Are You Leading Your People or Standing in Their Way?
Many leaders reach a moment where the skill set that built their success becomes the barrier to their growth.
When you start a business or step into a leadership position, you are often the primary asset. You are the subject matter expert, the lead strategist, the problem solver, and the creative engine. But if you hold onto those roles for too long, you step into The Hero’s Trap.
On yesterday's episode of the UH-OH Conversations with Cohesive Leaders podcast, Ben-Jamin Toy, HSG and guest co-host Trevor Crunelle spoke with Jason Clark, Chief Marketing Officer at Tectonic. Jason shared his journey growing his digital agency from a small team to 18 employees and over $2 million in revenue and the massive UH-OH that nearly cost him everything.
When Being the Hero Causes an UH-OH
Early on, Jason wore every hat for his organization. He was the owner, the creative director, the project manager, and the primary point of contact for clients. The business was growing and financially healthy, but beneath the surface, frustration was brewing.
But then his top employee walked into his office and handed in their notice.
Jason was shocked. Why would a key player leave a growing company?
Their was a simple answer. By hogging the spotlight and refusing to pass the baton, Jason was stifling his team's potential. They didn't have room to own their work or grow.
As Jason put it during this conversation:
“Do you want to be an artist doing the work, or do you want to build a business that does the work?”
When you insist on being the hero of every story, you create an operational bottleneck. Cohesive leaders know when to step to the back of the line so your team can step into the spotlight.
Owning Your Attributes & Decoupling Ego from Authority
In Becoming a Cohesive Leader: The POWERup Guide to Grow, Develop, and Advance Your Career, the POWERup framework begins with P – Preparation & Mindset, followed immediately by O – Owning Your Attributes and Values.
You cannot fix a leadership bottleneck until you become aware of how your behavior impacts others. For Jason, owning his High-DI personality traits meant realizing that his drive to solve every problem was alienating his best talent.
To turn things around, he had to decouple his ego from his authority. Here are the deliberate steps he took to transition from a boss-centered organization to a Cohesion Culture™:
- Invest in Coaching: He brought in a business coach for himself and a team coach for his leadership group to navigate the interpersonal dynamics of authority.
- Formalize Authority: He established distinct director-level titles (Director of Strategy, Creative Director, Director of Accounts) and gave those leaders complete ownership over execution.
- Set Clear Boundaries: He told clients upfront: "You won't see me after the handoff unless there's a problem."
The skills that get you to your first milestone will not get you to the next. Scaling a business or a division requires shifting your mindset from control to empowerment.
3 Steps to Escape the Hero’s Trap This Week
If you suspect you might be holding the reins a little too tightly, here is how you can begin shifting authority to your team:
- Audit Your Calendar: Look at your task list for the week. Identify two high-visibility decisions or projects you are currently leading and delegate complete ownership of them to a rising leader on your team.
- Elevate Their Titles and Scope: Ensure your team members have job descriptions and titles that reflect authority not only extra workload without the autonomy to match.
- Get Out of the Way: The next time a project begins, complete the handoff and physically step back. Trust the expertise of the people you hired.
When leaders step back, teams step up. That is how you build a workplace culture where people feel valued, respected, and empowered to do their best work.
Catch the entire conversation with Jason Clark on the latest episode of UH-OH Conversations with Cohesive Leaders: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube
