The Influence Shift – June 2026

Are you Solving Problems your Team Should Own?

You built a reputation on your knowledge and your ability to solve the toughest problems – because you have been down that road. You know the route.

That identity — the one that got you here — felt solid. Safe. Within your control.

And then the title changed. And suddenly, nothing felt quite as clear.

Do you notice yourself doing a task you probably should have delegated – not because you didn’t trust the person, but because it just felt faster to do it yourself?

This showed up for me recently in a conversation I had with a client.  He is a seasoned leader, and he told me that the problems he is solving for his team should be obvious to them. He tells me: “They bring me problems where the answers are obvious.”

To him, yes – they are obvious. Because he has been down that road many times and knows exactly the route to get to the solution. So, he gives his team the roadmap. Why? Because it’s easy. And fast.

What is does though is robs the team of building critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It keeps them dependent instead of capable.

And I get why it’s tempting – the pressure to move fast is real, and providing answers already considered is efficient.  

I catch myself doing this. All. The. Time.

This is where it is so important to redefine the efficiencies as a longer-term plan, and focus on coaching the team to build the skills that create better solutions and more efficiencies later on.  Because your success as a leader IS your team’s success.

“The heart of leadership is based on serving others, not ourselves.”

— John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader in You 2.0

And yet knowing this doesn’t make it easy.

Here’s the trap:

When we become people leaders, we don’t automatically update our internal scorecard. We keep measuring ourselves by what we produce — the quality of the work, the speed of execution, the visible outputs. So, we stay close to the work. We over-review. We jump in. We solve. And we tell ourselves we’re being helpful.

The problem isn’t the intention. The problem is the definition of success hasn’t been updated to match the new role.

Making the Shift:

From → measuring success by what I delivered
To → measuring success by what my team was able to do

From → thinking “how do I solve this?”
To → thinking “what does this person need to solve this themselves?”

From → proving competence through expertise
To → building trust through support and presence

This reframe isn’t just conceptual, it changes what you pay attention to, what meetings you take, what questions you ask, and how you spend your hours.

A simple way I think about it:

Notice: where are you ‘doing’, when your role is to support?
Ask before you answer: swap “here’s what I’d do” for “what have you tried so far?”
Measure differently: at the end of the week, ask not what did I accomplish, but what did I make possible?

“The role of leadership is not to generate followers. It’s to develop leaders.”

— Simon Sinek

Three things to try this week:

1. In your next 1:1, resist giving the answer for the first five minutes. Take a coaching approach and ask questions until the person starts to figure it out themselves.
2. When you catch yourself doing something on your team’s behalf, pause and ask: “am I doing this because it needs me, or because it’s more comfortable?”
3. Write down one win from the week that had nothing to do with your own output – something you enabled for someone else. That’s the new scorecard.

What would it feel like to end your week measuring your impact by how much your team grew – not by what you personally got done?