Why entrepreneurs need to microdose delegation and healing to build real leadership capacity

Entrepreneurs are taught to scale through delegation—advice such as: “Hire early”, “Get out of the weeds”, and “Don’t be the bottleneck”.

But what happens when your nervous system sees delegation as danger?

This is where most advice breaks down because delegation isn’t just a task shift it’s a trust shift. It requires receiving. Support. Help. Ideas you didn’t generate. Emails you didn’t edit. Work done in a way you didn’t and can’t control.

For many founders—especially those shaped by trauma—those things can feel intolerable.

The Nervous System Can’t Fake Trust

In my work as a business therapist, I specialize in the link between childhood trauma and entrepreneurship a connection that silently shapes how people build, lead, and scale.

Many entrepreneurs carry trauma adaptations like hyper-independence, perfectionism, or control. These coping mechanisms were once protective—but in business, they show up as bottlenecks.

You hire a team, but redo their work.

You delegate, but obsessively check every detail.

You’re told to, let go but your body feels like it’s falling.

Why? Because your nervous system hasn’t built the capacity to receive.

Microdosing Receiving: A Concept Whose Time Has Come

Dr. Pooja Lakshmin, psychiatrist and bestselling author of Real Self-Care, talks about the practice of microdosing receiving—taking in small, digestible moments of care, support, or rest. Not the grand gestures. The tiny ones. A five-minute break. Letting someone hold the door. Not apologizing for needing help.

This idea has profound implications for entrepreneurship.

If your system isn’t used to support, you can’t expect it to hold big doses of delegation. So instead of jumping straight into scaling with hires and handoffs, you start by microdosing delegation.

You practice letting go just enough to build capacity without overwhelming your system.

Microdosing Delegation: What It Looks Like

This is the path I guide clients through when “just delegate” advice has failed them.

• Start small. Let a team member own one tiny decision without interference. Notice what comes up. Name it.
  
• Track your body. Is your chest tight? Shoulders clenched? Are you fidgeting to jump back in? That’s your nervous system hitting its edge.
  
• Tolerate the discomfort. Not override it. Just witness it. Maybe even thank it for trying to protect you.
  
• Celebrate the repair. If the task goes well—or even good enough—that’s evidence your system can hold more next time.

This is microdosing delegation and over time, it rewires your capacity to receive.

Why This Matters for Scaling

Scaling isn’t just about building systems. It’s about building self. 

The nervous system is the body’s master communication network. It controls everything from decision-making to digestion, and it’s deeply involved in how we respond to stress, build relationships, and lead under pressure.

If your nervous system equates receiving with vulnerability or loss of control, you’ll subconsciously sabotage growth to stay safe.

That’s why founders burn out with teams. Why they hire: and then hover. Why they scale: and then silently implode.

They’re following the right strategy but with the wrong capacity.

Real Self-Care for Leaders Isn’t Optional

Dr. Lakshmin’s core message is that real self-care isn’t the spa day—it’s the boundary. It’s the refusal to abandon yourself to perform success.

In other words, real self-care isn’t about escape—it’s about integrity.

It’s choosing not to override your own needs, energy, or nervous system just to meet someone else’s expectations of what a “successful” entrepreneur looks like.

This might mean:

• Saying no to a growth strategy that feels misaligned
  
• Taking a real break instead of “working remotely” from vacation
  
• Delegating before you feel 100% ready—so your body can learn it’s safe
  
• Structuring your business around your actual capacity, not the industry playbook

In trauma-informed leadership, this is radical.

Because so many high-performing founders have learned to equate self-worth with productivity and rest with guilt.

But the boundary is the care. Every time you honor your own regulation over outside performance, you build the internal foundation to scale without burning out.

Scaling doesn’t start with a hire. It starts with healing.

It starts with letting yourself be held.