The Bottom Line
In a well-organized company, work gets done through systems—not through you jumping in. Leaders work through managers. Managers build systems. Teammates use systems. Get the layers wrong and you become the bottleneck, no matter how capable you are.
Why This Matters
You’re probably the most knowledgeable person in your company. You’ve done every job. You can solve any problem faster than anyone else.
That’s exactly why you’re the bottleneck.
When you jump in to do the work—to “build culture” or “help the team”—you disable the mechanisms that let your company scale. You hurt accountability, confuse reporting lines, and reinforce a culture where nothing happens without you. The more capable you are, the more damage you do by doing the wrong work.
The Framework
The Instruments of Work:
Leader → Managers → Teammates → Systems → Work
(builds) (builds) (uses) (gets done)| Layer | Works Through | Builds |
|---|---|---|
| Leader | Managers | Culture, teammates |
| Manager | Teammates | Systems |
| Teammate | Systems | The actual work |
Each layer has its instrument. Use the wrong one and the whole thing breaks.
How to Do It
Step 1: Understand What Systems Actually Do
Systems are what get work done in a well-organized company. Not people—systems.
This includes:
- Processes
- Procedures
- Checklists
- Templates
- Documented workflows
Systems are repeatable, scalable, measurable, trainable, and improvable. People using systems creates consistency. People winging it creates chaos.
Watch for: Confusing “hard workers” with “good systems.” Hard workers burn out. Good systems scale.
Step 2: Know Your Instrument Based on Your Role
If you’re a teammate: Your instrument is the system. You use checklists, follow procedures, work through templates. You don’t invent a new way every time—you follow the documented way.
If you’re a manager: Your instrument is the teammate. You don’t do the work—you build the systems that teammates use. When output is wrong, you don’t jump in. You fix the system.
If you’re a leader: Your instrument is the manager. You work through managers to deploy policy, changes, and goals. You build culture. You don’t skip levels.
Watch for: Player-coaches in growth stages. Yes, they exist. But understand that management as a function is about getting work done through others—not doing it yourself.
Step 3: Build Culture as the Leader’s Primary Job
As a leader, culture is your instrument for building teammates. Culture means:
- What behaviors you enforce
- How you talk about winning
- What gets celebrated and what gets corrected
You’re an evangelist. Culture shows up in:
- Onboarding
- Meetings
- Documentation
- How you talk when things go wrong
Watch for: Treating culture as soft or optional. Culture is how work actually gets done when you’re not in the room.
Step 4: Stop Skipping Levels
When leaders jump past managers to direct teammates:
- Accountability breaks
- Managers feel undermined
- Teammates get confused about who to listen to
- The leader becomes the bottleneck
Work through your managers. That’s how you deploy strategy, goals, and change.
Common Mistakes
-
Doing the work yourself: You’re faster, but you’re also the most expensive hour in the company. And you just disabled your manager.
-
Adjusting the work instead of the system: When output is wrong, don’t fix this instance—fix the system so it never happens again.
-
Skipping managers to “help” teammates: You meant well. You just destroyed accountability and confused your organization.
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Thinking systems are bureaucracy: Systems are freedom. They let work happen without you. Bureaucracy is systems without purpose.
Your Next Move
Do this now: Identify one piece of work you’re doing that should be done by a system your team uses. Write that system down. Stop doing the work yourself.
Go Deeper
- How to Write a Procedure That Works — Turn your knowledge into reusable systems
- The Problem Solver Trap — Why being the answer to every question kills your company