Are you the person everyone turns to when something needs fixing? The one who solves problems, keeps things moving and makes sure everything gets done?

Being reliable and capable may have helped you build your career. But if you're still doing too much yourself, it could be holding you back from becoming the leader you want to be.

In this episode, Sarah explores why successful women leaders can become trapped in doing mode, the hidden career costs and how to make the shift from doing to leading.

Building on the previous episode, The Career Tax: What Your Success Is Costing You, Sarah shares three practical shifts to help you develop your team, create more space for strategic work and increase your impact as a leader.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why the habits that made you successful can hold you back at senior leadership level.
• How being the fixer, having high standards and needing control can keep you stuck in doing mode.
• The hidden career costs, from exhaustion and bottlenecks to missed opportunities for visibility and progression.
• Three shifts to help you move from solving to coaching, being indispensable to building independence, and reacting to creating space.
• How to recognise what's really stopping you from letting go, whether it's confidence, trust or your identity as the person who gets everything done.
• A simple experiment to help you create more time for the work that really matters.

Timestamp

00:00 Welcome to Unstuck & Unstoppable

01:35 The leadership trap: when doing it all stops you leading

02:45 Are you the person everyone turns to?

04:15 How your success habits can keep you stuck

05:30 The fixer, perfectionism and the need for control

08:20 The hidden career costs of staying in doing mode

10:45 Three shifts from doing to leading

11:00 Shift 1: Move from solving to coaching

13:20 Shift 2: Build independence instead of being indispensable

14:30 Shift 3: Move from reacting to creating space

15:45 What's really stopping you from letting go?

18:00 Your leadership experiment: what could you stop doing?

19:30 Connecting the leadership trap to the career tax

20:15 Final thoughts and how to work with Sarah

Your leadership experiment

Choose one task, problem or decision you would normally take on yourself. Pause and ask:

• Does my role really require me to own this?
• Could I delegate it, coach someone else through it, or decide it doesn't need doing?
• What could I achieve with the time and headspace I create?

Your next level of leadership may depend as much on what you're willing to stop doing as what you're prepared to take on.

Connect with Sarah

If you're ready to develop your leadership, increase your impact and create a more sustainable way of working, get in touch with Sarah to explore how coaching could help.

Useful Links

Episode 101 The Career Tax: What is your Success Costing You?

Sign up for Weekly Career Inspiration

Learn about Leadership & Advancement Coaching Programmes

Book a Free 121 Clarity Call

Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn

Rate & Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Unstuck & Unstoppable helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you're kind enough to leave a review, please do let Sarah know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: sarah@careertreecoaching.co.uk

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You're capable of more than you know. Shine brightly. Lead boldly.