March 7, 2025
Stuck in the Detail? How to Shift from Managing to Leading
Leadership and management are often spoken about as if they’re interchangeable. But in reality, they serve a very different purpose and knowing when to shift between them can make the difference between growth and stagnation.
Management is about keeping things running smoothly: making decisions, solving problems, and ensuring delivery. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating space to step back, set the vision, and guide people towards what’s next.
Without realising it, leaders often find themselves consumed by the detail.
They get caught up in the day-to-day, firefighting, approving decisions, and managing tasks that could sit with others.
The impact can show up in different ways:
🔹 Frustration at constantly being dragged into operational issues.
🔹 Questioning why your team isn’t stepping up, while struggling to let go.
🔹 Overload from trying to balance delivery with strategic thinking.
🔹 Losing the sense of energy and clarity that came with focusing on the bigger picture.
You know you should be spending more time on strategy, vision, and culture. But somehow your attention is pulled back into the operational work you thought you’d left behind.
And there’s a reason for that. The details feel familiar. Safe. Tangible. They provide a clear sense of progress – ticking off tasks, clearing emails, solving quick problems. And with every small completion, there’s a subtle dopamine hit. It feels good. The reward is immediate.
Whereas leadership work, developing strategy, shaping culture, thinking long-term, can feel slower and less concrete. The payoff isn’t always obvious right away.
Left unchecked, it’s easy to stay busy managing the day-to-day, while the bigger, more important leadership work quietly slides down the list.
Management keeps things running. Leadership moves things forward.
And getting stuck in management mode can stop you from stepping fully into leadership, where your real value lies.
Why does this matter?
When leaders stay stuck in management:
🔹 They become the bottleneck.
🔹 Their team feels micromanaged or disempowered.
🔹 There’s no space to focus on growth, culture, or strategic priorities.
🔹 Energy dips as the vision gets lost in the day-to-day.
Meanwhile, the bigger picture – the future of the organisation quietly drifts out of focus.
How to break free and lead well
If you’re looking to create more space for leadership, here are four practical shifts to consider:
✅ Audit your time to refocus on what only you can do. Review your calendar or to-do list from the past two weeks. How much of your time was spent on tasks that someone else could own? What work truly requires your leadership? Spot the patterns—and make conscious choices about what stays on your plate.
✅ Delegate to empower your team and build trust. Delegation isn’t just about offloading tasks. It’s about setting clear expectations, providing support, and giving others the opportunity to step up. When your team feels ownership, you free yourself to focus on higher-level work.
✅ Protect thinking time to step out of the day-to-day. Block out regular time to work on the business, not in it, whether that’s shaping strategy, exploring new opportunities, or reflecting on how to strengthen your team and culture. If you don’t guard this space, no one else will.
✅ Reconnect with your ‘why’ to stay grounded in what matters. Leadership isn’t about stepping back from the heart of the organisation. It’s about keeping the original purpose alive and evolving it over time. Your role is to hold the vision, not control every detail.
In summary
Great organisations need both management and leadership. But growth happens when you know when to step back from the day-to-day and focus on the work only you can do: setting direction, enabling others, and holding the vision for what’s next.
It’s not about giving up the details altogether. It’s about trusting your team to hold them, so you can lead with clarity, confidence, and purpose.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Where do you find yourself spending most of your time, leading or managing? And what’s one thing you could let go of this week to create more space to lead?
Eilish Saba Coaching 