Building a successful business over several decades comes with lessons, but some of the most important ones are learned through costly mistakes. For McDan Group founder and Executive Chairman Dr Daniel McKorley, more than 30 years in business have taught him valuable lessons about leadership, delegation, recruitment and decision-making.
In two separate Facebook posts, the Ghanaian entrepreneur reflected on 10 mistakes he made while building the business, explaining how some of his decisions affected the company, his relationships with employees and business partners, and the opportunities available to him.
McKorley said the consequences were not always limited to financial losses. Some of the mistakes cost him high-revenue clients, trusted employees and business opportunities, while others left him with sleepless nights.
“I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my 30+ years of building McDan Group. Some cost me money. Some cost me high-revenue clients and business partners. Some cost me trusted employees. Some cost me opportunities. And some cost me sleepless nights,” he wrote.
His reflections offer an account of how his approach to running the business has evolved, particularly in recognising that effective leadership requires more than personal involvement in every decision and activity.
1. Micromanaging Employees Instead of Trusting Them
One of the first mistakes McKorley identified was micromanagement. He admitted that he struggled to relinquish control because he feared that things would go wrong if he allowed other people to handle important responsibilities.
That approach meant he remained too involved in tasks that could have been handled by members of his team. Rather than allowing employees to exercise their judgement and take responsibility, he felt the need to oversee too many details himself.
He said he eventually learnt that leadership required him to delegate, trust people and give them room to make mistakes.
The lesson, as he explained it, was that a business could not grow effectively if its leader insisted on controlling every aspect of its operations. Employees needed the authority and confidence to perform their responsibilities without constant intervention.
2. Allowing Employees to Return Delegated Tasks to Him
McKorley also identified what he described as reverse delegation, a situation in which an employee receives an assignment from a manager but later returns the responsibility to that manager when a problem arises.
In such circumstances, the manager ends up doing the work that was originally assigned to the employee, defeating the purpose of delegation.
He described the practice as a fatal leadership mistake and said he had learnt to respond differently when employees brought problems to him.
Instead of immediately taking over, he uses questions to encourage them to think through possible solutions and take ownership of their responsibilities.
Two of the questions he said he asks are:
“What would you do to solve this problem? Please provide at least two options and which of them you would choose.”
“What would you do if I weren’t here? Let’s imagine I am on vacation for the next week and out of reach.”
The questions are intended to shift the employee’s attention from simply reporting a problem to considering how it can be resolved. They also help develop independent thinking and reduce the tendency for employees to rely on the manager for every decision.
3. Holding on to Responsibilities That Should Have Been Delegated
Closely related to micromanagement was McKorley’s tendency to hold on to tasks that should have been assigned to other people.
He explained that he sometimes started projects himself but later struggled to give them the attention they required because of competing responsibilities.
The problem was not necessarily a lack of capable people within the organisation. Rather, he had failed to give others sufficient ownership of the work.
He said he had come to understand that leadership was not about personally handling every task. It involved identifying capable people, providing them with direction and allowing them to take responsibility for execution.
For a growing business, this distinction is important because a leader who retains too many operational duties can become a bottleneck, limiting both the team’s effectiveness and the organisation’s ability to expand.
4. Hiring Too Quickly and Taking Too Long to Let People Go
McKorley also acknowledged that he had made mistakes in recruitment and staff management by hiring too quickly and taking too long to make difficult decisions when employment arrangements were not working.
He said rushed recruitment sometimes resulted in the selection of people who were not suitable for the roles they were expected to perform.
At the other end of the process, he sometimes delayed decisions even when it had become clear that a working relationship was not delivering the required results.
His lesson was captured in the expression: “Hire slow and fire fast”.
The principle, as reflected in his account, is that recruitment should involve careful assessment rather than decisions driven by immediate staffing pressure. Equally, when an employee is not meeting expectations despite appropriate opportunities and support, leaders should not allow indecision to prolong a situation that affects the organisation.
5. Making Decisions Based Only on Intuition and Emotion
Another mistake McKorley identified was relying too heavily on intuition and emotion when making business decisions.
Although experience and instinct can help an entrepreneur recognise opportunities, he said he had learnt that they should not replace evidence and careful consideration.
His approach has since shifted towards using data-driven insights and consulting members of his team before making important decisions.
The change reflects a recognition that business decisions can have consequences beyond the individual making them. Drawing on available information and the perspectives of people with relevant knowledge can help leaders assess risks and avoid decisions based solely on personal feelings.
6. Waiting Too Long to Address Poor Performance
In his second post, McKorley returned to the subject of managing employees, identifying delayed intervention when staff performance was poor as another costly mistake.
He said he had sometimes confused giving people more time with being a good leader. However, allowing performance problems to continue without addressing them can affect the wider team and the organisation’s ability to achieve its objectives.
He said he had learnt the importance of addressing problems early, communicating expectations clearly and making difficult but fair decisions when necessary.
The lesson is that supporting employees does not mean avoiding accountability. Managers need to give people a reasonable opportunity to improve, but they must also be willing to confront persistent performance problems rather than allowing them to become more difficult to resolve.
7. Recruiting Only When Staffing Problems Become Urgent
McKorley also admitted that he had sometimes waited until staffing gaps became difficult to manage before recruiting additional employees.
When the pressure eventually became unbearable, the urgency to fill vacant positions could lead to rushed recruitment decisions.
He said he had learnt to plan ahead by considering the capabilities the business would need in the future rather than waiting until existing employees were overwhelmed or operational gaps had become serious.
This approach requires businesses to think beyond their immediate staffing requirements and anticipate the skills and personnel needed to support future growth.
It also reinforces his earlier point about hiring carefully. Recruitment should be part of an organisation’s planning process, not simply a reaction to an urgent problem.
8. Abandoning Strategies Too Soon
Another mistake McKorley highlighted was abandoning strategies before giving them sufficient time to produce results.
He said he had sometimes mistaken activity for progress and changed direction when the expected results did not materialise quickly enough.
In business, however, not every strategy delivers immediate returns. Some initiatives require time, consistency and sustained effort before their impact becomes clear.
McKorley said he had learnt the importance of patience and remaining committed to a strategy rather than constantly changing direction in search of quick results.
His reflection points to the need for business leaders to distinguish between a strategy that is genuinely failing and one that has not yet been given enough time to work.
9. Making the Business More Complicated Than Necessary
McKorley also reflected on how he once believed that adding more systems, meetings, administrative procedures and human resource guidelines would make the business more sophisticated.
With experience, he came to recognise that additional processes do not automatically translate into better performance.
He said he had learnt that complexity should not be mistaken for progress and that simplifying operations can make an organisation more effective.
For businesses, this means assessing whether procedures genuinely improve coordination, accountability and results or merely create additional administrative demands.
The lesson is not that systems and processes are unnecessary, but that they should serve a clear purpose and make it easier for people to do their jobs.
10. Delegating Without Clearly Defining What Success Looks Like
The final mistake McKorley identified was assigning responsibilities without clearly explaining what successful completion of the task would involve.
He said he had sometimes assumed that employees understood his expectations simply because he had given them an assignment.
However, when responsibilities, expected outcomes and performance measures are not clearly communicated, employees may interpret instructions differently from what their managers intended.
He said he had learnt to be more deliberate about defining ownership, explaining what success should look like and establishing how performance would be measured.
The lesson reinforces the importance of clear communication in delegation. Giving someone a responsibility is only part of the process; the person must also understand the expected outcome and how their work will be assessed.
McKorley’s Reflections on More Than Three Decades in Business
Taken together, the 10 mistakes cover several aspects of running a business, from recruitment and employee management to decision-making, strategy and operational efficiency.
A recurring theme in McKorley’s reflections is the need for leaders to move away from excessive personal control and build organisations in which capable people can take responsibility, make decisions and deliver results.
His experiences also suggest that growth requires more than identifying opportunities. It demands the ability to learn from poor decisions, improve management practices and make difficult changes when existing approaches are not working.
Despite the financial and personal costs he associated with some of his mistakes, McKorley said he remained grateful for what the experience had taught him.
“Three decades in, I’m amazed by the learning, the growth, the opportunities, the insights, the network,s and the connections I’ve been lucky enough to experience, and I’m excited for what’s still ahead,” he wrote.
He also invited other business leaders to share lessons from their own experiences and tag him in their reflections.
For McKorley, the message is that mistakes are an inevitable part of building a business, but the lessons drawn from them can shape how leaders manage people, make decisions and prepare their organisations for the future.
