Is Your Organisation Too Dependent on Its Leader?

There is a point when being the person everyone turns to can stop being a sign of effective leadership and start becoming a sign of organisational dependency.

You may notice that decisions keep coming back to you. Teams wait for approval. Difficult conversations find their way to your desk. Even capable people hesitate when they are unsure whether they have the authority to act.

This does not necessarily mean your people lack capability. Sometimes, the organisation has simply become too dependent on the knowledge, judgement and authority of a few leaders.

Healthy leadership capacity looks different. It allows decisions to be made closer to where the work happens, while leaders provide the clarity, context and support people need to make good decisions.

The question, then, is not only "How effective am I as a leader?" It is also "How much leadership capacity exists other than what I bring?"

An organisation becomes stronger when people can think, decide and act within their jurisdiction without constantly looking to the leaders.

Perhaps one of the most useful questions for a leader is, “What still depends on me that should now be held by others?”