Build capability, not dependence

Growth · Little Light original

Being needed can look like evidence that you are leading well. Every difficult question finds you, every approval waits for you, and the work moves fastest when you step in. The team may be grateful. You may also be becoming the narrow doorway through which too much must pass. Choose one responsibility someone else is ready to grow into. Share the context behind the task, not only the steps. Explain which decisions they can make, when you want to be consulted, and what a responsible mistake would look like. Stay available without quietly taking the work back the moment their approach differs from yours. Developing capability can feel slower than doing the job yourself, especially at the beginning. Its value appears later: in a colleague who can exercise judgment, a team that keeps moving during your absence, and space for you to take on work that genuinely requires your experience. Leadership is not proved by how much stops without you. It is proved by what becomes possible around you.

Little Light