From Building the Boat to Guiding the Fleet

If you’ve recently stepped into a bigger leadership role, you might know this feeling:

You used to be in the thick of it —"building the boat", making decisions, fixing problems, seeing progress right in front of you.

Now? It feels like you’re watching the boat being built from a distance. Maybe giving direction here and there, but mostly trusting others to do the building.

Quite honestly, it can feel weird and make us doubt our value.

It’s easy to wonder:

"Am I still contributing enough?"

"Where’s my sense of accomplishment if I’m not the one doing the hands-on work?"

This is normal. Really normal. Many leaders quietly wrestle with this because our self-worth gets so tangled up in visible results. We love the satisfaction of saying, “I did that.”

But here’s a gentle reminder: There’s no "better" between building the thing and helping others build it. They’re just different. And your leadership at this is about setting the stage so greatness can happen — even when your hands aren’t on the tools.

A Few Grounding Reminders:

• Your Impact Is Multiplying: What you build through others scales far beyond what you could ever do alone.

• Celebrate the Builders: Their wins are your wins, too. Let that fill your cup.

• Anchor into Purpose, Not Proof: Shift from "What did I achieve?" to "What did we create together?"

• Patience Pays Off: Strategic leadership takes longer to show, but the results are bigger and more lasting.

  
  

Know this...you’re not losing your value — you’re evolving it! And trust me, this is where leadership gets really rewarding.

p.s. If this resonates, let me know!