Article 2
The Stewardship Leadership Series: Developing Leaders for a Changing World
There is a moment in many careers that is meant to feel like success.
You have worked hard. You know your job. You have built credibility. People trust your judgement. You solve problems. You deliver results.
Then one day, you are promoted.
Perhaps you become a supervisor, manager, department head or executive.
It is recognition of what you have achieved and, very often, it is thoroughly deserved.
But something else happens at the same time.
The very thing that made you successful is no longer enough to make you successful.
The job has changed.
And sometimes, no one tells you just how much.
When the Expert Becomes the Leader
Before the promotion, you may have been known as the person who could get things done.
When there was a problem, people came to you.
When an answer was needed, you had it.
When something was falling behind, you stepped in.
Your expertise was part of your value.
Then you become responsible for a team.
And naturally, you bring those same behaviours with you.
Someone encounters a problem?
You solve it.
Someone is struggling with a task?
You show them how to do it.
A deadline is at risk?
You step in and get it done.
A decision needs to be made?
You make it.
After all, these are some of the very behaviours that helped you earn the promotion.
But leadership introduces a paradox:
Some of the strengths that made us successful as individual contributors can become limitations if we do not learn how to use them differently as leaders.
The problem solver can become the person who solves everything.
The person with high standards can struggle to delegate.
The expert can become the bottleneck.
The decisive professional can unintentionally discourage others from contributing.
The person who has always been rewarded for knowing the answer can find it difficult to say:
“What do you think?”
None of this makes someone a poor leader.
It means they are making one of the most important transitions in their professional life.
From Expert to Enabler
I believe this is where the real leadership promotion occurs.
Not when the title changes.
When the mindset begins to change.
As an expert, much of my contribution may be measured by what I can do.
As a leader, an increasing part of my contribution must be measured by what I enable others to do.
That sounds simple.
In practice, it can be difficult.
Because enabling others sometimes means resisting the temptation to provide the answer immediately.
It means allowing someone to think through a problem even when you can see the solution.
It means delegating something you know you could probably do faster yourself.
It means accepting that another person’s approach may be different from yours—and still effective.
It means moving from:
“Let me do it.”
to:
“Let me help you develop the capability to do it.”
That is a very different way of measuring our value.
And for someone who has spent years building an identity around competence and expertise, it can require a significant adjustment.
Leadership Changes the Meaning of Communication
Communication is another area where the transition quickly becomes apparent.
As a technical professional, communication may often be about accuracy and information.
What needs to be done?
By when?
What is the standard?
What is the answer?
Leadership requires something more.
Now communication must also create clarity, trust, accountability and understanding.
A leader can give a perfectly clear instruction and still fail to communicate effectively.
I have heard variations of this throughout my career:
“But I told them.”
And perhaps you did.
But leadership sometimes requires another question:
“What did they understand?”
Those are not necessarily the same thing.
The people we lead do not all process information in the same way. They may have different experiences, expectations, communication preferences and levels of confidence.
Some may want clear direction.
Others may need context.
Some will readily ask questions.
Others may remain silent even when they do not understand.
And yes, generational experience may sometimes influence those expectations too.
The leadership responsibility is therefore not simply to speak.
It is to create understanding.
That requires listening as well as telling.
Questioning as well as explaining.
And sometimes adapting how we communicate without compromising what needs to be achieved.
The Difficult Conversation We Cannot Delegate
There is another part of leadership that technical expertise cannot prepare us for completely.
People are complicated.
A process can be corrected.
A spreadsheet can be recalculated.
A system can be repaired.
A difficult relationship is rarely that straightforward.
Suddenly, the new leader must deal with the employee whose performance has changed.
The tension between two team members.
The former colleague who now reports to them.
The person who is technically excellent but difficult to work with.
The employee who disagrees with a decision.
The team member who needs feedback they may not want to hear.
These moments require more than expertise.
They require judgement.
Listening.
Courage.
Empathy.
And the ability to balance the needs of the individual with the needs of the team and organization.
One of the lessons I learned during my own leadership journey was that being the leader does not mean becoming the referee for every disagreement.
Sometimes our responsibility is to help people have the conversation they are avoiding.
That can be uncomfortable.
But leadership is not always about removing discomfort.
Sometimes it is about helping people navigate it productively.
The Danger of Becoming Indispensable
There is another trap for the technically excellent leader.
Being indispensable can feel like success.
Everyone comes to you.
Every decision needs you.
Nothing important happens without your involvement.
You know exactly what is going on.
It can even feel reassuring.
But I have come to see leadership differently.
If everything stops when the leader is absent, we may not have created strength.
We may have created dependence.
Leadership should gradually increase the capability around us.
People should become more confident in their judgement.
They should learn to make decisions appropriate to their responsibilities.
They should be able to solve increasingly complex problems.
And, eventually, some of them should be capable of taking on leadership responsibilities themselves.
That does not diminish the leader.
It is evidence of leadership.
There is a profound shift here:
From being needed for everything
to developing people who are capable of doing more without us.
And perhaps that is one of the earliest expressions of stewardship.
So Who Is Responsible for Making the Transition?
We cannot place the responsibility entirely on the newly promoted leader.
Organizations have a role too.
If we promote someone because of what they have demonstrated technically, we should also recognize what they may now need to develop behaviourally.
A promotion should not simply say:
“We believe you can do this.”
It should also say:
“We are prepared to support you as you learn to do this.”
That support can take different forms.
Leadership development.
Feedback.
Mentoring.
Coaching.
Opportunities to practise.
Exposure to experienced leaders.
And, importantly, space to reflect on what is working and what is not.
Because leadership cannot be developed through theory alone.
People have to lead.
Make mistakes.
Reflect.
Adjust.
Try again.
And continue learning.
The Accidental Leader Is Not the Problem
That is why I use the term Accidental Leader carefully.
The individual is not accidental.
Their achievements are real.
Their promotion may be entirely deserved.
What we must challenge is the assumption that promotion itself creates leadership capability.
It doesn’t.
A title gives authority.
It gives responsibility.
It may give decision-making power.
But becoming a leader is a developmental journey.
And perhaps one of the most significant stages in that journey is learning that leadership is no longer primarily about demonstrating how capable I am.
It is about creating the conditions in which others can become capable too.
That is the transition:
From expert to enabler.
From solving every problem to developing problem-solvers.
From having all the answers to sometimes asking better questions.
From measuring my contribution only by what I accomplish to considering what becomes possible through the people I lead.
But making that transition requires something else.
Before I can understand how my leadership affects others, I need to understand something about myself.
My instincts.
My assumptions.
My communication.
My behaviours.
My strengths.
And perhaps even the strengths I may be overusing.
Which brings me to the next question in this series:
Who am I?
Because leadership development does not begin with changing other people.
It begins with understanding ourselves.
In Article 3, I will explore:
Who Am I? Leadership Development Begins with Self-Awareness.
