INSIGHTS

Are you a people leader or aspiring to be one? Whether you're in a 9-5 role or building your own business, here's something I've observed in 20+ years of developing leaders across tech, biotech, and Fortune 500 companies:

True leadership is where fantasy meets reality.

The fantasy? That your title gives you authority and you need to be the hero with all the answers.

The reality? People follow leaders who've earned their respect through consistent actions, not those who demand it through hierarchy. And great leaders multiply their impact by developing others who can lead without them.

Most first-time managers get stuck in the fantasy. They think leadership means having the solution to every problem. They exhaust themselves trying to prove they deserve the promotion.

You know what actually works? Shifting from being the hero to building heroes.

Here's the test: Ask your managers (or yourself) how many problems they solved this week versus how many problems their team solved. The ratio tells yo...