If Everything Runs Through You, Nothing Runs Without You

You hire a general manager because you need someone to run the club. Six months later, you’re still approving shift changes, handling member complaints and getting texts on Saturday about things you thought somebody else was taking care of.

You have a team. You’re paying for management. But somehow, you’re still involved in almost everything.

It’s frustrating. Especially when you’ve put your own money into the business and you care about every part of it. When something isn’t getting done, you’re going to step in. Of course you are.

But eventually we have to ask why the same things keep coming back to us.

Sometimes we have the wrong person in the role. Sometimes the job is bigger than one person can reasonably handle. And sometimes we’ve hired someone to run the business without actually letting them run it.

We need to understand which problem we have before we decide the answer is a new manager.

You can’t hold people accountable for a job you never defined.

“Run the club like it’s your own.”

It sounds like a clear expectation. It really isn’t.

We know what we mean because we’ve been carrying the business around in our heads. We know which numbers worry us, which members need attention and what we consider an acceptable decision.

The person we hired doesn’t automatically know all of that.

Does the GM own sales performance, or does the sales team answer directly to us? Can they adjust staffing within the payroll budget? Can they resolve a billing complaint? Are they responsible for retention, and have we agreed on what we expect them to do about it?

Those questions need actual answers.

A job description that says “oversee daily operations” leaves a lot open to interpretation. We can spend months being disappointed in someone who has a very different understanding of the job.

I’d want a short, clear agreement on what they own, what good performance looks like and what they can decide without calling me. Then I’d sit down and work through it with them.

If the expectation only exists in your head, it isn’t a fair measure of their performance.

That doesn’t mean we need a procedure for every situation. We do need enough clarity that someone can get through a normal week without guessing what we want.

We tell people to take ownership. Then we take the decision back.

Say a member has a legitimate complaint. The manager listens, makes a reasonable call and issues a credit within the limits we agreed on.

Then the member contacts the owner.

We hear the story, offer something different and tell the manager how we would have handled it.

Maybe our solution was better. But if we keep doing that, the manager learns to ask us first. The member learns to come directly to us. Now we’re handling the complaints again and wondering why nobody takes ownership.

We helped create that.

The same thing happens when an employee goes around the GM to ask us about their schedule. We answer because it’s easy and we want to help. But we’ve just made a decision that belonged to the person we’re paying to manage them.

Every time we go around the manager, we make it easier for everyone else to do the same.

There are times we need to intervene. A serious issue, a decision outside their authority, something that puts the business or a person at risk. We should be clear about those situations.

But a reasonable decision we would have made differently doesn’t always need to be corrected.

If we want someone to develop judgment, they need room to use it. We can talk through a decision afterward without teaching the whole building that their answer doesn’t count until the owner agrees.

Being informed doesn’t require being involved in everything.

When a GM brings me a problem, I want to hear what they think we should do about it.

If cancellations are up, what are they seeing? If a class keeps underperforming, what would they change and why?

They don’t need to have the perfect answer. But I want to understand their thinking before I give them mine. If I immediately solve it, we’ve missed an opportunity for them to get better at the job.

That also helps me understand where they need support. Do they know what to look for? Can they work through the options? Are they unsure what they’re allowed to decide?

We can help with those things without taking the problem back.

Then we need to check whether they followed through and whether it worked. Someone who made a reasonable decision that didn’t work needs a different conversation from someone who never did what we agreed on.

One needs coaching. The other needs to explain why it didn’t happen.

That’s how I’d want to stay involved. Close enough to know what’s happening and help where I’m needed, with the manager still responsible for getting it done.

“It’s faster if I do it” can get expensive.

Sometimes it is faster.

We know the vendor. We know the software. We’ve handled the issue before. We can fix it in ten minutes instead of spending thirty walking someone through it.

For a one-time problem, that might be fine.

For something that happens every week, we need to look beyond the ten minutes.

If we keep doing it because we’re faster, nobody else gets better at it. Six months later, it’s still on our list.

Meanwhile, the work we need to be doing keeps getting pushed back. Planning the next location. Working through financing. Developing the team. Or just getting home without spending dinner answering questions about tomorrow’s schedule.

There’s a cost to staying available for everything, even when none of the individual requests seems like a big deal.

I’d look at the last week of calls, texts and decisions. Which ones actually needed the owner? Which ones came back because someone lacked training, authority or a clear expectation?

Pick one recurring issue and work through the handoff properly. Make sure the person has the access and tools they need. Explain how to think about it, agree on the limits and let them handle the next one. Review it afterward.

That takes some time upfront. So does answering the same question for another year.

Some people still won’t do the job.

We shouldn’t turn this into an argument that every management problem is the owner’s fault.

Some managers avoid difficult conversations. Some don’t follow through. Some are good with members but struggle to manage a team or understand the numbers.

A great front desk employee doesn’t automatically become a great GM because we give them the title.

Once the role is clear, the workload is reasonable and the person has the training and authority to do it, we should expect performance.

If we’re still chasing the same commitments every week, we need to address that directly. More explanation may not be the answer. We may need to change the role or change the person.

But we should make that decision based on a job we’ve actually given them the chance to do.

None of this requires the owner to disappear. Being present, knowing the members and caring about the details can be a real strength. We just need to make sure the business can function when we’re doing something else.

Before the next week starts, look at what’s still coming to you. Choose a few decisions that should belong to the manager and make that explicit.

Then when someone calls you about one of them, send it back to the person responsible.

That may feel slower at first. You may not get the exact answer you would have given.

But if every decision still needs your answer, you’re still doing the job you hired someone else to do.