When hiring makes you the bottleneck

Time to read: 4 minutes

Hi Reader

There's a point for every leader when you stop doing everything. Whether you're scaling a business, leading a team, or even working solo but bringing in support.

You've hired. Started outsourcing. Delegated. You've built support around you to help scale your impact.

But everything still runs through you.

Decisions pause until you weigh in. Quality hinges on your final check. Progress slows if you're unavailable.

You're not doing it all. But you're still at the heart of the system that everything depends on.

And that's not strategic leadership. It's a recipe for burnout, bottlenecks, and stalled growth.

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You didn't build a system. You became one.

Here's what that can look like in practice:

• Your lead drafts the deck, but you still rewrite the slides the night before.
• Your team updates are solid, but you jump in regularly because something isn't quite right.
• You hired a VA, but every client email still gets your polish before it's sent.

You think you've created infrastructure. But you've really just created more dependencies on you.

As one founder-leader put it: "Hiring was supposed to give me space. But instead, I just became the point that everything runs through."

And that's exhausting. Not just because of the workload, but because of what it costs you to stay central to everything and everyone. The mental overhead of being the final word on everything. The guilt when you're not available. The creeping realisation that growth depends entirely on your capacity to manage it all.

You might even start to wonder: Am I running a business or team, or is it running me?

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Why we really stay central to everything

It's not just an operational trap that keeps you at the centre. It's emotional. It's tied to your identity.

Staying at the centre proves something. That you're still essential. That your standards matter. That you haven't become disconnected from the work that built your reputation.

But dig deeper, and there's more going on. You feel that no one else gets it quite right. Not like you do. You're protecting the reputation of the business and team, but ultimately, you're protecting yourself. And, if you're honest, you might still see the team as extra hands, not unique contributing members in their own right.

And from their side? It's frustrating. They feel second-guessed, underused, or stuck waiting for your nod. They stop stretching because you're still holding everything.

Every time you step in to "make sure it's right," you're reinforcing that their version isn't enough. And they learn to wait for you rather than own the outcome.

And slowly, quietly, you remain the centre of gravity for everything.

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What shifts when you learn to step back

Delegation only works when you shift how you're needed, not just what you do.

Not as the final editor, but as the one who sets the editing standards. Not as the quality checker, but as the one who defines what quality looks like. Then trusts others to deliver it.

We don't want to lower standards. But we need to build them into the system, instead of being the system that enforces them.

That requires something many leaders struggle with: clarity about what "quality outcomes" actually means. And the courage to let someone else be responsible for reaching it.

And when you step out of the system, something better takes shape. Others start owning outcomes, not just tasks. Standards become shared principles, not personal preferences. And you finally get the space you hired for in the first place.

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Ready to reshape how you lead your team and build a business that operates without you holding it all together? I’ve got space to help one ambitious founder make that shift. Reply if you’re ready to explore how. (Or forward this to a founder friend who needs it)

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Wrapping up

Letting go means more than freeing up time. It reshapes how you lead and how others show up. When you stop being the system and build one that can run without you, people step up and space opens for what's next.

Perfection done by you doesn't scale. But a system that starts to work without you? That's where the most exciting growth begins.

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Stay ambitious.

Rob

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Sparked Ambition Ltd | ​linkedin.com/in/robstubbs​

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