Leadership is not doing the work; leadership is supporting the people who do the work

“Great leaders are not responsible for the job. They’re responsible for the people who are responsible for the job.” - Simon Sinek

“At some point, you’ll get promoted to the position where we’re now responsible for the people who do the job we used to do, but nobody shows us how to do that. And that’s why we get managers and not leaders.

The reason that managers are micromanaging us is that they actually do know how to do the job better than us. That’s what got them promoted.

We have to go through this transition of being responsible for the job and then turning into somebody who’s now responsible for the people who are responsible for the job. One of the great things that is lacking in most of our companies is they are not teaching us how to lead.” - Simon Sinek

“Don’t take learning opportunities away from other people.” - Tanya Reilly

“If you’re too busy doing the actual work, as a manager, that’s a huge mistake.” - Michael Lopp, VP of Engineering of Slack

Instead, focus on doing the things only you can do. Be careful not to take on so much other stuff that you don’t have the time or energy to do your best work for the stuff that only you can do.

Related:

• “Doing what you’re good at hurts the team.” - Peldi Guilizzoni via The most counterintuitive leadership tip? Leaders, stop doing what you’re good at.
• Leadership is not making all of the decisions for your team; leadership is communication and teaching your team how to make good decision.