The Leadership Trap: Why Doing It All Yourself Holds Everyone Back
I was working with a community leader who, on paper, had everything together. They were respected, hardworking, and had built an incredible team around them, but when we sat down to talk, they looked tired — the kind of tired that doesn’t come from one late night, but from carrying everything for too long.
As we unpacked their day-to-day, a pattern started to show.
They had people around them, but they weren’t really using them.
Tasks were being delegated — but never trusted.
Every email is double-checked. Every idea rewritten. Every meeting is micromanaged.
The red flags were there — the same ones I’ve heard from leaders all over the world: “It takes more time to teach someone else how to do it,” or the world-famous “It’s just easier if I just do it myself.” Sound familiar? That’s how the cycle starts.
You do it all yourself.
You burn out.
Your team feels like you don’t trust them.
They stop stepping up.
And suddenly, you’re even more alone than before — the first domino in a chain reaction you didn’t mean to start. So during one of our sessions, I decided to show rather than tell: We played a game called “The Point of No Return.”
I had the manager do the exercise alone. The scenario was simple: “You’re lost in a forest. You have five minutes to decide which direction to travel to find help.”
I asked them to sit and write their plan for five minutes while their team, in another part of the room, huddled together creating their own strategy.
When time was up, the team presented their plan first.
The manager blinked, looked at me, and said, “Wow, I would have never thought of that.”
Then I had them do it again — this time as a team: the same prompt, the same five minutes. But there was a new rule: each person could only speak once. At first, the energy was tense. The team seemed hesitant — unsure how to lead with the manager now inside the circle. But after the first idea was voiced, something shifted. Laughter broke out. Ideas started connecting. Curiosity replaced caution. By the end, the group was buzzing. They didn’t want to stop. “Can we have one more minute?” someone asked, mid-discussion.
At the end, the manager shared two big takeaways:
It was more fun working together as a collective than it ever was trying to solve it alone.
The group’s plan was far better — more creative, more efficient, and more inspiring — than anything they would have done solo.
The energy in the room was electric. The team felt seen, the leader felt lighter, and collaboration finally felt alive again. What happened in that room wasn’t just a game. It was a mirror. When leaders let go of control, they don’t lose power — they unlock potential. And as random as these workshop moments might look from the outside, they’re not random at all. Scientists have been studying it for years.
The Research
What was the test?
A 2022 study published in Frontiers in Psychology observed leaders who practiced “empowering leadership”—giving their teams more autonomy and room to make decisions on the fly. They studied 325 employees and their leaders to understand how empowering leadership affects creativity and improvisation.
What did they find?
Teams led this way showed a spike in improvisational behavior—employees took creative risks, adapted faster, and felt more confident handling the unexpected.
Empowering leadership increases healthy “challenge stress” (the kind that motivates growth).
It reduces harmful “hindrance stress” (the kind that blocks creativity).
The result? Teams become more confident improvisers—people who think on their feet and solve problems in motion.
Why this matters:
Empowerment builds trust, and trust fuels adaptability. In improv, when one player takes a risk, others have their back. The same is true in business. Empowered teams handle uncertainty without waiting for permission.
This is exactly what happened in that workshop.
When the leader stopped controlling every move, the team’s creativity flooded in. They weren’t waiting for permission anymore — they were performing at their best.
If you want your team to innovate under pressure, don’t give them a script—give them permission.
Empowering leadership creates an environment where people see stress as fuel, not friction, and improvisation becomes a natural, productive part of work.
5 Takeaways for Leaders
Teaching takes time — but so does burnout. The short-term “it’s faster if I do it” mindset costs long-term sustainability and innovation.
Trust is the secret ingredient to speed. Teams that feel trusted make decisions faster and with more confidence.
Let people surprise you. Innovation lives in the space between your comfort zone and someone else’s idea.
Redefine control. Leadership isn’t about steering every turn — it’s about creating clarity, then letting others drive.
Build learning into your leadership. Every time you step back, your team steps up — and that’s how organizations grow stronger from the inside out.
Ready to take it to the next level?
If you’re ready to lead with sharper instincts and stronger trust in your team, I’ll show you how to train your adaptability muscle.
My improv-based leadership coaching blends psychology, creativity, and communication science to help you think faster, listen better, and lead in real time.