Insights From Stawowski McGill’s Built to Last, Ready to Exit Leaders Breakfast Forum Series
Key Takeaways:
Stretch assignments, coaching, and peer-to-peer accountability build a team that doesn’t need you for every decision.
Be ruthlessly intentional in building your leadership team that can run the business without you.
Have a dashboard of six leading (not lagging) indicators; it lets you actually step away without just relocating your office to the beach.
Picture taking a month away from your business. No calls, no emails, no quick check-ins. When you come back, is the business in the same shape as when you left, or are you spending the next month putting out fires?
For many owners, the honest answer is the second one, and that matters most when it’s time to sell because a business that can’t run without its owner is worth far less to a buyer. It was one of the main messages from Stawowski McGill’s previous Leaders Breakfast Forum, “What is My Business Actually Worth?”, where M&A expert Devin Wagner of Doane Grant Thornton named a lack of management as the number one detractor from business value.
That’s why reducing owner dependency was the central topic of our latest Leaders Breakfast Forum in the Built to Last, Ready to Exit series for Calgary business owners. We sat down with two people who have been through the challenges themselves:
Bob Sartor, now a Senior Advisor at Stawowski McGill, has spent his career leading turnarounds and exits, including as current owner of a family winery and former CEO of Forzani Group and the Calgary Airport Authority.
Todd Millar, President of Millar Executive Development, has coached 70+ Calgary CEOs and business owners over the past 15 years and recently lead TEC Canada through their successful sale to Vistage Worldwide.
Here’s how they answered the questions every owner faces when stepping back.
What’s the first step to reducing owner dependency?
Bob has heard plenty of owners say the business falls apart every time they go on vacation. His response is direct: "that’s on you." Either the right people aren’t in place, or they haven’t been mentored to run things without you.
Before anything else, both panelists said owners need to decide whether they truly want to step back. Todd frames it in three steps: self-awareness, desire and action. If you don’t really want to let go, no succession plan will stick.
Stepping back also doesn’t mean signalling to your team that you’re about to sell. Bob encouraged owners to frame it as confidence: “I have so much faith in my team that I can pull back.” That frees you to do what a CEO should be doing, which is thinking about growth, strategy and the future of the business.
This process takes longer than most owners expect. When Todd took over TEC Canada, he planned to step back within three years. Between problems inside the organization and the pandemic, it took closer to six.
How do you hire a team that can run your business without you?
Both panelists kept coming back to one point: the hiring decision is everything. Small and medium-sized businesses often feel pressure to fill an empty seat quickly, only to realize six months later that they hired the wrong person. As Todd put it, you’re better off not having the resource than making a bad hire.
The other half of the equation is onboarding. Todd’s biggest lesson was to invest as much time in onboarding as in hiring. New people, however talented, don’t yet know how your organization operates or behaves. In his view, you don’t fix culture directly. You work on the behaviours that create it.
A few other hiring lessons from the panel:
Avoid hiring a “mini-me.” Bob values diverse teams because they bring ideas you wouldn’t have on your own.
Know the gap you’re filling. If the gap you’re trying to fill is yourself, rethink the role.
Don’t assume your successor is already on the team. A strong vice-president or long-time friend may not be the right person to replace you.
Look for vision, not just execution. Your successor doesn’t need your exact vision, they need one of their own.
How do you build leaders who don’t need you?
Once the right people are in place, the work shifts to developing them. Bob relies on stretch assignments: difficult problems that push people out of their comfort zone and build critical thinking. Todd draws a clear line between managing, mentoring and coaching. Managing holds people to an expectation. Mentoring shares your experience. Coaching changes how people think, and only coaching builds a team that can think without you.
Accountability should work the same way. Rather than having every commitment report back to the owner, Todd recommends peer-to-peer accountability, where colleagues follow up with each other. If accountability always runs through you, you haven’t built an organization that can function without you.
Finally, be ready to accept a different approach. Todd admitted his instinct was often, “I would have done it differently.” He had to learn that if the team reaches the right outcome, their way is just fine.
How do you stay informed after stepping back?
Stepping back doesn’t mean losing sight of the business. Both panelists said a simple dashboard is essential. Todd compared it to the dashboard of a truck: you don’t watch every gauge, just the few that matter. Pick six or seven leading indicators, and make sure the dashboard is easy to produce. Otherwise, as Todd joked, you take 30 emails and a handful of calls a day and simply relocate your office to the beach.
How do you know the business is truly ready? Bob’s test was simple. When he travelled, one of his leaders ran the business, with no phone calls made to check in. If you come back to a good update rather than a fire, you’re on your way.
Build a business that’s ready when you are
Owner dependency is one of the biggest barriers to a successful exit, and it can’t be fixed in the months before a sale. The owners who exit on their own terms start early: they hire well, develop their leaders, put the right information in front of them, and give themselves time to step back. The result is a business with clarity on who runs it, confidence in the team and control over when and how you leave.
Watch the full Leaders Breakfast Forum recording on owner dependency here.
If you’re a Calgary-area business owner thinking about how to reduce your business’s dependence on you, or preparing for a sale in the next few years, we’d welcome a confidential conversation about where things stand today and where to start.