Do you find yourself huffing and puffing as a tech leader? Not sure how to keep all of those plates spinning? You, my friend, need to let go of your main character syndrome.

The answer to the overwhelming load many tech executives report is rarely to work harder. Rather than piling ever more things on your plate, it’s time to embrace the existence of your team.

Your Deliverable

Leaders often lose the healthy balance between short-term and long-term goals. That’s why they take on a lot of work—that’s often the fastest route to move the particular task at the head of the board forward. Many times, that’s their safest bet. They feel like letting their team handle it is too risky.

However, your team is precisely your deliverable in the long term. Not the individual tasks. You’re supposed to create a team that’s so dramatically impactful it can deliver those tasks and more, and not be limited by your personal bandwidth.

If not even you trust the team enough to do things without your constant handholding and helicopter management, you’ve failed completely as a leader. You have to let them grow, at the cost of short-term delays and mistakes, precisely so that you create a strong team over the long-term.

Taking the Backseat

Start by putting them forward. You don’t have to be the “face” of your organization everywhere. Let them have direct contact with peers across your organization and also outside it.

Remember that your job isn’t to hide the real world from them. Many read once that management is about creating abstraction layers and took it the wrong way. You ought to allow enough exposure to what happens in the company so they have context and make smart decisions. Set them up to succeed and support them, don’t do things for them.

Also, you don’t need to be the martyr, which is another “main character syndrome” issue. Suffering isn’t leadership. It also means that you don’t need to protect the team from getting frustrated from time to time or being challenged. That’s… kinda the job, you know? That’s how people grow.

Have Fun Storming the Castle

A supporting role doesn’t mean you’re not important. The Princess Bride would’ve had a far different ending without Miracle Max’s miracle. And yet, Miracle Max is only a supporting role, and he understands it.

After doing what he needs to do and setting the gang up correctly to do what needs to be done, he doesn’t suggest doing the hard work for them. He waves at them, letting them go and do it themselves, wishing them good luck. Sometimes, that’s what you ought to do. Keep your main character energy for where it’s really needed.

And now, here I am wishing you good luck and saying I’m ready in my supporting role should you need anything. Have fun storming the castle!