Why Even the Best Leaders Get "Stuck"

I got an assistant and I moved fast. Too fast.

One of the first things I wanted off my plate was a weekly PowerPoint — a presentation I built every single week. I walked my assistant through it once. One time. I wasn't clear. I didn't actually teach it — I just showed it and assumed that counted.

The product came back rough. So I took the task back. Doing it myself was faster than fixing what didn't work. I told myself that was the smart move.

It wasn't. It was the easy one.

Months later I tried again — the slow way this time. I sat next to my assistant and we built the deck together. Not once. Several times. It cost me more time up front than just doing it myself ever did.

But it was the last time I built that presentation. My assistant owns it now.

I see the same trade in almost every leader I coach. Jacob is a good example — high performer, cared about his team, deeply authentic. Still stuck. He kept doing the heavy lifting himself instead of handing it off. He struggled to shift how he talked to people depending on who was in front of him.

Jacob didn't lack talent. He was missing a foundation.

The skills that got you promoted aren't the skills that keep you leading well. There's a floor underneath all of it, and most people never learn to check which board is missing.

I call it the Four Pillars:

• Vulnerability. The willingness to say "I need help" before you have to.

• Communication. Being understood, not just being honest.

• Collaboration. Trusting the room enough to stop being the bottleneck.

• Multiplication. Making everyone around you sharper — not just managing their output.

They build on each other. You can't collaborate well if nobody trusts you. You can't multiply people you've never actually talked to.

For Jacob, the missing board was vulnerability. He'd been burned before, and he'd decided distance was safer. It worked. It also kept his team out of reach.

I'll take each of these four one at a time over the next few weeks. For now, just do this: name the one you're avoiding.

Whichever one made you flinch reading that list — that's probably your answer.