I'm Great at My Job, So Why Am I Struggling as a Leader?
I'm Great at My Job, So Why Am I Struggling as a Leader?
The question that keeps senior agency leaders awake at night and why the skills that got you promoted might be holding you back
It's 11:47pm on a Wednesday. You're still at your laptop, fixing a presentation that your team "finished" this afternoon. Tomorrow you have three client meetings, two team 1-1s that you'll probably have to reschedule (again), and a strategy session you haven't prepared for. Your partner asked you at dinner why you're "always stressed now" when you used to love your job.
You got promoted eighteen months ago because you were brilliant at delivery. The best in the business. Clients loved you. Projects ran smoothly. You made it look effortless.
Now you're a leader, and nothing feels effortless anymore.
If you're reading this at midnight, exhausted and wondering if you're cut out for leadership, let me tell you, you're not alone. And you're not failing. You're experiencing what I call the Promotion Paradox.
The Promotion Paradox: Why Doing Got You Here, But Can't Keep You Here
Here's the uncomfortable truth that nobody tells you when they promote you to Client Services Director, Head of Department, or Senior Producer: the skills that made you exceptional at delivery can actively work against you in leadership.
Let me explain.
You were promoted because you:
Delivered brilliant work, consistently
Solved problems faster than anyone else
Were detail-oriented and quality-obsessed
Could be trusted with the biggest, most complex projects
Made your boss's life easier by just "getting it done"
These are incredible strengths. They built your reputation. They earned you that promotion.
But now, as a leader, these same strengths show up differently:
Delivering brilliant work becomes doing your team's work for them
Solving problems faster means your team never learns to solve them
Being detail-oriented looks like micromanaging
Taking on complex projects leaves no room to develop others
Just getting it done means you're working 60-hour weeks while your team works 40
You're not struggling because you're bad at leadership. You're struggling because nobody taught you that leadership requires completely different skills than delivery.
I Know This Because I Lived It
I spent 28 years at 4D Design, progressing from Project Manager to Client Services Director to Board Member. I was promoted because I was excellent at delivery - managing complex exhibition and event design projects for global brands, keeping clients delighted, making the impossible happen.
When I became a leader, I assumed I just needed to do more of what made me successful. Work harder. Take on more. Be the example.
I ended up exhausted, frustrated with my team for "not getting it," and working longer hours than I ever had as a Project Manager. Sound familiar?
It took me years to understand what was actually happening: I was operating Below the Line.
The Leadership Line: Where Are You Operating?
Through my years leading teams and now coaching senior agency leaders, I developed a framework that explains why so many brilliant people struggle with the transition to leadership. I call it The Leadership Line.
Below the Line Leadership
When you're operating Below the Line, you're:
Firefighting - reacting to whatever crisis appears
Doing - delivering work yourself because it's faster/better
Solving - providing answers rather than developing problem-solvers
Fragmenting - pulled in twelve directions with no strategic focus
Below the Line leadership feels like:
Your day controls you
Every problem needs YOUR solution
You're indispensable (which sounds good until you're trapped)
You're working harder than your team
You have no time to think strategically
You're exhausted but the work never stops
The cruel irony: Below the Line leadership is what you're brilliant at. You've spent your entire career perfecting the art of delivering under pressure, solving problems at speed, and being the person who makes things happen.
Above the Line Leadership
When you're operating Above the Line, you're:
Leading not Doing - directing the work rather than delivering it
Empowering not Solving - coaching your team to solve problems
Aligning not Fragmenting - creating strategic focus and direction
Directing not Firefighting - anticipating and preventing crises
Above the Line leadership feels like:
You have thinking time
Your team brings you solutions, not just problems
You can take a day off without everything falling apart
You're working on the business, not just in it
You finish work at a reasonable hour
You're excited about developing your people
The challenge: Everything you learned in your career prepared you to operate Below the Line. Nobody taught you how to lead Above it.
Why This Feels So Hard (And Why It's Not Your Fault)
In creative, experiential, and events agencies, the culture often rewards Below the Line behavior:
Heroes who save the day get celebrated more than leaders who prevent fires
Being busy is worn as a badge of honor
Doing it yourself is faster than developing someone else to do it
Client demands justify dropping everything to jump on delivery
"We're not corporate" becomes an excuse to avoid structured leadership
You were trained, rewarded, and promoted for operating Below the Line. And now you're being asked to do something completely different, without any training on how.
No wonder you're struggling.
The Three Questions That Reveal Where You're Operating
Answer these honestly:
1. Could your team function effectively if you took two weeks off?
If your honest answer is "no" or "they'd cope but clients would notice" you're operating Below the Line. You've made yourself indispensable to delivery rather than developing a team that can deliver without you.
2. When your team brings you a problem, what's your first instinct?
If it's to solve it for them, explain exactly what to do, or just take it on yourself you're operating Below the Line. You're being their problem-solver instead of developing them into problem-solvers.
3. How much of your week is spent on strategic thinking versus firefighting?
If the honest answer is "maybe 5% strategy, 95% firefighting" you're operating Below the Line. You're trapped in reactive mode with no space to lead proactively.
Here's what most people tell me: "But if I don't do these things, nothing will get done right."
That's the trap. That's the belief that keeps you Below the Line.
The Real Reason Your Team Isn't Stepping Up
Let me share something uncomfortable: If your team isn't stepping up, it's because you're not letting them.
Not intentionally. You're not a bad leader. But consider:
Every time you solve their problem, you rob them of the chance to develop problem-solving skills
Every time you jump in to "fix" their work, you signal you don't trust them
Every time you make yourself available 24/7, you prevent them learning to handle client relationships
Every time you take work off their plate "to help them," you prevent them becoming capable
Your team isn't failing to step up. They're adapting perfectly to your Below the Line leadership.
You've trained them to:
Bring you problems, not solutions (because you always solve them)
Do acceptable work, not excellent work (because you'll make it excellent)
Check everything with you (because you've made yourself the quality controller)
Avoid difficult client conversations (because you always step in)
This isn't a team problem. This is a leadership problem. And that's actually good news, because you can change your leadership much more easily than you can change your team.
What Above the Line Leadership Actually Looks Like in Practice
Let me give you a real example from my time at 4D Design.
Below the Line version of me: A project was going off track. The client was unhappy. My Senior Producer was stressed. My instinct was to jump in, take over the client relationship, fix the project plan myself, work late to get everything back on track. Problem solved. Hero status maintained. Team grateful for the rescue.
Above the Line version of me (once I learned): A project was going off track. The client was unhappy. My Senior Producer was stressed. I asked: "What do you think needs to happen?" I coached them through the problem-solving. I stayed close enough to prevent disaster, but far enough back to let them lead. The client conversation was uncomfortable for them, but they handled it. The project got back on track. Most importantly: next time there was a problem, they solved it themselves.
The difference?
Below the Line took 12 hours of my time and taught my team nothing.
Above the Line took 2 hours of coaching and developed a leader.
The Leadership Triangle: What You're Actually Balancing
Senior agency leaders are constantly juggling three things:
THE TEAM - developing, coaching, building capability
THE BUSINESS - clients, revenue, strategy, growth
YOURSELF - your own wellbeing, leadership development, strategic thinking time
Most struggling leaders make one of these mistakes:
Mistake 1: Sacrificing Yourself You put team and business first, work 60-hour weeks, have no boundaries, burn out slowly. You tell yourself "this is just what leadership takes." It's not. It's Below the Line leadership.
Mistake 2: Neglecting Team Development You focus on keeping clients happy and the business running, but never invest time in developing your team. Result: you're forever trapped doing the work because your team never becomes capable of more.
Mistake 3: Avoiding Business Reality You focus on being a "nice" leader and developing your team, but avoid the commercial realities. Your team lacks direction and the business struggles.
Above the Line leadership means consciously balancing all three. Not perfectly every day, but strategically over time.
"But My Situation Is Different - Agency Life Is Unique"
I hear this a lot. And you're right - agency life IS different:
Client demands are immediate and unpredictable
Projects have hard deadlines that can't move
Quality standards are visible and public
Team members are often young and need significant development
Profit margins are tight
The work is creative and subjective
But here's what I've learned coaching dozens of agency leaders: these realities don't require Below the Line leadership. They require BETTER Above the Line leadership.
The chaos isn't the problem. How you respond to the chaos is the problem.
Operating Below the Line in a chaotic environment just creates more chaos.
Operating Above the Line in a chaotic environment creates stability, capability, and strategic direction.
The Cost of Staying Below the Line
Let's be honest about what continuing to operate Below the Line costs you:
Personally:
You're exhausted all the time
You have no work/life boundaries
You resent your team (even though you know they're trying)
You're losing the joy you used to have for this work
Your relationships outside work are suffering
For your team:
They're not developing
They lack confidence in their own abilities
They're overly dependent on you
The best ones will leave (they're not learning anymore)
They'll never become the leaders your business needs
For the business:
Growth is limited by your capacity
Client relationships are fragile (too dependent on you)
Quality is inconsistent (relies on you catching everything)
The business can't scale beyond what you personally can handle
You're a single point of failure
The question isn't whether you can keep operating Below the Line. You can. Many people do for years.
The question is: what's it costing you?
Three Signs You're Ready to Move Above the Line
1. You're willing to be uncomfortable Moving Above the Line means letting your team struggle sometimes. Watching them have difficult conversations. Allowing work to be good enough rather than perfect. Coaching instead of solving. It's uncomfortable. If you're willing to tolerate that discomfort for the long-term gain, you're ready.
2. You recognise that working harder isn't the answer If you're starting to realise that you can't solve this by working longer hours, being more organised, or trying harder - you're ready. The solution isn't more Below the Line effort. It's different leadership.
3. You want to develop leaders, not just deliver projects If you're starting to think beyond the next project deadline and asking "how do I develop my team?" or "how do I build a leadership legacy?" - you're ready.
What Moving Above the Line Actually Requires
I won't sugarcoat this: moving Above the Line requires:
1. Unlearning old habits Everything that made you successful - jumping in, solving quickly, maintaining control - needs to be consciously unlearned and replaced with new behaviors.
2. Tolerating short-term discomfort Your team will make mistakes. Work might dip in quality temporarily. You'll have to resist every instinct to jump in and fix things. It feels risky. It IS risky if you don't have the right support and frameworks.
3. Investing time you don't think you have Coaching your team takes more time upfront than solving problems yourself. It feels impossible when you're already working 60-hour weeks. (Spoiler: this is why you need support to make the transition.)
4. Changing how you measure success Success stops being "did I deliver brilliant work?" and becomes "did my team deliver brilliant work without me?" That's a significant identity shift.
5. Having frameworks and support Winging it doesn't work. You need proven frameworks (like the LEAD model: Leading not Doing, Empowering not Solving, Aligning not Fragmenting, Directing not Firefighting) and someone who's made this transition successfully in agencies to guide you.
"I Don't Have Time for Leadership Development"
This is the most common objection I hear. And I understand it completely. You're working 60-hour weeks. You're constantly firefighting. The idea of adding "leadership development" to your plate feels impossible.
Here's the truth: you don't have time NOT to develop your leadership.
Every hour you spend solving problems your team should solve is an hour lost to strategic thinking.
Every crisis you personally firefight is a crisis your team doesn't learn to prevent.
Every late night you work because "it's easier to do it myself" is another day your team doesn't develop capability.
You're not too busy for leadership development. You're too busy BECAUSE you need leadership development.
The investment of time now (whether that's coaching, a leadership programme, or structured development) creates exponentially more time later when your team is capable, confident, and operating independently.
What's Actually Possible Above the Line
Let me paint you a picture of what Above the Line leadership makes possible:
You finish work at 6pm most days because your team handles what used to land on your desk at 5:45pm.
You take a two-week holiday and come back to find that everything ran smoothly without you (and your team is proud of themselves).
Client calls feel strategic because you're discussing the future, not firefighting the present.
Your team brings you solutions instead of problems, and even better - they implement solutions without needing your approval for everything.
You have thinking time to work on the business strategy, to develop your own skills, to be the visionary leader you were promoted to be.
You feel energized by leadership rather than exhausted by it.
You're developing future leaders who will replace you someday, allowing you to move to your next challenge.
This isn't fantasy. This is what Above the Line leadership creates. I've seen it in my own career. I've coached dozens of agency leaders through this transition. It's absolutely achievable.
The Question You Need to Answer
So here's where we are:
You're brilliant at your job. You were promoted because you're exceptional at delivery. And now you're struggling as a leader - not because you're failing, but because nobody taught you that leadership requires different skills.
You're operating Below the Line - firefighting, doing, solving, fragmenting - because that's what you've always done. It's exhausting you, limiting your team, and constraining your business.
Moving Above the Line - leading not doing, empowering not solving, aligning not fragmenting, directing not firefighting - is possible. But it requires unlearning old habits, developing new skills, and having the right frameworks and support.
The question you need to answer is: are you ready to make that transition?
Not "someday when things calm down" (they won't).
Not "after this busy period" (there's always another one).
Not "when my team is more capable" (they won't become capable until you lead differently).
Now. Are you ready now?
What Happens Next
If you're reading this and thinking "this is exactly what I'm experiencing" - you're in the right place.
I developed The Leadership Line Framework specifically for senior leaders in creative, experiential, and events agencies who are making this transition. It's based on 28 years of agency leadership experience and working with dozens of leaders just like you.
Here's what I know:
You can figure this out yourself. Many people do. It might take 3-5 years of trial and error, some team attrition, possibly some burnout, and a lot of late nights wondering if you're cut out for this.
Or you can work with someone who's made this transition, has frameworks that work specifically in agencies, and can guide you through it in 6 months instead of 5 years.
Three Ways to Start Moving Above the Line:
1. Take the "Above or Below the Line?" Index A simple 10-question assessment that reveals exactly where you're operating and what needs to change. [Download it here - FREE]
2. Book a Discovery Call Let's talk about your specific situation. What's keeping you Below the Line? What would Above the Line leadership unlock for you? No pressure, no sales pitch - just an honest conversation about whether working together makes sense. [Book a 30-minute call]
3. Join The Leadership Line Masterclass A comprehensive half-day workshop where you'll learn the complete Leadership Line Framework and walk away with a personal plan for moving Above the Line. Drop me a message [email protected]
A Final Thought
Being great at your job and struggling as a leader doesn't mean you're not leadership material.
It means you're at an inflection point.
The skills that got you here won't get you where you want to go. But new skills can be learned. New habits can be built. Above the Line leadership can be developed.
You were promoted because you're capable of more than delivery. You just need the frameworks and support to unlock that capability.
The question isn't whether you CAN become an excellent leader. The question is whether you're ready to invest in making that happen.
I hope this article has helped you understand why you're struggling and what's possible from here.
If it resonates, I'd love to hear from you.
Suzy Malhotra Founder, The Leadership Line Leadership Coach for Creative, Experiential & Events Agencies
About the Author: Suzy Malhotra spent 28 years at 4D Design, progressing from Project Manager to Client Services Director to Board Member. She now specializes in coaching senior agency leaders through the transition from operational excellence to strategic leadership. Her frameworks are specifically designed for the unique challenges of creative, experiential, and events agencies.
