Greg Stevenson argues that the strengths that got you promoted, like being the go-to problem solver, become a ceiling at higher levels. Leadership shifts from having answers to creating space for others to contribute. You have to drop the habits that made you successful before.
The strength that got you here is quietly becoming your ceiling. You got promoted for being the one with the answers, the sharpest in the room, the one who could fix it. So you keep doing that, but harder, and you cannot understand why the next level is not coming to you. Here is the trap. At the top, the job is no longer to have the answers. It is to build a room where the best answer can come from anyone. But that means letting go of the very thing that made you. The performer has to become the person who creates the conditions. Most never make that shift. What are you still performing that you need to put down?
