My employees reviewed me, and I kind of suck
medium.com
medium.com
If the employees have expectations that the CEO should spend time with them, that seems to imply that the CEO hasn't hired anyone to delegate management to, and he essentially has 33 direct reports (every one of his employees). That sounds like way too many for any manager to be able to handle effectively.
Notice I said, kids are 'career boosters', but not 'motivators'. While having kids do boost your career, it's not necessarily because they motivate work harder or better. By having kids, you actually become more risk-averse, but you become more shrewd, able to relate to management more, and also forced to utilize your time better. All these help you climb the rank.
Ultimately though, quality of your work will decline if you're trying manage people AND do the work too. It's hard to do both, and I think that's the problem this guy is having. He needs to pick his battle.
If you have a 5 members team you can remember the name of everybody’s dog (or who hates dogs), who likes milk in the coffee, and be approachable and spend a lot of time with each one.
With 33 employees you have only 1/6 of the time and it’s probably not evenly distributed, so the new junior hire will probably don’t know how/when it’s a goo idea to talk directly.
OP describes immersing himself in the details of a construction project, yielding to the temptations of total control. Micromanaging that project (atop the demands of family life) was a tremendous time-sink, and he lost focus on the Day Job - leading his company. He became detached, and his management style more autocratic and less consensus-driven.
He should have, he says, delegated or hired out much of the construction project work. Shepherding the company culture is a more important use of his time.
I found his introspective candor refreshing; not everyone is self-assured enough to admit a mistake.