A Fast Company Press Book

Step back, so your team can step up.

You've done everything a strong leader is supposed to do. You've built a capable team, set clear priorities, put better systems in place--and yet the same problems keep coming back. Execution stalls. People wait for you to decide. The business is growing, but it doesn't feel easier. If anything, it feels harder.

In Don't Be a Hero, executive coach Howard M. Shore draws on four decades of working with CEOs and leadership teams to reveal a pattern he has seen in nearly every organization: leaders who are smart and deeply committed but who are also unknowingly capping what their people can do.

The hero model of leadership--staying involved, stepping in, making things happen--creates early momentum. But over time, the more your organization depends on you, the less it develops without you.

Shore offers a different standard: leadership that builds an environment where clarity replaces confusion, accountability is owned, and people perform at a higher level without being told what to do. If you've sensed that your company should be performing better than it is--and suspected the answer might start with you--this book was written for you.