Are you needed?

Early on in my leadership, I confused being needed with being a good leader.

If everything ran through me, I mattered.

I never have said it out loud.

It was a constant thought in my head.

Then I took a week off.

And came back to a team that had handled everything fine without me.

And in all honesty, my first feeling wasn't relief.

It was a mild panic.

Because the thing I kept thinking was this:

If they don't need me, what am I for?

It took me a while to learn the answer.

You're for building the thing that runs without you.

Not the thing that depends on you.

Because the real job was never to be needed.

It was to grow people who need you a little less every year.

That's not becoming irrelevant as a leader.

That's exactly what it is to be a leader.