Why the Most Reliable Leader Often Becomes the Bottleneck
January 14, 2026
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Most managers were promoted because they were great at their previous job.
Just the thought of losing them to the competition caused heartburn. The reason why is they delivered, fixed problems, and were the person others depended on when quality mattered. That level of excellence earned trust and eventually earned a promotion.
Which almost always came with the responsibility of leading people who were not operating at the same level yet.
What follows is usually well-intentioned.
When work is not up to standard, the manager steps in. When something is unclear, they clarify it themselves. When a deadline is at risk, they fix it so the team can move forward. Nothing is going to get in the way of a world-class deliverable.
At first, this feels like a part of the new job for the manager.
Over time, it becomes exhausting for both the manager and the team member. It created a problem no one intended.
The new manager became the bottleneck and most reliable person on the team again.
This is not a failure of leadership character. It is a predictable human response.
When pressure increases, people instinctively fall back on what made them successful before. For high-performing individual contributors, that strength is execution. Fixing problems feels faster and safer than slowing down to develop someone else.
Research on first-time managers supports this. A large percentage struggle in their first two years, not because they lack effort or intelligence, but because they remain stuck in doing instead of fully shifting into leading. What feels like efficiency in the short term quietly creates dependence over time.
Fixing work feels helpful but repeating it creates dependence.
Outside of a new manager working hard on their coaching and development skills, this primarily happens because leaders don’t grasp three key words: responsibility, ownership, and accountability. While they are certainly related, they are not interchangeable.
Responsibility is assigned. It comes from a role, a title, or a manager. It answers the question: What am I supposed to do?
Ownership is taken. It cannot be assigned. It is a choice. It answers the question: “Am I willing to do what it takes to get this right?“
Accountability is being answerable for both the inputs and the outputs. This is a core obligation of leadership.
Most breakdowns occur when leaders keep reassigning responsibility, hoping it will turn into ownership, while quietly carrying ownership of their work and all the accountability for the entire team. Over time, this creates frustration for the leader and feelings of micromanagement for the team member.
You should believe in people’s potential. In fact, if you don’t believe people can grow and get better, leadership isn’t for you.
But the reality is that learning a role, understanding a business, or mastering a skill can take years. That is development, and it’s normal. So, expecting mastery too quickly is unrealistic.
Production is different.
Basic execution, reliability, and visible progress should emerge much sooner. If someone is not demonstrating the fundamentals within six months, that is rarely a potential issue. More often, it is a fit issue or an expectation issue.
Great leaders learn to hold both truths at the same time. They are patient with development while remaining clear about production. Said differently,
Potential explains the future. Production determines the present.
And as Indiana Head coach Curt Cignetti says, “I am into production, not potential.”
When you fix work, I truly believe you are helping, because I have done the same. However, when you repeat that behavior consistently, you unintentionally teach where accountability lives.
Over time, you grow frustrated, and the team member feels micromanaged. Neither side feels good about the relationship, and both struggle to articulate why.
Reliability is a strength, but if you are not careful, it becomes a ceiling and a bottleneck that limits growth and prevents scalability.
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About the Author: John Eades is the CEO of LearnLoft and The Sales Infrastructure. He was named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices. John is also the author of Building the Best: 8 Proven Leadership Principles to Elevate Others to Success. You can follow him on Instagram @johngeades.
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