By Eva Szekeres
“The goal wasn’t simply to delegate more. It was to redefine what leadership success looked like.”
When I began working with a senior vice president of global operations at a large bank, it was easy to see why people trusted her. She led a large, high-visibility function with precision, reliability, and an almost unshakeable sense of ownership. If something needed to get done — and done well — her colleagues knew they could count on her.
Her team’s experience was a little more complicated. They saw a leader who was fair, principled, and deeply committed. But they also saw someone who found it hard to step back, delegate meaningful responsibility, and let others own decisions — even relatively small ones.
The very qualities that had helped her build a successful career were beginning to limit what she could accomplish next. She didn’t need to lower her standards or become less accountable. She needed to rethink what responsibility looked like at her level: moving from being the person who always had the answers to being the leader who could let her team come up with their own answers.
When a Strength Starts to Limit a Leader’s Impact
Behind this pattern was a strong internal standard for “getting it right,” along with real discomfort handing over work she could not fully control. She was accustomed to being the person who knew the work best and was on top of every detail.
For a long time, that had been one of her greatest strengths. She knew the work, noticed what others missed, and consistently delivered. But now too many decisions still flowed through her. Her direct reports didn’t have opportunities to exercise their judgment and gain organizational visibility, while she had less time and energy for the strategic work her role as a key executive increasingly required.
This is a tension many high-performing executives eventually encounter: the habits that built their credibility do not always create the space other people need to grow. For this client, moving forward meant adopting a different measure of success.
Redefining What Leadership Success Looked Like
Our work focused on three connected shifts:
- Giving her direct reports to have more autonomy and greater visibility with senior leaders.
- Strengthening her own strategic presence and influence beyond day-to-day operations.
- And building a healthier, more sustainable relationship with her workload.
On the surface, her goal might seem simple: delegate more. But the real work went deeper than that. Delegation would only stick if she changed the beliefs driving her behavior. She needed to recognize that helping others grow and succeed was just as important as ensuring the work was done well.
Using Feedback to Make the Pattern Visible
We began with a qualitative 360-degree assessment, gathering candid input from peers, direct reports, and senior stakeholders. We paired that feedback with an Enneagram-based self-awareness assessment.
Together, they brought the pattern into focus. She realized she believed the work would only be done right if she did it herself or checked it closely. The combination of outside feedback and deeper self-awareness helped her examine that belief without becoming defensive or seeing it as a personal failing. That was an important turning point: instead of feeling criticized, she could become curious about what was driving her behavior and begin making different choices.
Practicing the Discipline of Stepping Back
From there, we turned insight into practice. In meetings, she deliberately stayed quiet and let her leaders speak first. She handed full ownership of major initiatives to direct reports, stepping into an advisory role instead of directing the work. And when she felt the familiar urge to correct something in the moment, she practiced holding back.
She also began attending fewer operational meetings and receiving updates through her team. This was not always comfortable or easy. It meant giving up immediate access and a degree of control. But it also gave her direct reports the room they needed to build confidence, judgment, and credibility.
At the same time, she made space for more visible strategic work of her own. She joined executive-level forums, built relationships with peer leaders across the business, and intentionally asked bigger-picture questions instead of defaulting to tactical ones. As her team took on more operational ownership, she could contribute more fully at the level her role required.
Making the Change Sustainable
We also focused on how she managed her time and energy. She established clearer work hours, made regular physical activity a priority, and set boundaries around evenings and weekends. This was an important part of the coaching process because it challenged her belief that being a committed and effective leader meant always being available and involved. As she learned to protect her own well-being, she became better able to step back, give others more ownership, and lead in a way she could sustain for the long term.
Understanding the Leader Behind the Leadership Style
Part of our work involved looking beyond her day-to-day leadership challenges to better understand the experiences that had shaped her approach. One exercise, writing her life story, helped her identify patterns and motivations she had never fully recognized. This was not about revisiting the past for its own sake. It gave her useful context for understanding why she held on so tightly to responsibility and why stepping back could feel uncomfortable.
With that understanding, she could make more intentional choices about how she wanted to lead. By the end of our work, she had a clearer sense of the leader she wanted to be and the changes she needed to make to become that leader.
The Shift: Before and After
Before the engagement, she was known as the person who got things done. Her expertise, high standards, and attention to detail had earned enormous trust. But they also kept her at the center of too many decisions. Her team had fewer opportunities to stretch, lead important work, and build confidence in their own judgment. Meanwhile, she had little time or energy left for the strategic priorities that needed her attention.
As she learned to step back, her team began to step forward. Several direct reports took ownership of enterprise-level initiatives and gained visibility with senior executives — opportunities they would not have had a year earlier. With more space to focus on the bigger picture, she strengthened relationships across the organization and helped others see her team as a strategic partner, not simply an operational function. She told me that she felt more energized and less resentful in her role.
Her reputation began to change, too. She was still known as someone who delivered exceptional work. Now, she was also becoming known as a leader who helped others do the same.
What This Engagement Reinforced for Me as a Coach
Leaders with the highest internal standards can easily mistake control for responsibility.
Maintaining high standards does not require a leader to stay at the center of everything. At the executive level, a leader is responsible not only for the quality of the work, but also for developing capable, confident people who can take ownership of it.
That shift rarely happens through one dramatic breakthrough. It happens in small moments: staying quiet long enough for someone else to answer, trusting a direct report with an important initiative, or resisting the urge to step in and correct the work. Each choice may seem small, but together they change how a leader shows up and, eventually, how she understands her role.
This engagement reinforced my belief that meaningful coaching requires both trust and challenge. My style is warm and direct. I listen closely, ask questions that reach beneath the immediate issue, and help clients examine patterns they may not have recognized on their own.
I care as much about who my clients are becoming as I do about what they achieve. The professional challenge and the personal insight behind it are often part of the same conversation. When clients feel genuinely understood, they can be honest about what is working, what is holding them back, and what they are ready to change. That is where meaningful, lasting growth begins.