Workplace Multiplier by Tola Akinsulire
September 21, 2026
Welcome to Workplace Multiplier, the weekday newsletter for senior leaders tired of fixing, chasing, and rescuing. You'll learn how to build a trusted, capable team that fully owns critical responsibilities...freeing you to lead at the level your role demands.
When being helpful becomes the problem
Howdy ,
One of the easiest ways to create a dependent team is to become very good at helping them.
Someone encounters a problem.
They bring it to you.
You quickly see what they are missing, explain what to do and send them back to work.
The problem gets solved.
Everyone moves on.
It feels like good leadership.
But if this happens repeatedly, your team learns something you may never have intended to teach them:
When things become difficult, bring them to the leader.
Over time, you become the team's fastest route to clarity.
And because you are usually able to provide the answer, dependence can begin to look like efficiency.
It isn't.
The real test of your leadership is not whether your team performs well when you are available.
It is whether they can think, decide and deliver when you are not.
This week, I want us to examine how capable leaders unintentionally create teams that depend too heavily on them…and what it takes to replace that dependence with genuine ownership.
Tomorrow, we'll begin with an important distinction:
Giving someone a task is not the same as giving them ownership.
Keep winning at work and in life,
Tola Akinsulire
Your Strategic Workplace Mentor
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