Being part of the early days at a start-up (< 5 people) means that everyone is expected to do things outside of their comfort zone. Server down? Buck up, front-end girl. Receive a data request from a VC? Get your presentation skills on lock, sales lead.

Initially, each employee is required to step up and play whatever role is required of them to make the company a success. As the business begins to scale, some responsibilities are passed on to new-hires who are employed to single handedly crush specific job duties. This allows you to focus your efforts. You should feel ecstatic, but you feel terrified — and justifiably so. Things you’ve worked relentlessly to learn and master (you probably didn’t actually master — but it’s fine. You still got it done) are ripped from your grip and become the responsibility of someone else. The good news you can now focus on what you were originally hired to do — and chances are, if you are still at the company, your job duties have scaled in capacity x-fold.

For the most part, this is great. But when the company scales to a point where there are ‘multiple levels of distance’, problems can quickly arise. Imagine Tim — Tim oversees a sales org and is directly responsible for several supervisors. The supervisors are in-turn responsible for the success of 40 sales reps. What if Tim never makes calls? What if Tim spends his days writing reviews, looking at numbers, and presenting slideshows to his CEO? How can Tim effectively mentor, facilitate, and grow his team?

Managers understand what their team is doing and how they are doing it. Leaders are the masters of what their team is doing and are the lookout for innovative ways to drive success. Whether that’s hopping on a customer service call, sitting with an engineer to understand a bug, brainstorming in a product review session, or taking a meeting with an affiliate in marketing, leaders just do. Leaders are committed to executing everything they do in the best way possible; no rest days, no going the easy route, no ‘I tried.’

The problem is this isn’t always easy. If you’re at the ‘top’, why do the work at the ‘bottom’? That’s why you’ve worked so hard, right? Wrong.

My advice for success? Invert the pyramid. If you can’t do what your team is doing, and do it as good as or better than anyone else, how can you drive success? Most importantly: how can you expect your team to look at you as a leader?

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