Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building, and goalajiving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellovledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode three ninety and today we're talking about something
Speaker 2: that might sting a little, but it's one of the
Speaker 2: most important leadership blind spots out there. Stop being a bottleneck.
Speaker 2: We're going to break down how managers unintentionally slow things
Speaker 2: down and more importantly, how to fix it. First, let's
Speaker 2: talk about the bottleneck problem. Every business has goals, every
Speaker 2: team has momentum, and every process has friction. But when
Speaker 2: the friction is you, the manager or leader, that's a problem.
Speaker 2: You may not mean to slow things down. You're not
Speaker 2: trying to stall innovation, miss deadlines, or even frustrate your team.
Speaker 2: But if your team is constantly waiting on you to approve, decide, delegate,
Speaker 2: or weigh in, you are the bottleneck. And bottlenecks don't
Speaker 2: always look like indecision or micromanagement. Sometimes they're disguised as
Speaker 2: wanting to get it perfect before giving the green light,
Speaker 2: or always needing to be the final voice in the room,
Speaker 2: or taking days to respond to emails because you're too busy,
Speaker 2: or hoarding knowledge, or refusing to teach others how to
Speaker 2: do what you do. If any of that sounds familiar,
Speaker 2: it's time to get honest with yourself, not to beat
Speaker 2: yourself up, but to adjust. Here are three signs that
Speaker 2: you are the bottleneck and you might be slowing things down.
Speaker 2: Number one, your team constantly asks did you hear back
Speaker 2: from them yet? If your name is the common thread
Speaker 2: in the delay, that's a red flag. Number two, projects
Speaker 2: stall at your desk. You start things but they don't finish,
Speaker 2: or you assign things but never check back. In Number three,
Speaker 2: you feel like you're the only one who knows how
Speaker 2: to do it, so instead of teaching, you keep doing
Speaker 2: it yourself. Sound familiar. That's how leaders unintentionally become the ceiling.
Speaker 2: Your team's capacity is now tied directly to your availability.
Speaker 2: And let's be real, it's not always ego. Sometimes leaders
Speaker 2: become bottlenecks because they're overwhelmed, they think they're protecting the team,
Speaker 2: They don't trust that others will get it done the
Speaker 2: right way, or they've never learned how to build a
Speaker 2: self sustaining team. This is where good intention meets bad outcome.
Speaker 2: So how do you fix it? Here are four practical
Speaker 2: ways to stop being a bottleneck and start being a
Speaker 2: flow through leader. Number one, give away authority, not just tasks.
Speaker 2: Don't just delegate the doing, delegate the deciding. If everything
Speaker 2: still needs your signature, your inbox becomes the choke point.
Speaker 2: Empower others to make the call, then support them publicly.
Speaker 2: Number two, set deadlines for yourself. If a team member
Speaker 2: needs a decision from you, don't make them chase you down.
Speaker 2: Set a personal deadline, put it on your calendar and
Speaker 2: meet it. Number three build systems not silos. If everything
Speaker 2: you know lives only in your head, your absence stalls
Speaker 2: the machine, document the process, train your people, make yourself optional,
Speaker 2: and number four audit your decision touch points. Ask yourself,
Speaker 2: do I really need to be involved in this step?
Speaker 2: If not, get out of the way. Create fewer approvals,
Speaker 2: simplify the chain of command. And here's a test that
Speaker 2: you can try next week. Pick one project, step back,
Speaker 2: remove yourself as the go to person. Instead, assign ownership
Speaker 2: to someone else and let them lead it front to back.
Speaker 2: Will they do it exactly like you probably not. Will
Speaker 2: they make a few mistakes, maybe, but will they grow
Speaker 2: and move the ball forward? Absolutely. Your job isn't to
Speaker 2: be the smartest person in the room. It's to build
Speaker 2: a room full of people who don't need you to
Speaker 2: be in it every second. So if your team is
Speaker 2: waiting on you, then you're not leading, your limiting. You're
Speaker 2: the reason the anchor is stuck in the mud. It
Speaker 2: should never be that way. It's not a character flaw.
Speaker 2: It's a fixable pattern if you're willing to fix it.
Speaker 2: Because leadership isn't about holding on, It's about letting go strategically,
Speaker 2: responsibly and with trust. So let your team breathe, let
Speaker 2: them move. You'll get more done, they'll feel more valued,
Speaker 2: and you will learn more respect. And that's what great
Speaker 2: leadership looks like. This has been the seven Minute Leadership
Speaker 2: Podcast and I thank you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot com.