Dave Morris · The Impossible Curriculum

The Leader Should Not Be the System

Leadership should build capability that survives without constant rescue, not make one person the operating system.

Some leaders become very good at being needed.

Not intentionally, always.

Sometimes it happens because they are competent. They answer quickly. They see the issue before everyone else. They calm the room. They make the call. They unblock the work. They remember the context. They carry the tension. They translate the strategy. They know where the bodies are buried, metaphorically, legally, and sometimes in the project folder.

Useful, obviously.

Also dangerous.

Because after a while, the team does not have a leader.

It has a central nervous system with a calendar invite.