When Being Good at Your Job Isn’t Enough Anymore

Being great at your job can actually hold you back once you become the leader. I learned that the hard part of leadership is rarely the work itself. It’s the people side: different personalities, different priorities, different communication styles, and the uncomfortable truth that what seems obvious to me may not be obvious to someone else.

I tell a story from early in my career managing a large project on a ranch, where two capable leaders could not have been more different. One tested limits and stirred things up, the other led with grounded, values-first calm. Both cared deeply about the work, yet their differences felt like a “problem” until I realised I was expecting them to operate like me. That insight reshaped how I think about leadership development, emotional intelligence, and the real job of a manager: translating across perspectives so the team can move together.

We also unpack a common trap for high-performing new leaders: becoming the bottleneck. When we jump in to solve, answer, and rescue, we accidentally train our teams to depend on us. It feels efficient at first, then it becomes exhausting, and it keeps others from growing. The shift that changes everything is moving from “What do I need to accomplish?” to “How do I help my team succeed?” and bringing curiosity into the conversations you’ve been avoiding.

If you want a practical next clear move, start with one person who frustrates you and ask a better question: how might they be seeing this differently than I am? Subscribe to Getting to Clarity, share this with a fellow leader, and leave a review if it helps you lead with less sacrifice and more impact.

Transcript

Welcome And The Core Question

Debbie Peterson 0:00

Hey, hello, and welcome back. I am Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity, and this is another episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. The podcast is about identifying your next clear move. Because when it comes to your next level in your career or your leadership, you don't have to have the whole thing figured out. You just need to know your next clear move, and that will get you into action. So today, the topic we are chatting about to contribute to that is this when being good at your job just isn't enough anymore. So stay tuned to find out what I mean.

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Welcome to the Getting to Clarity Podcast.

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The place where busy leaders discover how to create more success in their leadership journey with less sacrifice in their life.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Here's your host, Debbie Peterson of Getting to Clarity.

Leadership Is More Than Performance

Debbie Peterson 0:57

You know, I wish when I was younger that someone would have told me sooner that leadership is about more than performance. It's about people. So earlier in my career, I thought that leadership was the next step after becoming really good at my job. You know, work hard, keep your head down, produce, solve problems, take ownership, step up, say yes, all of those things. Those were the qualities that earned opportunities and then eventually led to management responsibility, or at least that's what I thought in my world. But what nobody explained was that leadership would require an entirely different set of skills. The work wasn't the hard part, the people were.

The Ranch Story And Opposite Styles

Debbie Peterson 1:45

So let me introduce you to the ranch. One of my first real lessons in my leadership came while managing a large project. It was a ranch. And I was the project manager. And for the first time, I had people reporting up through me. And I quickly discovered that something that probably sounds obvious now, but it wasn't obvious then. Not everyone sees the world the way that I do. Okay. So at the ranch, I had a livestock manager who was this big Texas boy, rodeo boy, and um he was a pot stir. He really loved stirring things up. And if there was a way to kind of shoot one over the bow just to see what happened, well, then he'd find it metaphorically, of course. But on the other side of the equation is a supervisor that I had at the ranch who was uh hortic into horticulture. That was her responsibility. And she was the embodiment of Mother Earth, right? If you ever met someone who could hug a tree and make it feel appreciated, that was her. Okay. Um, these two were polar opposites and uh different personalities, different priorities, different communication styles. And yet both of them really cared about the ranch and wanted to do a good job. So at the time I saw their differences as a problem that I needed to solve. Now looking back, I see something else. I was expecting them to operate the same way that I did, and

Why Old Strengths Become Obstacles

Debbie Peterson 3:32

they were also expecting me to operate the way that they did. So everybody's on a different page. So that was what I have um discovered, especially in talking to new leaders, that it's a big surprise that new leaders encounter. The skills that help them get to where they got, they're not what are gonna get them to where they want to go, especially as a leader. So those skills that helped you as an individual contributor, they can very quietly become obstacles when you're leading other people. So as individual contributors, you know, we're rewarded for getting things done. We solve problems, we, you know, get things done quickly. We become maybe subject matter experts, we get promoted, and then suddenly responsible for people who don't think like us, that don't communicate like us, that don't solve problems like us. And that's when leadership can get really interesting. So here's what I know to be true is the way I see the world isn't the way the world is. It's simply the way that I see it. And that is the same for every person on your team. What seems obvious to you may not be obvious to them. What motivates you may not motivate them. What feels urgent to you may not feel urgent

When You Become The Bottleneck

Debbie Peterson 4:56

to them. And once I began to understand that, my approach changed. And I stopped looking at every snag as evidence that someone was doing something wrong. And instead, I got curious. How were they seeing the situation? What's important to them in this situation? How could I communicate in a way that they could actually hear it, do something with it, pick it up, understand it the way that I understood it? So curiosity and asking questions served me better than assuming I already had the answers. But sometimes leaders don't make that shift and they can become the bottleneck. They keep operating as high-performing individual contributors who happen to have direct reports. They jump in to solve problems. Um, they answer questions instead of letting other people ask questions. They take work back because it's easier or faster. Um, they don't want to delegate, and therefore they carry more and more. And at first, it feels productive. You know, you're needed, you're you're getting things done. Uh maybe you it makes you feel important, but eventually it will become exhausting. Take it from me, because that's exactly what happened. And it's not because the team isn't capable, it's because the leader is trying to do two jobs at once, theirs and the teams. And so here's where the unintended consequence happens. The team becomes dependent on the leader. So we teach people how to treat us, right? So people wait for answers that they could have figured out by themselves. Um, they bring every problem to the leader because that's what they've been taught to do. And it's not because they're incapable, but it's literally because that's what they've been taught to do. And the thing is, as as leaders, we don't want that, right? We're working hard because we care. Um, you know, we're stepping in because we want to help. But at some point, it's not helpful. You know, leadership stops being about me, and it needs to start being about the we. So the question shifts from what do I need to accomplish to how do I help my team to succeed? How do I help them to do this? And that's a very different job description. And it's one that a lot of people are never formally taught.

Curiosity As Your Next Clear Move

Debbie Peterson 7:19

So, what is your next clear move? Because that's what this podcast is all about. If you're finding leadership harder than you expected, it may not be because you're doing something wrong. It may be simply because you're using yesterday's success formula or techniques for today's responsibilities. Think about someone on your team who frustrates you. Um, maybe you've labeled them as the problem child. Now, before deciding what they need to change or change about them, ask yourself one question. How might they be seeing a situation or a particular situation differently than you are? Maybe you approach the next conversation with curiosity instead of your own certainty. And you don't have to agree with their perspective, but by being curious and understanding their perspective, it may give you exactly what you need to be able to lead them more effectively. Leadership was never about what you could produce by yourself, it's always about what you can draw out of the people around you. And the sooner that you make that shift, the sooner everything else starts to change. In the meantime, I hope that you get the clarity that you deserve. And take care, be good to yourself, and bye-bye for now.

Closing And How To Stay Connected

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Getting to Clarity Podcast with Debbie Peterson.

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If you enjoyed this show, please rate and recommend it on iTunes or wherever you enjoy your podcast.

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To learn more about how you can bring Debbie and her transformational clarity leadership strategies to your organization, visit Debbie PetersonSpeaks.com.