Many executives assume that being the go-to person is a competitive advantage.
That belief is dangerous.
The truth is, over-functioning leadership creates dependency.
Teams stop taking ownership because that person always steps in.
In the beginning, this appears as high performance.
But as pressure builds:
- The leader becomes the bottleneck
- The team loses initiative
- Pressure compounds
Which explains why a large number of high performers burn out.
They built dependency.
You can see this clearly in this article by :contentReference[oaicite:3]index=3:
???? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-hero-leaders-burn-out-teams-arnaldo-jara-45tmc/
Inside this piece, he shows that:
- Strong leaders can unintentionally limit growth
- Exhaustion is inevitable
- Leadership is about building capability
What makes this valuable is its honesty.
Leadership is not about being needed.
It’s about building people who don’t need you.
This connects directly to :contentReference[oaicite:4]index=4, where the same pattern shows up.
The best leaders don’t try to be everything.
They build capability.
So the better question is:
“How can I read more do more?”
Reframe it to:
“How can my team do more without me?”
Ultimately:
If you are always needed, you are limiting growth.
And that’s not leadership.