Not Everything Needs Your Input

Ever feel like you have to be involved in everything?

Every session, every decision, every small detail. That’s usually how it starts when you move into a lead S&C role. You care. You want standards to be high. You want things done properly. So naturally, you step in, you correct, you add, you guide.

But over time, something starts to happen. The more you step in, the less others step up.

I think we have all seen this over and over again. Good coaches, with good intentions, slowly becoming the bottleneck in their own environment. Not because they lack knowledge, but because they struggle to let go, and let someone take over.

Because leadership isn’t just about setting the standard. It’s about creating space for others to meet.

It means letting another less experienced coach run the session without jumping in straight away. It means allowing them to make a mistake and learn from it. It means holding back, even when you know you could fix it in two seconds. That doesn’t mean lowering standards. It means trusting the people around you.

Because if every answer comes from you, what happens when you’re not there?

So next time you feel the urge to step in, pause for a second and ask yourself: is this something I need to fix, or something they need to figure out? Because the goal isn’t to be the most involved coach in the room. It’s to build an environment that doesn’t rely on you being involved in everything.

Food for thought

Michael