Converge

When a leader says that, I usually pay close attention. Because leaders who are "keeping everything moving" are often carrying work that should have been designed out of their role months ago.

They're approving things that don't need approval, answering questions that shouldn't reach them, and attending meetings where their presence adds very little value.

Burnout is sometimes a workload issue. But in many executive roles, it's a design issue. The organization has become dependent on one person's attention, and attention is a finite resource.

I ask this question because it tells me something about a leader's posture. Not whether they're intelligent. Whether they're teachable.

Leadership has a funny way of rewarding certainty. The higher you go, the fewer people challenge your thinking.

That's exactly why you need people who will. If no one around you is comfortable disagreeing with you, your leadership has become expensive, and not in a good way.

"It's just faster if I do it myself." I hear that a lot.

At first, it sounds like a commitment to excellence. Sometimes it is. But if that sentence keeps showing up, I usually start asking different questions.

Why is everyone waiting on you?
What decisions are only you allowed to make?
What have you accidentally taught your team about ownership?

The irony is that many leaders become the bottleneck because they're trying to help. They step in to answer every question, solve every problem, and maintain a high standard. Over time, the team stops making decisions because they know the leader will eventually make them. Leadership isn't measured by how much you can carry. It's measured by how much responsibility others can confidently carry because of your leadership. If everything still depends on you after years of leading, it may be worth asking whether you've built a team or built dependence.

You don’t need more leadership content. You need more leadership reflection. I say this carefully because I’m in the space, but consuming ideas isn’t the same as integrating them.

The leaders who grow the most aren’t always reading more. They’re thinking more deeply about what they already know. They also surround themselves with conversations where people are actively trying to think more deeply about what they already know.

The question is, who is helping you do that?

If everything feels urgent, nothing is actually clear. Urgency is often a substitute for clarity.

When I feel pulled in too many directions, it usually means I haven’t done the work of defining what actually matters most.

The question is, what's pulling you and what's actually clear for you?