Leadership can feel isolating — especially when you’re in a high-ranking role where the stakes are high and the eyes are on you. There’s this subtle pressure to always be the one with the answers. To make the big decisions. To deliver the win.
But here’s a truth: leadership isn’t about being the hero of the story. It’s about helping your team step into their own strength so that they can thrive, contribute, and succeed. Your job isn’t to carry the weight of every challenge alone — it’s to make sure the weight is shared wisely, and the path forward is designed intentionally.
Want an example? Look at Ted Lasso, the hit TV show. What made that character resonate so deeply wasn’t his brilliance as a strategist — he openly admitted he knew next to nothing about soccer (sorry, I mean football). What made him powerful was how he led through relationship, trust, and the empowerment of others. Ted didn’t win games by calling all the shots. He won by building a culture where his team could believe in themselves, in each other, and in the shared goal. That’s leadership.
I was recently talking with a leader who felt immense pressure going into a high-stakes meeting. They were worried about delivering the perfect pitch, the perfect answer, the perfect outcome. But perfection isn’t the goal — connection is. Collaboration is. When we try to do it all ourselves, we rob our teams of the opportunity to grow and contribute. That’s not leadership — that’s control.
Real leadership is about creating the space for others to show up fully. It’s about knowing when to step in and when to step back. It’s about designing relationships that work — not just for you, but for the team, the culture, and the shared vision you’re building together.
As I often say, your job as a leader isn’t to do all the things. It’s to make sure the right things get done, by the right people, in the right way. And that only happens when you shift out of the lone hero mindset and into one of shared success.
Plus, think about it. The more you decide, the more you problem-solve, the more you answer… the more you rob your team of learning to do the same. And they’re the ones on the field playing the game in real time. If you ask me, those are skills I want my team to have mastered.
Photo by Esteban López on Unsplash
