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"What would you be able to do if you trusted yourself 10% more?"

Adam Kreek

Founder Built for Hard

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The 3 Leadership Pain Points We Keep Hearing (and the Practical Fixes That Actually Help)

posted in Built For Hard

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Adam Kreek

Over the last four months of coaching conversations, three themes have shown up on repeat. Different industries. Different roles. Same friction. If your brain feels like it has 47 browser tabs open and one of them is playing music… keep reading.

Confidentiality note: The examples below are anonymized and blended into composites. Details are changed to protect people and teams while keeping the patterns real.

Why this matters (and why it’s not “just you”)

Across dozens of coaching conversations with founders, executives, and senior leaders, three pain points consistently drive stalled momentum:

  1. Overwhelm, burnout, and workload stress
  2. Unclear roles, accountability, and ownership
  3. Fear, self-doubt, and limiting beliefs

These aren’t personality flaws. They’re predictable outcomes of modern leadership: moving fast, carrying responsibility, and trying to do “strategy” in between meetings that could have been emails (and emails that should have never existed).

The pattern we’re seeing in plain English

Here’s the short version:

  • When leaders are overwhelmed, they go reactive.
  • When roles are unclear, work multiplies and trust erodes.
  • When fear and self-doubt are running the show, decision-making slows to a crawl.

And these three feed each other in a neat little cycle nobody asked for.

1) Overwhelm, Burnout & Workload Stress

What it looks like

This shows up as leaders juggling operations, growth, fundraising, people issues, stakeholder expectations, and personal life… all at once.

Common signals:

  • You’re “holding it all” because delegating feels like more work than doing it yourself
  • Decisions feel heavy, even small ones
  • You’re tired… but also weirdly wired
  • You can’t think strategically because you’re busy keeping the machine running
  • You feel alone with the decisions (even when you’re surrounded by people)

What it costs

  • Lower decision quality
  • Slower action
  • Frayed patience (you notice it first; your team notices it second)
  • Increased risk of burnout and leadership drift

What helps (practical moves)

You don’t need a six-week retreat. You need a few high-leverage resets.

1) Separate “doing the work” from “designing the work.”
If you never step out of execution, you become the bottleneck. Protect one weekly block (even 45–60 minutes) for:

  • What’s changing?
  • What’s stuck?
  • What needs a decision?
  • What can be simplified?

2) Delegate a category, not a task.
Task delegation is fragile. Category delegation builds capacity.
Instead of “Can you send this one email?” try:

  • “You own client onboarding end-to-end.”
  • “You own weekly reporting and insight summaries.”
  • “You own scheduling and calendar protection.”

3) Name the invisible workload: emotional load.
A lot of leaders aren’t exhausted from tasks. They’re exhausted from carrying uncertainty.
This is where coaching, a strong #2, or a decision partner matters: not to “fix you,” but to reduce the amount you’re holding alone.

2) Unclear Roles, Accountability & Ownership

What it looks like

This one is sneaky because teams can look busy and still be stuck.

Common signals:

Or said more bluntly: when ownership is unclear, chaos does push-ups.

What it costs

  • Missed actions and slow execution
  • Finger-pointing (or quieter: silent resentment)
  • Misalignment between leadership layers
  • Erosion of trust and momentum

What helps (practical moves)

Clarity is a kindness. It reduces stress and increases speed.

1) Assign an “Owner + Outcome” for anything that matters.
Every key initiative needs:

  • One owner (not a group)
  • A clear outcome (what “done” means)
  • A deadline
  • A check-in rhythm

If it helps, use this simple sentence:

“By [date], [owner] will deliver [specific outcome], and we’ll review it in [meeting/rhythm].”

2) Decide how decisions get decided.
Most “accountability” problems are actually decision-rights problems.
Pick one of these for recurring decisions:

  • Leader decides after input
  • Team decides, leader ratifies
  • One owner decides, others execute
  • Vote (rarely the best tool, but sometimes necessary)

Then write it down once so you stop renegotiating it weekly.

3) End meetings with a three-line closeout.
Before anyone leaves:

  • What are the action items?
  • Who owns each one?
  • When is it due?

This is not bureaucracy. This is how adults prevent chaos.

3) Fear, Self-Doubt & Limiting Beliefs

What it looks like

This is the invisible blocker. Teams often see “delay” or “indecision.” Underneath is usually fear:

  • “What if I’m not the right person for this?”
  • “What if we waste time/money/resources?”
  • “What if I make the wrong call and damage trust?”
  • “What if I’m exposed as… not enough?”

This shows up as:

  • Analysis paralysis
  • Over-optimizing before shipping
  • Avoiding hard conversations
  • Waiting for “certainty” that never arrives

What it costs

  • Missed opportunities
  • Slow learning cycles
  • Reduced innovation
  • Internal conflict that drains energy

What helps (practical moves)

Confidence is rarely the prerequisite. It’s the result.

1) Treat fear as information, not instruction.
Fear often points to:

  • a capability gap to close
  • a risk to plan for
  • a value you care about
  • a decision you’re avoiding because it matters

Ask:

  • “What exactly am I afraid will happen?”
  • “What evidence do I have?”
  • “What would I do if I trusted myself 10% more?”

2) Replace “big bets” with “safe-to-try tests.”
You don’t need to be certain. You need to be in motion.
Define a test:

  • Small scope
  • Short timeframe (1–2 weeks)
  • Clear success criteria
  • A learning goal either way

3) Build an evidence file.
Self-doubt thrives on selective memory.
Keep a running list of:

  • wins
  • feedback
  • hard moments you handled
  • decisions you made that worked out

Not for ego. For accuracy.

The loop that keeps leaders stuck (and how to break it)

These three pain points reinforce one another:

  • Overwhelm makes it hard to create clarity
  • Lack of clarity increases workload and conflict
  • Fear increases avoidance and slows decisions
  • Slower decisions create… more overwhelm

Breaking the cycle usually starts with one of these:

  • protect energy so you can think
  • clarify ownership so work stops duplicating
  • reduce fear by running small tests instead of waiting for certainty

What we focus on at ViDA (because strategy without traction is just… ideas)

At ViDA, our coaching and team support tends to center on three practical vectors:

  1. Sustainable rhythms that prevent burnout
    Boundaries, delegation, recovery, and strategic reflection time
  2. Clear accountability structures
    Explicit ownership, decision authorities, follow-through systems
  3. Mindset + decision-making under uncertainty
    Reframing fear, building confidence through action, experimentation that creates learning fast

This is not about becoming a “perfect leader.” It’s about becoming a clearer one—with the capacity to lead consistently.

Quick self-check (use this in 2 minutes)

If you answer “yes” to two or more, you’re in the zone this post is describing:

  • Are you tired in a way that rest doesn’t fully fix?
  • Are decisions getting delayed because everything feels high-stakes?
  • Are you doing work that someone else could own?
  • Do projects stall because ownership isn’t crystal clear?
  • Are you waiting for certainty before acting?

If you want support (the straightforward next step

If you’re seeing yourself in this, the fastest path forward is usually a short diagnostic conversation to identify:

  • What’s creating the most drag right now?
  • What to simplify first?
  • What structure would reduce stress and improve execution?

If that’s useful, book a coaching conversation through the ViDA site.

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Adam Kreek and his team are on a mission to positively impact organizational cultures and leaders who make things happen.

He authored the bestselling business book, The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen. 

Want to increase your leadership achievement? Learn more about Kreek’s coaching here.

Want to book a keynote that leaves a lasting impact? Learn more about Kreek’s live event service here.

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