3 clearest signs you're a manager who's in need of leadership training, according to a startup CEO

• Leaders need consistent training to continue their development, says CEO Madeline Pratt.
• Improving your leadership skills has a positive ripple effect throughout your organization.
• Lack of role clarity, an easily frustrated team, and unclear benchmarks are signs it's time for guidance.

If you're guiding a team, your most fundamental job is setting others up for success - a concept that is easily lost among the million and one tasks that need your attention.

As the founder of a company that helps guide and support other women founders, I've learned through experience that there are certain red flags that signal it might be time to invest in leadership training so you can better help your teams thrive.

Spoiler alert: Nothing bad happens when you put energy into becoming a better leader. Your team, your work culture, and even your bottom line will thank you.

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1. You have a lack of clarity in your own role

To lead, you need absolute clarity around who you are within your organization and your objectives. Sometimes we lose sight of the purpose of our role. When this happens, we fail to inspire and motivate others because we don't have the insight needed to excel as leaders ourselves.

When my company, Fearless Foundry, began to grow at a much faster pace, I felt out of touch with what exactly the layers of leadership looked like within the organization. With a clouded vision of who did what, I was totally unequipped to answer essential questions from my team.

Realizing that I didn't have the answers to topics like salary ranges, title changes, and direct reports inspired me to meet with my leadership team and get very clear on our org chart, introduce transparent salary bands, and most importantly, to effectively communicate all this information to employees. Pro-tip: Using rainbow color coding in the org chart was a big hit - not surprising for a team of creatives.

2. Your team gets easily frustrated

Don't get defensive; ask why it's happening. A frustrated team is a common founder problem I see when working with our clients as they scale. They're used to doing everything, but not yet used to sitting in a leadership position. If you're doing your job right as a founder, you should be spending the majority of your time on strategy - and to do this, you must delegate work.

Delegation means more than assigning half-baked tasks with no details; this will only lead to missed deadlines. If you don't invest the time to coach your team on taking over projects, you'll end up working for your employees instead of the other way around.

If you're thinking, "But investing that time to coach my team sounds like more work," you're not wrong. In the beginning, this will be more work than less. However, it pays dividends to delegate accordingly instead of delegating partially and then having to get on calls and send emails to make up for missing details.

The greatest leaders in my network are the ones who know what their weaknesses are - and when to step back and let their team shine.

3. Your team's benchmarks for success feel blurred

As someone who's helped scale fledgling businesses and Fortune 500 companies, I've noticed employees disengage when benchmarks aren't aligned with the work at hand. Team members won't feel empowered in their roles without receiving real feedback, setting goals, and establishing incentives for success.

These benchmarks are not static: They need to evolve with the company. Ask yourself: Does the cadence of your regular team check-ins feel right? Do you have quarterly meetings? Are annual reviews scheduled? Do you have the right metrics in place? Nine times out of ten, it's a process issue for you to work out - not a people issue.

Madeline Pratt is CEO and founder of Fearless Foundry, a conduit for getting resources into the hands of underrepresented founders. To get in touch with her, email madeline@fearlessfoundry.com.