What Is the Invisible Workload?
The invisible workload is everything a founder does that no one sees, but everyone depends on. It’s the stuff that lives in your head. It’s the mental list of things only you handle. It’s chasing updates, making small decisions, reviewing work no one else feels comfortable owning.
It builds up fast. And if left unchecked, it creates chaos.
Chaos doesn’t start with a missed deadline. It starts with the founder answering the same question five times a week. It starts with everyone waiting for approval. It starts with no one knowing what to do when the founder steps away.
Why Founders Create This Problem Without Knowing
Most founders don’t set out to cause problems. They just move fast. At the start, they do everything—sales, ops, hiring, client work. That’s normal. But when they start to grow, they forget to let go.
So they keep answering questions. They keep being the “final check.” They review every document. They run every meeting.
What they don’t realise is that the team has stopped moving unless the founder gives the green light. That’s how chaos begins.
Bradley Hisle, founder of Pinnacle Health Group, realized, “I once believed that control equaled strong leadership.”
The Signs You’re Carrying the Invisible Load
You may not see the chaos right away. But it shows up in patterns.
1. You’re involved in every step
If a project won’t finish unless you review it, you’ve created a dependency.
2. Your team is stuck on small things
If people ask you for decisions they could make, they don’t have clear boundaries.
3. You can’t unplug
If you take a weekend off and return to a backlog of questions, you haven’t built a system.
4. You’re exhausted, but nothing feels done
That’s not from hard work. That’s from mental overload.
5. Everyone’s “just waiting”
Waiting for feedback. Waiting for edits. Waiting for approvals. That’s not momentum—it’s a traffic jam.
The Real Cost of the Invisible Workload
According to the Harvard Business Review, leaders spend 65% of their time on tasks that could be handled by someone else. That means you’re losing time that should be spent on vision, growth, and big decisions.
When you’re stuck in the weeds, your team can’t step up. They get used to checking in for everything. They stop owning outcomes. They wait for your signal instead of moving forward.
And you, the founder, start burning out. Not from the work itself—but from carrying the weight of an unclear system.
How to Start Fixing It
You can’t fix what you don’t track. So start with visibility.
Step 1: Write Down Everything You Handle in a Typical Week
Write it down. Emails, meetings, reviews, approvals. Keep track of where your time goes.
Then ask:
- Does this need me?
- Could someone else do it?
- Have I shown them how?
The goal isn’t to dump work. It’s to remove yourself as a blocker.
Step 2: Create Clear Ownership
When people know what they own, they stop checking in for every step.
Make a document for each team member with:
- What they own
- What they can decide without asking
- What they escalate
This isn’t about micromanaging. It’s about clarity.
When roles are vague, people stay cautious. When roles are clear, they move with confidence.
Step 3: Build Systems for Repeat Tasks
If you do something more than twice, write down the steps.
Start with:
- Client onboarding
- Weekly check-ins
- Reporting
- Common approvals
- Support escalations
Keep it simple; a basic checklist in a Google Doc works perfectly. You don’t need anything complicated, just a shared place where everyone can stay on the same page.
Hisle shares, “Our first onboarding process was just a 5-step email. But it worked. And it saved me from explaining it again every time.”
Step 4: Step Away and Watch What Breaks
The best way to spot invisible workload is to leave it.
Take a day off. No check-ins. No messages.
When you come back, ask:
- What stalled?
- What did you need?
- What got missed?
That’s your to-do list. Not the tasks but the systems that need fixing.
Step 5: Make Clarity a Team Habit
You can’t carry everything forever. And you shouldn’t.
Host monthly “clarity check-ins.” Ask:
- What are you unclear on?
- Where do you feel stuck?
- What do you still need me for?
This helps everyone share the load. And it helps you stop creating new chaos by accident.
Founders don’t burn out because they work hard. They burn out because they carry things no one else sees.
The invisible workload sneaks up. It hides in approvals, messages, and is the “go-to” for everything.
But you can fix it. One task at a time. One checklist at a time. One handoff at a time.
As Bradley Hisle says, “If everything relies on you, you haven’t really built a business, you’ve built a bottleneck.”
Let your team own more. Let your systems do the heavy lifting. And start making your work and theirs visible, clear, and shared. That’s how chaos ends. And that’s how real scale begins.
