As a leader, you want to drive success and support your team. But when every decision, approval, or process constantly funnels through you, it creates delays, frustration, and inefficiencies that compound the bigger you get. Here are three practical ways to actually fix that.
1. Use Video Messaging Instead of Meetings
Asynchronous video — Loom, Zoom Clips, Vidyard, whatever your team already has access to — replaces a huge chunk of the meetings that don’t need to be live. The rule that makes this actually work: start strong and lead with the punchline so the viewer knows exactly what they’re in for before they’ve invested a full minute. Stay focused on one topic per video, and be clear about which kind of video you’re sending — a rough brainstorm, or clear, actionable direction. Conflating the two is where these videos go to die unwatched.
2. Build in Checkpoints Instead of Waiting for “Done”
Don’t let anyone — including yourself — disappear for a week and come back with a fully-baked deliverable. Two checkpoints do most of the work:
- 15% checkpoint: a rough outline, shared early enough to catch a wrong direction before real effort goes into it - 50% checkpoint: a more developed draft that’s still genuinely flexible, not so far along that feedback feels like a teardown
This is what makes iteration possible instead of just hoping for perfection on the first try.
3. Centralize the Work in One Place
Whatever tool you use — ClickUp, Teamwork, Asana — the point is the same: clear deadlines, a real space for feedback, visible progress, and less dependency on you personally for status updates. If people can see time estimates and current state without asking you, you’ve already removed most of the reason they needed to interrupt you in the first place.
The Actual Job of a Leader
Setting vision and handing people the tools to execute it isn’t the same as micromanaging the execution. Hand off the lightsaber and trust your crew to complete the mission — that’s the job, not doing it all yourself with better software.
Schedule a call if you want help building workflows your team can actually run without you in the middle of every step.