The person everything ran through
Do you have someone on your team that everything runs through? The one who knows how it all works, who steps in when things get stuck, who answers the question before you’ve finished asking it?
This leader was that person. They run a small specialist team in the education sector, working closely with external partners. And their team had been stretched for a long time.
“We’ve been at capacity for a long time. We haven’t always had time to do things like documentation, knowledge transfer, upskilling the team.”
So when work piled up, they did what dependable people do.
“When we’re at capacity, I’m the first one to jump in and say, ‘OK, I’ll get it done,’ because it’s faster.”
It kept things moving. It also meant more of the team’s know-how sat with them, and more of their week went on day-to-day requests instead of where the work should go next. (They’re the first to admit some of that was self-inflicted.)
When they told me how they wanted to be seen, it wasn’t for more of the same. They wanted to be known for more than their technical expertise, and to have a bigger say in the people, decisions and outcomes their work shapes.
I see this pattern a lot. The most dependable person on a team is often the last to be seen for what they could lead.
What people saw that they didn’t
Over three rounds, they asked the people they work with how they experience working with them. The picture got wider each time: three stakeholder types, then four, then five, including people outside the organisation. In every round, at least nine in ten of the people they asked shared their feedback.
That matters more than it sounds. Feedback from one person is an opinion. From three, it’s a trend. From five or more, it’s about as close to the truth as you can get. Their latest profile reached Trusted, the stage on our Reliability Ladder we keep intentionally rare.
And it showed them something they didn’t expect.
See the numbers
| Round | Stakeholder types | People asked who shared feedback |
|---|---|---|
| First | 3 of 8 | 9 in 10 or more |
| Second | 4 of 8 | 9 in 10 or more |
| Latest | 5 of 8 | 9 in 10 or more |
| Leadership and influence, latest round | Average |
|---|---|
| How they see themselves | 4 out of 5 (80%) |
| How others see them | 4.6 out of 5 (92%) |
Source: SeenCulture platform. People’s feedback is de-identified and combined; no individual’s answers are shown.
Leadership and influence came through as one of their top strengths. The people around them put it at 92%. They put themselves at 80%. Of everything in their profile, it was the biggest gap between how they see themselves and how others experience them.
“I thought that was probably more of an opportunity. The fact that people see that was encouraging.”
Looking back, their feedback had been heading this way for a while. In their first round, influence was the area people placed lowest. By the next, people already saw far more of it in them than they saw in themselves.* So when they told me they wanted to be seen as more than the technical expert, the people around them could already see it. They just couldn’t, yet.
Their growth opportunity was focus and prioritisation, the one area where people’s feedback averaged below four out of five. They recognised it straight away.
“I’m very much a detail person.”
Not a criticism. A direction: step back from the detail, and put their attention where it adds the most value.
What they changed
Feedback on its own doesn’t change anything. What they did with it did.
- Delegating more. They handed over work they once would have done themselves, and are learning to be OK with it not always being done their way.
- Goals that need the team. This year’s goals depend on the team delivering, not on them, starting with one key piece of work for each person on the team.
- Room to find their feet. Before taking time off, they handed over what they knew, then let the team work things out.
“It’s not until you go on leave that people realise, ‘Oh, I need to work this out for myself.’”
What changed for the team
Here’s what’s different for the team, in their leader’s words.
Five shifts in the team
- Stepping up. More willing to learn, take the lead and run with things.
- Growing confidence. Team members who weren’t confident working with technical partners or managing stakeholders are now doing both.
- Clear ownership. Each person was given one key piece of work to deliver, and specialists now own different areas of the team’s work.
- Know-how shared. Knowledge that sat with one person was handed over, so the team could work things out for themselves.
- Running without their leader. Day-to-day work goes ahead unless something is big, or someone asks for them directly.
As described by their leader in a one-to-one debrief.
“What I have seen is more of a willingness to learn, and to step up and run with things.”
That includes people who hadn’t been confident working with technical partners or managing stakeholders, and had to do both to deliver their piece of work.
“The way they’ve taken that on board... I think it’s been really encouraging.”
And for the leader, less of the day-to-day lands on them.
“I’ve definitely noticed a change in the last few months at least.”
That frees them up for what they want to be doing: strategy, longer-term planning, and getting more out of the tools the organisation already has. They’re now looking at how the team can help others across the organisation do more for themselves, so the whole team spends more time on higher-value work.
They’re honest that letting go isn’t always easy.
“I trust them. It’s trusting that they can, even if it’s not exactly how I’d do it. They’re still getting the job done, and that’s what’s important.”
“Overall, it’s really shaped how I lead my team.”
What’s next
Their next step is a simple decision-rights framework for the team: what the team decides on its own, what gets escalated, and what counts as high risk. Then a clear picture of the team’s priorities and who does what, shared with the teams around them so everyone knows how to work together.
“I want to get to the point where the team is more self-reliant and I’m not a single point of failure.”
Why this stays with me
The people a team relies on most are often the ones who can’t see their own value. The evidence doesn’t sit with them. It sits in other people’s experience of working with them.
Perception gets acted on, not performance. When you can’t see how you’re experienced, you can’t choose what to do with it. And for dependable doers, that’s a system problem, not a confidence problem.
It’s why we built SeenCulture the way we did. Enough people to see a pattern. Enough different stakeholder types to trust it. Often enough to see it move. Then a conversation that turns insight into one clear next step.
Because genius doesn’t always unmute itself.
* Each round used a different set of questions, so read these as direction, not a like-for-like comparison. Percentages are averages of people’s feedback from the SeenCulture platform. Quotes are lightly edited for length and shared with permission. Changes in the team are as described by their leader. To protect their privacy, details of their role, organisation and timing have been left out.