Lead, Don't Rescue Part 6: A New Kind of Leader

Jun 16, 2025

Why multiplying leaders beats managing people—and how to step into that role.

By now, you’ve seen the pattern:

Rescuing feels good in the moment, but holds people back.
Leading through development takes longer, but builds lasting growth.
If everything depends on you, you’re not leading—you’re bottlenecking.
Bottleneck traps you into the hero role and robs growth from those you lead.

So what does real leadership look like?
What kind of leader builds something that lasts?

A New Kind of Leader

The old model of leadership was all about you:

You had the answers.
You solved the problems.
You saved the day.
You were always exhausted and overwhelmed.

Here's the shift: modern leadership isn’t about being the hero.
It’s about growing leaders that grow leaders.

In other words—you’re not the ceiling. You’re the launchpad.

How to Start Becoming This Leader

1. Ask more than you tell.
Challenge your people to think, own, and decide.
“What do you recommend?” is a powerful leadership question.

2. Define ownership clearly.
When people know what they own—and what success looks like—they rise.

3. Let them stumble.
Safe-to-fail moments build stronger leaders.
Be the coach, not the crutch.

4. Go upstream.
Stop rescuing symptoms. Start solving at the root: people, processes, culture.

Why It Matters

When you become this kind of leader:

You multiply your impact.
You free yourself from the day-to-day bottleneck.
You build a team that leads even when you’re not in the room.

The result is you create an organization that isn’t just productive—but transformational.

Lead. Don’t Rescue.

It’s not easy.
It takes humility.
It requires letting go of control.

But it’s the kind of leadership the world needs more of, and you can start today.

🎯 Action Step:

Take one situation this week where you’d normally “rescue...”
Pause. Ask. Coach.
Then watch them rise.

That wraps up our starter series on Lead, Don’t Rescue—but this is just the beginning.

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