Back in my restaurant ownership days, we had an unconventional way of training new managers. When someone got promoted from crew member to manager, we’d hand them two potatoes and tell them to hold them. Just hold them. No cutting, no prepping. Just holding.
“What?!” was usually the response.
We made fabulous hand-cut french fries, and cutting potatoes was a fundamental skill for anyone working in our restaurants. But here’s what we were teaching these new managers: When you’re on the crew, you cut the potatoes. When you’re managing, you hold them.
It was our way of explaining that managing requires a completely different skill set than ‘doing’. To manage effectively, you must stop using your hands and start using your eyes, ears, and brain. You’re observing team performance, coaching in real-time, asking customers for feedback, and building relationships in the community.
Sure, jumping on the line when things get crazy feels incredible. You’re the hero! You’re showing them how it’s really done! But here’s the problem: it doesn’t teach your team how to get themselves out of the weeds. More importantly, it doesn’t help them prevent the chaos from happening in the first place.
Holding potatoes isn’t easy. It’s a massive mindset shift.
The Visionary’s Potato Problem
When business owners begin implementing EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) into their companies, they face a similar challenge, especially if they sit in the Visionary seat.
Most business owners have done every job in the business at some point. Sticking with our restaurant analogy, they’ve done everything from cleaning the bathrooms to shaking the martinis (hopefully not at the same time). They know how to do it all, and they know how to do it well.
This creates a dangerous comfort zone.
When things get chaotic in the business, it’s incredibly tempting to slip back into those familiar roles. You hear about an issue? You solve it. You see a number on the scorecard that’s off track? You go talk to that department leader yourself. Someone’s struggling with a Rock? You just do it for them because it’s faster that way.
It feels productive. It feels necessary. And it definitely feels faster than training someone else to cut those potatoes.
But here’s what you’re actually doing: You’re robbing your team of the opportunity to grow, and you’re robbing your business of the strategic thinking it desperately needs from you.
What Visionaries Are Actually Supposed to Do
One of the most powerful aspects of EOS is the clarity it provides for the person sitting in the Visionary seat.
The Visionary seat typically includes responsibilities like:
- Creative problem solving: Looking at challenges from new angles and finding innovative solutions
- Establishing big relationships: Building partnerships and connections that move the business forward, or coming in to close the big deals
- Innovating: Dreaming up new products, services, or approaches
- Predicting market changes: Keeping your finger on the pulse of industry shifts and positioning the company accordingly
- Culture and vision: Maintaining and communicating the bigger picture of where the company is going and the handful of expectations you have for behavior
Notice what’s not on that list? Fixing day-to-day operational issues.
This role clarity helps Visionaries understand that it’s their eyes, ears, and brain that the company needs most, not their hands. What their ‘hands’ used to do can be taught to someone else, provided you’ve put the right people in the right seats in your company.
The “I Don’t Know What to Do With My Hands” Moment
I’ll never forget a Quarterly session with one of my clients. His Leadership Team was going around the room, signing up for Rocks (the 90-day priorities they were going to accomplish that quarter). When it got to him, he looked around the table and said with genuine confusion: “I don’t know what to do with my hands!”
In the most literal way possible, he was experiencing the discomfort of shifting from working IN the business (using his hands to do the nitty gritty of the business) to working ON the business (using his strategic thinking to guide it).
This is the moment where many Visionaries panic. They feel useless. They wonder if they’re even needed anymore. The role seems too small. What will they do with all this time?
But here’s what happened with my client: He chose to sit in the discomfort.
By the next Quarter, he was holding those potatoes very comfortably. He had landed two significant real estate deals for the company to expand. He was the only person in the organization with the relationships and negotiation skills to make them happen.
That’s the power of role clarity. That’s what happens when you stop cutting potatoes and start holding them.
Why This Is So Hard (And Why It Matters)
Let’s be real: This transition is uncomfortable for several reasons.
First, you’re good at cutting potatoes. You’ve been doing it for years. You can do it faster and better than almost anyone else in your organization. It’s comfortable. It gives you an immediate sense of accomplishment.
Second, it feels selfish not to help. When your team is in the weeds and you’re just “observing,” it can feel like you’re not pulling your weight. You might worry that your team thinks you’re lazy or disconnected.
Third, you lose control of the details. When someone else is cutting the potatoes, they might not cut them exactly the way you would. They might make mistakes. And that’s terrifying.
But here’s what’s at stake if you don’t make this shift:
- Your business will always be limited by what you can accomplish
- Your team will never develop the skills they need to operate without you (making your business less valuable when you go to sell it)
- You’ll burn out trying to be everywhere and do everything
- The strategic work that only you can do will never get done
The businesses that scale successfully are the ones where the Visionary has learned to hold the potatoes. They’ve learned to trust their team with the operational work while they focus on the strategic opportunities that move the company forward.
The Secret Recipe
By holding the potatoes, entrepreneurs rediscover why they started the business in the first place. It wasn’t to be the best potato cutter in the company. It was to build something meaningful, to create opportunities, to solve big problems in innovative ways.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love a well-executed french fry. But I especially love one that I didn’t have to cook.
Your job is to hold the potatoes and think about the bigger picture: How do we make the best french fries in town? How do we create a dining experience people rave about? How do we build a business that thrives without me in the kitchen every day?
That’s the work that will transform your business from a job that frustrates you into a company that runs without you—a business that’s truly valuable.
Ready to Hold Your Potatoes?
The first step is to dig into what you are uniquely gifted at doing. Then you need to understand what you really want out of your business. EOS is one way of getting that clarity. If you’re ready to stop cutting the potatoes, let’s chat.