There’s something intoxicating about being the one with all the answers. People look to you. You step in and save the day. You earn trust by being right, fast, and decisive.
Until one day, it stops working.
Projects stall. Teams defer. People wait for your input before making a move. And somehow, despite being surrounded by bright, capable professionals… everything starts running through you.
That’s the leadership trap. And if you’re the smartest person in the room, you might already be in it.
There’s nothing wrong with being knowledgeable. The problem starts when your expertise becomes a bottleneck. When your identity as a leader is tied to being the hero, the fixer, or the go-to answer machine.
What seems like high performance quickly becomes hidden friction:
Over time, you trade speed for dependency. Creativity for compliance. Growth for control.
The highest-performing teams we’ve worked with at Centered share a surprising quality: they’re not driven by the smartest person in the room—they’re empowered by the most facilitative one.
These leaders don’t dominate conversations. They design them.
They don’t make every decision. They create the conditions for teams to make great ones together.
They know their job isn’t to provide all the answers. It’s to unlock the team’s ability to explore better questions.
If you’re used to being the expert, shifting out of that role can feel disorienting. But it doesn’t mean stepping back—it means showing up differently. Here’s how:
Rather than telling your team what to do, design the environment they need to solve it themselves. That might look like running a design sprint instead of a traditional planning session, or using facilitation techniques to co-create priorities.
Explore how we use Design Sprints
Create space for curiosity. Recognize people who uncover better ways of working, not just those who “get it done.” It signals that learning matters as much as delivery.
If you’re not sure how to create this kind of environment, check out The Power of Small Wins.
Instead of “What’s the update on X?”, try:
These types of questions shift your role from commander to catalyst.
If you’ve built your success on being the expert, congratulations—that probably means you’re smart, skilled, and deeply experienced.
But if you want a team that moves fast, adapts quickly, and solves problems without waiting for you… being the expert is no longer enough.
It’s time to be the enabler.
Because real leadership isn’t about having the best ideas.
It’s about helping your team discover theirs.