From Micromanaging to Empowering: How This Anxious Kobold Learned to Let Go
(And Why My Team Stopped Hiding)
From Micromanaging to Empowering: How This Anxious Kobold Learned to Let Go (And Why My Team Stopped Hiding) #ServantLeadership #Delegation
Excited to share that our team just delivered our biggest project 3 weeks ahead of schedule while I personally touched only 22% of the work! Six months ago, I would have considered this a failure. #d20Coach
As a kobold, survival meant controlling every detail. In the tunnels, one overlooked trap meant certain death. So when I became PM at DragonTech Solutions, I applied the same logic: if you want something done right, do it yourself.
My daily routine:
Rewrote every team member's status updates for "clarity"
Attended 47 meetings per week to "stay informed"
Reviewed every line of code before commits
Created 23-step approval processes for simple decisions
Worked 80-hour weeks while my team sat idle waiting for my feedback
Then our star developer quit. Exit interview feedback: "Pip doesn't trust us to do our jobs."
That's when I reached out to Nick from @d20Coach.
BEFORE COACHING:
Believed delegation meant "giving orders then checking every 5 minutes"
Measured my value by how busy I stayed
Created bottlenecks by requiring my approval for everything
Team members felt like supervised apprentices, not professionals
AFTER NICK'S "TRUST & EMPOWER" PROGRAM:
Learned delegation means giving authority, not just tasks
Started measuring success by team autonomy and outcomes
Created frameworks for decisions instead of making every decision
Team members now own entire features from concept to deployment
Nick's breakthrough question: "What if your team's success without you is proof of your leadership, not evidence of your irrelevance?"
Mind = blown.
Results that speak for themselves:
Project delivery time cut by 50%
Team engagement scores up 156%
My stress level down 73% (measured by scale-shedding incidents)
Zero bottlenecks in our last 3 sprints
Team members now mentoring OTHER teams
Hardest lesson: True leadership isn't proving you're indispensable—it's making your team so capable they could succeed without you.
My new kobold wisdom: The strongest tunnels aren't built by one creature doing everything, but by many creatures each mastering their part.
Forever grateful to Nick for teaching this anxious kobold that letting go isn't losing control—it's multiplying your impact.
#KoboldWisdom #ProjectManagement #TeamEmpowerment #TrustInLeadership #d20Coach
Pip Scaleheart
Senior Project Manager | DragonTech Solutions
"Building teams, not dependencies"
d20Coach Graduate
P.S. Yes, I still triple-check critical path items. Some survival instincts never fully fade!
Alright, dropping the fantasy for a moment—if any of these transformation stories resonate with you, I'd love to help you write your own. Head over to d20.coach and schedule a "demo game" to see what coaching can actually do for your career. Think of it as a free trial run before committing to the full campaign. No dice required, just bring yourself and whatever professional quest you're working on.
Ready to roll? Let's see what we can build together.
