There is a moment that many high performing professionals encounter that does not feel like a milestone, but more like a quiet tension. It is not tied to a promotion announcement or a formal change in responsibility. It shows up in the day to day work. You are still very good at what you do, and that has not changed. What has changed is what is being asked of you.
When “Still Good at Your Job” Stops Being Enough
I was working with a client I will call Arjun, a senior engineer who had recently stepped into a leadership role. In one of our sessions, he said, “I feel like I am working more than ever, but I am not sure I am doing the right work.” That statement captured the tension well.
He was still producing at a high level, but the nature of his role had shifted in ways that were not yet reflected in how he was spending his time.
As we talked through his week, it became clear that he was still doing much of the technical work himself. When I asked why, his answer was straightforward. “It is faster if I do it, and I know it will be right.” That is a reasonable position for someone who has built their career on expertise. It is also where that expertise can begin to act as a constraint.
The Trap of Doing It Yourself
The challenge is not that Arjun was wrong. The work probably was faster and more precise when he completed it. The challenge is that his role was no longer designed for him to be the primary executor. His role was to increase the capability of the team. That is a different kind of work, and it does not always feel as efficient in the moment.
We began to explore what a small shift might look like (in another blog post, I discuss taking baby steps in the direction you think is right). I asked him to identify one task that he had completed in the past week that someone else on his team could reasonably attempt. He quickly thought of a couple (that is probably a sign, in and of itself). I asked him what would need to be true for him to feel comfortable delegating it. He identified a few expectations and a rough outline of how he would approach the work.
Reframing the Role: From Executor to Builder
“How do you feel about committing to trying this at least once between now and our next session?”
“I feel like I have to give it a shot, at this point,” he responded.
The next week, he came back and said, “The result was not perfect.” That was not surprising. I asked him what he did next. He said, “I wanted to redo it, but I did not. I walked through it with him instead.”
“What stands out to you about this experience,” I inquired.
He reflected thoughtfully. “I guess it confirmed that I was right about a few things.”
I wondered for the briefest of moments if he had grown in any way or was he simply going to deploy confirmation bias and double down on his “do-it-for-yourself” habits
Then he continued. “It did take longer than it would have if I just did it myself. It was a lot messier and I would not have taken the same actions to complete it. But my team member now has a framework for tackling a similar problem next time and will likely do it more completely and with less help from me.”
I smiled in support and left space for him to continue.
“But you know what is crazy, Matt?” he said with obvious excitement in his voice.
“This whole time, if I am being honest with myself, my concern has not been about getting things done quickly or some worry about the quality of the work. Those things are important, of course. What I have been really wrestling with is the fear that if I separate myself from the work, my skills will wane.”
“What I realized in that moment was that not only was I teaching and equipping, but I was also maintaining and affirming my expertise. Through teaching, I was reminding myself of how much technical expertise I have and how much I want to share it with others.”
The Vanishing Toolbox™: A Common Leadership Pattern
What Arjun experienced was the early stage of repositioning his expertise. He was no longer using it only to produce an outcome. He was using it to develop someone else’s thinking. That is not a one-time decision. It is a pattern that needs to be built over time.
But leaders like Arjun experience what I call the fear of The Vanishing Toolbox™. They have a sense that their technical skills are slipping out of reach as they embrace the leader’s role. Often what they actually find is that their skills are refined and accentuated through finding different ways to teach them to team members.
Small Iterations, Meaningful Shifts
This is where iteration becomes useful. You do not need to redesign your role all at once. You take one task, one interaction, one moment where you choose to engage differently. You observe what happens, and you adjust. Some attempts will feel inefficient and some will feel more natural. Over time, the balance begins to shift.
A few weeks later, Arjun shared that he was starting to see his team approach problems with more confidence.
They were asking better questions, and in some cases, they were bringing him solutions rather than problems.
That did not happen because he stepped away completely. It happened because he stayed engaged in a different way.
Expertise Doesn’t Disappear — It Evolves
Expertise does not lose its value in leadership, but rather it changes its function. It becomes a tool for developing others rather than a mechanism for doing all the work yourself. That shift can feel uncomfortable at first, especially when you have built your identity around being the person who is the expert.
If you are noticing this tension in your own work, consider where your expertise might be helping you and where it might be holding you in place. Identify one small opportunity to engage differently this week. Allow it to be imperfect. Use it as a way to learn
You do not need to make a dramatic change to move forward. You can take a step, observe what happens, and take the next, right step from there.
A Practical Way to Move Forward
If this idea resonates with how you’re thinking about your own role—especially how you show up for the growth and development of others—it may be worth continuing the conversation.
There’s no pressure in that step—just an opportunity to explore how shifting from doing the work yourself to developing others can strengthen your leadership, expand your impact, and bring more intention to the way you lead.
