What if the most helpful thing you can do as a leader is not step in?

In this solo episode of Leading Well with Steph Edusei, Steph explores the instinct to fix, why being useful can become so closely tied to our sense of worth, and what changes when we learn that leadership does not always require us to have the answer.

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Drawing on her years working in the NHS, Steph reflects on how comfortable she became with problems that needed solving. Someone is struggling, something isn't working, there is a difficult issue to untangle, and her instinct is to find the route through.

But not everything in leadership is a problem to be solved. People aren't problems. Emotions aren't problems. Discomfort isn't necessarily something we should rush to remove. Building on her recent conversation with Dr Asha Patel about trauma-informed leadership, Steph asks whether understanding what someone is experiencing always means taking responsibility for making it better.

She also considers what happens when our identity becomes wrapped up in being the person who can sort things out, and whether some women carry wider expectations about helping, caring and keeping everyone happy into their leadership.

This isn't an argument for stepping back from genuine leadership responsibility. Sometimes we need to intervene, challenge unfairness, remove barriers or make the decision. It is an invitation to notice the difference between supporting someone and carrying them, and to ask whether stepping in is genuinely what they need.

In this episode, Steph explores:

• Why the instinct to fix can become part of our leadership identity
• What her NHS background taught her about solving problems and taking action
• Why understanding somebody does not automatically make their difficulty ours to solve
• The possible gendered expectations around being helpful, caring and keeping everyone happy
• Why compassion is not the same as rescuing people
• The difference between supporting someone and carrying them
• Why saying “I don't know yet” can sometimes be an honest leadership response
• How asking “What do you need from me?” can create space for others to think and act for themselves

Leading Well is a podcast for people who want to lead with clarity, care and integrity, without losing themselves in the process.

Leading Well - leadership support: https://www.stephedusei.co.uk/leading-well

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