Why Success Can Hold You Back: 3 Actions to Grow Your Leadership Impact
The path to senior leadership contains an unexpected twist: the very behaviors that fuel early career success often become barriers to advancement. For ambitious professionals in large organizations, this paradox can create frustration, burnout, and a sense of being trapped by their own achievements.
The High Achiever's Mindset: Both Asset and Liability
High achievers share common traits that initially accelerate their careers. They're detail-oriented, take ownership of their work, and have an unwavering commitment to excellence. They consistently deliver results, take pride in their expertise, and often become the go-to person for critical projects.
But these same qualities can create invisible barriers. The perfectionist who stays up until 2 AM fixing presentations may be undermining their team's growth. The manager who handles every crisis personally might be preventing their organization from developing resilience. As a leader, your role is to empower your team, set direction, and influence others. The drive to do everything at the highest level can paradoxically limit impact because you’re spending time on execution, not leadership.
The Comfort Zone of Competence
Many successful professionals find themselves stuck in what might be called the "comfort zone of competence." They've mastered their current role but hesitate to adopt new behaviors that feel risky or uncomfortable. The thought of deliberately doing less – or letting others handle important work – can trigger anxiety about maintaining standards and reputation.
The CEO of a rapid-growth startup described feeling guilty & worried he was shirking responsibility as he pared back his hours, from 65 hrs/wk to 55 hrs/wk. Yet he also knew by working fewer hours, he was empowering his team and able to think strategically — things he wasn’t doing when he was cranking out more work.
Change is uncomfortable, but resistance to change is problematic. Senior leadership requires fundamentally different skills than those that drive success at lower levels. Breaking free from tactical execution to true leadership requires three essential shifts.
Three Keys to Breaking Free
1. Leverage Your Team Through Delegation
Success at higher levels demands moving beyond personal productivity to unleashing the potential of others. Rather than staying up late to fix subpar work, use these moments as coaching opportunities. Empowering your team isn't just about delegating tasks – it's about fostering growth and building capabilities. When team members deliver work that doesn't meet standards, use it as a learning opportunity rather than a problem to fix.
2. Focus on Relationships
Build connections not just with your team, but with peers and leaders across the organization. Particularly important are relationships with your boss's peers – those at the next level who can influence your success and career progression. These relationships help you understand broader organizational perspectives and create the foundation for future opportunities.
3. Expand Your Influence
Look beyond your core responsibilities to areas where you can add value through influence. This means contributing perspectives and expertise to important initiatives outside your direct authority, while avoiding areas where you lack relevant expertise. This strategic influence demonstrates your ability to think broadly and understand the company perspective. (Listen to this podcast episode to hear how Apple categorizes & prioritizes work.)
Making the Transition
The path from high achiever to senior leader isn't easy – it requires stepping out of deeply ingrained habits and embracing short-term discomfort for long-term growth. While others may admire your courage to change, you might feel nervous about letting go of proven success patterns.
Remember: what got you here won't get you there. The discomfort of changing familiar patterns is temporary, but the limitations of staying within them are permanent. Your next level of success waits on the other side of this transition.
The question isn't whether you know how to make these changes – it's whether you're willing to push through the discomfort of doing something different.
