do them because they landed on your desk, or because they genuinely move you towards what you’re building?
Whatever the answer, don’t be disheartened, awareness is the first step, and my next blog post will walk you through the one question that will help you make decisions like the founder you are.
About the Author: Becky Benfield Humberstone partners with Quietly Disruptive founders to build businesses that change their corner of the world, on their terms. If you started your business because you believed things could be done differently, and you're ready to make that vision real, she gets it. Based in the UK and working globally via Zoom and in person, she's done this work herself, more than once.
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