𝗗𝗼 𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝗲? 𝗗𝗼 𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱!

06 October 2025

Business leaders are often stuck 'in the doing' instead of leading

We mistake activity for aptitude because activity feels safer. It pays instant dopamine, while leadership pays later. I see the pattern frequently when coaching: the calendar is full, the mind is crammed, and the strategy sits idle. It is not laziness, it is a wiring issue.

𝗗𝗼 𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝗲? 𝗗𝗼 𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱!
Our brains reward completion, so we chase quick wins that keep us useful. 'Useful' quickly becomes 'indispensable', and indispensable becomes a trap. When you do the work, you reduce uncertainty, but you also reduce your team's learning surface. People escalate because you catch, not because they can't. 

Perhaps we should test a different equation, capacity over control. Here are three shifts I think matter most:

✋ From operator to architect. Swap hours spent solving for minutes spent shaping how decisions get solved without you. Write the trigger, the choice, the criteria, the owner, and the default if you're offline.

❓ From answers to questions. Replace advice with prompts like what would you do if I couldn't be reached for 48 hours. It feels slower, then it gets faster, because thinking scales better than telling.

👉 From presence to system. If your value shows up only when you're in the room, you're not leading. Codify a weekly priorities broadcast, five bullets, no fluff, and tie every request to one of them.

One COO told me last week that this cut their internally generated work by about a third in a month. Not magic, just clarity.

A quick audit helps too. Mark every meeting this week as pilot, passenger, or plane. If you're always the pilot, your team is stuck on the tarmac. Commit to two meetings where you'll be passenger only, and let someone else fly. You may wince at a few bumps, but they'll land the plane more often than you expect. Leadership is the art of making yourself less necessary without becoming less accountable. That sounds risky, but riskier still is being the single point of failure.

Will you make a shift this week that future you will thank you for?

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