I Got the Role I Wanted and Then Realised I Didn't Like Half of It
I finally got a leadership role I had wanted for months, then realised a lot of it was boring and stressful. Delegating properly made me better at the role and made me actually enjoy it.
If you only have a minute.
- Situation
- I finally got a leadership role I had wanted for months, then realised a lot of it was boring and stressful. Delegating properly made me better at the role and made me actually enjoy it.
- What they tried
- I stopped trying to enjoy every part of it.
- What they learned
- Wanting a position and enjoying every part of the work are not the same thing. Leadership became better once I stopped treating "doing everything myself" as proof that I was good at it.
A TURNING POINT“Wanting a position and enjoying every part of the work are not the same thing.”
Problem
I really wanted a leadership role in school. I won't pretend I didn't care about the title. I did. I liked the idea of being the person who was trusted with things. So when I finally got selected, I was very happy. For maybe the first week.
Struggle
Then the actual work started. People forgot deadlines. Someone would say "I'll do it tonight" and then disappear. Small issues somehow came to me because I was the one "handling it." There were spreadsheets. So many spreadsheets. I had imagined planning events and making decisions. I had not imagined reminding someone four times to send one document. For a while, I thought maybe I had made a mistake taking the role.
Action
I stopped trying to enjoy every part of it. That sounds obvious now, but I genuinely thought if I was a good leader, I was supposed to like being responsible for everything. I started dividing work better. If someone could do something, I let them do it. I stopped fixing everyone's mistakes quietly. If something wasn't done, I asked the person responsible instead of just doing it myself at 11 PM.
Outcome
The role got easier. Not easy. Just less ridiculous. I also realised I liked certain parts of leadership a lot more than others. I liked planning. I liked solving problems with people. I absolutely did not like chasing people for updates. Fair enough.
The lesson
Wanting a position and enjoying every part of the work are not the same thing. Leadership became better once I stopped treating "doing everything myself" as proof that I was good at it.
