Why Your Team Isn’t Stepping Up (Even Though They Want To)
EP06: Why Your Team Isn’t Stepping Up (Even Though They Want To)
Leadership in 5 | Earned Authority
If your team isn’t stepping up, it might not be a motivation issue—it might be a leadership pattern.
In this episode, James explores how well-meaning leaders accidentally train their teams to hesitate. When everything is urgent and high-stakes, founders often shift into control mode—and in doing so, they shut down ownership, initiative, and risk-taking. This is desperation in disguise.
You’ll learn how to recognize the patterns you may have unintentionally created—and how to rebuild a culture of ownership without lowering standards.
In this episode:
- Why your team’s hesitation might be something you’ve conditioned
- The subtle ways control gets rewarded and initiative gets punished
- How to shift from control-based leadership to trust-based development
- The one question to start retraining your team—and yourself
Ask yourself:
Where have I unintentionally trained hesitation—and how can I re-open the door to ownership?
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Leadership in 5 is where leadership meets execution—one focused episode at a time.
Transcript
If your team isn’t stepping up, here’s a hard truth:
It might not be about them.
Hi, I’m James and you’re listening to the Leadership in 5 podcast—where leadership meets execution, one focused episode at a time.
Yes—there are lazy employees out there.
Yes—there are people who don’t want to be challenged or grow.
But that’s not most teams.
In my experience, the majority of team members want to contribute.
They want to take ownership.
They want to be part of something meaningful.
So if that’s not happening… the question isn’t, “Why won’t they?”
The better question is:
“What’s causing them to hold back?”
And more often than not, that answer points right back to the leader.
Now I say this gently—but truthfully:
When people don’t step up, it’s often because you’ve trained them not to.
Not intentionally.
Not maliciously.
But over time, your leadership has conditioned a pattern.
Maybe they stepped forward once and were micromanaged the whole way.
Maybe they made a mistake and got shamed instead of coached.
Maybe they offered a new idea—and it got dismissed because it wasn’t yours.
Or maybe they just learned the only way to get things “right”… is to wait for you.
.
When everything feels urgent and high-stakes, we stop coaching and start controlling.
We fix.
We rescue.
We redo the work ourselves.
And even though you didn’t say it out loud, the team heard the message loud and clear:
“Don’t take risks. Don’t think for yourself. Don’t move without approval.”
You didn’t mean to shut them down.
But you did.
So here’s the invitation:
If you want a team that steps up, you need to let go of the need to step in.
You need to create room for ownership—
Room for imperfect progress, not just following a process
Room for coaching, not just correction.
And yes—some people won’t rise.
But most will.
Especially when they feel trusted, equipped, and supported.
So here’s two questions to reflect on…
Where am I unintentionally training hesitation?
And what’s one conversation I could have this week
to re-open the door to ownership?
Because if your team isn’t stepping up…
It might be time to stop looking at their behavior—
and start looking at your own.
And that’s worth thinking about today.
