Escaping the Trap of Your Own Expertise
- Apr 3
- 2 min read
The Next Logical Step
I still remember the excitement of being promoted to lead my first technical team. I had worked tirelessly, mastered my craft (pluripotent stem cell culture), and earned the reputation of being the go-to person when things got complicated. In my mind, leadership was just the next logical step on the path. I thought I would just do what I had always done, only bigger, better, and with a title.
Drowning in My Own Expertise
But very quickly, that dream transitioned into a relentless grind.
Instead of leading, I was drowning. I found it nearly impossible to step away from the technical work. When a complex troubleshooting case came in, my hands were immediately on the keyboard. When my team members faced a roadblock, I didn't pause to coach them through it; I gave them the answer. Sometimes, to save time, I just fixed it myself.
The result was an incredibly painful cycle. I was exhausted, constantly over-capacity, and teetering on the edge of complete burnout. Meanwhile, my team was inadvertently becoming entirely dependent on me. I was bottlenecking their growth while suffocating under the weight of my own workload.
Discovering the Super-Doer Trap
It wasn’t until I encountered Marshall Goldsmith’s brilliant book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, that the reality of my situation finally clicked.
I was caught in the "Super-Doer" trap.
Underneath the burnout, the over-functioning, and the unintentional micromanaging, there was a deeply ingrained, limiting belief: I believed my value still lay in the technical expertise that had set me apart as an individual contributor. The very attributes that had earned me the promotion were the exact ones working against me as a manager. What got me here was being the ultimate, hands-on problem solver. What was keeping me from getting there was my inability to let someone else solve the problem.
From Chief Fixer to Coach
I had to learn a difficult truth: Leadership is not about having all the answers. It is the courageous act of creating the space for your team to find their own.
This required a fundamental shift in my identity. I had to stop seeing myself as the "Chief Fixer" and start stepping into the role of a coach. When a team member came to me with a problem, I had to learn the quiet liberation of biting my tongue, holding back the urge to jump into the technical weeds, and instead asking, "What have you tried so far?" or "How do you think we should approach this?"
Unlocking a New Superpower
Letting go of the "doing" initially felt like stepping into the void. It felt like I was surrendering my superpower. But in reality, I was unlocking a new one.
When you stop being the super-doer, you empower a team of capable doers. You trade the fleeting rush of fixing a single technical problem for the profound, lasting fulfillment of watching your team grow, take ownership, and thrive without you.
Are you holding onto the very things that are holding you back? If you are a new leader feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders, I invite you to ask yourself: What is one task you can step back from today, to allow your team to step up?
