Clay Harris spent years building an IT services company by following his instincts. But after the $5 million mark, he had to learn how to trust the judgment of team members who knew more about the day-to-day work than he did.
Today, Clay Harris is an EOS Implementer, but he spent more than two decades running a business himself. He co-founded WorkSmart IT while he was still at UNC Chapel Hill and helped grow the company to more than $20 million in annual revenue and over 100 employees.
In the early years, Clay and his partners handled problems as they came up. They listened to their instincts, worked hard, and figured things out along the way. It got them pretty far. But around $5 million in revenue and 30 employees, it started causing problems. The team wanted more direction; meetings werenโt consistent; and the founders were reading management books and trying different ideas without much of a plan to tie them together.
Going from gut to real guidance
For years, Clay could stay close to the day-to-day work, see what was happening firsthand, and make calls based on his experience. Heโd built a company based on instincts, and more often than not, those instincts served him well.
But the bigger WorkSmart got, the less Clay knew about every little thing happening in the business. His employees were closer to the work and usually had information he didnโt. He says his gut โkept getting less right,โ and the people around him kept getting more right.
Looking back, Clay admits he was slow to give people the freedom to make their own calls. He had smart employees who cared about the company. He just had to get comfortable letting them handle things without him.
His daughters have a phrase he now borrows when talking to leadership teams: โLet them cook.โ
Their way of handling something might look different from how the founder would do it, and thatโs okay. A company can accomplish a lot more when good people have room to use their own judgment.
Are you still making certain calls because youโre the best person to make them, or simply because youโve always been the one making them?
EOS gave WorkSmart another way to make the call
WorkSmart IT had already bought a couple of other companies before implementing EOS. Clay remembers those early acquisitions as a lot of hard work and figuring things out as they went. The team was smaller, and they were still learning how to bring two businesses together.
Things went differently once they had EOS in place.
WorkSmart went on to complete eight acquisitions, and EOS helped the leadership team decide which opportunities were worth pursuing. Clay says the Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO) helped them figure out whether both companies wanted the same things before spending too much time working through a deal. Then their Core Values helped them decide whether the people and company cultures would fit together.
Clay saw how easy it was to get โstars in their eyes around the dollar signs.โ The numbers mattered, of course. But buying a company that didnโt fit WorkSmartโs culture could create problems that werenโt worth the extra revenue.
Once they bought a company, the Accountability Chart helped answer another big question: who was responsible for what? Clay wanted those responsibilities figured out early so the team could get to work. If someone said combining the businesses would take six months, he wanted to know whether they could do it in six weeks.
He wasnโt expecting everything to go perfectly. In Clayโs words, โthe valueโs in the speed, not in the perfection.โ They could work through mistakes as they came up instead of waiting until every detail was figured out.
If youโre thinking about buying another business, you have to be willing to look beyond the price tag. Do you actually want to work with these people, and do you see the same future for the company?
But sometimes Clay was letting go too much
Learning to trust his team to โcookโ was a big step for Clay. But he admits he didnโt get everything right.
After spending years holding on to so many responsibilities, he went a little too far in the other direction. He had a strong leadership team, allowed them to do their jobs, and became too hands-off. Clay is now more conscious of the difference between delegation and abdication.
Giving someone responsibility doesnโt mean handing them a problem and walking away. You still have to help them learn and get comfortable making their own calls. Leave them on their own too soon, and they might struggle. But keep stepping back in after theyโve taken ownership, and theyโll start wondering whether you really trust them.
Clay compares it to teaching a kid to ride a bike. You hold onto the seat while they find their balance. Once theyโve got it, you let go. If you reach back and grab the seat while theyโre riding, youโre probably going to mess them up.
Looking back, Clay wishes heโd handed off some responsibilities sooner and stayed more involved with others. He had to learn when his team needed his help and when he was getting in their way. That lesson kept changing as the company grew.
You donโt have to know exactly whatโs coming next
In March 2020, WorkSmart faced another test. COVID brought a lot of uncertainty, and Clay and his partners didnโt immediately agree on how to handle it. Like everyone else, they had no idea exactly what was coming.
Clayโs approach was to focus on making the best next call with the information they had. WorkSmart made quick choices about working from home and how to keep taking care of clients. They didnโt tell employees they had all the answers. Instead, they explained what they were doing, paid attention to how things were going, and made changes when necessary.
Clay puts it this way: leaders have to see the world as it is, not how they wish it was or fear it might be.
Being too afraid to act can hurt a business just as much as rushing into something without thinking. Sometimes you have to make the call, see how it goes, and adjust along the way.
When youโre faced with a decision, ask whether youโre missing information that would actually change the call, or whether youโre just waiting until you feel completely comfortable.
Clay hears one teacherโs advice when the answer isnโt obvious
Years before WorkSmart and EOS, Clay had an English teacher named Tony Bryant. Mr. Bryant kept an old dot-matrix banner at the front of the classroom with three words on it: โLook inside yourself.โ
When a student asked a question nobody could really answer, or one where they already knew the answer but wanted someone else to say it, Mr. Bryant would simply point to the sign.
Clay still brings that phrase into EOS sessions today.
His father was absent for much of his childhood, and his mom raised him as a single parent. Clay remembers having wonderful people around him, but he learned early to depend on himself.
Mr. Bryantโs sign reminded him of something he already knew: sometimes you have to believe in yourself and just make the call.
After nearly 25 years of running a business, though, Clay sees that advice a little differently. Trusting yourself doesnโt mean assuming youโre always right.
Heโs learned to listen when his team knows something he doesnโt, use EOS tools to help make decisions, and admit when he needs to try something different.
Today, he brings those lessons into his work as an EOS Implementer. He understands why founders have trouble handing things off because heโs been there. He also knows how easy it is to step away too soon and leave people without enough support. He doesnโt pretend to have every answer, even after all those years running a company.
Clayโs best advice, and the one he wishes he had learned sooner, is simple: โDo it scared.โ Most of the things people worry about turn out to be mirages.
Thereโs always going to be some uncertainty when youโre running a business. You wonโt get every move right, and neither will your team. But you donโt have to figure everything out yourself. Sometimes the best thing you can do is have faith in your people and get on with it.
To hear more from Clay about using EOS through eight acquisitions, learning when to step back, and doing things scared, listen to Episode 28 of the Hitting the Ceiling podcast.
For more ideas, questions, and lessons from inside the Visionary seat, subscribe to Mark OโDonnellโs Clarity Break Thoughts newsletter.
