Your Future Realized
Work Smarter, Feel Lighter—The Your Future Realized Podcast is your unapologetic permission slip to ditch the grind and rediscover what makes work matter. With Laura Malinowski, you’ll get straightforward strategies, fresh experiments, and tiny wins that create practical shifts you’ll notice right away. Designed for operations leaders and their teams. Find out how to connect with your people, build steady, resilient habits, and sharpen your focus—so every workday feels more rewarding. Each episode is like having a coach in your corner, bringing you proven tools to handle anything that comes your way, strengthen what works, and keep making progress—day after day.
Your Future Realized
118: Stepping Back to Set Your Ops Team Free
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Find the full transcript, and more resources for operations executives, at YourFutureRealized.com/118.
Last year, I coached a VP of Operations. She was exhausted in that hyper-functional way. Technically knocking it out of the park but completely running on fumes.
Her team was competent. But she just couldn't stop herself from jumping in. Approving docs...looking at tickets…. rewriting timelines... sitting in meetings she didn't really need to be in.
She said: “I could step back but what if it all falls apart?”
I understand wanting to keep your sleeves rolled up and protecting what you’ve built. But a system that needs you holding post at every juncture isn’t stable anyway. The danger isn’t just burnout. It’s them never learning to run without you. And that’s a real pickle.
In this episode, you’ll get three practical steps for stepping back and letting them deliver without you.