Is my purpose as a leader stealing my job? 🤔

If you’re a leader who still feels most valuable when you’re doing the work, you’re not alone. Many leaders get stuck operating like it’s still 10 years ago—solving the problems, being the expert, and jumping in to “help” when things get messy. But while your organization has evolved, your role has likely evolved too, and the old habits that once made you indispensable can quietly keep you small. Sometimes the hardest truth is this: your past success can become your current limitation. So it’s worth asking—are you leading from who you were, or from what the moment actually needs?

A decade ago, leadership best practice often looked like being the person with the answers—the one who could outwork, outthink, and out-execute everyone else. Those strengths probably got you promoted: you were the expert, the fixer, the reliable closer who could be counted on when stakes were high. But at higher levels, that same pattern can turn into a bottleneck—because the job shifts from doing to enabling, from knowing to asking, from controlling to empowering. 

Think about the leader who rewrites every deck the night before the meeting, or the manager who “helps” by taking over the hardest client call, or the director who insists every decision routes through them “for quality.” In today’s environment—faster change, more complexity, more cross-functional work—those behaviors don’t create excellence; they create dependency.

This is where the idea of “purpose stealing your job” shows up. When you’re deeply attached to the identity that formed you—“I’m the one who delivers,” “I’m the one who knows,” “I’m the one who saves the day”—you can end up operating at the wrong level without realizing it. You open the door to burnout. 

It’s not laziness; it’s comfort, familiarity, and a genuine desire to contribute in the way you always have. Strategic leadership can feel strangely intangible compared to tactical work: fewer checkboxes, more ambiguity, more influence without direct control. And letting go of what made you successful can feel like stepping off a ledge—because if you’re not the expert in the room, who are you? If that tension feels real, it’s because it is—and it’s a normal part of growth, not a sign you’re failing.

The way forward isn’t to reject your strengths—it’s to upgrade how you use them. Start with honest self-reflection: where are you defaulting to old patterns because they’re efficient, familiar, or ego-soothing? Ask for feedback from people who experience your leadership up close—your peers, your team, and your manager—and listen especially for where you might be unintentionally limiting others. Spend time observing leaders at the next level and notice what they do differently: how they frame problems, how they create clarity, how they build ownership without grabbing the wheel. Then experiment—delegate a decision you’d normally keep, replace an answer with a question, or coach someone through a challenge instead of solving it for them. 

Evolution doesn’t mean abandoning your values; it means adapting your methods so your impact can grow with your role—and that transition, while uncomfortable, is often where the most meaningful leadership begins.

Questions to Examine:

1. What work am I doing that someone else should be doing?
2. Where am I being the expert when I should be building capability?
3. What made me successful 10 years ago that might be holding me back today?
4. What decisions am I controlling that my team could own?
5. If I stopped “saving the day,” what leadership work would I finally have space to do?

If you desire more information on joy and other healthy practices, check out my book Liberty in Leadership on Amazon. 

Liberty in Leadership: A Workbook Study to A Healthy & Balanced Leadership Life