The Tension Between Letting Go and Leading On
There’s a moment every leader faces, sooner or later.
The moment you realise:
"What got me here… isn’t enough to get me there."
Not because you’re failing.
Not because you’re not good enough.
But because growth demands a different kind of leadership and a different relationship with what you hold on to.
The toughest part isn’t change.
You know how to change.
You’ve changed markets, businesses, strategies a hundred times.
The real challenge is something quieter, something more personal:
Letting go.
Letting go of what you built.
Letting go of how you’ve always led.
Letting go of what once defined you.
And yet... not stepping away.
Still leading forward.
Still carrying the mission, the people, the purpose without carrying the weight the same way.
The Invisible Grip
If you listen carefully, you’ll feel it:
The tightness when someone challenges the way you've always done it.
The hesitation when it's time to hand over more trust to others.
The quiet voice saying,
"If I don't stay involved, it will fall apart."
This is the invisible grip.
The part of leadership that starts as ownership and hardens into control.
At first, it looks like diligence.
Then it becomes protection.
Then it becomes fear.
And when fear starts to run leadership, you don’t just protect what’s good, you block what could be greater.
The Myth of Staying the Same
There’s a myth leaders often carry without realising:
"If I just stay strong, stay consistent, stay how I’ve always been we’ll be fine."
But leadership doesn’t ask you to stay the same.
It asks you to evolve faster than the business you're leading.
It asks you to outgrow your own success story.
It asks you to shed what's familiar so something greater can emerge.
And sometimes, it asks you to grieve the version of yourself you built along the way.
Letting Go Without Losing Yourself
Letting go doesn’t mean giving up.
It means changing how you carry the mission.
Less hands-on. More eyes-on.
Less control. More trust.
Less proving. More empowering.
It means leading from presence, not pressure.
It means trusting that your greatest contribution isn’t in doing, it’s in shaping, stewarding, and scaling wisdom through others.
And it means recognising that you are still leading
but differently,
deeper,
wiser.
This Is Where The Alchemists Walk Beside You
This transition from doing to being, from holding on to letting lead
is the hardest part of leadership growth.
It’s the silent test few talk about.
It’s the shift between success and significance.
At The Alchemists, we walk with leaders through that threshold.
Through 1:1 executive coaching,
Your Personal Board (confidential peer groups), and
Alchemists INside,
we create space for:
Clarity without noise
Support without judgement
Insight that’s seasoned, not scripted
You’re not stepping back.
You’re stepping differently.
You’re leading beyond what you once thought possible.
If you feel yourself standing at that threshold and would value a quiet space to think it through
connect with me.
Sometimes one conversation changes everything.
From Gripping to Growing
This is how the identity shift continues.
Not by clinging tighter to what was.
But by trusting who you’re becoming.
From gripping… to growing.
From holding on… to handing over.
From good… to greater.